THE WORLD'S GREATEST VOLCANO

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 58, 1 December 1917, Page 12

THE WORLD'S GREATEST VOLCANO

, r-V KATMAI THE GIANT OP ALASKA. Mr. G. H. Grosvenor, director and editor of the National Geographic Society of America, recently made public a telegram from Kodiak, Alaska, in which Mr. U. F. Griggs, director of the society's Mt. Ivatmai expedition, announces hi 3 safe return to civilisation, together with tho tidings of the expedition's complete success in its scientific investigations. Dr. Griggs's messago says that, in the light of the expedition's discoveries, the "Valley of len Thousand Smokes" will stand as the first, wonder of the world. Instead of "ten thousand smokes," as the vast volcanic area in Alaska is. now known, the valley has literally millions of active vents in the space of a hundred square miles. • The survey of the exploration party proves that Katinni is the greatest crater on the surface of the globe, being more than nine miles in circumference, and 3GOO feet deep. The party also discovered a mud. river seventeen miles long, and mapped sixteen hundred miles of territory hitherto uncharted. Two thousand photographs of the great volcano and the contiguous territory were scoured, and a complete collection of plants, insects, birds, and geological data is being brought bnck to the United States by tho expedition, which will roach Washington about October _5. Gases from the vents rre also being brought back for chemical analysis.

Success of the Expedition. Mr Grosvenor announces that the expedTfton, judging from Dr. Griggs's preliminary report, is one of the most successful ever undertaken by the National Geographic Society, and that the data collected by it will be among the foremost contributions to the science of the eattift surface, Binco the beginning of tiie present century Prior to the great TCatmai eruption of Tune, 1912, practically nothing was Known of this great Alaskan volcanic area. The explosion of tlmt year was one of the most terrific in the history, of Hie world. The quantity of material flirown from the Katmni crater was vastly greater than that which resulted in the projection of the island of Krakatoa out of the bed of the. Pacific Ocean.