Kasatochi caldera in 2004. The island is made up of one volcano rising steeply out of the ocean and hollowed out by prior eruptions to hold this crater lake. Photographer Brie Drummond, USFWS

Kasatochi caldera two weeks after the August 7 eruption. Ash blanketed the entire island as the volcano continued to steam and belch. Photographer: Chris Waythomas; AVO/USGS

Biologist Ray Buchheit returns to Kasotochi two weeks after his evacuation and locates the site of the refuge's cabin which was buried by hot pyroclastic flows during the eruption. Photographer, Chris Waythomas, AVO/USGS

Alaska Maritime: Refugees Escape “Ring of Fire” Just in Time

When Alaska Maritime Refuge biologists first felt Kasatochi Island shake, they dismissed it as a fact of life in the volatile, volcanic Aleutian Islands.  But after a few days of more frequent tremors, Ray Buchheit and Chris Ford got a little anxious.  Volcanoes were on everyone’s mind as two other volcanoes on the Alaska Maritime Refuge--Okmok Caldera and Mt. Cleveland--erupted unexpectedly over three weeks.  But no one suspected long-dormant Kasatochi Volcano was days away from a cataclysmic eruption that would bury the entire island and send biologists fleeing for their lives.

Buchheit and Ford were the only people on Kasatochi, 1100 miles southwest of Anchorage.  The refuge’s 120-foot vessel, M/V Tiglax, took them to the island in May and would pick them up in late August.   They lived in a trapper’s cabin from the 1920s and studied seabirds as biologists have done for 13 years.  Lush and green with a big blue eye of a lake in a deep caldera, Kasatochi’s 700 acres hosted 100,000 auklets, storm petrels and puffins, one of the best islands in the central Aleutians for bird study.

On August 5, Buchheit and Ford radioed their concerns to Lisa Spitler staffing the office on Adak Island 50 miles away, the nearest settlement. Spitler checked the Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) monitoring website but saw no indication of trouble brewing.  She called the AVO but heard Kasatochi was considered dormant with no historically recorded eruptions.  AVO had no monitoring instruments on Kasatochi so no one knew what was going on.  Disbelief mingled with anxiety as tremors increased. 

On August 6, the refuge, regional office, and AVO all concurred evacuation was prudent and Spitler began to arrange it.  But the M/V Tiglax was 24 hours away as was the nearest Coast Guard ship and there were no fishing boats in the area.  A disabled Coast Guard helicopter on Adak was needed a part that was. . .  24 hours away.  At last Spitler lined-up local fisherman Al Giddings, who agreed to sail at dawn from Adak in his 32-foot boat, Homeward Bound, to accomplish the rescue. 

August 7 dawned with increasing tremors and a strong, sulphur smell.  About 10 a.m. a nine-minute earthquake and falling rocks convinced Buchheit and Ford to head to the beach. The next few hours were tense as tremors intensified and the Homeward Bound  could not be raised on the radio.  It wasn’t certain if Giddings could get his small boat across the rough, open water to reach isolated Kasatochi.  Buchheit and Ford considered launching their skiff and following GPS to Great Sitkin Island 20 miles away.  But it was   foggy, the surf was rough and at sea they wouldn’t be visible to their rescuer.  But seven miles from Kasatochi, Giddings came on the radio to assure all he could make it to the island.  When the Homeward Bound arrived, no time was wasted in abandoning the shaking island, leaving gear and computers behind.  A couple hours after Buchheit, Ford, Giddings and deckhand, Eric Mochizuki left Kasatochi it erupted, blowing ash 45,000 feet, burying the island with scorching pyroclastic flows, and disrupting air travel from Anchorage to Seattle.

Two weeks later, Buchheit stepped ashore on a new Kasatochi courtesy of an AVO helicopter carrying scientists to document the eruption.  Buchheit said, “It was impressive, the way it had changed.  Definitely a sight to see.”  The refuge cabin was buried under up to 100 feet of ash, a new coastline extended hundreds of yards beyond the old coast and the birds were gone.  Buchheit tried to find the cabin but “the ground got too hot.  I didn’t think I needed to go any farther.”  Sea lions had returned to the beach but only in half their numbers and only two pups were seen.

There was virtually nothing green left on the island and biologists estimate it will take decades for plants to re-colonize.  Fish & Wildlife Service botanist Steve Talbot, who has pre-eruption data from Kasatochi and saw the island after its’ eruption, was intrigued by studying the return of the plants.  Replacing Kasatochi as an annual seabird monitoring site is a problem refuge biologist Jeff Williams will face.  Annual monitoring sites are key to providing trend data and 13 years of study on Kasatochi helped the refuge paindt a picture of what’s happening with seabirds in the central Aleutians.

The Service owes a debt to Al Giddings and deckhand Eric Mochizuki for their rescue mission and to Lisa Spitler for coordinating the effort and staying in contact with Buchheit and Ford.  According to Marianne Guffanti of AVO, “Kasatochi is yet another example of a very important lesson we are learning in volcanology.  We don’t necessarily have much time from when a volcano first shows signs of unrest until when it can erupt explosively.”  Needless to say, this presents special challenges for managing a refuge of volcanic islands on the Pacific’s famed “Ring of Fire.”

To learn more about the refuge’s restless volcanoes and see more images visit the Alaska Volcano Observatory website www.avo.alaska.edu.