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Possible 'Hazardous Event' At Mount St. Helens
babynerd writes "Seismologists believe there's an increased likelihood of a hazardous event at Mount St. Helens due to recent changes in the mountain's seismic activity. That increased activity on Sunday prompted the U.S. Geological Survey
and the University of Washington to release a "notice of volcanic unrest.""
There's a possibility of there being an earth-shattering kaboom!
People who live near Mt. St. Helens shouldn't panic just yet. This just means it's possible, not that it's going to happen within the next few days. Just thought I'd point that out.
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... Couldn't be, I sincerely hope I don't eat my words, but CNN's headline: Scientists: "Small eruption possible for St. Helens" /. article makes it sound more scary by the wording it leaves out.
Whereas the
Upon hearing this, I raised my "Volcano Alert" level of my pants to "Code Brown"
Objects in the blog are closer then they ap
Quick... all tree huggers meet at the summit and wait for further instruction.
Sizemologists who explore and come in contact with Helen's Mountains have an increased chance of a hazardous event. This is also known as a slap in the face (not to be confused with a lap in the face).
Helen should probably see a doctor - recent changes to her mountains could be signs of cancer.
Upon hearing of this, the FBI and CIA enlisted the help of local SWAT and sniper squads to redirect the state of Washington to an unoccupied portion of Wyoming. Despite protests from geologists complaining that St. Helens has been a US native for thousands of years, she was immediately deported back Switzerland and told never to return again.
"The US will not be lulled into complacency," US Undersecretary for Homeland Security Asa Hutchinson announced Sunday morning, "From here on out, all major regions of geological activity will be monitered closely for any hints of unAmerican activities."
"I'm looking at You, San Andreas," he added meanacingly.
The ______ Agenda
I live less than 100 miles away from Saint Hellens. The local news is reporting that there have been hundreds of small earthquakes per hour, and they havn't been like this since it blew in 1980. I can't wait to see what happens!
CNN is recently had a story about Mauna Loa showing signs of erupting. Mauna Loa is on the Big Island and hasn't erupted since 1984, although the well-known Kilauea volcano has been erupting continuously since 1983. Both of these volcanoes are located within Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.
It'll be interesting to see if volcanologists can use these events to hone their eruption prediction skills based on the increased seismology and more sensitive tracking equipment.
Sig cancelled due to lack of interest
Sensationalism in /. posts?
You treat that as an interrogative rather than a known fact.
You must be new here.
So he can say its nothing to worry about. He hasnt had anything to worry about since it blew up in 80, carrying him and his cabin on the side of the mountain away without a trace.
I was living in N. CA in 80, and it cost me a windshield to turn on the wipers and wash/wipe away the dust that morning because I was in Salem OR at an aunts house at the time. Damn that stuff was abrasive. And it started the demise of the motor in my pickup because unknown to me, the factory recommended air filter did not actually fill the air cleaner, it left about an eight of an inch clearance above the paper element for dust to blow right on by.
Anyway, I hope the locals pay a bit more attention to the warnings this time, although memories can get faded in 24 years.
Cheers, Gene
This is a non-event. THe likelyhood of an event affecting things outside the crater is next to zilch.
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In May of 1980 I was flying from Argentina, where I'd lived for two years with my family (I was 9). We stopped in Portland on our way home to Ohio so my dad could visit his oldest daughter. We arrived on May 20, two days after the eruption, and stayed for a week.
I remember some people walking around in gas masks, the grey skies, ash everywhere. Really trippy. Now I actually live in Portland. Maybe if St. Helens goes again I can get bragging rights over my brother in LA. "Earthquakes? Call me when there's 6 inches of ash on your car, pansy!"
This isn't as much "normalization" as it is "don't take so many drugs when you're designing tables."
They better have a ton of HD cameras set up on this thing... maybe an Imax camera or 3 that are on duty 24/7.
:)
What's a good disaster if you can't watch it over an over?
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Dang nab it! My uncle and I were planning to climb MSH two weekends from now...
In 1980, I saw it erupt while on the way to pick up my dad at the airport (PDX). Yes, the plane was flying over. Yes the pilot announced it and turned the plane for a better look. Yes my dad was in the lavatory at the time, and missed the whole thing!
As it so happens, I'm taking a geology course, right now. We already went over St. Helens, but since my prof. is of the "vulcanism and igneous rock" variety, I might be able to convince him into a more detailed look at the prior eruption and the present cirucmstances.
