My experiments with volcanoesJaggar, Thomas Augustus
Science
My experiments with volcanoes
Jaggar, Thomas Augustus
Geologists -- Biography; Volcanoes
Like every such volcano expedition, we were hampered by the
necessity of using a sailing vessel, by bad weather, by rain which
interfered with photography, by long spells on the open sea in fog,
and by inaccessible craters amid the ice of mountain tops. From the
administrative viewpoint, two things stood out: the need for an
amphibian boat, independent of harbors, and the need for a land station
more or less permanent, wherefrom an amphibian boat could operate to
reach and land on determinate beaches. A permanent station could work
on specimens in bad weather. These discoveries determined the policy
that was to eventuate in the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, to the
building of amphibian boats, and to five other Aleutian journeys by
1932.
I might describe sliding down the slippery grass of Unalaska, on the
steep slopes peculiar to the Aleutians; exploring ice craters on top
of Makushin in Unalaska; or getting storm bound for five days trying
to reach Atka’s Korovinski Volcano on foot. But these tales have been
published elsewhere.
The most exciting of the Aleutian volcanoes is Bogoslof, a peak
submerged north of Umnak, with its crater, a line of erupting crags,
just at sea level. We had good luck with weather and landed on Bogoslof
in the forenoon of August 7, 1907. Hundreds of sea lions, bellowing
close to the dories, would pop up and stare at us and then plunge
frantically beneath the waves. On the beach we found one bull asleep,
but he awoke and awkwardly floundered to the sea. The islet was then
four peaks with sand flats between, the central one a steaming mass of
lava protuberances shaped like potatoes. Next to it was a half cone
broken in two, with a horned spine like a shark fin; Pelée all over
again. It was also similar to New Zealand’s White Island. At the two
ends of the island were older, peaked lava rocks. The active heap was
450 feet high with bright yellow coatings, and a ring pool of hot salt
water around it, yellow with iron-stained mud. The rocky cliffs were
covered with thousands of murres, their chicks, and eggs; and the birds
darkened the sky in flight. The stench from offal and rotten eggs was
intense.
The sea was full of fish, the beaches were full of sea lions, the hot
lava and air were full of birds. Thus life and deadly volcanism lived
together. The active rock was refractory basalt, semisolid, crusting
and breaking into blocks as it rose from a submerged crater.
On September 1 after we left, the crater exploded, throwing sand and
dust a distance of 100 miles to the east. The middle heap was engulfed,
leaving only a lagoon; and the remaining peaks were shrouded in a heavy
mantle of debris. Such a history of building and bursting and spreading
out as a shoal has gone on for more than 111 years. Bogoslof is the
peak of a submarine Pelée, several thousand feet above sea bottom. It
is always active, the index volcano of the Aleutians.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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