ALASKAN ERUPTION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 103, 24 September 1914, Page 7

ALASKAN ERUPTION.

I ■«. RECALLS KRAKATOA. i . ! ALL LIFE DESTROYED WITHIN A | RADIUS OF FIFTEEN MILES. WILD ANIMALS BLINDED. Washington, August 8. Mout Katmai, reported by Captain McMullin, of the steamer Dirigo, to be throwing out great volumes of sulphcr-ous-laden smoke, is a peak 7500 feet in height, situated relatively near the eastern end of the Alaskan peninsula and 'the Aleutian mountains. The seaman reports the ocean for a distance of 100 miles to be discolored by sulphur and and pumice. The last eruption of this volcano, in June, 1912, as described in a statement by the National Geographical Society, compiled from data collected by George O. Martin, the geologist who directed the Society's Alaskan volcano researches following Mount Katmai's outbreak, was one of the most violent of historic ■ time.

"All southern Alaska knew at once of Katmai'a eruption on the morning of June 6th, 1912," reads the society's statement. "The sound of th.e first mighty explosion was carried down nio coast as far as Juneau, 750 miles away, and was even heard across the Alaska range at Dawson and Fairbanks, distant 650 miles and 500 miles respectively. The column of steam and ash that rose several miles in the air was carried eastward by the wind and within a few hours had shed a shower of ashes all over the eastern end of the Alaskau peninsula, the cast half of Kodialc Island, and all of Afognak island. ''lntense darkness accompanied the fall and midnight blackness in the daytime extended as far east as the Kerutl peninsula. Darkness lasted for sixty hours at Kodiak, 100 miles away. Dust Ml as far away as Juneau, Ketchikan and the Yukon Valley, 150, 900 and 'COO miles respectively. Tine fumes were reported from points as far remote as Vancouver Island and Puget Sound, 1500 miles away. Subsequent terrific explosions occurred at 3 and 11 p.m. of tho samo day.

AS SEEN FROM VESSEL. "A description of the fall of ashes is given by )John E, Thwaites, of the steamer Dora, which was fifty-five miles away when the shower began. 'And now began the real rain of ashes; it fell in torrents; it swirled and eddied,' he says. 'Gravity' seemed to 'have nothing to do with the course of the fall. The underside of the deck seemed to catch as much ashes as the sides or the decks under our feet. Bright clusters of electric light could be seen but a few feet away, and we had to feel our way about the deck. It was witli the greatest difficulty that the man at the wheel could see the compass through the thick dust that filled the room.

"'Lurid flashes of lightning glaredcontinuously, while a constant boom ot thunder, sometimes coinciding with the Hash, increased the horror of the inferno around us. As far as seeing or hearing anything pertaining to earth, we might, as well have been miles above the water. And still wc knew that the sun was two hours above the horizon. Birds floundered, crying wildly, through space, and fell helpless to the deck.' "The magnitude of an eruption is not properly measured by the loss of life and damage to property, but rather in terms of the natural phenomena; the quantity and distribution of the ejected material, the distance at which the sound waves, dust, darkness and fumes were observed, the violence of the accompanying earthquakes and the distribution and intensity of the resulting at mosplieric conditions.

NO HUMAN LIVES LOST. ''The greatest eruptions on record include those of Krakatoa in ISS3, Ooseguina in 1535, Tomboro in 1815, Shap-tar-.Tokull in 1753, and Papandayang in 1772. The eruption of Katmai was apparently of a magnitude comparable with some of these. The deposits from Katmai vary in thickness, from fifty-live inches at the head of Amalik Bay, fifteen and a half miles from the mountain, to three and a half inches at the east end ■of Afognak Island, 113 miles from the volcano.

"The effect of the eruption on what- ] ever vegetation clothed the flanks of the volcano was annihilation. The position ot the death line around the volcano came practically down to the sea, fifteen miles from the crater. Marine life was affected to a larger degree than would perhaps ho expected. Hears, rabbits, reindeer, and other animals and birds were made blind. Dead geese, ducks, ptarmigan, snipe, Hiawks, and many small birds were found at the mouth of the Kakhinak river. "Man was indirectly affected, by the eruption through the injury to other animal life and to vegetation. The eruption differed from almost all other known great eruptions in that the immediate damage to property was almost nothing, and that, as far as is known, it was not the direct and sole cause of (he loss of a single human life. The sparse settlement of the district alone was responsible for this conditions."