As it also so happens, I'm a bit of a severe asthmatic, and I am thus hoping--completely selfishly--that the volcano does not blow, but that if it does erupt, it does so without much ash or other atmospheric particulates. Unselfishly, I'm hoping the same for the sake of others like me and unlike me, that they may be spared from such a thing.
(I still remember the ash from the Yellowstone fires of '88.)
~UP
Eat the Path.
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Are you referring to that landform created through planetary vulcanological processes comprising a large portion of the plateau that Utah is made of, which the software development company based in that region named themselves after?
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On the other hand, Romans used volcanic ash to make some of their strongest cements. It was also the first cement that could set underwater. There simply isn't any good volcanic ash around Mt. St. Helens to see if the volcanic ash from that specific volcanic chain would be as good. From a geek standpoint, it would make a great experiment, but does require the volcano to blow up first.
Another consideration altogether is that Mt. St. Helens is one of a substantial chain of volcanos. Mount Rainier, also in Washington State, has been showing some signs of activity in recent years. If one volcano in the chain is building up pressure, then it's a fair bet that the others are, too.
If I were into vulcanology, I'd be studying the whole chain, right now, not focussing on just one. None of the others have erupted recently, which means that any such eruption would be considerably nastier. There's not a whole lot that can be blown skywards, in Mount St. Helens' case. The same is not true of Rainier or the Three Sisters, for example.
In fact, the one volcano that can vent the pressure would seem the LEAST likely to explode, as the pressure is less likely to build up to a catastrophic level.
For those in the Portland area, this would be an excellent time NOT to visit Mount Tabor or Mount Hood. I'm not certain they're in the same chain, but there are better ways of finding out than beating Spaceship One to the barely suborbital mark.
(I think they're extremely unlikely to explode any time soon. Having said that, vulcanology isn't my field. Besides which, I don't know enough about it to hazard much of a guess, anyway. However, this does mean that my speculation is definitively and unequivocably uncertain.)
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Worse could happen:
People of Earth, your attention please. This is Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz of the Galactic Hyperspace Planning Council....
In seriousness:
Seismic activity at Mount St. Helens has changed significantly during the past 24 hours and the changes make us believe that there is an increased likelihood of a hazardous event, which warrants release of this Notice of Volcanic Unrest.
So there have been changes of a large magnitude, in a small time scale.
The swarm of very small, shallow earthquakes (less than Magnitude 1) that began on the morning of 23 September peaked about mid-day on 24 September and slowly declined through yesterday morning. However, since then the character of the swarm has changed to include more than ten larger earthquakes (Magnitude 2-2.8), the most in a 24-hr period since the eruption of October 1986. In addition, some of the earthquakes are of a type that suggests the involvement of pressurized fluids (water and steam) or perhaps magma. The events are still occurring at shallow depths (less than one mile) below the lava dome that formed in the crater between 1980 and 1986.
I think it is time to change the alert, even if it means changing the lightbulb!
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Mt. Asama in Japan (near Nagano) has been erupting the last few weeks. Check out this short video of a continuous stream of ash leaving the top. Some of it reached Tokyo!
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In the early 80s I knew a professional juggler, a guy who was unfortunately one of the campers who were in the area when it went off. He actually saw the explosion and was blown an undeterminable distance by the shock wave. His companions were presumably killed and their bodies never found. He was lucky to have been blown into a ravine and he climbed out of a pile of debris in a daze. Trees were on fire and chunks of ice and ash were raining down from the sky. He saw animals wandering around in a state of concussion from the huge shock.. He put some ice in a bandanna to make a face mask and hiked his way out, following the direction of the fallen trees. When I knew him, he was still struggling with the lung condition that he had gotten from inhaling the sharp, glass-like ash...
Pretty intense experience...
Dude. You had a chance to say "pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis" and passed it up. Your Slashdotting license ought to be revoked.
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You're officially the stupidest person to ever post on Slashdot. Congratulations.
An unchecked buffer overflow is going to cause a coredump!
rimshot
Sorry. Too many requirements documents <sigh>
I live a mere 60 miles from the mountain.
No need to panic. It might just provide some cool pictures/video.
Me and my brother were climbing Mount St. Helens on Feb. 28, 2001.
We were about halfway up, and the ground started shaking quite well. Completely disoriented us.
No avalanches. Just quiet. The loudest noise was my hear pounding.
Got back down pretty quick.
Turns out it was the Nisqually earthquake (6.8?) near Seattle. Messed things up fairly good.
gregg
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