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Mount St. Helens Alert Status Increased
Posted by
michael
on Thu Sep 30, 2004 08:32 AM
from the experience-is-the-best-teacher dept.
from the experience-is-the-best-teacher dept.
DarkHand writes "Mount St. Helens has become even more unstable in the last few hours. The U.S. Geological Surveys Cascades Volcano Observatory has increased the volcanic alert around the volcano to level 2 and released a press release: 'Over night, seismic activity at Mount St. Helens has accelerated significantly, which increases our level of concern that current unrest could culminate in an eruption. We are increasing the alert level to the second of three levels [...]. Earthquakes are occurring at about four per minute. The largest events are approaching Magnitude 2.5 and they are becoming more frequent. All are still at shallow levels in and below the lava dome that grew in the crater between 1980 and 1986. This suggests that the ongoing intense earthquake activity has weakened the dome, increasing the likelihood of explosions or perhaps the extrusion of lava from the dome.' The most recent readings at the SEP seismograph stationed on the lava dome itself are totally saturated. The ground is now literally constantly rumbling."
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To quote Counter-Strike: (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Portland Oregon threatened in last eruption (Score:5, Informative)
I actually rather like the new and improved version of St. Helens. Perfect geometry is boring. I highly recommend, once the mountain settles down, the long hike up to the rim of the crater. You come to it with a suddeness I can't describe, after hours of trudging through snow fields. All of a sudden you see the terrible beauty that destruction can bring, with, on a clear day, Mount Rainier and Mount Adams looking impossibly close by.
Even if there are no volcanoes in your backyard, mountains are great, symmetrical or smashed. Go visit some.
Parent
Re:Portland Oregon threatened in last eruption (Score:5, Interesting)
It's unlikely that even the most massive eruption from Mt. St. Helens could have threatened the plant. The incredible first lateral blast only travelled 25km and IIRC the pyroclastic flows only extended about 20km. Ashfall would not have been a problem for the plant, and the quakes associated with vulcanism are (Hollywood aside) fairly small.
In the event, they had a pretty good idea that Mount St. Helens was going to erupt through its side. The area that bulged was called Goat's Roack and was actually the result of an earlier eruption through the side of the cone.
What no one had predicted was that the whole side of the mountain would slide off [usgs.gov]. Instantly a huge section of the magma below the mountain depressurised - like a champagne cork blowing off. And that did the damage.
What we have now is young magma pushing up under the mountain. We'll probably see a series of small eruptions as the dome is built, extended and then blown apart. We could have centuries of this sort of activity ahead of us.
The eruption was too bad because Mt. St. Helens was a perfect cone before the eruption. It looked like Mt. Fuji in Japan. Now it looks like a million-seat football stadium: a big hole with a circular ridge around half of it.
You're not thinking long-term - the cone of Mt. St. Helens was only a few tens of thousands of years old, it will rebuild itself in the next few millennia. In the meantime, sit back and watch the mountain heal itself.
Best wishes,
Mike.
Parent
Re:Portland Oregon threatened in last eruption (Score:5, Insightful)
Well speaking as a geologist I always find that when you think in terms of geological time so many other problems - the bank, work, Dubya - all fall into perspective. That scenery has been changed time and time again. It's inevitable that this will go on.
The people of Washington are getting a chance to see how their planet formed. In a couple of decades whole new forests will be established, there will be new mountain meadows and all the time a new mountain will be growing. Fantastic!
Take the kids and go look in awe at Mount St. Helens, show them that Nature isn't just wallpaper, its always changing.
And as a Brit - I'm thoroughly jealous that the US has volcanoes and we don't...
Best wishes,
Mike.
Parent
Re:Portland Oregon threatened in last eruption (Score:5, Insightful)
Additionally, the Trojan reactor was not shut down due to the proximity of a fault and fear of earthquake damage, but due to an aging coolant system that would have cost $billions to rebuild. Admittedly it is an older design and there are safer options now, but my point is Mt. St. Helens does not threaten us with a nuclear disaster.
