Abstract
IN The National Geographic Magazine for February of the present year there appears a very interesting account of the eruption of Katmai, in Alaska, which commenced on June 6, 1912. The Katmai Volcano (7500 ft.) is one of ten or twelve more or less active volcanoes known to exist in the Alaskan peninsula, though probably a still greater number occur in the adjoining Alaskan islands. The report is furnished by Mr. G. C. Martin, who was dispatched by the National Geographic Society of Washington to collect information as soon as the news of the eruption arrived by telegraph. This report, which is illustrated by a map and numerous photographs, shows that the outburst resembled in all its main features that of Krakatoa in 1883, though, happily, owing to> the very sparse population of the district, the damage done was comparatively small, and no human lives were lost. No lava-streams are recorded as having been seen, but the eruption, which included three outbursts of excessive violence within two days, consisted in the discharge, first of pumice, and afterwards of dust of gradually increasing degrees of fineness. In the sea, twenty miles from the volcano, floating pumice was accumulated to such an extent that men could walk upon it. At Kodiak, 100 miles from the volcano, dust fell, causing complete darkness for sixty hours, and accumulated to a general depth of 10 to 12 in. Roofs were broken down by the weight of this dust, and houses wrecked by the avalanches of it which descended from the hills. Dust was recorded as having fallen 900 miles away, and if vessels had been in those seas it would probably have been noticed much farther off. Probably great changes-were produced in the volcano itself, for one observer declared that half the mountain was gone.
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The Eruption of the Katmai Volcano, Alaska, on June 6, 1912 . Nature 91, 253 (1913). https://doi.org/10.1038/091253a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/091253a0