National Park Service U.S. Department of Interior Alaska Regional Office Alaska Park Science Anchorage, Alaska Volcanoes of Katmai and the Alaska Peninsula In this issue: The Great Eruption of 1912 6 Witness: Firsthand Accounts 52 Ecological Recovery After the 1912 Katmai Eruption 66 Bringing the World to a Standstill: An Investigation into the Effects of 82 a Novarupta Scale Volcanic Eruption on Today’s Aviation Industry ...and more. Volume 11, Issue 1 Table of Contents The Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes: Revisiting the Alaska Sublime_____________________________ 4 The Great Eruption of 1912 _____________________ 6 Katmai National Park Volcanoes ________________ 14 S K A Volcanic National Natural Landmarks ___________ 22 L A Using Rocks to Reveal the Inner Workings of A Magma Chambers Below Volcanoes in Alaska’s National Parks ________________________ 26 Earthquake Studies Reveal the Magmatic Plumbing System of the Katmai Volcanoes ______ 34 Lake Clark National Park Volcanic Earthquakes in Alaska’s National Parks _ 40 and Preserve Pre-1912 Glacial and Volcanic History Near Windy Creek __________________________________ 46 Witness: Firsthand Accounts of the Largest Katmai National Park and Preserve Volcanic Eruption in the Twentieth Century _____ 52 Out of the Ashes: The Katmai Disaster __________ 60 Ecological Recovery After the 1912 Katmai Eruption Aniakchak as Documented Through Repeat Photography ___ 66 National Monument Gulf of Alaska and Preserve Effect of the Novarupta (1912) Eruption on Forests of Southcentral Alaska: Clues from the Tree Ring Record __________________________ 74 Possible Effects of a Volcanic Eruption on the Nearshore Marine Environment ________________ 78 Bringing the World to a Standstill: An Investigation into the Effects of a Novarupta Scale Volcanic Eruption on Today’s Aviation Industry __________ 82 Cover Photo: Confluence of Windy Creek and the River Lethe Concluding Thoughts. Can Another Great Volcanic below the Robert F. Griggs Visitor Center in the Valley of Eruption Happen in Alaska? ___________________ 88 Ten Thousand Smokes, Katmai National Park and Preserve. NPS photograph by Roy Woods Erratic boulder in Katmai Pass. Glossary______________________________________ 94 Backcover Photo: Lower Lethe River. 2 Photograph courtesy of Gary Freeburg. Photograph courtesy of Gary Freeburg. This project is made possible through funding from the About the Authors National Park Foundation. Additional funding is provided by the National Park Service and other contributors. Charles R. Bacon, Volcano Science Center, Lee Powell, Department of Geoscience, U.S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, CA. University of Wisconsin-Madison. Alaska Park Science is published twice a year. Recent Alan J. Bennett, retired Inventory & Monitoring John Power, Alaska Volcano Observatory, issues of Alaska Park Science are available for sale by Coordinator, National Park Service. U.S. Geological Survey. Alaska Geographic (www.alaskageographic.org). Charitable donations to help support this journal Ninfa Bennington, Department of Geoscience, Stephanie G. Prejean, research geophysicist, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Alaska Volcano Observatory, U.S. Geological Survey. may be sent to: Alaska Geographic Association, 810 East Ninth Avenue, Anchorage, AK 99501 Edward E. Berg, retired ecologist, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Jeanne Schaaf, Cultural Resources Program Manager, ATTN: Alaska Park Science. Service, Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. Lake Clark and Katmai National Parks and Preserves. Margi Brooks, National Natural Landmarks program Rosemary L. Sherriff, biogeographer and associate manager, National Park Service. professor, Department of Geography, Humboldt State University. Heather A. Coletti, marine ecologist, Southwest Alaska Network, National Park Service. Clifford Thurber, Professor of Geophysics, Department of Geoscience, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Michelle L. Coombs, Alaska Volcano Observatory, U.S. Geological Survey. Rebecca Anne Welchman, recent graduate from the ISSN 1545-4967 June 2012 University of Portsmouth, Geological and Environmental Judy Fierstein, Volcano Science Center, Hazards Programme. U.S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, CA. Alaska Park Science Gary Freeburg, Sawhill Gallery Director, School of Art, Project Lead: Robert Winfree, Regional Science Advisor, Design, and Art History, James Madison University. email: [email protected] Gerald V. Frost, Research Biologist, ABR, Inc. Editor: Monica Shah Alaska Park Science Journal Board: Matthew Haney, Alaska Volcano Observatory, Ted Birkedal, Team Leader for Cultural Resources Celeste Brooke Carney, Science Communications Specialist, I&M U.S. Geological Survey. Daniel Flook, Historian, Alaska Regional Office Joy Geiselman, Deputy