Events

The Complicated Eruptive History of Mount Churchill (Alaska): 

Misidentification, Human Displacement and Far-Traveled Ash

Date: Thursday, April 17, 2025
Time: 4 to 5 p.m.
Location:  Walton Center for Planetary Health Auditorium #107 
777 East University Drive, 
Tempe AZ 85287- 8404

Abstract:

Mount Churchill, near the Alaska-Yukon border, is part of the Wrangell volcanic field and the source of the well-known “White River Ash”, a misnomer as this ash actually represents two major eruptions that occurred~1600 and ~1100 years ago. While the White River Ash represents two the largest Holocene eruptions in North America, very little is known about the eruption history of this volcano outside of these two events. In fact, for many decades Churchill was not even recognized as a volcano and currently remains unmonitored. For this talk I will explore the history of the Mount Churchill and White River Ash through over a century of exploration and research. This includes adventures spurred by border conflicts in the late 19th century due to the Klondike Goldrush, to the potential displacement and migration of the Athapascan people to the American SW, and how recent research is starting to suggest this volcano has been much more active in the last 11,000years than previously thought.

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Speaker Bio:

Britta Jensen is an Associate Professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, and Canada Research Chair in Quaternary Volcanism. Britta specializes in tephrochronology–studying volcanic ejecta to date and correlate sedimentary sequences as well as determining eruption frequencies and magnitudes. Her research is focused on North American volcanism: examining Miocene to Holocene eruptions from the Aleutian Arc and Wrangell volcanic field in the Yukon and Alaska, characterizing distal and proximal deposits of Cascade volcanoes in the western USA and Canada with a focus on Mount St. Helens, and building a tephrostratigraphic framework based on cryptotephra deposits in eastern North America. She is the PI of the Volcanic Ash Research Group (VARG) at the UofA, and curator of the John Westgate Tephra Collection, which includes >6000 individual tephra samples.

Standard parking fees will apply for ASU parking structures. 

The Walton Center for Planetary Health is located at the southwest corner of University Drive and Rural Road. The Novus garage on the northwest corner of University Drive and Rural Road has a bridge across University Drive from the third floor of the parking garage leads to the second floor of the building, where IHO's offices are located, just off the large patio. To see a map of the ASU campus and parking structures, go to ASU maps webpage. VIP ticket holders will receive a parking voucher, please bring your ticket with you at the VIP check in. Alternative transportation, including light rail information can be found here. 

Questions: email IHO@asu.edu