The Ultimate Katmai National Park Quiz

Katmai National Park is located on Alaska's southern coast. It has been a national park since 1980.

In order to reach the park you must fly there from Anchorage. There are no roads to Katmai National Park.

The national park has three lodges, cabins, camping, and a wilderness retreat.

A main attraction is the extreme volcanic destruction that is evident in the park. The area is still void of almost any vegetation in the devastated area.

The Novarupta Volcano south of Iliamna Lake in southwestern Alaska exploded as if a nuclear missile had struck the area. The Aniakcak is an inactive volcano located in the Alaska Peninsula, which is not in the park.

On June 6, 1912, the Novarupta volcano erupted after a week of severe earthquakes. In what was one of the three most powerful volcanic explosions ever recorded, the entire top of the mountain was violently blown off.

Scientists estimate the total volume of displaced material was more than seven cubic miles. This is twice the amount expelled by the 1883 Krakatoa explosion in Indonesia.

The lush Ukak river valley was buried beneath 700 feet of incandescent ash that reached temperatures of up to 2,000°F (1,093 C). The eruption was the world's largest eruption during the 20th century.

This force of the eruption is estimated to have had ten times the force of the 1980 eruption of Washington State’s Mount St. Helens. It left the valley a lifeless moonscape of desolation.

The Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes forms the centerpiece of the park. The thousands of fumaroles that sent jets of steam as high as 10,000 feet and gave the valley its name are all gone now.

Robert Fiske Griggs was a botanist who led a 1915 National Geographic expedition to observe the aftermath of the Katmai volcanic eruption. In June 1917, he set out again with a team of explorers to successfully discover the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes.

The Katmai National Park extends over almost 5 million acres. The terrain is made up of forested valleys, streams, mountains, and volcanic terrain.

The national park is famous for its abundance of Alaskan brown bears. The bears can be observed up close as they fish for salmon in the park’s rivers.

Alaskan brown bears gather on the Brooks Falls each summer to feed on sea-run salmon. You can see as many as 60 bears at a time up close and personal, from specially constructed observation facilities.

Novarupta is a dome of volcanic rock soaring 200 feet in the air and is believed to be the extrusion plug of the 1912 eruption. Geologists believe that most of the lava and ash was emitted from Novarupta.

After the 1912 volcanic eruption spewed much of the interior of Mount Katmai out in the form of ash and pumice, a large caldera formed after the mountain collapsed in on itself. This caldera contains a pristine lake that can be viewed from the rim of the mountain.

Katmai is a wilderness wonderland of mountains, rivers, and forested valleys. Mixed among the beautiful sites are still 15 active volcanoes, with many emitting steam from their open vents and fissures.

The park may contain the world's largest protected population of brown bears. Between 200 and 300 of the gigantic animals roam through the park's backcountry areas.

The brown bear is North America's largest land carnivore. Averaging 1,000 pounds in weight and up to 10 feet long, the bears spend long Alaskan winters in dens excavated in the hillsides.

For hundreds of miles the daylight sky was darkened by thousands of tons of ash thrown more than 30,000 feet into the sky. Global temperatures cooled for weeks, and as far away as Vancouver, British Columbia, acid rain burned up clothing that was hanging outdoors to dry.