Wrangell 1907/4
Start: April 1, 1907 [1]
Event Type: Explosive
- "Smoke" [1]
- Lahar, debris-flow, or mudflow [1]
Description: From Crosby (1907): "To the editor of Science: Mr. Arthur P. Porter, civil engineer and graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, writing from Elliott Creek, Alaska, under date of May 24, 1907, communicates the following interesting observations:
"On and about April 5, several mountains of the Wrangell range in Alaska were active volcanically, sending up great clouds of steam and causing a flood in the Kotsina River that, on April 6, came down past our camp at the mouth of the Kotsina, cut us off from our supply train and prevented our going up the Kotsina on the ice.
"To go more into detail, the first we heard about it was on April 1, when we were mushing down the Tonsino River. We stopped for dinner at the camp of some freighters hauling in supplies for the Hubbard-Elliott mine; and Mr. Hubbard said that they could plainly see the smoke (?) rising from Mt. Wrangell. That afternoon and the following day, as we proceeded down the Tonsino and then down the Copper River, we caught occasional distant views of the mountains, but I noted nothing remarkable. (A photograph taken April 2 shows the mountains clear.) On April 5 and 6 we saw great white clouds which always rolled away from the mountains, yet never left them clear; and with the field glasses steam was seen issuing from the sides of the mountains below the tops. We were at the mouth of the Kotsina, about forty miles from the mountains, and could not positively identify the peaks. Apparently, however, Mts. Wrangell, Blackburn, and Sanford were all sending up steam.
"The next day, April 6, a sudden flood came down the Kotsina on top of the ice and underneath it. There had been no warm weather and no rain (28 degrees below zero instead). The flood lasted two days and then went down. The enclosed photograph [not published] shows the head of the flood advancing down the river and spreading over the snow as it came. I stepped on an ice hummock to take the picture; and by the time I could focus my camera, the flood had passed me on both sides and nearly cut me off. The toe of the flood advanced at the rate of fifty feet a minute, actual timing, eating its way through the snow as if the water were warm.
"May 28, the mountains seem to be steaming again (Mt. Drum or Mt. Sanford), and others noted the same two days ago."
"On and about April 5, several mountains of the Wrangell range in Alaska were active volcanically, sending up great clouds of steam and causing a flood in the Kotsina River that, on April 6, came down past our camp at the mouth of the Kotsina, cut us off from our supply train and prevented our going up the Kotsina on the ice.
"To go more into detail, the first we heard about it was on April 1, when we were mushing down the Tonsino River. We stopped for dinner at the camp of some freighters hauling in supplies for the Hubbard-Elliott mine; and Mr. Hubbard said that they could plainly see the smoke (?) rising from Mt. Wrangell. That afternoon and the following day, as we proceeded down the Tonsino and then down the Copper River, we caught occasional distant views of the mountains, but I noted nothing remarkable. (A photograph taken April 2 shows the mountains clear.) On April 5 and 6 we saw great white clouds which always rolled away from the mountains, yet never left them clear; and with the field glasses steam was seen issuing from the sides of the mountains below the tops. We were at the mouth of the Kotsina, about forty miles from the mountains, and could not positively identify the peaks. Apparently, however, Mts. Wrangell, Blackburn, and Sanford were all sending up steam.
"The next day, April 6, a sudden flood came down the Kotsina on top of the ice and underneath it. There had been no warm weather and no rain (28 degrees below zero instead). The flood lasted two days and then went down. The enclosed photograph [not published] shows the head of the flood advancing down the river and spreading over the snow as it came. I stepped on an ice hummock to take the picture; and by the time I could focus my camera, the flood had passed me on both sides and nearly cut me off. The toe of the flood advanced at the rate of fifty feet a minute, actual timing, eating its way through the snow as if the water were warm.
"May 28, the mountains seem to be steaming again (Mt. Drum or Mt. Sanford), and others noted the same two days ago."
References Cited
[1] Volcanic activity in Alaska, 1907
Crosby, W.O., 1907, Volcanic activity in Alaska: Science, v. 26, p. 78.Complete Eruption References
Volcanoes of the world [2nd edition], 1994
Simkin, Tom, and Siebert, Lee, 1994, Volcanoes of the world [2nd edition]: Tucson, Arizona, Geoscience Press, 349 p.
Hard Copy held by AVO at FBKS - CEC shelf
Volcanic activity in Alaska, 1907
Crosby, W.O., 1907, Volcanic activity in Alaska: Science, v. 26, p. 78.
Hard Copy held by AVO at FBKS - CEC file cabinet