Redoubt 1966/1

Start: January 24, 1966 ^[1]

Stop: April 28, 1968 ^[2]

Event Characteristics:

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Impact: From Associated Press (1966): "Tractor-sized ice chunks, carried by volcano-melted snow water, tumbled through a campground near erupting Mt. Redoubt Tuesday, and 22 men had to be rescued.
"The seismological crew was flown in helicopters to the town of Kenai, about 50 miles from the flanks of the peak.
"The 10,197-foot volcano, 110 miles southwest of Anchorage, began erupting Monday, spewing ash and smoke 20,000 feet high.
"Bill Singletary, who headed the crew for the National Geophysical Co., a seismological firm, told the story.
"'We were camped on the edge of the river when it broke up,' he said. 'First the river flowed through the landing strip, bringing chunks of ice the size of a D-7 cat (tractor). I expect it came up at the rate of 3 1/2 to 4 feet in 15 minutes. A few of us got wet * * *'
"'But no one was hurt.'
"A pilot flew over the group and apparently spread the alert. Bud Lofsteadt, a Kenai pilot, flew to the scene in a four-place helicopter and military aircraft were called in to assist.
"Lofsteadt took the men three at a time to the south bank of the Drift River near a cabin and an Air Force helicopter from Elmendorf Air Force Base, near Anchorage, ferried the men in two trips from the cabin to Kenai." From Sturm and others (1986), concerning the January 24 and 25 eruptions of Mt. Redoubt: "Voluminous steam and ash eruptions were accompanied by a jokulhlaup which emerged from a point just below the Summit Crater (Post and Mayo, 1971). Other jokulhlaups, including a large one on 4 February 1966, occurred between 1966 and 1968 (personal communication from J. Finch, 1983). Aerial photographs taken by A. Post in 1968 after the jokulhlaups show deeply incised gullies, large moulin-like holes, and cauldron-shaped collapse features in the ice. Sediment deltas originating from ice tunnels could be clearly distinguished. The water released during these jokulhlaups apparently traveled over the surface and through tunnels in or under Drift Glacier, spilled out over the terminus, and flooded Drift River. The jokulhlaup on 25 January flooded the site of the oil-tanker terminal on Cook Inlet at the mouth of Drift River, forcing the evacuation of a seismic crew (Anchorage Daily News, XIX, no. 149, 1966). The flood carried large icebergs and deposited a heavy mantle of sand and ash, in places over 5 m thick, on the Piedmont Lobe of the glacier.
"Based on the examination of aerial photographs, an estimated 6 x 10^7 cubic m of ice was blasted, melted, scoured, and/or washed away by the cumulative events of 1966-68. Most of the ice loss occurred in the Upper Canyon where large sections of the glacier were removed and bedrock was exposed; so little ice remained in place that this branch of the glacier was essentially gone. This process disconnected the lower part of Drift Glacier from the ice flow out of Upper Canyon and the Summit Crater, causing a major reduction in the total flux moving through the Lower Canyon and Piedmont Lobe. Large collapse features and deep gullies scoured into the surface of the parts of the glacier which remained suggest both subglacial and surface melting, and erosion (the jokulhlaups were heavily charged with sand and debris), were involved." ^{[6] [9] [13] [15]}

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