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Landmark Volcano Study Brings to Life Huge Alaska Eruption on its Centennial

By Guest PostMay 27, 2012Environmentair quality, alaska eruption, alaska peninsula, ash, centennial, chronology, fumarole plumes, judy fierstein, katmai national park, kodiak, magnitude, marcia mcnutt, mediterranean sea, molten rock, mount katmai, municipal anchorage, novarupta, novarupta katmai centennial, novarupta volcano, scientific expedition, united states, volcanic complexes, volcanic eruption, volcanic event, volcano, volcanology, wes hildreth

MENLO PARK, Calif. – 100 years ago, in June 1912, the most powerful volcanic eruption of the 20th century took place in what is now Alaska’s Katmai National Park and Preserve. This massive volcanic event once again comes alive for scholars and enthusiasts in a new centennial volume by two U.S. Geological Survey scientists whose work has made major contributions to volcano science.

“The Novarupta-Katmai Eruption of 1912 – Largest Eruption of the Twentieth Century: Centennial Perspectives,” by Wes Hildreth and Judy Fierstein, is the most comprehensive study of a geographically remote but huge and devastating volcanic event. The eruption’s dynamics mystified researchers for decades. Today, study of Novarupta and Katmai volcanoes sheds light on how future events in Alaska’s volcanic regions could affect air quality and air-transportation safety locally and across the globe. (more…)

Before the Explosion – Volcano’s Warning Tremors Explained

No matter their size or shape, explosive volcanoes produce tremors at similar frequencies for minutes, days or weeks before they erupt. In the Feb. 24 issue of the journal Nature, researchers at Yale University and the University of British Columbia describe a model that explains this strange phenomenon — and may help forecast deadly eruptions.

When such volcanoes erupt they can shoot hot ash up to 40 kilometers into the atmosphere and cause devastating destruction when the ash column collapses and spreads as “pyroclastic flows”. Prior to most of these explosive eruptions the volcanoes shake slightly but measurably, and the shaking becomes more dramatic during the eruption itself. This tremor is one of the primary precursors and warnings used by volcanologists for forecasting an eruption. (more…)

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Landmark Volcano Study Brings to Life Huge Alaska Eruption on its Centennial

Before the Explosion – Volcano’s Warning Tremors Explained