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Mount St. Helens Lets Off Some Steam
jdray writes "The cube farm is all a twitter right now, as Mt. St. Helens is spewing out a steam plume, and you can see if from our building. The cam for the volcano seems to be down, but we just saw a news helicopter from KATU, one of our local news stations, headed that direction. They should have some content up shortly." Other readers suggest: KOIN, KOIN webcams, Kiro TV, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, or CNN.
It just looked like it needed to sneeze....I mean if you had that much dirt building up in your crater you'd have to as well...
Be polite and say "God Bless you" and move on....nothing to see here...
...in bed
There was supposed to be an earth-shattering kaboom!
A fine is a tax you pay for doing wrong and a tax is a fine you pay for doing all right.
watched it out my window here at work and it was nothing. my folks are 25mi from it and got no ash. still more to come.
.-=Wit is educated insolence=-. -Aristotle
My mountain asplode!
Fellowship 9/11
The volcano cam is not down perse, but it's been hit and miss all day. I'm currently looking at an image from 13:24:01 PDT this afternoon.
/. I wouldn't expect to have much luck for a while ;)
Now that the link is front and center on
No Comment.
It sure looks like a cloud was framed strategically behind the moutain to make the "steam" look like more than it was. I see some dark wisps, and then a big white plume that seems to start right at the top of the crater as if it were actually behind it.
Here is some cool video (Windows media, but VLC played it fine):
or for some kid related information, great if you have young ones asking about Mt. St helens, head on over to VolcanoWorld
Any news yet on possible terrorist involvement?
"It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once." -David Hume
Mexico's 'Fire Volcano' Erupts, No Evacuations Yet
KABLOOEY!
no
President Bush vows to find the terrorists responsible for blowing up Mt. St. Helen
MSH Webcam
This big buildup to a little eruption reminds of me of how I feel when I eat something that might disagree with me more than it actually did.
...fart rather loudly a few times and drop a turd the size of a peanut into the commode.
You go out to lunch, come back, and go to a meeting. During the whole meeting, your stomach is growling in such a horrible way as to sound like you've shit your britches. People look at you, and boss asks, embarrassingly, if you have to leave the meeting. You say, redfaced, "I'm OK, and plod through the rest of the meeting while your co-workers roll their chairs a little farther away from you."
At the end of the meeting, you rush to the bathroom, which everyone giggles about as they see you make the mad dash, lock the door, drop your trousers, and sit down for what you think will be mother of all bowel movements. And then you...
All that buildup and embarrassment for...a single tiny turd.
Looks like the other mountains in the area laughed at Mt. St. Helen's before she popped her piddly piddle today.
IronChefMorimoto
With the wind blowing the ash to the W/SW I'm sure you're right. Longview or Portland might get a little dusting though.
This is Slashdot, you're not allowed to say God here unless it's associated with an epithet or you're railing against his followers.
When the last one hit, things like pantyhose were used to keep ash from destroying their engines.
I live a couple hours south of Portland and we got only a light dusting after the first eruption. My wife lived further north and was cleaning ash off of cars for days.
Supposedly this one may throw rock and ash up to 3 miles away. The Forest Service camera is 5 miles off, and the 1980 explosion threw ask over 250 miles.
I haven't been up there but did hike up Lassen Peak in 2000. Much of that area is still bare from the eruptions that occurred around 1915.
The clearance system sounds logical. It is not. It is completely arbitrary. -- John Bolton
kiro tv slide show
You're right, I wouldn't steal a car. But if it were possible, I sure as hell would download one!
Sorry to get all your panties in a bunch...
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
You forgot Poland. I fear it is just the beginning.
I for one welcome the impending arrival of our underworld dwelling overlords.... (someone had to say it)
It should be good for the nearby soil though.
BREAKING NEWS: With the eruption of Mt. St. Helens, US President George W. Bush accused God of attacking the United States with multiple WMDs over the course of the summer. Bush counted several hurricanes, numerous tornadoes and thunderstorms, floods, and the recent earthquake in southern California as examples of God's terrorist activity. Bush said that the threats of detonating Mt. St. Helens in Washington and another volcano in Hawaii signalled great threats to national security. Bush said that his administration would immediately begin searching for God's forces "on the ground" so that the US might be able to fight back. A spokesman for the Vatican said that the Pope was preparing a statement in response to Bush's grevious threats. When asked what she thought of Bush's reponse to the eruption, a spokeswoman for the USGS simply shook her head, blushed, and asked for the next question. Bush tried to use the simultaneous eruption of a Mexican volcano to garner Mexican support for the War on Terror. The Mexican ambassador to the US said "Bush is loco. Muy, muy loco." No members of Bush's inner circle could be reached for comment.
