Novarupta

{{short description|Volcano in Katmai National Park, Alaska, US}}

{{Infobox mountain

|name = Novarupta

|photo = Novarupta (13543091424).jpg

|photo_caption = Novarupta's lava dome in June 2011

|elevation_ft = 2759

|elevation_ref = {{cite gvp|vn=312180|name=Novarupta|access-date=2017-12-24}}

|range = Aleutian Range

|listing = Volcanoes in the United States

|country = United States | state = Alaska

|part_type = Protected area | part = Katmai National Park and Preserve

|map_image = Map of Alaska Peninsula Volcanoes.gif

|map_caption =Map showing volcanoes of the Alaska Peninsula, with Novarupta towards the northeast

|coordinates = {{coord|58|16|0|N|155|9|24|W|type:mountain_region:US|display=inline,title}}

|coordinates_ref =

|topo = USGS Mount Katmai B-4

|type = Caldera with lava dome

|volcanic_arc = Aleutian Arc

|last_eruption = June to October 1912

|fetchwikidata=ALL

}}

Novarupta{{Efn|Novarupta has been translated from Latin to multiple English meanings, including "newly erupted",{{cite web |last=Katmai National Park and Preserve |author-link=Katmai National Park and Preserve |title=Hiking the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes |url=http://npshistory.com/brochures/katm/10000-smokes-hike-2010.pdf |access-date=February 17, 2016 |website=NPSHistory.com }} "new eruption",{{cite web|url=https://alaskahistoricalsociety.org/discover-alaska/kids-page/the-valley-of-ten-thousand-smokes-in-katmai-national-park-and-preserve/ |title=The Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes in Katmai National Park and Preserve |publisher=Alaska Historical Society|date=February 10, 2014 }} "new break",{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Novarupta |title=Novarupta |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica}} and "new vent".{{cite thesis |url=https://www.soest.hawaii.edu/gg/academics/theses/Isgett_Dissertation.pdf |title=Conduit and Eruption Dynamics of the 1912 Vulcanian Explosions at Novarupta, Alaska |publisher=University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa |hdl=10125/62457 |last=Isgett |first= Samantha J.}}}} is a volcano that was formed in 1912, located on the Alaska Peninsula on a slope of Trident Volcano in Katmai National Park and Preserve, about {{convert|290|mi|km|sigfig=2}} southwest of Anchorage. Formed during the largest volcanic eruption of the 20th century, Novarupta released 30 times the volume of magma of the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens.

Eruption of 1912

{{Infobox eruption

|name = 1912 eruption of Novarupta

|photo =

|photo-size =

|caption =

|start_date = June 6, 1912

|volcano = Novarupta

|type = Ultra Plinian

|location = Aleutian Range, Alaska

|coordinates = {{coord|58|16|0|N|155|9|24|W|type:event}}

|VEI = 6

|map =

|location-map =

|map-size =

|map-caption =

|impact =

}}

File:Novarupta.png

The 1912 eruption that formed Novarupta was the largest to occur during the 20th century. It began on June 6, 1912, and culminated in a series of violent eruptions. Rated a 6 on the volcanic explosivity index,{{cite book

|title = Volcanoes of the World

|publisher = Geoscience Press, Inc.|year = 1994|location = Tucson, Arizona

|page = 117| isbn = 0-945005-12-1}}

the 60-hour-long eruption expelled {{convert|13|to|15|km3|cumi|1|sp=us|order=flip}} of ash, thirty times as much as the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens.{{cite book

|last = Brantley|first = Steven R.

|title = Volcanoes of the United States

|publisher = United States Geological Survey

|date = January 4, 1999

|pages = 30

|url = https://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/volcus/page30.html

|version = Online Version 1.1

|access-date = September 12, 2008

|isbn = 0-16-045054-3

|oclc = 156941033}}{{Cite journal |last1=Fierstein |first1=Judy |author-link=Judy Fierstein |last2=Hildreth |first2=Wes |author-link2=Wes Hildreth |last3=Hendley II |first3=James W. |last4=Stauffer |first4=Peter H. |date=1998 |title=Can Another Great Volcanic Eruption Happen in Alaska? |url=https://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/fs075-98 |journal=U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet 075-98 |id={{Academia.edu|47452495}} {{HSDL|25963}}}}{{cite journal |last1=Fierstein |first1=Judy |author-link=Judy Fierstein |last2=Hildreth |first2=Wes |author-link2=Wes Hildreth |date=December 11, 2004 |title=The plinian eruptions of 1912 at Novarupta, Katmai National Park, Alaska |url=https://zenodo.org/record/1232468 |journal=Bulletin of Volcanology |publisher=Springer |volume=54 |issue=8 |pages=646–684 |bibcode=1992BVol...54..646F |doi=10.1007/BF00430778 |s2cid=86862398}}

