Skip to main content
← Back to map
⇄ Compare

Novarupta

Caldera · United States · 841m

A lava dome 65 m high and 380 m wide lies within a circular ejecta ring and caps the 1912 vent of Novarupta volcano. A 60-hour-long eruption that began on 6 June 1912 was the largest eruption during the 20th century, producing The Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes pyroclastic flow deposit which forms the flat ground to the right. The face of Falling Mountain, behind Novarupta dome, was sheared off by a 2-km-wide collapse around the vent. This view from the NE shows snow-capped Mageik in the background.
A lava dome 65 m high and 380 m wide lies within a circular ejecta ring and caps the 1912 vent of Novarupta volcano. A 60-hour-long eruption that began on 6 June 1912 was the largest eruption during the 20th century, producing The Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes pyroclastic flow deposit which forms the flat ground to the right. The face of Falling Mountain, behind Novarupta dome, was sheared off by a 2-km-wide collapse around the vent. This view from the NE shows snow-capped Mageik in the background. · Photo: Photo by Tom Miller (Alaska Volcano Observatory, U.S. Geological Survey). · Wikimedia Commons
Type
Caldera
Country
United States
Region
North America Volcanic Regions / Alaska Peninsula Volcanic Arc
Elevation
841m
Coordinates
58.266, -155.159
Last eruption
1912
Tectonic setting
Subduction zone / Continental crust (> 25 km)
Landform
Caldera
Major rock type
Rhyolite
Geological summary

Novarupta, the least topographically prominent volcano in the Katmai area, was formed during a major eruption in 1912. This eruption was the world's largest during the 20th century and produced a voluminous rhyolitic airfall tephra and the renowned Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes (VTTS) ash flow. At the end of the eruption a small, 65-m-high, 400-m-wide lava dome grew within the source vent of the VTTS ashflow, a 2-km-wide area of subsidence NW of Trident volcano. The NE side of the Falling Mountain lava dome of the Trident volcanic cluster, as well as Broken Mountain and Baked Mountain, was removed by collapse of the Novarupta depression, which is marked by radial and scalloped arcuate fractures. Much larger collapse took place at Katmai volcano, 10 km E, where a 3 x 4 km caldera formed in response to magma reservoir drainage toward Novarupta.

From Wikipedia

Novarupta is a volcano located on the Alaska Peninsula on a slope of Trident Volcano in Katmai National Park and Preserve, about 290 miles (470 km) southwest of Anchorage. Novarupta was formed in 1912, during the largest volcanic eruption of the 20th century, in which it released 30 times the volume of magma of the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens.

Wikipedia · CC BY-SA · Read full article →

Eruption history

Summary (VEI over time)
Click a bar to see individual eruptions
1912~1912 · 1 eruptions · max VEI 619121912191319131913

Detailed timeline

  1. 1912VEI 6Observed
    1912-06-06 – 1912-10

External links

⚠ For reference only. Not for emergency response.