Posted on 09/30/2004 12:02:30 AM PDT by datura
W/r/t Mt. Rainier... When I last read about this mountain, I thought that the biggest risk to people was from melting of the snowpack, and the flooding downstream that would follow.
Bump
From KGW-TV in Portland OR
http://www.kgw.com/news-local/stories/kgw_100104_news_helens_friday.2a41c079.html
John Major, a geologist with the USGS Cascade Volcano Observatory in Vancouver, Wash., said a deformation pattern in the crater not far from the crack demonstrates that, "something is pushing up from below onto that glacier.” He said the ground has uplifted as much as "a few tens of feet," but couldn't provide an exact measurement since crews were assessing the area from the air.
It's not safe to use ground crews, Major said.
"We don’t have highly gas-charged magma trying to move up, but we do have something in the way," Major said during a news conference Friday morning.
"Not safe to use ground crews." An eruption must be imminent.
If it erupted, that would be a major problem, as it was with St. Helens (and also, notably, Nevado Ruiz in Colombia, which generated a mudflow with glacier melt that buried the city of Armero, entombing about 25,000 people).
But the major concern with Rainier right now is what can happen due to a large landslide on the mountain, which could also generate a big mudflow with virtually no warning; certainly none of the warnings that would precede an eruption. In an earlier post on this thread I noted that the volcanic edifice of Rainier is unstable due to ongoing corrosion of the rocks by volcanic gases.
wow, this is cool.
CNN field reporter: "We know the earth is a live organism." LOL Yea right. The earth is a rock with dirt and living things ON it. (doh!)
Mt. St. Helen Cam:
http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/volcanocams/msh/
All the talk about it being a sign from God will prove true, if in fact several erupt closely together. Prayer is a good for the soul activity, that I strongly recommend.
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