On the afternoon of November 24th, 1907, citizens in the town of Teller within Alaska noted
something unusual.
The snow which was falling was not a solid white color but instead gray.
What was falling was in fact ash, which began to quickly accumulate.
Within the next 24 hours, ash also fell on the cities of Tin City, Candle, and Nome.
Over the next 3 days the sky consistently had a gray color to it due to the abundance
of particulates in the air.
By November 28th, a quarter of an inch of ash had accumulated in Nome while on some
parts of the peninsula as much as an inch of material had fallen.
What had just occurred was a volcanic eruption, presumably in the VEI 3 range which had deposited
volcanic ash over an area the size of West Virginia.
Yet, despite the magnitude of the eruption which occurred, as of 2022 we still do not
know which volcano generated this eruption.
This is a potential problem as if that volcano were to erupt again it could cause harm to
a number of local people or industries since we do not know where the relevant volcano
is.
On the Seward Peninsula of Alaska there is a single active volcano that has produced
a confirmed eruption since the end of the last ice age; Imuruk Lake.
This complex of shield volcanoes produced an eruption in 300 BCE, sending a lava flow
more than 24 miles into the surrounding landscape, going on to cover an area of 97 square miles.
While this volcano has not erupted since, it might initially seem like a good candidate
due to its location for the 1907 eruption.
However, this consideration ignores two problems.
One problem is that ash was observed in the city of Teller before the city of Nome.
Yet, the vent known as the Lost Jim Cone which produced this volcano's last eruption is essentially
equidistant from the two cities.
The second and more important issue which discards Imuruk Lake as a possibility is that
the winds which blew in the ash originated from the west and blew in an eastward direction.
Thus, if Imuruk Lake was to have produced an eruption, its ash may not have even reached
the two cities due to the area's prevailing winds.
However, the Seward Peninsula also has two other volcanoes that have erupted in the last
2 million years; the Koyuk Buckland volcanic field to the east and the Espenberg Maars
to the north.
For the same reason that we discredited the Imuruk Lake volcano, we can also discredit
the Koyuk Buckland volcanic field.
The Espenberg Maars are a surprisingly good fit, due to their proximity to a spot on the
peninsula attributed to having some of the thickest ashfall.
While it is possible that a vent might have explosively erupted in one of the 5 maar aka
explosion crater lakes, the lack of young lava flows or ash deposits seems to discredit
this possibility.
You might also think that maybe the ash blew in from one of the Aleutian Island volcanoes
as in that year the Pavlof, Kiska, Akutan, Bogoslof, and Atka volcanoes all produced
eruptions.
Yet, none of these eruptions had a large enough magnitude to have transported to great distances
such large volumes of ash.
However, there is a possibility that all of this ash instead originated from Russia's
Kamchatka Peninsula.
On March 28th of 1907, the Ksudach volcano produced one of the largest volcanic eruptions
of the 20th century.
Although the eruption of this volcano had certainly ended by the time ash was witnessed
in Alaska, it is possible that its eruptive products were resuspended by strong winds,
much like what is often witnessed adjacent to the Novarupta and Aniakchak volcanoes.
Two other possibilities are the Kookooligit Mountains volcano on Saint Lawrence Island
and the Saint Michael volcanic field near the town of Stebbins.
While Kookooligit is in an ideal spot to potentially have generated a volcanic eruption, it does
not have any cinder cones which appear to be younger than 2,000 years old.
As for the Saint Michael field, it has two absurdly young looking cinder cones which
have not yet been dated, but, the observed ash distributions would not make much sense
to have originated from this volcano.
Instead, the Alaska Volcano Observatory believes that this ash might have originated from a
yet to be discovered submarine vent of a potentially unknown volcanic complex to the west of the
peninsula.
A submarine volcanic eruption right below the surface or on the surface might have formed
a temporary volcanic island out of ash which then subsequently washed away above sea level
leaving very little evidence that it ever existed.
The Alaska Volcano Observatory recently stated "If you had family who live or used to live
on the Seward Peninsula in 1907, and you happen to have some ash that fell there, we would
love to analyze it.
It may be the missing link we need!".
I have left their contact information in the video description, as perhaps my audience
might be able to help solve this geologic mystery.