The spent fuel rods are still there because some crazy people are convinced that they are safer sitting in a pool a couple hundred yards from the Columbia River than converted into a ceramic, encased in steel and concrete, and buried under Yucca mountain.
I wish I could go hike up there, but other people tell me that would be stupid and now illegal, so I guess I'll have to settle for looking out the window.
Parent
REM fans unite (Score:5, Funny)
Scary, yet cool. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Scary, yet cool. (Score:5, Informative)
e.g. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_ow
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Re:Scary, yet cool. (Score:5, Funny)
Oh. Nevermind [nzherald.co.nz]
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Before anyone posts the lame Florida hurricane map (Score:4, Insightful)
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Re:Scary, yet cool. (Score:5, Informative)
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Dante II (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Dante II (Score:5, Funny)
When discussing vulcanology, one should avoid using as one's primary reference a movie in which Pierce Brosnan successfully drives a pickup truck over several meters of red-hot lava.
Parent
memo to self (Score:5, Funny)
Re:memo to self (Score:5, Funny)
Looks like you also have to be sure you don't live in the path of an active volcano. At that rate Mount St. Helens could reach Canada in a few thousand years!
Parent
How severe? (Score:4, Interesting)
-S
Re:How severe? (Score:5, Informative)
By comparison, the 1980 blast was a catastrophic event. A medium strength earthquake caused the entire north face of the mountain to crumble in a massive rockslide, which also uncorked the pressure on the magma underneath, resulting in a huge lateral explosion through the rock slide. Imagine a wall of rocks coming at you at 300mph. It's doubtful that something like that will happen again in our lifetimes.
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Re:How severe? (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:How severe? (Score:5, Informative)
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Prank Volcano (Score:5, Funny)
There will be a big white flag coming out of the crater reading "BOOM!" any minute now...
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Severity from a local (Score:5, Informative)
The only problem they expect is the possibility of dispruping flights at PDX or some of the local airports.
Contrary to the last eruption, when 57 people died, no one lives up around the volcano anymore. So, it's not like anything nearly as severe is likely.
So, even though activity is through the roof, they don't expect more than a small eruption. Even last time, here in Vancouver, we didn't get much activity at all. All the ash, darkness and horrid weather was thrown to the east of the Cascades, near Yakima and Central Washington. The rivers were flooded and clogged with debris, but other than the immediate vicinity, no one was hurt.
Parent
*spoiler alert* (Score:5, Funny)
Re:*spoiler alert* (Score:5, Funny)
"No boom today. Boom tomorrow. There's always a boom tomorrow... What? Somebody's gotta have some damned perspective around here! One day, BOOM!"
(muttering to herself) "Boom. boomboomboom. BOOM!"
- Susan Ivanova, Babylon 5
Parent
Mt St Helens seismic and other info (Score:5, Informative)
USGS earthquake info for Mt St Helens National Volcanic Monument area [usgs.gov] (wide view [usgs.gov])
USGS Cascades Volcano Observatory Mt St Helens seismic observations [usgs.gov]
Pacific Northwest Seismograph Network Mt St Helens home page [washington.edu] (earthquake list [washington.edu])
Re:Mt St Helens seismic and other info (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/volcanocams/msh/ [fs.fed.us]
Parent
Not to be gross... (Score:4, Funny)
As I was watching Katie Couric interview one of the scientists this morning, I just kept thinking that these guys are all waiting for this big head to pop so they can collect measurements on the pus.
Sorry, kinda icky, but these are my thoughts. Mod down if you have a weak stomach.
Ahh, this is the life (Score:5, Funny)
I'm sick of all these damn hurricanes, honey. Where else can we live?
I want to get as far away from this place as possible. How about Washington?
Works for me, let's go!
Mount St. Helens VolcanoCam (Score:5, Informative)
not to be broadcasting now. Anyone knows why/what's happening ?
