Giant Rock Growing in Mount St. Helens' Crater 144
An anonymous reader writes to mention a CNN article about the huge geological formation growing in Mount St. Helens' crater. From the article: "The fin-shaped mass is about 300 feet tall and growing 4 feet to 5 feet a day, said Dan Dzurisin, a geologist at the U.S. Geological Survey. The rock in the crater began growing last November, steadily moving west and pushing rock and other debris out of its way as it goes." Scientists think the mountain will eventually replace the lave dome blown out by the original 1980 eruption.
Hunka Hunka Burning Lava? (Score:2)
Maybe it's not a rock (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Maybe it's not a rock (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Maybe it's not a rock (Score:2)
You mean, get laid by something incredibly large and mountanous sporting a huge erection?
Welllll.... whatever floats YOUR boat....
Re:Maybe it's not a rock (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Maybe it's not a rock... Or, maybe it's (Score:2)
It's a good thing that kind of thing doesn't follow a heavy night of drinking or too much cake and sausage and soda pop...
You know what we need?... (Score:2, Funny)
uh oh (Score:5, Funny)
the girls all laughed at me. hopefully mt. st. helens won't have that problem.
Re:uh oh (Score:1, Funny)
Just when you thought it was safe... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Just when you thought it was safe... (Score:2)
Re:Just when you thought it was safe... (Score:2)
Re:Just when you thought it was safe... (Score:1)
Rebuilding (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Rebuilding (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Rebuilding (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Rebuilding (Score:1)
Re:Rebuilding (Score:2)
Re:Rebuilding (Score:1)
St. Helens webcam [fs.fed.us], for those interested.
Re:Rebuilding (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Rebuilding (Score:2)
Will the volcano have another major eruption? (Score:2, Insightful)
I hate quotes like that in news stories. They amount to "there's nothing happening right now, and I dont know if anything is going to happen, as the situation could change as soon as I finish telling you everything is fine". An eight-year-old could have offered us as much insight.
Just reassuring locals (Score:1)
Re:Just reassuring locals (Score:2, Insightful)
Except we get lava, not hot water.
I think we all know how a "relaxation oscillator" works, and Mt. St. Helens sure looks like the physical implementation of one to me.
The difference is the volcano has the phase change difference of the liquid lava forming a dense rock upon cooling which introduces a significant chaotic factor into the dwell time, so no one knows just when its gonna cycle.
Not the thing for a good night's sleep.
Re:Will the volcano have another major eruption? (Score:4, Insightful)
Just what exactly is your definition of "nothing heppening right now"? Geologically, 5 feet a day is pretty rapid change.
Re:Will the volcano have another major eruption? (Score:2)
Re:Will the volcano have another major eruption? (Score:3, Funny)
Sweet. If you can get your head blown off and go crying to anyone, I wanna know about it!
Re:Will the volcano have another major eruption? (Score:1)
Re:Will the volcano have another major eruption? (Score:2)
Re:Will the volcano have another major eruption? (Score:5, Informative)
Well, the difference is the eight year-old would be guessing.
The USGS stating that it's stable now but is capable of changing at any moment without warning is useful information, because it makes explicit that if something terrible is to happen they won't be able to see indicators 24-48 hours in advance and thus warn people away. If you want to get away, there is no precursor activity that will tell you when, so you just basically have to go and wait, potentially for a long time.
Re:Will the volcano have another major eruption? (Score:1)
On rereading what he said, I think I was projecting my own knowledge of the situation and imagining what he was MEANING, rather than looking at his words which are pretty "anything could happen! on their face.
Re:Will the volcano have another major eruption? (Score:2)
Blame retarded journalists. Seriously.
Journalists asks Geologist
"Is it going to blow up? [I hope it will... that would be a big story...]
Geologist answers:
[
Eight-year old? (Score:2)
This looks more like the work of Geraldo Rivera. Comparing the reporting to the work of an eight-year old is giving more credit than deserved. Geraldo is a better baseline for comparison.
sulfuric lake (Score:2)
Re:sulfuric lake (Score:2)
How acid lakes are formed. [und.edu]
Another description. [ucdavis.edu]
You were thinking about Maurice and Katja Krafft, the French vulcanologists that lost their lives in Japan in 1991. [wikipedia.org]
The googles, they do nothing.
Re:sulfuric lake (Score:2)
Re:sulfuric lake (Score:1)
Re:sulfuric lake (Score:1)
Re:sulfuric lake (Score:1)
Re:sulfuric lake (Score:1)
Re:sulfuric lake (Score:1)
Dantes_Peak_Movie_Volcano_Facts [geolor.com]
FACT 4: LAKES AROUND A STRATOVOLCANO CAN BE MORE ACIDIC
Sulfur Dioxide is a gas common to volcanic eruptions. This gas, when dissolved in water, produces sulfuric acid, one of the worst known acids and one a person would definitely not want to come in contact with.
