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Mount St. Helens Alert Status Increased
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."
"Get outta there, it's gonna blow!"
.. if only to shout "Leonard Bernstein" at this point.
All of these hurricanes, tornadoes earthquakes, floods, and now volcano eruptions...when do the plagues and locusts start happening?
Do people still remember the show Dante's Peak? It had a real cool legged robot which went into the volcano to collect samples. Wonder if these cool and useful machines are still being used or is everything remote sensing now?
Memo to self: Don't live anywhere near an active volcano.
What I don't get out of any of the reports I've read is how severe of an eruption is possible here. Could it be massive like the big one that blew the side off of the mountain or are we in for a little puff (or as little as little can be on a volcanic scale)? Or do they just not know?
-S
--- What parts of "shall make no law", "shall not be infringed", and "shall not be violated" don't you understand?
KABOOM!
USGS earthquake info for Mt St Helens National Volcanic Monument area (wide view)
USGS Cascades Volcano Observatory Mt St Helens seismic observations
Pacific Northwest Seismograph Network Mt St Helens home page (earthquake list)
...but I've always thought of volcanos as Mother Earth's acne.
As I was watching Katie Couric interview one of the scientists this morning, I just kept thinking that these guys are all waiting for this big head to pop so they can collect measurements on the pus.
Sorry, kinda icky, but these are my thoughts. Mod down if you have a weak stomach.
The House Between - Original Sci-Fi Series
Washington possesses weapons of mass destruction. They must disarm immediately or face regime change.
Do you want the first warning to be a mushroom cloud over Washington State Park?
I'm sick of all these damn hurricanes, honey. Where else can we live?
I want to get as far away from this place as possible. How about Washington?
Works for me, let's go!
It's not a lie. It's the truth with lossy compression.
Hmm. I was hoping to see a live volcano eruption here, but it seems
not to be broadcasting now. Anyone knows why/what's happening ?
...a thorough debunking
http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/volcanocams/msh/ It looks pretty grim. (Is it dark @ 6:30am @ MSH?)
I was there about ten years ago, with a college field trip. Being from the Midwest, I haddn't seen any real volcanos until then. I was looking forward to seeing the terrific devistation and other formations left by the 1980 eruptions.
While driving up the windy mountin road to get to the park, our van turned a bend, and suddenly I saw before me a swath of devistation so utterly complete that I knew only some tremendous force could have removed all the trees and other signs of life.
I asked the "vetrans" of the group if we had reached the blast zone already. They responded: "Nope, that's just a clearcut. The blast zone now has much more wildlife."
Ah well. I was just there to look at the rocks anyway.
ifd you live in tacoma, mt. rainier is the one you worry about
pdf map of lava flow hazard from mt. rainier to tacoma
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Can anyone who knows more about Earth Science help me out here?
I was three years old when St. Helens blew in 1980 (anyone feel old yet?).
Our family lived in Northern Idaho, and my father likes to recount how the hardware store was full of people buying masks and resperators and whatnot. He tells of how the supermarket was jam-packed with people stockpiling for the apocalypse.
He was getting a little nervous, but on his drive home he saw our neighbor (we lived out in the country), a farmer named Mr.Coon, just trolling about on his tractor under the bloody sun and darkened sky;doing his daily work, acting like it was just another day.
My father was then able to relax a bit.
By an interesting coincidence, I was born near Mt. St. Helens during the first eruption. Yes...as I was delivered from the womb, the city was covered with ash and filled with the sounds of weeping and gnashing of teeth *cough* I mean, sweeping and washing of streets.
Maybe with this next eruption, instead of merely being born, I'll actually get a life.
...our scientists are no longer able to monitor and analyze any vulcanic activity online.
Folks: you're on your own.
Slashdot: stuff for news, nerds that matter, matter for news, stuff that nerd
Have we positively ruled out terrorism as a cause of this seismic activity at this point?
There will be a big white flag coming out of the crater reading "BOOM!" any minute now...
Having never been there myself, it would be cool to see before and after shots of the area in the event of an eruption. Any one out there listening?
-m
http://www.invisik.com
Google news summary:
/. beat ABC news to the story. Take that!
News results for mount st. helens - View today's top stories
Mount St. Helens Alert Status Increased - Slashdot - 9 minutes ago
Experts Predict Mount St. Helens Eruption - ABC News - 10 minutes ago
Yes, that's right.