Chief, M. Torre Jorgenson, Senior Scientist, ABR, Inc. Biological Science Office USGS Alaska Science Center Jeremy Karchut, Archeologist, Alaska Regional Office Amy E. Miller, ecologist, Southwest Alaska Network, Rachel Mason, Cultural Anthropologist National Park Service. Lisa Oakley, Alaska Geographic Association John Quinley, Assistant Regional Director for Communications Rebecca Talbott, Chief of Interpretation and Education, Alaska Seth Moran, Cascades Volcano Observatory, Carissa Turner, Coastal Biologist, Katmai National Park and Preserve U.S. Geological Survey. Sara Wesser, Inventory and Monitoring Coordinator, Alaska Region Robert Winfree, Chair of Journal Board Rachel Murphy, Department of Geoscience, Roy Wood, Chief of Interpretation, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Katmai National Park and Preserve Printed on recycled paper with soy based ink Patricia Partnow, anthropologist and owner, Published twice a year in June and December by Alaska Geographic, Partnow Consulting. a nonprofit partner of the Alaska Region of the National Park Service, supporting educational programs through publishing and operation of John Paskievitch, Alaska Volcano Observatory, visitor center bookstores. Disclaimer: Information published in Alaska Park Science has been U.S. Geological Survey. subjected to general review by the National Park Service Alaska Region. Publication in Alaska Park Science does not signify that the De Anne Pinney Stevens, Chief of Engineering, contents reflect the views of the National Park Service, nor does Geology Section, Alaska Division of Geological & mention of trade names or commercial products constitute National Geophysical Surveys. Park Service endorsement or recommendation. www.nps.gov/akso/AKParkScience/akparkarchives.html 3 4 Alaska Park Science, Volume 11, Issue 1 The Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes: Revisiting the Alaska Sublime By Gary Freeburg my head” and observe carefully, yet I exposed two films from my one precious roll in trying for pictures that I should The story of the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes have known were impossible. It was as though all the steam begins on June 6, 1912, with the largest volcanic eruption engines in the world, assembled together, had popped their recorded on Earth during the twentieth century. The safety valves at once and were letting off surplus steam in eruption took place on the Alaska Peninsula 100 miles (161 concert. (Griggs 1918) km) west of Kodiak, Alaska. In three days, a new volcano, Novarupta, was born. This volcano ejected five cubic I have visited the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes five miles (21 km3) of ash and debris into the atmosphere, with times between 2000 and 2011. The smokes (fumaroles) heavier deposits filling an adjacent 44 square mile (114 that Griggs talks about are mostly gone, that element of km2) valley in depths up to 1,000 feet (305 m). The dense, visual and volcanic activity has largely ceased. As I walked superheated waves of magmatic spray coming from the in the footsteps of Griggs, I imagined the deafening noise volcano incinerated all living organisms in their path, and incredible physical forces of the 1912 explosion and leaving a hot bed of igneous material that, when mixed contrast that historic event with what I now perceive as a with water from the surrounding glaciers and snowfields, monumental statement of sublime beauty and geological Figure 2. Extinct fumarole central in the ignimbrite sheet silence. produced thousands of steam vents known as fumaroles. looking northwest. Robert F. Griggs, Director of the National Geographic Being completely alone in the Valley and its 44 square Photograph courtesy of Gary Freeburg. Society Katmai expeditions of 1915, 1916, 1917, and 1919, miles was a fulfilling experience. Like Griggs and his was the first person to discover the steaming valley on July companions a century ago, I created these photographs to 31, 1916. He ascended Katmai Pass, observed his surround- document and express what I have come to know of this ings, and wrote: special place on Earth, a landscape that nurtures my con- The sight that flashed into view as we surmounted the templative spirit and personal desire to be in wild places. hillock was one of the most amazing visions ever beheld I hope that as you review this issue of Alaska Park Science, by mortal eye. The whole valley as far as the eye could that you will also gain a sense of the awe and respect that reach was full of hundreds, no thousands – literally, tens of Robert Griggs and so many others have felt when experi- thousands – of smokes curling up from its fissured floor. The encing the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes. first glance was enough to assure us that we had stumbled Information about Gary Freeburg’s book, The Valley of REFERENCES into another