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Katmai National Park and Preserve

Katmai National Park and Preserve is a U.S. National Park and Preserve in southern Alaska which is very famous for the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes and Alaskan brown bears. The park and preserve covers 4,093,077 acres. The park's chief features are its coast, the Aleutian Range with a chain of fifteen volcanic mountains across the coastal southeastern part of the park, and a series of large lakes in the flatter western part of the park. The king salmon is native to the island. The active volcanoes in the park are Mount Katmai, Novarupta, Trident Volcano, Mount Mageik, Mount Martin and Fourpeaked Volcano.
Credit from NOAA

Credit from Michael Melford

In 1912, There was the most significant volcanic event in historical times. The violent eruption of Mount Katmai and Novarupta produced a pyroclastic flow covering a nearby valley with ash as much as 300 feet thick. At the same time the summit of Katmai collapsed into a caldera about two miles in diameter and over 800 feet deep because a large amount of magma was drained from magma chambers below and lacked of support from beneath. As the valley pyroclastic deposits cooled, they emitted steam from fissures and fumaroles, earning the name Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes.
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