The erupted magma of rhyolite, dacite, and andesiteWood, C.A. and Kienle, J. (editors) (1990) Volcanoes of North America: United States and Canada, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, {{ISBN|0-521-36469-8}}, p. 70. resulted in more than {{convert|17|km3|cumi|1|sp=us|order=flip}} of air fall tuff and approximately {{convert|11|km3|cumi|1|sp=us|order=flip}} of pyroclastic ash-flow tuff.{{Cite journal |last1=Fierstein |first1=Judy |author-link=Judy Fierstein |last2=Hildreth |first2=Wes |author-link2=Wes Hildreth |date=2000 |title=Preliminary volcano-hazard assessment for the Katmai volcanic cluster, Alaska |url=https://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/ofr00489 |journal=U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 00-489 |series=Open-File Report |page=22 |doi=10.3133/ofr00489 |id={{DGGS|14669}}|doi-access=free |bibcode=2000usgs.rept...22F }}

During the 20th century, only the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines and the 1902 eruption of Santa María in Guatemala were of comparable magnitude; Mount Pinatubo ejected {{convert|11|km3|cumi|1|sp=us|order=flip}} of tephra,

{{cite gvp

|vn = 273083

|vtab = Eruptions

|title = Pinatubo: Eruptive History

|access-date = January 1, 2009 }} and Santa María just slightly less.

At least two larger eruptions occurred in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) during the 19th century: the 1815 eruption of Tambora ({{convert|150|km3|cumi||abbr=on|order=flip|disp=or}} of tephra)

{{cite gvp

|vn = 264040

|name = Tambora

|access-date = January 1, 2009 }} and the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa ({{convert|20|km3|cumi|1|abbr=on|order=flip|disp=or}} of tephra).

{{cite gvp

|vn = 262000

|vtab = Eruptions

|name = Krakatau: Eruptive History

|access-date = January 1, 2009 }}

The Novarupta eruption occurred about {{cvt|6.59|mi|||}} from the peak of Mount Katmai Volcano and {{cvt|4000|ft|}} below the post-eruption Mount Katmai summit. During the eruption a large quantity of magma erupted from beneath the Mount Katmai area, resulting in the formation of a {{convert|2|km|mi|1|sp=us|adj=on|order=flip}} wide, funnel-shaped vent and the collapse of Mount Katmai's summit, creating a {{convert|600|m|ft|sigfig=2|sp=us|adj=on|order=flip}} deep, {{convert|3|by|4|km|mi|1|abbr=on|order=flip}} caldera.

{{cite gvp

|vn = 312170

|name = Katmai

|access-date = January 1, 2009 }}

The eruption ended with the extrusion of a lava dome of rhyolite that plugged the vent. The {{convert|295|ft|m|0|adj=on}} high and {{convert|1180|ft|m|0|adj=on}} wide dome it created forms what is now referred to as Novarupta.{{cite book

|title = Volcanoes

|publisher = Firefly Books|year= 2003

|page = 219

|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=A60sif56pb8C&pg=PT226

|isbn = 978-1-55297-683-8|oclc = 53901499}}

Despite the magnitude of the eruption, no deaths directly resulted.{{rp|3}}{{cite web

|title = Novarupta – Historic eruptions

|publisher = Alaska Volcano Observatory

|date = November 6, 2012

|url = http://www.avo.alaska.edu/volcanoes/activity.php?volcname=Novarupta&page=impact&eruptionid=456

|access-date = December 19, 2012

|archive-date = September 27, 2016

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160927113757/http://www.avo.alaska.edu/volcanoes/activity.php?volcname=Novarupta&page=impact&eruptionid=456