Other gases dissolved in magma, hydrogen sulfide, hydrogen fluoride, hydrogen chloride and carbon dioxide, also contribute to the acidity of surrounding b
Re:sulfuric lake (Score:1)
I was living in Seattle when St. Helens blew (Score:5, Interesting)
I visited the mountain some years later, and I can't begin to describe how small I felt looking at the devestation. Miles and miles of forests flattened, all the trees lined up in the same direction, following the contours of the hills. Everything coated in a layer of fine ash. Scary, in a "look how freakin' insignificant you are" kinda way.
If you ever go, be sure to bring a lantern and visit Ape Caves, [wikipedia.org] a 5 mile long lava tube near the base of the mountain. It's an easy hike even if you've never been in a cave before, and unlike most caves the sole improvement is a rickety metal staircase leading down in the middle. You can hike 2.5 miles up and exit out where it collapsed, and/or hike 2.5 miles down and it gets really narrow and stops. (By "up" and "down" I just mean the thing runs down the side of the mountain, so one end is higher than the other, not that it goes straight up and down.)
As for this latest development, 5 feet per day?! Wow, that's pretty dang fast. I'd heard a new lava dome was growing, but this speed is certainly a new develpment. Still, it will take a long time to get back to its former size. Over 1,000 vertical feet of mountain got blown off the top, and most of one side slid away.
And Bors, that's five. No, three sir! (Score:2)
Three. Three. And we'd better not risk another frontal assault. That rabbit's dynamite.
Re:I was living in Seattle when St. Helens blew (Score:2)
And if anyone is ever in the area, the view from the Johnston Ridge observatory is amazing.
Re:I was living in Seattle when St. Helens blew (Score:3, Funny)
It was Tuesday. In time it came to be known as Mount St. Helens Tuesday.
That was one day before Wednesday.
Which came to be known as
wait for it
Ash Wednesday.
-- I was camping near the blast zone (Score:5, Interesting)
It was a Sunday (for the first bigger eruption in 1980). We were supposedly in the 'safe zone', but we all know how that went. We had just gotten up out of the tents when the ground shook continuously for minutes like an earthquake.. Then we could see a grey cloud rising up near the horizon.
Very quickly, the cloud appeared to go so high that it was over us. There was lightning at the edge of the cloud. Rain began to fall immediately, I remember it was warm and black.. Looking closely at a drop you could see the individual ash particles.
By that time, we had pulled up the tent with everything in side it and threw it in the back of the truck in a single motion.
The ride back to Yakima, WA was slow, and the visibility was just about zero. It was hard to breath and the roads were jammed with panic'd people.. We later found out that the campground we were at was covered in a large amount of burning hot mud.
When we got home there was ash everywhere, and it stayed dark for what seemed like days. I remember wearing a mask for weeks afterwards to go outside.
Re:I was living in Seattle when St. Helens blew (Score:2)
As for this latest development, 5 feet per day?! Wow, that's pretty dang fast. I'd heard a new lava dome was growing, but this speed is certainly a new develpment. Still, it will take a long time to get back to its former size. Over 1,000 vertical feet of mountain got blown off the top, and most of one side slid away.
It's now 300 feet tall. So by your reckoning it will take (1000 - 300) / 5ft/day = 140 days. That should make it back to original height by late September. So I guess it's not that long.
S
Re:I was living in Seattle when St. Helens blew (Score:1)
Re:I was living in Seattle when St. Helens blew (Score:1)
It was a Sunday.
I was eighteen, living a few miles north of Olympia on Puget Sound, sleeping off a night of partying. I came downstairs about ten a.m. and my parents asked me if I'd heard "it."
Heard what, I asked?
St. Helens erupted they told me, sometime between 8 and 9 that morning.
Nope - I didn't hear it. It's hard to hear anything when you're passed out.
It was a a week or two before we saw any of the ash. Richland, Pasco, and Kennewick on the other side of the Cascades got buried though.
Se
Re:I was living in Seattle when St. Helens blew (Score:2)
strike
Re:I was living in Seattle when St. Helens blew (Score:1)
It was on a Sunday if I recall (I was all of 9 years old)and I slept right through it.
Yeah, I was a bit older but I too slept right through it.
I kept waiting for the predicted ash fall, but it never got as far as Seattle.
Me too and it never got as far as Amsterdam.
Just kidding. Don't take it too serious... And don't touch that mod buttttoooooonn. Aaaargh.....