Re:Mount St. Helens VolcanoCam (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah, you just
Parent
A wonderful place to visit (Score:5, Interesting)
While driving up the windy mountin road to get to the park, our van turned a bend, and suddenly I saw before me a swath of devistation so utterly complete that I knew only some tremendous force could have removed all the trees and other signs of life.
I asked the "vetrans" of the group if we had reached the blast zone already. They responded: "Nope, that's just a clearcut. The blast zone now has much more wildlife."
Ah well. I was just there to look at the rocks anyway.
Re:A wonderful place to visit (Score:5, Informative)
I was there last summer, 23 years since the 1980 eruption, and the power with which that thing erupted is still evident all over the area.
For instance:
- A picture [adirondack-park.net] from high on the flank of the mountain looking back down one of the lava flows from the 1980 eruption. Notice the green patch on the hill to the left, which was missed by the lava flow.
- Looking at the same spot [adirondack-park.net], this time from below. You can really see the effects of that hill here -- it diverted the lava, and everything behind it is green, while everything else was destroyed.
- A panorama from the rim of the mountain [adirondack-park.net], looking down into the crater. This should give you an idea of how big a crater the eruption left. The top of the mountain was simply blown away. Even while we were there, every few minutes we could here rock tumbling down into the crater, some of them huge boulders. The sides of the caldera still aren't stable, 23 years after the fact.
- Spirit Lake [adirondack-park.net]. All that gray stuff you see are trees. Thousands of them. They were all killed in 1980 eruption, and are now just floating on the lake. It's called the "floating forest" of Spirit Lake.
- This is a hillside about TEN MILES from the blast site [adirondack-park.net]. See how the trees were just blown right over? And no, this one isn't a clearcut. According to this page [usgs.gov], most of the trees within a 600 square kilometer area were blown over by the blast.
Another testament to the destructive power of a volcano is Crater Lake [adirondack-park.net] in Oregon (formerly Mt. Mazama), which blew its top 7500 years ago. The eruption, which is estimated to have been more than 40 times more powerful than Mt. St. Helens (link here [nps.gov]) left a crater 5 miles wide, which has since filled up with water. There is still a desert-like pumice plain just north of Crater Lake, noticeable 7,500 years after the fact. Even Yellowstone National Park is itself a former volcano. It's just hard to tell when you're there because the caldera is absolutely enormous (a good portion of the park is itself within the caldera rim), and it happened 600,000 years or so ago. Just google for 'yellowstone eruption'.Parent
better mt. st. helens than mt. rainier (Score:5, Informative)
pdf map of lava flow hazard from mt. rainier to tacoma [usgs.gov]
Related to California Quake a few days ago? (Score:5, Interesting)
Can anyone who knows more about Earth Science help me out here?
Re:You do know what is under yellowstone, don't yo (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Some people (Score:4, Interesting)
Our family lived in Northern Idaho, and my father likes to recount how the hardware store was full of people buying masks and resperators and whatnot. He tells of how the supermarket was jam-packed with people stockpiling for the apocalypse.
He was getting a little nervous, but on his drive home he saw our neighbor (we lived out in the country), a farmer named Mr.Coon, just trolling about on his tractor under the bloody sun and darkened sky;doing his daily work, acting like it was just another day.
My father was then able to relax a bit.
I was there... (Score:5, Interesting)
I was going to college in Moscow, Idaho when it blew, and believe me, it was impressive, even that far away from the eruption.
Throughout the day a tolkeinesque black cloud grew larger and larger on the western horizon, until it streched all of the way north to south. As it came over it became darker than night, the sky was just black. Then is started to "snow" volcanic ash. Instead of coming down in flakes, it came down as a fine powder, but looking out the window, it looked like snow against the street lights. This was about 3:00 in the afternoon.
It didn't get light again before nightfall. The next morning, it was as if it had snowed, except it was very finely powdered ash, and it didn't go away like snow, it just compacted and then blew around as dust when the wind blew.
It was a very memorable experience, more impressive even than a total solar eclipse (but that's another story)...
