Alaska's Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes is filled with deposits from one of Earth's largest ash flows during historical time. They were emplaced during a powerful eruption on June 6, 1912, from Novarupta volcano, a newly formed volcano 10 km west of Katmai volcano. Stream dissection of the easily eroded, unwelded ash-flow deposit since 1912 provides a cross-sectional view of its interior. The person standing on its surface at the left provides scale for the deposit, which covers an area of 120 cu km and has a volume 11-15 cu km.

Copyrighted photo by Katia and Maurice Krafft, 1978.

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

Novarupta