All This Is That: The Eruption of Mount Edgecumbe

Friday, April 03, 2015

The Eruption of Mount Edgecumbe

By Jack Brummet, Volcanology Ed.

Photo by Harold Wahlman

This is a leftover from April Fool's Day I never got around to posting. The residents of Sitka, Alaska woke up on April 1, 1974 to see clouds of black smoke were rising from the crater of Mount Edgecumbe, a dormant, nearby volcano. People went out into the streets to gaze up at the volcano, terrified that it would erupt.

A local practical joker named Porky Bickar had flown hundreds of old tires into the volcano's crater and lit them on fire (note the day this occurred) to fool city dwellers into believing the volcano was coming back to life.

Great prank. How can I fly a few hundred tires into the crater of Mount Rainier?

---o0o---

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