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Report on Novarupta (United States) — 7 December-13 December 2016


Novarupta

Smithsonian Institution / US Geological Survey
Weekly Volcanic Activity Report, 7 December-13 December 2016
Managing Editor: Sally Sennert.

Please cite this report as:

Global Volcanism Program, 2016. Report on Novarupta (United States) (Sennert, S, ed.). Weekly Volcanic Activity Report, 7 December-13 December 2016. Smithsonian Institution and US Geological Survey.

Weekly Report (7 December-13 December 2016)

Novarupta

United States

58.2655°N, 155.1588°W; summit elev. 841 m

All times are local (unless otherwise noted)


According to NASA's Earth Observatory, a Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite image acquired on 2 December of the Katmai area showed a plume of re-suspended ash which had been deposited during the 1912 eruption.

Geological Summary. Novarupta, the least topographically prominent volcano in the Katmai area, was formed during a major eruption in 1912. This eruption was the world's largest during the 20th century and produced a voluminous rhyolitic airfall tephra and the renowned Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes (VTTS) ash flow. At the end of the eruption a small, 65-m-high, 400-m-wide lava dome grew within the source vent of the VTTS ashflow, a 2-km-wide area of subsidence NW of Trident volcano. The NE side of the Falling Mountain lava dome of the Trident volcanic cluster, as well as Broken Mountain and Baked Mountain, was removed by collapse of the Novarupta depression, which is marked by radial and scalloped arcuate fractures. Much larger collapse took place at Katmai volcano, 10 km E, where a 3 x 4 km caldera formed in response to magma reservoir drainage toward Novarupta.

Source: NASA Earth Observatory