Posted on 09/30/2004 12:02:30 AM PDT by datura
Note to Admin Moderator: I'm posting this in "Breaking News" since no one has said a word about it as of yet. If you don't feel it should stay in Breaking, please leave on Front Page or FR. Thanks.
While checking the seismographs tonight for the region, it is becoming apparent that Mt. Rainier is also awakening along with Mt St Helens. At first, I had hoped that the seismographs at Mt Rainier were merely picking up the earth movement from St Helens, but the tremors do not correlate.
By checking the charts for St Helens back on the 25th of the month - when the current event began - the buildup is easily seen. There are occasional quakes that are of noticeable strength, while the others are extremely small. Moving forward from the 25th, you can see the intensity grow, as well as the frequency shorten. Well, the same scenario is playing itself out right now under Mt Rainier, especially the Longmire station.
Posted below are the charts showing this growth at St Helens, along with the more current ones from Mt Rainier. If Mt Rainier's activity increases in a manner similar to Mt St Helens, this will be an interesting time indeed for all of this region......
Here is Mt St Helens from the 25th:
And here is St Helens again, from the morning of the 26th:
This is Mt St Helens right now. Constant earth movement......
Alert status for Mt St Helens is now at "3". Now for Mt Rainier. Here's the chart for Rainier from yesterday morning/afternoon:
And this is the current chart for Mt Rainier:
As you can see, the earth is starting to move under this volcano as well. The duration of the quakes under Mt Rainier is longer, and the frequency is longer than at Mt St Helens, but there is obviously something going on here as well. I really want this one to go back to sleep.
"No volcanic gas" can be something to worry about with stratovolcanos - The Gas builds up and builds up, rarely escaping in any large quantities, and then BOOM!
Also, I think that the Golden Gate wouldn't necessarily collapse from the shaking, but from the tsunami that would lay waste to San Francisco.
I'm an old veteran of all the major CA earthquakes since 1970, and I certainly believe a quake of that magnitude is possible.
USGS mounted a FLIR (forward looking infrared) on a chopper and got some pics. There seem to be some very hot spots on the dome, but nowhere else.
Well, all it's gonna take is a larger quake - something higher in scale than the current ones - and that Magma will be unplugged and shoot up through to surface... ;0)
Like I thought. However, the initial post of this thread has rattled the nerves of may others, whom I've been trying to get the real information to. I wish those who choose to post earthquake data do a better analysis before the post and at least have some knowledge of what they are looking at because so far this is the third earthquake related post in the past 2 weeks in which the poster was clueless about the data they were presenting.
Some scientist on Johnston Ridge said today it could be a month. I'm no expert by any means, but I can't imagine the pressure cooker you describe building that long without something breaking somewhere.
"Godzilla! Godzilla! This is it!"
< /Hysteria >
How so? The last St. Helens blast started building up pressure - suddenly on March 15, 1980 they recorded 100 earthquakes in one week (when they'd only recorded about 40 in the previous 5 years...) 10 days later, the mountain was up to about 20 an hour... The bulge ept growing, a few landslides, and some explosions occur over the next two months, then all of a sudden on May 18 - BOOM!
Well, they had some steam-venting things occur first certainly... As well as some other weird stuff...
However, the bottom line was - imagine shaking a champagne bottle for two months, then uncorking it... ;O)
A good resource, if you are curious about it, is here - my kid sent me this link, and it seems interesting enough:
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/1980+eruption+of+Mount+St.+Helens
Great. I'm taking a train from Seattle to LA next Monday through Tuesday. Also planning on heading to the Space Needle on Sunday. Sounds like this Fall Break trip could be an 'Extreme Games' or 'Survivor' kind of thing.
The mountain has been erupting on and off for years. Don't panic :0)
He was suggesting that some of the activity going on
near other mountains was unrelated to 'reflection' from MSH, and could be due to seismic pressure on a larger scale.
Here's an interesting article on the Geology of Orcas Island.
http://www.whalestooth.com/orcasgeo.htm
You're right about Mt. Constitution. The papers I read made no mention of it being a volcano.
Is seismic activity good for choo-choo tracks?
That depends on so many variables, it would be impossible to give an easier answer...
However, for the sake of simplicity I will say that there are no train tracks near where this current activity is occurring. :0)
Thanks. I always thought that Mt. Constitution was a non-volcanic peak. So, I don't know why he's getting all paranoid about "activity" there...
I don't live all that far from Orcas, and I've not seen nor heard any indication that people on or around Oracs are concerned about any "activity"...
In fact, I just may ask my bestest friend if I can go hang out at their compound on the island ;0)
Ok, now it's getting personal.
It is still there. Look at your live cam picture.
Wonder if it is parked in front of the cam, funny no one would notice and ask them to move the truck out of range.
Brings back Bagdad Bob memories.
I wasn't looking for a real answer to my last question; it was somewhat in jest. But thanks for answering. The train will come as close as 30 miles from Mt. Saint Helens on the trip south. (Not a large distance in the seismic domain.) And that's just dealing with that volcano. The other, more active, seismic activity in the WA/OR/north CA area is also of slight concern to me.
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