ACs are modded -6. I don't read you, I don't mod you, I don't see you. Don't like it? Don't be a coward.
Bush declares the volcano part of the "Axis of Lava", declares "War on Volcanos" and sends bombers to the area to eliminate the threat.
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.
Even blind squirrels find nuts now and then.
I, for one, welcome our new Decepticon overlords.
-Stephen
Subduction zones (like those off the west coast of America) and volcanoes (such as St. Helens) are a big part of the long-term carbon cycle of the planet. Left to its own, life and chemical processes on this planet would convert all the atmospheric carbon into calcium carbonate that would be trapped in rock on the bottom of the ocean. Subduction zones and volcanoes reprocess this rock into CO2.
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.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
Google 'Yellowstone volcano.' In one of the two or three times I favored my intro to geology class with my presence, my professor explained that much of Yellowstone National Park is the caldera of a giant volcano, according to him the largest on earth, hence the geysers and sulfurous springs. If it were to erupt again -- fortunately it does so rarely, about once every 600k years -- it would cover most of the Western US in ash and if it did so without warning, would kill millions of people.
Always a godfather; never a god. -Gore Vidal
Most of them are just echoes from Mt. St. Helens - you can tell by the secondary shape at the end of the burst (different waves travel at different speeds, and the further separated they are, the further away the epicenter is...)
Coming soon - pyrogyra
They had some comments on the local news this morning about its severity. (I live in Vancouver - just a short drive from St. Helens.) It looks like the only thing they're predicting is a very small eruption, possible steam escapes. Nothing at all like the last one.
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.
Any sufficiently well-organized Government is indistinguishable from bullshit.
When up on Mt. Rainier (over looks Seattle) we were told by guides that Mt. Rainier was a much larger active volcano with far more devistating potential than St. Helens because of both it's size and proximity to Seattle.
Does the activity at St. Helens make Mt. Rainier and more or less likely to also erupt?
I only came here to do two things; kick some ass, and drink some beer...looks like we're almost out of beer.
...Bush will blame the eruption on Al Qaeda and send National Guard troops to Washington state then completely fail to find any lava of mass destruction.
MMMmmmmmm....erotic cakes!!! Homer J. Simpson - Treehouse of Horror VI
http://pubs.usgs.gov/publications/msh/comparisons. html
"Whoever wins, we lose..." ;)
One of the more reassuring things about St Helens blowing is that it has already done so. It has a nice crater to keep things fairly contained and no glaciers. Mt Rainier is another story, however. It is also a volcano, has the most permanent glaciers on it of any mountain in the continental US and if it blows, the true danger is what happens to those glaciers at eruption. It's known as a lahar.
I read something similar to this once: To get an idea of a lahar, imagine a 30 ft wall of mud, boiling in temperature with the consistency of wet cement traveling at speeds up to 60 mph or so. If you go driving through the river valleys of Washington State (Carbon Rv, Puyallup Rv) that are fed by the Rainier glaciers, you'll see Lahar evacuation route signs everywhere. Not only that, but I believe recent evacuation simulations have been abysmal. Scary stuff.
Ahh, may have found the article that I read.
Not only does God definitely play dice, but He sometimes confuses us by throwing them where they can't be seen. -Hawking
Nothing too far out of the ordinary, but it's interesting that the site was totally quiet during the St Helens activity. Now that the Helens activity has decreased by about 10%, Rainer has acted up a little.
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.
Coming soon - pyrogyra
http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/Products/Warn/WarnScheme s.html
My rights don't need management.
I clearly remember 1980. It was pretty neat and scary. Although it happened on Sunday, so we didn't get that day off of school. I think school was closed for several days afterwards. Some tidbits that you may find boring or interesting...
Ash was so fine (there was several inches on the street) that it would ruin your engine. So everyone put women's pantyhose over their air cleaners to keep the dirt out. Also the local timber company bought out the auto parts stores of all the extra air cleaners to keep their trucks moving.
people kept emergency supplies in their car trunks for years after that. probably until 86 or 87
Also, their were some great slogans on bumper stickers and t-shirts that we'll revive if necessary.
"Mt St. Helen's lost her ash in 1980, I saved mine."
Plus the song about harry truman was popular.
wow, amazing what you can remember...
that Condelezza Rice would be trolling webforums.... Quite a step a up.
Although both Mt Rainier, Mt St Helens, and all the other dormant and volcanoes in Washington and Oregon are due to the same subduction zone; an eruption at Mt St Helens will not influence Rainier in any way.
