Lassen Peak erupted - May 22, 1915

On this day in 1915, an explosive eruption of Lassen Peak in northern California devastated the areas around the volcano.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Day in History Class. It's a production of I
Heart Radio. Hello everyone, I'm Eves and welcome to this
Day in History Class, a podcast for people who really
take to heart the saying you learn something new every day.
Today It's made. The day was made twenty second, nineteen fifteen,

(00:24):
an explosive eruption of Lassen Peak in northern California devastated
the areas around the volcano. Lastin Peak is an active
volcano at the southern end of the Cascade Range. It
stands at about ten thousand feet or three thousand meters tall.
It was formed from a series of volcanic eruptions about
twenty seven thousand years ago, and it's a lava dome,

(00:46):
which are formed when viscus lava is extruded from a
volcanic vent. The areas around Lastin Peak have historically been
meeting points for Native Americans, but more white people moved
to the area after the California Gold Rush. In nineteen
o seven, U S. President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed Lastin Peak
a National monument, but some people were hoping for the

(01:07):
creation of a national park around Lastin Peak. In nineteen eleven,
President William H. Taft recommended the establishment of a Bureau
of National Parks, and in nineteen twelve, Congress began holding
hearings on the creation of a National Park Service. California
Congressman John E. Raker supported the creation of a National

(01:27):
Park Service and introduced a bill to establish a Peter
Lassen National Park, named after a Danish American blacksmith and prospector,
but the bill failed, and later bills also failed in
nineteen thirteen and nineteen fourteen. But on May thirtieth, nineteen fourteen,
eruptive activity began at Lastin Peak. A small free attic

(01:49):
eruption took place at event near its summit. A free
atic eruption is one that is caused by the heating
and expansion of ground water. Over the next year, more
than one and fifty explosions occurred. This was the beginning
of an eruptive period for Lastin Peak, but in mid
May of nineteen fifteen, the eruptions changed. Lava appeared in

(02:11):
the summit crater and flowed over the crater's walls. On
May nineteen, a stream of molten lava sent an avalanche
of hot rock into snow, causing a lahar or mud flow,
and at around four pm on May twenty two, there
was an explosive eruption at Lastin Peak. The blast sent rock,
fragments and pummice high above the volcano. A column of

(02:33):
volcanic gas and ash rose more than thirty thousand feet
into the air. A pyroclastic flow made of hot ash, pummice,
rock fragments, and gas made its way down the side
of the volcano. That flow melted snow and turned into
a lahar that flooded the lower Hat Creek Valley. There
were other smaller mud flows on all sides of Lastin Peak.

(02:55):
The eruption also deposited a layer of pummice and ash
that reached as far as to twenty five miles northeast
of the peak, and volcanic ash raged as far away
as Elko, Nevada, which was two d and eighty miles
to the east. The eruption was caught on camera, notably
by Benjamin F. Loomis. It was the most powerful in

(03:15):
a series of eruptions that occurred in the Cascades between
nineteen fourteen and nineteen seventeen, especially strong steam eruptions for
the Northern Crater on the volcano summit and steam eruptions
continued until in December of nineteen fifteen, Raker introduced another
bill to establish a national park, and this time it passed.

(03:37):
Last and Volcanic National Park was established in nineteen sixteen.
Last and a Peak is still an active volcano. I'm
Eve Jefcote and hopefully you know a little more about
history today than you did yesterday. And if you have
any comments, star suggestions you'd like to send us, you
can do so at this day and I Heard media

(03:57):
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media where at T T I h C podcast. Thanks
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