The Novarupta-Katmai Eruption of 1912?Largest Eruption of the Twentieth Century: Centennial Perspectives

The Novarupta-Katmai eruption in early June 1912—the most powerful in the world in the 20th century—was surpassed in size during all of recorded history only by the 1815 eruption of Tambora Volcano (Indonesia). When this voluminous eruption occurred, however, Alaska was quite different from what it is today. The total population of the Alaska Territory in 1912 was only about 50,000, living in a vast, remote region that was terra incognita to most of the world. Alaska’s geology and volcanoes had been little studied, and the science of volcanology was nascent—even the early investigators at Katmai lacked the basic understanding of magmatic and volcanic phenomena that we take for granted today. Moreover, doing fieldwork—then as now—in the rugged Alaskan terrain posed daunting challenges, such as coping with the ever-present storms, icy streams, windblown dust and ash, and bears. However, such disadvantages of Alaskan field conditions are counterbalanced by the scientific bonus that the desolate, unvegetated Kat mai volcanic landscape also presented exceptionally well exposed large pyroclastic deposits available for detailed investigations.