The USGS is currently predicting a high likelihood of Rainier experiencing a small eruption in the next 50 years. This will melt Rainier's icecap and produce lahar flows (heavy, fast mud flows - these will take out bridges and buildings). The outskirts of Seattle are built on the deposits of old lahars from Rainier...
Early this year, a warning system (a bit like the tsunami system in the Pacific) has been put in place between Rainier and Seattle. This should give warning of lahars as they start. This could give enough warning to get people out of valley bottoms, etc - but how much of the populace knows what a lahar is and what the danger is???
Incidentally, a couple of days ago, I plotted the ongoing Mt St Helens earthquake swarm on some earthquake hazard maps and put the results here.
Richard (yes I was a seismologist 10 years ago)Clearly, Mt. St. Helens is near eruption because it is starved for virgin sacrifices!
I did Hurricanes Camille, Agnes, and Hugo on the East Coast. I've done tornadoes and blizzards in Michigan. I was in LA for huge brush and forest fires, the Rodney King riots, and the Northridge Quake. I now live in Portland, OR. Yea.
On the "harbingers of doom" ratings scale, hearing I'm moving to town is like running into Jim Cantore in a hotel lobby.
Seach runs chartered volcano tours and has amassed quite a collection of pics which are up on the site too.
it has increased to beyond 3.0 quakes now. Check out: http://www.pnsn.org/HELENS/mshrec_eqs.html and get the most up-to-date list.
The descriptions of the tsunamis were incredible (I know it's a fiction book, but still...): 100 ft. high waves travelling at high speeds, one after another. Sure, some buildings may survive one of those, but several?
Good book, but had to give it back to the library before I could finish it.
I'm not sure what the secret to success is, but the secret to failure lies in trying to please everyone -Bill Cosby
A friend sent me this link to the Mount St. Helens Volcano Cam, updated every 5 minutes from the Johnston Ridge Observatory.
Last year or the year before when they had the (false) lahar warning for Rainier, a friend of mine -- a 911 dispatcher -- was on a date when he got the emergency page. This woman, quite the clingy "me-first" type, got uppity with him for looking at his pager. He told her he had to go, there was an emergency. She didn't believe him. He stood up in the middle of the restaraunt and said, loudly, "Mt. Fucking-Rainier is erupting...call a cab.". That was their first (and last) date. :-)
As an aside, anyone remember Jim Foreman (news reporter) doing a live broadcast from Harborview doing his normal melodramatic report that "dozens of casualties are being flown in now...we'll be here to report on it"? Good times.
I recall a couple of photos (in Nat'l Geographic?) from some folks who were on Rainier when St. Helens blew. The 1st photo showed a person in the foreground, with the initial burst out of St. Helens in the background. The 2nd photo showed the foreground person being knocked on her ass, while the background showed St. Helen's burst pluming upward rapidly.
Like any earthquake in the area, St. Helens can affect Rainier. The question is: Is Rainier stable enough to shrug these off? In 1980, the answer to that question was YES. It seems likely that if St. Helens' next eruption is as moderate as is being predicted, combined with Rainier's continued quiescence, then the answer will still be YES.
[You have a stable society when some nut guns down a schoolyard and the law doesn't change.]
Well, lets put the pieces together
Bill Gates = Sauron
Microsoft Bob = The Ring of Power
Mount St. Helens = Mt. Doom
It's all coming together now...
Yes Francis, the world has gone crazy.
Being I live in SW Washington, probably 20 miles from MSH, I can attest that at 6:30am there was a pretty heavy cloud cover that made things mighty dark.
If the picture is gray, that means it's foggy.
Give me my freedom, and I'll take care of my own security, thank you.
"At least we'll die doing what we love...inhaling molten rock"
-Homer
+1 Insightful, -1 Troll. What can I say, I'm an Insightful Troll.
It's now YELLOW/ELEVATED: SIGNIFICANT RISK OF BAD THINGS HAPPENING I hope it doesn't go up to RED/SEVERE: LOTS OF BUBBLY HOT STUFF ON THE GROUND
activestudios web design
You can watch the CAM here. There is a nice view of the volcano.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"First things first -- but not necessarily in that order"
-- The Doctor, "Doctor
(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.)
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
The most recent readings at the SEP seismograph stationed on the lava dome itself are totally saturated.