Parent
The end is near (Score:5, Funny)
Maybe with this next eruption, instead of merely being born, I'll actually get a life.
Due to severe slashdot effect... (Score:5, Funny)
Folks: you're on your own.
Alert Levels (Score:5, Funny)
Be afraid if the volcanoes ever stop (Score:5, Informative)
Once the Earth's crust cools enough, it will lock up and stop the cycle and CO2 will inexorable drop in concentration. I can't remember when this is predicted to happen, but I believe it is scheduled to occur before the Sun becomes a red giant. Of course, I'm sure our descendants (assuming we have them) will invent their own C02 extract factories to keep the Earth nicely carbonated when the time comes.
You think Mt. St. Helens was big... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:You think Mt. St. Helens was big... (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Lahars (Score:5, Interesting)
I read something similar to this once: To get an idea of a lahar, imagine a 30 ft wall of mud, boiling in temperature with the consistency of wet cement traveling at speeds up to 60 mph or so. If you go driving through the river valleys of Washington State (Carbon Rv, Puyallup Rv) that are fed by the Rainier glaciers, you'll see Lahar evacuation route signs everywhere. Not only that, but I believe recent evacuation simulations have been abysmal. Scary stuff.
Ahh, may have found the article [tribnet.com] that I read.
Any other boys from Longview area (Score:5, Interesting)
Ash was so fine (there was several inches on the street) that it would ruin your engine. So everyone put women's pantyhose over their air cleaners to keep the dirt out. Also the local timber company bought out the auto parts stores of all the extra air cleaners to keep their trucks moving.
people kept emergency supplies in their car trunks for years after that. probably until 86 or 87
Also, their were some great slogans on bumper stickers and t-shirts that we'll revive if necessary.
"Mt St. Helen's lost her ash in 1980, I saved mine."
Plus the song about harry truman was popular.
wow, amazing what you can remember...
Mount St. Helens VolcanoCam (Score:5, Interesting)
My 1980 eruption anecdote (Score:5, Funny)
During one of the many ash-falls that used to regularly dust us, my brother and I ran out one morning to play in the new ash before our parents woke up. There was about 1-2 inches coating everything, like new snow, and it had just rained making all of the ash into an interesting clay-like consistency.
Kids being kids, my little brother and I ran out to the driveway and started writing our names with our fingers into the ash covering my dad's brand new 1 day old VW Scirroco in the driveway. It started out with "Hi" and "Cool" and progressed to "Van Halen kicks ass" and "KISS rules" and liberal scrawlings of "dork", "shit", "Tony sucks dick", drawings of boobies and penises, you get the idea.
Well, we got into a hell of a lot of trouble when my dad saw the car when he had to wipe all of the ash off to drive to work. Our trouble later escalated when he discovered that, after going through a car wash to rinse off the rest, everything that we had written on his car was now premanently scratched into the paint and windows of his car, ash being a fine gritty silicate. Our dad's co-workers ribbed him endlessly about his "custom paint job" as it took him several weeks before he could get his car repainted and the windows replaced.
All told, a few thousand dollar "oops" for us kids
Re:/. pwns you (Score:5, Funny)
News results for mount st. helens - View today's top stories
Mount St. Helens Alert Status Increased - Slashdot - 9 minutes ago
Experts Predict Mount St. Helens Eruption - ABC News - 10 minutes ago
Yes, that's right.
Good to know that other
Parent
Re:/. pwns you (Score:5, Funny)
Sorry, couldn't resist...
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Re:Someone take pictures of the near area before (Score:5, Interesting)
Here is a fairly large panoramic we took that day. You can see Johnston Ridge Observatory on the far right. The trail actually takes you across the ridges on the left and then drops you down in to the flats at the base of the mountain:
http://home.pacifier.com/~richmond/Helens.jpg [pacifier.com]
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You know you're doomed when... (Score:5, Funny)
On the "harbingers of doom" ratings scale, hearing I'm moving to town is like running into Jim Cantore in a hotel lobby.
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