Okmok reported activity

Event Name : Okmok 1899

Start:

1899

Observed

Tephrafall:
Central eruption:

Eruption Type:	Explosive
MaxVEI:	2

Description: From Grey (2003): "An explosive eruption is said to have occurred in 1899 (Dunn, 1908). Robert Dunn (1908) details his visit to Umnak Island while 'vulcaneering' in the Aleutians. After landing on the beach south of Cape Aslik [see figure 4.2 in original text], he hiked up the slope past Jag Peak to the top of the ridge (the WSW rim), where he first laid eyes on the caldera: 'Below, yawned simply one titanic crater, five miles from far side to far side, if one single inch. Strewn on its floor, like toys perfectly carved, rose seven ash-cones; cones varied from symmetrical mounds that towered upon quite circular steep terraces, up to 500 feet and more, to the broken, chaotic black thing, like a big sand dump right under me. And that was the living soul of the discovery. Out of some vague cavern in its midst, undulated a column of white steam, a serpent-like Atlas, buoying the world's cloud cover.'

"Dunn also observed the ash spread to the west and south of the caldera: 'The devastation reached between four and five miles from the crater edge. This, of course, was the eruption of 1899.' Judging from Dunn's description of his location and his map, his black 'sand dump' is likely Cone A, thus implicating the then undeveloped cone as the source of this event [see figure 4.3 in original text]. Dunn is the first white man known to recognize the existence of the caldera and name it."