Science: Boiling Alaska

Father Bernard Rosecrans Hubbard, S. J., head of the geologydepartment of the Jesuit University of Santa Clara, Calif., last fortnight told newsmen and geologists he had discovered that the Aniakchak and Veniaminoff, Alaskan peaks thought to be extinct, are alive. If so, they are the largest active craters in the world.

Last summer Father Hubbard. as he had done for three years prior, took four football players into Alaska for a long geological walk to the endof the Aleutian Islands. Their jaunt took them into the hearts of Aniakchak and Veniaminoff. There they pitched their tents, found in their subsequent explorations great spurts of steam issuing from cracks in the craters’ icy floors. They put a pot of beans over one of the steam streams, baked them for dinner. Another characteristic of the region which made Father Hubbard know that the two great peaks were alive was the lava formation. It was piled up in huge distorted lumps with jagged, jutting corners showing that it has been thrown up recently. Aniakchak and Veniaminoff are two craters of the volcanic range stretching for 2,000 mi. from Mt. Spurr in Alaska to the Aleutian Islands. Almost every 35 mi. along this rift is a volcanic peak, many of them still active.

Aniakchak and Veniaminoff were discovered seven years ago by R. Harvey Sargent, for 21 years head of the U. S. Geological Survey. Mr. Sargent’s party only had time to measure around the great crater holes, found the rim circumference of Aniakchak to be 21 mi., of Veniaminoff, 20 mi.* They found no trace of activity in their hasty circumspection, pronounced the craters big but dead.

Confirming Father Hubbard’s observation that the Alaskan volcanoes show increased activity this year was the report brought to Seattle last week by officers of the power schooner, Aleutian Native. “Boiling like a pot of porridge” was their description of active Gareloi Island in the Aleutians.

*Next largest active volcanoes: Alaska’s Katmai, 8.4 mi.; Hawaii’s Kilauea, 8 mi. Vesuvius measures about one mile.