Description: From Grey (2003): "Servicemen stationed at Ft. Glenn [U.S. Army base established on Umnak Island in 1942 and decommissioned in 1950) would occasionally trek into Okmok caldera looking for adventure as evidence by the occasional spent shells found on the caldera floor. One sunny afternoon in June 1943, two GI's drove up to the caldera rim near the base of Tulik cone and rappelled down to the crater floor, probably between the sites of the small intracaldera glacier and Cone F (Keller, 1976 and 1991). After spending the day hiking across the caldera, one of the men twisted his ankle on their way back and they were forced to spend the night inside the 'Devil's Brewpot.' Mr. Keller's account of their overnight experience follows:
"'A trembling of the earth woke me, and the whole crater was alight with a rosy glow. That was a horrible awakening! Right inside a volcano, and it was coming to life! There was a deep, rumbling sound, and a nearby cone was hissing. About that time another cone some distance away burst forth with a magnificent display of pyrotechnics * * * By the time we reached the cliff the shaking had abated, but rocks were rolling down the steep incline to the bottom * * * A fine black ash began drifting down upon us, and as suddenly as it had begun, the shaking stopped. The rosy light faded away and the crater resounded with a deafening silence.'
"Though this was a minor eruption, it was enough to terrify the two men, who based on Keller's description were approximately 4 km away from Cone A, the vent that had the brief fountaining (again, from Keller's description) event. The cone they heard hissing was probably Cone C, which is near the location where they descended into the crater and still has active fumaroles at its summit (field observations, 2001). Alternatively, it could have been sound from Cone A reverberating off of Cone C or the caldera wall."