Mount St. Helens Alert Status Increased 600
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."
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:Scary, yet cool. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Scary, yet cool. (Score:5, Informative)
e.g. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_ow
Mount St. Helens VolcanoCam (Score:5, Informative)
not to be broadcasting now. Anyone knows why/what's happening ?
Live volcano cam (Score:3, Informative)
better mt. st. helens than mt. rainier (Score:5, Informative)
pdf map of lava flow hazard from mt. rainier to tacoma [usgs.gov]
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.
Re:Mount St. Helens VolcanoCam (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Dante II (Score:3, Informative)
I can't remember if they actually ever used those (I really don't think so, I think the show used them because they are "cool"), but since right now they are interested mainly in seismic and gas, not rock samples and such, it's the remote sensors...
Re:How severe? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Mt St Helens seismic and other info (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/volcanocams/msh/ [fs.fed.us]
Re:REM fans unite (Score:3, Informative)
That's great, it starts with an earthquake, birds and snakes, an aeroplane -
Lenny Bruce is not afraid. Eye of a hurricane, listen to yourself churn -
world serves its own needs, don't misserve your own needs. Feed it up a knock,
speed, grunt no, strength no. Ladder structure clatter with fear of height,
down height. Wire in a fire, represent the seven games in a government for
hire and a combat site. Left her, wasn't coming in a hurry with the furies
breathing down your neck. Team by team reporters baffled, trump, tethered
crop. Look at that low plane! Fine then. Uh oh, overflow, population,
common group, but it'll do. Save yourself, serve yourself. World serves its
own needs, listen to your heart bleed. Tell me with the rapture and the
reverent in the right - right. You vitriolic, patriotic, slam, fight, bright
light, feeling pretty psyched.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.
Six o'clock - TV hour. Don't get caught in foreign tower. Slash and burn,
return, listen to yourself churn. Lock him in uniform and book burning,
blood letting. Every motive escalate. Automotive incinerate. Light a candle,
light a motive. Step down, step down. Watch a heel crush, crush. Uh oh,
this means no fear - cavalier. Renegade and steer clear! A tournament,
a tournament, a tournament of lies. Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives
and I decline.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.
The other night I tripped a nice continental drift divide. Mount St. Edelite.
Leonard Bernstein. Leonid Breshnev, Lenny Bruce and Lester Bangs.
Birthday party, cheesecake, jelly bean, boom! You symbiotic, patriotic,
slam, but neck, right? Right.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine...fine...
Quake Depths (Score:2, Informative)
I think they color the recent quakes red to scare the bejesus out of everyone, but the average depth over the past month is still much closer to the surface than normal.
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.
Re:Updated news for my post (Score:3, Informative)
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.
Re:memo to self (Score:3, Informative)
Comparisons of the 1980 eruption with others (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Updated news for my post (Score:4, Informative)
I don't know what webicorder readings you've been watching, but you're reading them wrong. As St. Helens webicorders reached saturation, the Rainier ones started registering the quakes from St. Helens.
Volcano alert system: Levels 1 to 3 (Score:4, Informative)
Volcano news site (Score:4, Informative)
Seach runs chartered volcano tours and has amassed quite a collection of pics which are up on the site too.
According to the latest... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Related to California Quake a few days ago? (Score:4, Informative)
As far as I remember from a few geology classes I took in undergrad, there is no such relation. They are two very distinct processes, and while you will see a build up in "earthquakes" near a volcano prior to eruption, they're the result of pressure build up in the area, and not plates moving against each other.
The last time Mount St. Helens blew, the side of the mountain had a considerable bulge (visible to the naked eye, I believe). The fact that this is occurring again, on a smaller scale, could either indicated simply a temporary pressure or magma build-up; or an impending eruption.
Mount St. Helens is the result of the Juan De Fuca plate being subducted under the North American plate; a lot of heat and friction melts the rock and it pushes upwards, which causes the volcanos, and the Cascade Mountains.
The Juan De Fuca plate is separate from the Pacific plate; which is where the San Andreas is; and the plates there are sliding against each other (mostly north/south).
Re:Related to California Quake a few days ago? (Score:4, Informative)
Anyone who has had more than 2 semesters of studying these things, feel free to correct me.
Re:How severe? (Score:5, Informative)
Yes (Score:3, Informative)
If the picture is gray, that means it's foggy.
Re:Related to California Quake a few days ago? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:A wonderful place to visit (Score:3, Informative)
St. Helen's Cam -- Watch it blow (Score:4, Informative)
Re:The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse ... (Score:2, Informative)
(I found it kind of scary that they said that the virus was probably still extant in the bodies, and that researchers were going to dig them up to get samples.)
Portland Oregon threatened in last eruption (Score:3, Informative)
In that event, the entire north side of the mountain blew up in a explosion with force equal to many hydrogen bombs. Luckly the area devastated was wilderness forest. Only about 15 people lived in the several hundred square miles primarily affected.
However on the west side of the mountain, there was a nuclear power plant on the Columbia river about 50 miles (80 km) away. If the volcano had blown out through the west side of the mountain instead of the north side, there was the serious possiblility that the shock wave would have ruptured the reactor coolant tanks and damaged the control and safety systems. In a worst case, this could have led to the release of radioactive material into the last 50 miles of the Columbia river. The river would have been closed for shipping. Which means that the port of Portland would have been closed, stopping shipment of massive amounts of grain to Asia from the Pacific Northwest. It would have also caused the extinction of the fisheries, such as salmon and steelhead trout in the Columbia.