Nah, its just a burp. Wait a few days for the *real* explosion. Also, I'm watching a live stream and these idiots are going up there to see it smoke. TV reporter interviewed this one dude, "wow, man, it was like all smokey and stuff. I just had to come down and see it." If morons like this keep going out there, the death toll will be the same or higher than the 1980 blast.
This is a test. This is a test of the emergency sig system. This has been only a test.
The cam for the volcano seems to be down
/. front page we can bring it back up.
So clearly by putting a link to it on the
I stole this Sig
Looks like the towns folk are going to get some free bacon that should last a couple months !!!.
Mnt St. Helen's has already blown her head off what else is there to do but let off steam and a little magma until she rebuilds her crown up. Now if this was going on at Mt Fuji I would say KABOOM!
I was fortunate to be within sixty miles of this explosion today, and I can say that it looked incredible in person.
? Iludium Pu-36 Space Modulator Missing at Line 335
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Mt. Hood poses a much larger danger to the Portland area. It's bigger than St. Helens, closer to Portland, and has a number of ski resorts and other people-attracting landmarks. Portland also has a volcano, presumably extinct, within the densely populated city limits - Mt. Tabor.
The last big blast cleared about a cubic mile of rock out of the way. Pressures this time won't build as high as a result.
The clearance system sounds logical. It is not. It is completely arbitrary. -- John Bolton
it is now 4:57 EST (GMT -5)
Mt. Spur
"Creativity is allowing ones self to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep" - Scott Adams
The past may have had extreme natural events similarly, but were they so "focused" like in the last 3 months?
Maybe the earth had to reboot itself due to some Y2K issue?
As soon as news got out about this little burp every webcam site was "/.ed" These guys: http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/volcanocams/msh/ need to get Boa
All generalizations are false, including this one. Mark Twain
http://www.king5.com is currently offering a live helicopter stream of the scene, along with misc. USGS commentary.
Tourists have been flocking to the site for several days now, hoping to see the volcano erupt ... and get their names enshrined in the Darwin Hall of Shame.
You sly dog: you got me monologuing! - Syndrome
Ring of fire activity is up all around the ring. From Japan to Mexico to California, there is a lot of seismic and volcanic activity still going on. St. Helens is just a symptom of something else. I am betting something big happens in the next 3 months. Either an inactive volcano blows, or there's a big EQ in the ring, but something is going to happen. 6.2 in Mexico, 6.0 in California, 7.2 in Japan, St. Helens burps, small quake activity in Alaska and the cascades is up, and Hawaii is looking at Mauna Loa going very active. All of this within the last month, and all of it unusial. I doubt this burp from St' Helens is going to be the total end result.
"Curiosity killed the cat, but for a while I was a suspect."- Steven Wright
California will join Atlantis somewhere in the Pacific :-)
ASH kickin', heheeh. Helen's got LEGGS.
Our leggs crisp your leggs, they ash you, they toast you.. they nev-hur lehh-chuu-goooh
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
The CNN link as given in the story leads to a static, out of date AP story from yesterday. Their 'breaking news' page for Mt. St. Helens is continually updated.
"He'd be a broader guy if he had dropped acid once." - Steve Jobs on Bill Gates
So when do we start throwing the virgins in? ... I think some Slashdotters better watch out o_O.
So close and yet so far from the world's perfect ID number
or evolution in action?
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
it's not in florida! :P
Leave me out of it.
What?? Peter Jackson followed them in? Horrors! I guess he wanted to get some good shots before they got toasted... Talk about some hazard pay for the actors.
"So throwing a virgin into the volcano appeases the gods or something?"
"Naw, it just plugs up the hole."
And the swing states continue to get hit by natural disasters, proving...what, exactly? While you ponder this question, you can read the shocking(ly boring) truth about who this St. Helens actually was here.
this might get a whole lot more interesting....
If people in the Ring of Fire areas get as much lead time as people in Florida do about hurricanes, there should be no reason for a large amount of fatalities due to predictable volcanic activity... except maybe that Tacoma doesn't have an evacuation plan in case Mt. Ranier goes. I'm not sure what the probability is of unpredictable, sudden, catatsrophic volcanic activity, though.
-Rob
Marriage doesn't have to suck!
.. you submerged a nuke down a volcano in a kind of downward firing stabilizing rocket with enough shielding to survive at least a half mile or until it hit solid rock and then blew it up.
Just curious is all....
Well, it seems the web server hosting the images from the camera has erupted, because I can't see what's going on!
- Kevin
The less confident you are, the more serious you have to act.
As a true slashdotter, I shall not let this story slip by without relating it to how Microsoft sucks.
