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Preface

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 June 2011

Clive Oppenheimer
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
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Summary

The largest volcanic salvo of the last century took place in a remote part of the Alaska Peninsula in 1912. The eruption of Mount Katmai expelled around 28 cubic kilometres (nearly seven cubic miles) of ash and pumice, projecting roughly two-thirds of it into the air and the remaining third as ground-hugging hurricanes of dust and rock. The only event to have come close to it in more recent times is the 1991 eruption of Mt Pinatubo in the Philippines. Had an eruption the size of Katmai's 1912 outburst occurred in more densely populated regions of the ‘lower 48’ or, say, in Italy, Indonesia or the Caribbean, the event would be much better known outside of the volcanological coterie. In case you are wondering how to envisage 28 cubic kilometres of volcanic rock, it is sufficient to form a blanket seven centimetres thick (nearly three inches) over California, or 11 centimetres across the UK!

However, the Katmai eruption was a fairly trivial demonstration of volcanic fury viewed from either geological or human evolutionary perspectives. Around 7700 years ago, an eruption twice the size did strike the conterminous USA (in Oregon). Remarkably, the memory of the eruption, which formed the magnificent landform known as Crater Lake, lingers in the oral traditions of the Klamath native American tribe. Another eruption, more than twice as large again, struck the eastern Mediterranean only 3600 years ago. It may have had a devastating ‘slow-fuse’ impact on the Minoans, one of the great early civilisations.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2011

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  • Preface
  • Clive Oppenheimer, University of Cambridge
  • Book: Eruptions that Shook the World
  • Online publication: 01 June 2011
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511978012.001
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  • Preface
  • Clive Oppenheimer, University of Cambridge
  • Book: Eruptions that Shook the World
  • Online publication: 01 June 2011
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511978012.001
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Preface
  • Clive Oppenheimer, University of Cambridge
  • Book: Eruptions that Shook the World
  • Online publication: 01 June 2011
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511978012.001
Available formats
×