Somebody Else's Problem seismograph? What does it do, make the volcano disappear if it becomes too inconvenient?
Looks like Mount St. Helens is about to defrag.
PS: We installed a Qorvus Meshcam(tm) on the top of the Skamania County Government building as part of the Stevenson Wifi Project, which was the first municiple public access mesh network to go live in the US.
Seastead this.
It occurs to me now that the city of Portland Oregon (metro population 1.1 million) was menaced by the last big eruption of Mt. St. Helen's in May 1980.
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.
I was going to college in Moscow, Idaho when it blew, and believe me, it was impressive, even that far away from the eruption.
Throughout the day a tolkeinesque black cloud grew larger and larger on the western horizon, until it streched all of the way north to south. As it came over it became darker than night, the sky was just black. Then is started to "snow" volcanic ash. Instead of coming down in flakes, it came down as a fine powder, but looking out the window, it looked like snow against the street lights. This was about 3:00 in the afternoon.
It didn't get light again before nightfall. The next morning, it was as if it had snowed, except it was very finely powdered ash, and it didn't go away like snow, it just compacted and then blew around as dust when the wind blew.
It was a very memorable experience, more impressive even than a total solar eclipse (but that's another story)...
A house divided against itself cannot stand.
I was ten years old living down in Vancouver, WA back in 1980. We had a pristine view of the mountain from our back yard and would constantly have "eruption barbeques" at the house.
;)
During one of the many ash-falls that used to regularly dust us, my brother and I ran out one morning to play in the new ash before our parents woke up. There was about 1-2 inches coating everything, like new snow, and it had just rained making all of the ash into an interesting clay-like consistency.
Kids being kids, my little brother and I ran out to the driveway and started writing our names with our fingers into the ash covering my dad's brand new 1 day old VW Scirroco in the driveway. It started out with "Hi" and "Cool" and progressed to "Van Halen kicks ass" and "KISS rules" and liberal scrawlings of "dork", "shit", "Tony sucks dick", drawings of boobies and penises, you get the idea.
Well, we got into a hell of a lot of trouble when my dad saw the car when he had to wipe all of the ash off to drive to work. Our trouble later escalated when he discovered that, after going through a car wash to rinse off the rest, everything that we had written on his car was now premanently scratched into the paint and windows of his car, ash being a fine gritty silicate. Our dad's co-workers ribbed him endlessly about his "custom paint job" as it took him several weeks before he could get his car repainted and the windows replaced.
All told, a few thousand dollar "oops" for us kids
----- And all that the Lorax left here in this mess was a small pile of rocks, with one word...UNLESS.
Live in the northwest: Volcanoes
Live in the southwest: Earthquakes
Live on the east coast: Hurricanes
Live in the south/central part of the country: Tornadoes
Live in the north: Blizzards
Live in Indiana: You have to live in Indiana
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.
Allegedly real newspaper headline from 1998:
Man Struck by Lightning Faces Battery Charge
It is little known that lying underneath one of The United States largest and most picturesque National Parks - Yellowstone Park - is one of the largest "super volcanoes" in the world. Scientists have revealed that Yellowstone Park has been on a regular eruption cycle of 600,000 years. The last eruption was 640,000 years ago...so the next is overdue. The next eruption could be 2,500 times the size of the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption. Volcanologists have been tracking the movement of magma under the park and have calculated that in parts of Yellowstone the ground has risen over seventy centimeters this century. You can click on my signature for more information.
What's under yellowstone?
Most people infected with West Nile, it seems, dont know they are sick. They might have a slight cold for a bit. some get very, very sick, and die. But a significant portion even of the young and healthy get serious, debilitating, flu-like symptoms that can last for weeks. My cousin is case 4 in Tehama County, California, this summer. She first went into the hospital about 3 1/2 weeks ago, is home now, but is STILL feverish, week, achy, head-throbbing headache, and describing it as like having a serious flu.. which has now lasted 3 1/2 weeks, unabated. She is in her 30s, healthy as a (irony only partially intended) horse, has not missed a day of work for illness in the previous decade. West Nile shouldn't panic us, be we DAMN SURE should be taking it seriously. All of us.
You can get much more information about Yellowstone's volcanos from the Yellowstone Volcanoe Observatory website.
Q.
From USGS Volcano-Warning Schemes in the United States (These are specific to the Cascade Range volcanoes in Washington and Oregon.):
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.