Novarupta: The Most Powerful Volcanic Eruption of the 20th Century

June 6th, 1912

The morning of June 6th arrived on the Alaska peninsula to find the area which is now Katmai National Monument being shaken by numerous strong, shallow earthquakes. The most powerful volcanic eruption of the 20th Century was about to begin – but very few people knew about it. The Alaska peninsula has a low population density today but it 1912 it was even lower. Beyond the land shaken by the earthquake activity the beginnings of this event were almost unnoticed.

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For the next 60 hours the eruption sent tall dark columns of tephra and gas high into the atmosphere. By the time the eruption ended the surrounding land was devastated and about 30 cubic kilometers of ejecta blanketed the entire region. This is more ejecta than all of the other historic Alaska eruptions combined. It was also thirty times more than the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens and three times more than the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo, the second largest in the 20th Century.

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Alot of you may know this information but for those that don't it is quite an amazing read if you have any interests in volcanos. It actually drained so much magma from the chamber below that it collapsed another volcano.

During the eruption a large amount of magma was drained from magma chambers below. The result was a removal of support from beneath Mount Katmai which is six miles from Novarupta. The top several hundred feet of Katmai - about one cubic mile of material - collapsed into a magma chamber below. This collapse produced a crater about two miles in diameter and over 800 feet deep.

geology.com...

Thought this record was held by Mount Tambora, supervolcano in Indonesia?

www.npr.org...

Interesting read though. Thank you
Rainbows
Jane

Mt. Tambora was 19th century.

But yes that was very large also.

reply to post by kro32


Ooops...of course...my bad, sorry Kro, not feeling my usual self today, quite 'off centre'.....hope I am not reacting like the animals do before some 'event'!


Rainbows
Jane

I'm not implying there's any sign of it going again anytime soon but it is definetly one to keep your eye on.

Never know with these things.