Spurr CFE

Start: 11700 yBP [1]

Event Type: Explosive

Event Characteristics:
  • Debris-avalanche, volcanic avalanche, or landslide [1]
  • Pyroclastic flow, surge, or nuee ardente [1]
  • Caldera/crater [1]

Description: From Miller and others (1998): "Capps (1929) suggested that a summit caldera, largely buried by ice, is associated with Mount Spurr.
Later, Juhle and Coulter (1955) disagreed with the caldera interpretation suggesting that the peaks around Mount Spurr only coincidentally resemble the rim of a large subsidence structure. Most recent studies, however, suggest that ancestral Mt. Spurr, constructed during late Pleistocene time (Turner and Nye, 1986), was partially destroyed by a major Bezymianny-type eruption possibly as late as early Holocene time (Riehle, 1985; Nye and Turner, 1990). The eruption produced a voluminous volcanic debris avalanche and subsequent pyroclastic flows that resulted in the formation of a 5- to 6-km-diameter explosion caldera (fig. 7). The volcanic debris avalanche contains blocks as much as 100 m in diameter and traveled a minimum of 25 km. The overlying pyroclastic flows are partially welded and are composed chiefly of high silica andesite."

References Cited

[1] Catalog of the historically active volcanoes of Alaska, 1998

Miller, T. P., McGimsey, R. G., Richter, D. H., Riehle, J. R., Nye, C. J., Yount, M. E., and Dumoulin, J. A., 1998, Catalog of the historically active volcanoes of Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 98-0582, 104 p.

Complete Eruption References

Catalog of the historically active volcanoes of Alaska, 1998

Miller, T. P., McGimsey, R. G., Richter, D. H., Riehle, J. R., Nye, C. J., Yount, M. E., and Dumoulin, J. A., 1998, Catalog of the historically active volcanoes of Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 98-0582, 104 p.
title page PDF 52
intro and TOC PDF 268 KB
eastern part - Wrangell to Ukinrek Maars PDF 972 KB
central part - Chiginagak to Cleveland PDF 2,463 KB
western part - Carlisle to Kiska PDF 956 KB
references PDF 43 KB
Hard Copy held by AVO at FBKS - CEC shelf

The Mount Spurr region, Alaska, 1929

Capps, S. R., 1929, The Mount Spurr region, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 0810-C, p. 141-172, 2 plates, scale 1:250,000.
full-text PDF 1.6 MB
plate 3 PDF 324 KB
Hard Copy held by AVO at FBKS - CEC shelf

The Mt. Spurr eruption, July 9, 1953, 1955

Juhle, R. W., and Coulter, H. W., 1955, The Mt. Spurr eruption, July 9, 1953: Eos, v. 36, n. 2, p. 199-202.
Hard Copy held by AVO at FBKS - CEC file cabinet