Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes The Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes is a valley within Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska which is filled with ash flow from the eruption of Novarupta on June 6–8, 1912. Following the eruption, thousands of fumaroles vented steam from the ash. Robert F. Griggs, who explored the volcano's aftermath for the National Geographic Society in 1916, gave the valley its name, saying that "the whole valley as far as the eye could reach was full of hundreds, no thousands—literally, tens of thousands—of smokes curling up from its fissured floor." Prior to the eruption,
Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes the area now called the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes was an unremarkable and unnamed portion of the Ukak River valley. Although never permanently inhabited by humans, it served as a pass for the Alutiiq people, as well as animals such as grizzly bears. The 1912 eruption was the largest eruption by volume in the 20th century, erupting a magma volume of about . As many as 14 major earthquakes between formula_1 6 to 7, and over 100 earthquakes greater than formula_1 5, resulted from the collapse of the caldera at Mount Katmai and movement within the magmatic plumbing system.