3d info - fly throughs (Score:4, Interesting)
When I see an article like this - I want a 3D environment. I want to download the "map -o- the crater" and be able to fly around and see what it's really like there.
it wouldn't need to be that detailed, or be a replacement for pictures. it's just that I can't seem to get a sense for the size or the scope of what we're talking about.
3D standards litter the last 10 years like dead bodies in war zones - but it still is nice to dream.
Re:3d info - fly throughs (Score:1)
Re:3d info - fly throughs (Score:2)
Re:3d info - fly throughs (Score:2)
Re:3d info - fly throughs (Score:1)
Hmmm (Score:1)
Or, it will explode like it did in 1980. Hmm...it had a large formation back then and exploded, it is making a large formation now, but will just fill in the GIHUGION crater it made the first time. How bout gather your stuff up now and run for it.
Whoa... (Score:1)
Re:Whoa... (Score:1)
volcano cam (Score:5, Interesting)
http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/volcanocams/msh/ [fs.fed.us]
before and after pics (Score:2, Interesting)
Before:
http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Imgs/Jpg/MSH/Images/MSH8 0_st_helens_from_johnston_ridge_05-17-80_med.jpg [usgs.gov]
After:
http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Imgs/Jpg/MSH/Images/MSH8 0_st_helens_from_johnston_ridge_09-10-80_med.jpg [usgs.gov]
wow
Re:before and after pics (Score:2)
Re:before and after pics (Score:2)
Another remake? (Score:1)
Can't Hollywood do anything original anymore?
Nanotech Spaceship? (Score:3, Funny)
There's actually a book about that (Score:2)
Re:There's actually a book about that (Score:2)
I had read Forge of God but never knew that there was a follow-up book. (Think I picked up Forge of God at a used-book sale or at a used-book store.)
Re:Nanotech Spaceship? (Score:2)
I think the question on everyone's mind is... (Score:2)
Thank you, thank you.
Try the veal, and don't forget to tip your waitress.
a minor error... (Score:1)
Gross (Score:1)
That's why we need (Score:5, Funny)
is that... (Score:1, Redundant)
(Sorry, I couldn't resist.)
this is normal (Score:2, Informative)
...but not comforting (Score:1)
(Named after the eruption in 1902 of Montaigne Pelee on the island of Martinique, which killed some 20,000 people.)
The Monolith Arrives (Score:1)
Climbers (Score:2)
Obscure SR reference (Score:2)
Old News (Score:2, Informative)
I was in Eugene, Oregon when it blew in the 80's. I heard and felt a double blow all the way fr
My mistake, this is a second fin (Score:2, Informative)
And it glows in the dark... (Score:1)
Pressure Cooker (Score:2)
Is that a huge geological formation in your pants (Score:2)
Thank you. Here all week.
Re:Tom Cruise will save us (Score:2)
Those pictures are a little freaky.
Re:Tom Cruise will save us (Score:1)
Didn't you sign that NDA about the script for M:I:IV yesterday?
Tom
P.S. You're fired! <python move>
Re:Tom Cruise will save us (Score:1)
M:I:IV... VIIV.. you're thinking what I'm thinking.. uhhu ;)
Re:Tom Cruise will save us (Score:2)
Not Martians. It's Xenu. He's breaking free. Then Cruise really can save us!
Or maybe I should just keep my mouth shut. I'm sure CmdrTaco doesn't need to get bullied^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hin trouble with the legal clowns^H^H^H^H^H^Hdepartment of the Church of Scientology again.
Re:good god, man (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Is that a rock in your pocket.... (Score:5, Interesting)
Maybe so. [usgs.gov]
Re:Is that a rock in your pocket.... (Score:1)
You know, if the bien-pensant Left finds bible-thumper Creation Science so ridiculous, why do they take these patently ridiculous Indian creation myths so seriously?
More to the point, if the Park Service put the Ebenezer Baptist Church off-limits to all but Christians, there would be a national uproar. Yet if I want to visit the Sipapu in the canyon of the Little Colorado, or walk over Rainbow Bridge, I risk being arrested for viola
Re:Is that a rock in your pocket.... (Score:1)
Re:Is that a rock in your pocket.... (Score:1)
Re:Is that a rock in your pocket.... (Score:1)
Multiple choice (Score:2)
B) Neither I nor the USGS take it any more seriously than any other myth
C) It's a follow-up to a comment that is obviously a joke
D) All of the above
E) User ID 116316's sense of humor is down for maintenance today.
Shark! Shark! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:KFC (Score:2)
...and then Darwin rules the day.
Re:video already please? (Score:2)
This image was taken on May 5, 2006, at 10:45 am PDT. You may click on the image [fs.fed.us] to view it full-size."
There's already a webcam [fs.fed.us] up there...
Re:Detective John Kimble (Score:1)
"Dahht's not a Tumaah"
???