What was the biggest volcanic bomb that has shot out of a volcano,
in North America? How much did it weigh? What was its diameter?
Hi Mel, Toad, Mick, and Eugeane,
I don't know if anyone has ever compared the sizes of bombs from different
volcanoes. I think it will take a lot of careful checking and comparing of
eruption descriptions to come up with the answer. I can tell you that
there is a famous "hot rock" that was part of the 1914-1915 eruption of
Mt. Lassen, California. This rock was actually carried by a lahar (volcanic
mudflow), but it was still hot even after having been carried by the
lahar. The description of this rock, in 'Eruptions of Lassen Peak' by
B.F. Loomis, are kind of interesting:
"Many large rocks, some of them hot, were thrown from the crater, or
torn off the lip of the crater on the west side, and carried down the
creek by the raging torrents. A large hot rock appears in the foreground
in my picture of Lassen Peak in eruption from the head of Lost Creek.
The largest hot rock we saw was at the lower end of the Adams place where
once his meadow used to be. The lassen Park Road passes this rock which
was very hot when it was deposited there by the mud flow. This rock is
about 18 feet wide, 20 feet long, and I estimated it to be about 14 feet
thick. It was carried four or five miles from the crater of Lassen Peak
to where it now lies. And after forty hours from the time it left the
crater it was still sizling in the water.
Just below this a large hot rock had been deposited in the mud
and a pile of drift wood a few acres in extent and ten feet deep was on
and around it. This hot rock had dried out the drift wood and then set
fire to it. We discovered it by the smoke and then photogrphed it. This
story may seem incredible, but there were eleven of us who can verify the
statement."
He also mentions another hot rock, this one weighing 30 tons.
So, it seems that even though these rocks weren't really bombs (since they
weren't thrown through the air), they were still carried quite an impressive
distance.
Sincerely,
Scott Rowland
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