This entire valley floor consists of deposits of the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes (VTTS) ash flow, which was erupted from Alaska's Novarupta volcano, out of view to the left. The massive, 11-15 cu km VTTS ash-flow covers 120 km² of the valley to a distance of 12 km from the Novarupta vent. The bowl-shaped portion of the left-half skyline is the rim of Katmai caldera, which collapsed as a result of the eruption of the VTTS ash flow. The four skyline peaks on the right side of this aerial view from the NW are those of Trident volcano.

Copyrighted photo by Katia and Maurice Krafft, 1978.

Copyrighted image used with permission. All Rights Reserved. Contact photographer for any usage requests.

Novarupta