Incredibly, during this entire pre-eruption period, the operaters of the Trojan Nuclear Power Plant did not shut down the facility or take any precautions against earthquake damage. The plant is closed now after it was revealed that it lies directly over an earthquake fault, but the spent fuel rods are still stored there because there isn't any other place to put them.
At the time of the eruption, no one seemed to be aware of this possibility. Or, more likely, everyone just decided to keep really quiet.
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.
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.
Re:To quote Counter-Strike: (Score:3, Informative)
Essentially, they're saying just enough about every possibility that, once it's all over, they can claim that they predicted it would happen that way.
Had to laugh at the OP quote, though. Doesn't "SEP" stand for "Somebody Else's Problem"?
Re:Locusts? That was back in May. (Score:2, Informative)
Um, maybe events like this (which occur at regular intervals of 17 years, for Brood X) aren't reported loudly outside the region in which they occur, but for about two months it was any of the talking heads on radio & TV would talk about in Northern Virginia.
If you've never been in the area effected by Brood X during mating season, it's an amazing sound. Sort of like a 1950s era B movie soundtrack. Actually I heard a rumor (no verification, I have no idea if it's true or not) that that sound was actually used in at least one movie.
You do know what is under yellowstone, don't you? (Score:4, Informative)
wrong (Score:3, Informative)
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'.Re:You do know what is under yellowstone, don't yo (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Related to California Quake a few days ago? (Score:4, Informative)
The California earthquake was actually measureable throughout the entire Cascade chain, and I did some computations of the event propagation for the heck of it
Epicenter: 10:15:24 PDT
San Fran: 10:16:05 (41 sec delay)
LAS station (CA/OR border): 10:17:00 (96 sec delay)
Three Sisters (OR mountain): 10:17:40 (136 sec delay)
Mount Hood (OR/WA border): 10:17:45 (141 sec delay)
Mount St. Helens: Too much local action to detect
Mount Rainier (SE of Seattle): 10:18:20 (176 sec delay)
Stiped Peak (Olympic Pen.): 10:18:32 (188 sec delay)
Rockport, WA (30 mi from Canada): 10:18:40 (196 sec delay)
So, picking two points as the earthquake epicenter and Mount Rainer based on being the ones I found very accurate Lat/Lon coordinates for, the shockwave traveled 740 miles in 176 seconds for an overall speed around 15136 MPH (approx Mach 20, depending on altitude)
The detected signals definitely diminished the further north you traveled, but were still clearly identifiable even up to the Canadian border. But those signals were orders of magnitude less than Mt. St. Helens is generating on its own right now.
I'm no geologist, but I live 38.4 miles from Mount St. Helens so I've recently taken up a keen interest in current events there.
Decription of Alert Levels (Score:2, Informative)
Notice of Volcanic Unrest Alert Level ONE
This alert level is declared by USGS-CVO when significant anomalous conditions are recognized that could be indicative of an eventual hazardous volcanic event. The most likely such anomalous condition would be sustained, elevated seismicity. A "notice of volcanic unrest" expresses concern about the potential for hazardous volcanic activity but does not imply imminent hazard. Among the possible outcomes are: (1) anomalous condition is determined not symptomatic of an eventual hazardous volcanic event, leading to cancellation of "notice of volcanic unrest;" (2) symptomatic activity wanes, leading to cancellation of the "notice of volcanic unrest;" (3) conditions evolve so as to indicate progress toward hazardous volcanic activity, leading to issuance of a "volcano advisory" or "volcano alert."
Volcano Advisory Alert Level TWO
This alert level is declared by USGS-CVO when monitoring and evaluation indicate that processes are underway that have significant likelihood of culminating in hazardous volcanic activity but when the evidence does not indicate that a life- or property-threatening event is imminent. This alert level is used to emphasize heightened concern about potential hazard. Among the possible outcomes are: (1) precursory activity wanes, leading either to cancellation of the "volcano advisory" or to a downgrade of alert level to "notice of volcanic unrest;" (2) conditions evolve so as to indicate that a life-threatening volcanic or hydrologic event is imminent or underway, leading to issuance of a "volcano alert." "Volcano advisory" statements, supplemented as appropriate by "updated volcano advisory" statements will clarify as fully as possible USGS-CVO understanding of the hazard implications.
Volcano Alert Alert Level THREE
This alert level is declared by USGS-CVO when monitoring and evaluation indicate that precursory events have escalated to the point where a volcanic event with attendant volcanologic or hydrologic hazards threatening to life and property appears imminent or is underway. Depending upon further developments, a "volcano alert" will be maintained, updated, downgraded to a "volcano advisory," or canceled. A "volcano alert" statement will indicate, in as much detail as possible, the time window, place, and expected impact of an anticipated hazardous event. "Updated volcano alert" statements will amplify hazard information as dictated by evolving conditions.
Re:Portland Oregon threatened in last eruption (Score:2, Informative)
You're playing games and you know it. They survived for what, an hour?
Had the planes not hit the towers, would they be standing today? Presumably. Can we therefore say that they collapsed as a result of getting hit by those planes? Yes we can. Besides, no one said that any potential problems with the power plant had to be a direct result of a collision; it could be an indirect result just like it was with the WTC.
The WTC and containment domes are hardly the same thing.
Never said they were. I was merely pointing out the fact that not all commercial airliners are equal. The WTC was designed to withstand the impact of a commercial airliner, but it was contemporary commercial airliners that were designed for, not the ones that would be in the sky 20 or 30 years later. The same is certainly possible with the nuclear reactor in question.