|url-status = dead

}} Eyewitness accounts from people located downwind in the path of a thick ash cloud described the gradual lowering of visibility to next to nothing.{{cite journal

|last=Schaaf|first=Jeanne

|title=Witness: Firsthand Accounts of the Largest Volcanic Eruption in the Twentieth Century

|journal=Alaska Park Science

|volume=11|issue=1

|url=https://www.nps.gov/articles/aps-v11-i1-c9.htm}} Ash threatened to contaminate drinking water and destroyed food resources, but the Alaska Natives were aided in their survival by traditional knowledge passed down through generations from previous eruptions. However, the Native villages experiencing the heaviest ash falls were abandoned and the inhabitants relocated.

Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes

File:Colorful ash Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes.jpg

Pyroclastic flows from the eruption formed the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes, named by botanist Robert F. Griggs, who explored the volcano's aftermath for the National Geographic Society in 1916.{{cite book

|last = Griggs

|first = Robert F.

|author-link = Robert F. Griggs

|title = The Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes

|publisher = National Geographic Society

|location = Washington, D.C., USA

|year = 1922

|pages = 192

|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=_98PAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA192}}{{cite book

|last1 = Clemens|first1 = Janet|first2=Frank|last2=Norris

|title = Building in an Ashen Land – Historic Resource Study of Katmai National Park and Preserve

|publisher = National Park Service, Alaska Support Office

|year = 1999

|location = Anchorage, Alaska

|pages = Chapter 4

|url = http://www.nps.gov/archive/katm/hrs/hrs4.htm

|no-pp = true}}

The eruption that formed the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes is one of the few in recorded history to have produced welded tuff, producing numerous fumaroles that persisted for 15 years.{{cite journal |last=Hildreth |first=Wes |author-link=Wes Hildreth |date=October 1983 |title=The compositionally zoned eruption of 1912 in the Valley of Ten Thousand smokes, Katmai National Park, Alaska |journal=Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research |publisher=Elsevier |volume=18 |issue=1–4 |pages=1–56 |bibcode=1983JVGR...18....1H |doi=10.1016/0377-0273(83)90003-3}}

Katmai National Park

Established as a National Park & Preserve in 1980, Katmai is located on the Alaska Peninsula, across from Kodiak Island, with headquarters in nearby King Salmon, about {{convert|290|mi|abbr=on}} southwest of Anchorage. The area was originally designated a National Monument in 1918 to protect the area around the 1912 eruption of Novarupta and the {{convert|40|sqmi|km2|0|adj=on}}, {{convert|100|to|700|ft|m|sigfig=2|adj=on}} deep, pyroclastic flow of the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes.{{cite web |last=Katmai National Park and Preserve |author-link=Katmai National Park and Preserve |date=June 29, 2008 |title=Katmai National Park & Preserve |url=http://www.nps.gov/katm/ |access-date=September 14, 2008 |publisher=National Park Service |at=Welcome to Katmai Country}}

Notes

References

External links

{{Commons category-inline}}
[http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Volcanoes/Alaska/description_1912_eruption_novarupta.html USGS collection of descriptions of Novarupta]
[http://walrus.wr.usgs.gov/infobank/programs/html/school/moviepage/12.01.20.html USGS QuickTime video clip on Novarupta (36 seconds/0.8 MB)]
[http://geology.com/novarupta/ geology.com, Novarupta] – topographic maps, annotated satellite images
[http://www.avo.alaska.edu/volcanoes/volcinfo.php?volcname=Novarupta Alaska Volcano Observatory: Novarupta]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20090611011856/http://libraryphoto.cr.usgs.gov/cgi-bin/search.cgi?search_mode=noPunct&free_form=novarupta&free_form=&free_form=&free_form= USGS Photographic Library – novarupta]

Category:1912 in Alaska

Category:1912 natural disasters

Category:20th-century volcanic events

Category:Aleutian Range

Category:Katmai National Park and Preserve

Category:Volcanoes of Lake and Peninsula Borough, Alaska

Category:Mountains of Lake and Peninsula Borough, Alaska

Category:Holocene lava domes

Category:Natural disasters in Alaska

Category:Subduction volcanoes

Category:VEI-6 volcanoes

Category:Calderas of Alaska