Katmai
Facts
- Official Name: Mount Katmai
- Seismically Monitored: Yes
- Color Code: GREEN
- Alert Level: NORMAL
- Elevation: 2047m (6715ft)
- Latitude: 58.279
- Longitude: -154.9533
- Smithsonian VNum: 312170
- Pronunciation:
-
Nearby Towns:
- Karluk 52 mi (84 km) SE
- Larsen Bay 62 mi (100 km) SE
- Kanatak 63 mi (102 km) SW
- King Salmon 68 mi (109 km) NW
- Aleneva 77 mi (124 km) SE
Distance from Anchorage: 269 mi (432 km)
-
Subfeatures:
- Horseshoe Island
Description
From Miller and others (1998) [1] : "Katmai volcano is a large stratovolcano about 10 km in diameter with a central lake-filled caldera whose rim is about 4.2 by 2.5 km in area. The caldera rim has a maximum elevation of 2047 m and in 1975 the lake surface was at an elevation of about 1236 m. The estimated elevation of the caldera floor is about 995 m."The volcano is one of five stratovolcanoes near the Novarupta dome, source of the voluminous pyroclastic flows erupted in 1912 [2] . It consists chiefly of lava flows, pyroclastic rocks, and non-welded to agglutinated air fall [3] [2] . The Quaternary volcanic rocks at Katmai and adjacent cones are less than 1500 m thick [2] . Much of the volcano is mantled by snow and ice and several valley glaciers radiate out from the flanks and three glaciers originating from the upper caldera walls descend into the crater to the lake [4] .
"Katmai volcano is built on the sedimentary rocks of the Naknek Formation of Late Jurassic age, which are exposed just west of the caldera rim at an elevation of about 1520 m, as well as north and southeast of the crater [5] [6] "
Name Origin
This locality was published as "Katmai Volcano" in 1910 by the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, and as "Mount Katmai" by G.C. Martin in 1913. "Mount Katmai" is the current proper name (Orth, 1971).
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.
intro and TOC PDF 268 KB
references PDF 43 KB [2] The compositionally zoned eruption of 1912 in the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes, Katmai National Park, Alaska, 1983
Hildreth, Wes, 1983, The compositionally zoned eruption of 1912 in the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes, Katmai National Park, Alaska: Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research, v. 18, n. 1-4, p. 1-56.[3] The Katmai region, Alaska, and the great eruption of 1912, 1920
Fenner, C. N., 1920, The Katmai region, Alaska, and the great eruption of 1912: Journal of Geology, v. 28, n. 7, p. 569-606.[4] Recent investigations on the crater lake, Katmai Caldera, Alaska, 1975
Motyka, R.J., and Benson, C.S., 1975, Recent investigations on the crater lake, Katmai Caldera, Alaska [abs]: Transactions, American Geophysical Union, v. 56, no. 12, p. 1072-1973.[5] The stratigraphy of the ejecta from the 1912 eruption of Mount Katmai and Novarupta, Alaska, 1968
Curtis, G. H., 1968, The stratigraphy of the ejecta from the 1912 eruption of Mount Katmai and Novarupta, Alaska: in Coats, R. R., Hay, R. L., and Anderson, C. A., (eds.), Studies in volcanology, Geological Society of America Memoir MWR 0116, p. 153-210.[6] Preliminary geologic map of the Mt. Katmai quadrangle and portions of the Afognak and Naknek quadrangles, Alaska, 1987
Riehle, J. R., Detterman, R. L., Yount, M. E., and Miller, J. W., 1987, Preliminary geologic map of the Mt. Katmai quadrangle and portions of the Afognak and Naknek quadrangles, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 87-0593, unpaged, 1 sheet, scale 1:250,000.Current Activity
November 17, 2024, 11:09 pmStrong northwesterly winds in the vicinity of Katmai and the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes have picked up loose volcanic ash erupted during the 1912 Novarupta-Katmai eruption and are carrying it to the southeast. The National Weather Service has issued a SIGMET for this low-level event and suggests that the maximum cloud height is 6,000 ft (1.8 km) above sea level.
This phenomenon is not the result of recent volcanic activity and occurs during times of high winds and dry snow-free conditions in the Katmai area and other young volcanic areas of Alaska. No eruption is in progress. All of the volcanoes of the Katmai area (Griggs, Katmai, Novarupta, Mageik, Martin, Snowy and Trident) remain at Aviation Color Code GREEN and Alert Level NORMAL. Resuspended volcanic ash should be considered hazardous and could be damaging to aircraft and health.
For more information on volcanic ash and human health, visit the following website: http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/ash/
Official warnings about these ash resuspension events are issued by the National Weather Service: https://www.weather.gov/afc/
Forecasts of airborne ash hazard to aircraft: https://www.weather.gov/aawu/. Volcanic Ash Advisories: https://www.weather.gov/vaac/
Forecasts of ashfall: http://www.weather.gov/afc
Air quality hazards and guidance from Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, Division of Air Quality: http://dec.alaska.gov/Applications/Air/airtoolsweb/Advisories/Index
