ALASKAN PANORAMAS-KATMAI TO PRUDHOE BAY

Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes

KATMAI VOLCANO

A place I had to see before I died. It is new earth void of past civilization formed by a volcano: it was an episode that, millions of years from now, will show in the rock layers of the earth. When Katmai blew, seven years passed before an expedition could be sent in to see what had happened. When they arrived on the edge overlooking the 40 mile across valley, it was still smoking and thus, they called it The Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes, though they recorded that there were millions of smokes.

The explosion of Katmai lowered the temperature of the earth for two years, but not one life was lost.

During their exploration, they cooked their meals over fumeroles still red hot. A crater, one mile deep is left where the mountain once was and it has filled to become a new lake on the earth. Three rivers have formed that flow through the valley. Volcanic rocks float on Naknek Lake.

Katmai blew in 1912. In 1917 Robert F. Griggs led the National Geographic Society's Expedition to document what had happened. I quote his words about the magnitude:

"If such an eruption should occur on Manhattan Island, the column of steam would be conspicuous as far away as Albany. The sounds of the explosions would be plainly audible in Chicago. The fumes would sweep over all the states east of the Rocky Mountains. In Denver they would tarnish exposed brass, and even linen hung out on the line to dry would be so eaten by the sulfuric acid content as to fall to pieces on the ironing board. As far away as Toronto the acid rain drops would cause stinging burns wherever they fell on face and hands.

Ash would accumulate in Philadelphia a foot deep. To add to the terrors of the catastrophe, that city would grope sixty hours in total darkness-darkness blacker than anything imaginable, so thick that a lantern held at arm's length could not be seen.

As for the horrors that could be enacted along the lower Hudson, no detailed picture could be drawn. There would be no occasions for rescue work, for there would be no survivors."

 

THE FOLLOWING PAGES OF PANORAMIC PHOTOGRAPHS BEGIN WITH KATMAI AND END AT PRUDHOE BAY