It's pissed off that the supreme court let the Microsoftcase slip by. Note also that they are both in the same state.
...Had this been an actual emergency, we would have fled in terror, and you would not have been informed.
Mt. St. Helen is nowhere close to a densely populated area in the United States.
First, it is a few hours drive from a major city (Seattle), and even then population density in the Seattle area is well below that of any place south of San Francisco on the California coast or north of Arlington, on the Eastern seaboard, all the way to Boston or so.
It's "flinched"... PLEASE try to spell without inflicting quite so much pain on the grammar-aware ;)
I grabbed a shot of it the moment the smoke went up and the server went down. It's on my (God help me) blog.
--- "1.21 Jigawatts!" -Doc
Mt. St Helens would flood the Columbia with ash and mud like it did last time. Mt Rainier would send it's load toward Seattle, where I live. The town of Orting, WA would disappear under a wall of mud. It would head down the Duwamish and deposit a bit of mud. Tacoma would get hit hard. The Puyallup, White, and Carbon Rivers would become giant mud sluices and converge on Tacoma. Olympia would get a fair bit in the Nisqually river, but I think the city itself would be okay.
The party's over
[insert nutty mad scientist voice]
HAHAHAHA!!! TWITTER WHILE YOU CAN, MONKEYBOY!!!
For soon, you will be made DEAD by the evil Evil EVIL PYROCLASTIC FLOW that will DO MY BIDDING and slaughter all of you chortling little fools in your pathetic little weepy office buildings!
JUSTICE WILL BE MINE!!!! MINE!!! MINE I TELL YOU!!!
[/nutty voice]
RS
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for Duke Nukem to arrive.
"You spoony bard!" -Tellah
...and neither is Mt. St. Helens.
Mt. Hood and Mt. Rainier are, however.
And then there is the area around Yellowstone Park.
Kaboom.
It's rare that you're presented with a knob whose only two positions are Make History and Flee Your Glorious Destiny.
Wouldn't be more appropriate to word it: Most densely populated areas in the United States aren't sitting near volcanos. After all, it isn't the damn volcano's fault now is it?
We were moving from California, and my father was telling me about Washington. "It's all green," he told us. "Not like these brown dry hills - it's all green all the time, even in the winter. You'll love it!"
We moved May of 1981. About a week after the eruptions, and my first impression of Washington was ash gray. Ash gray everywhere, like snowflakes that refused to melt. You'd sweep it off the porch, maybe if you were unlucky shovel it away. Eventually, it dissolved and the rains of Washington carried it away, but for months, even a year or two afterwards, you'd wake up to a light dusting on the grass.
52 Weeks, 52 Religions with John Hummel
Heard that while watching this video link from KATU:
easylink.playstream.com/katu
Amendment I
Slashdot readers shall make no guidelines respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;
That's how it reads, isn't it?
anything i tell you will cloud your opinion.
Thoes were the guys from Starbucks who forgot to turn off the St. Helens steamer.
I can't use my sig - my computer can't read my handwriting.
"Chances are, unlikely things will happen."
taken! (by Davidleeroth) Thanks Bingo Foo!
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
One of my favorite family photos was taken by my Dad in Yakima, Washington sometime after the eruption. You can still see ash in this photo though:
http://www.12xu.com/
I do remember on May 19th the ash being deep enough to write my name in it, only to be scolded by Mommy for going outside.
A guy my Dad worked with left his 1975 Corvette parked outside on May 18th....with the T-tops off. Soon the black interior was a very deep and dusty grey!
Cheers,
Richard
"Here, have a God-damned tissue."
Took some pics of the eruption from the vantage point of our neighbors front yard.
They're not the greatest (had the camera in 'point and shoot' mode - had to act fast, yanno), but I did tweak the brightness & contrast to get a better view of the crater and plume.
I just read through all the posts and so far no one's mentioned if the Autobots are evacuating, and if so whats the location of the new base?
Hey, natural selection might not work very well for the human race anymore, but it doesn't mean it is non-existent.
There are many of us here in OR state (Thats OR-IH-GUN for those of you elsewhere) that are NOT sick and tired of hearing about Mt. Saint Helens!
No one is panicking, it is just kinda cool. Of course I also think it is neat when it rains, and I like lightning storms and even forest fires... Even the recent hurricaines I found fascinating. If you don't like it, don't read!
Some come here to sit and think.
Others come to shit and stink.
But I come here to scratch my balls,
And read the writing on the walls...
I'd go for the snowboot and shovel markets if I was there, I think. That and selling the ash to those living too far away to be blessed by it's falling in their yard.
As for me, I thought it was so cool that I had a small bag of Mt St Helens ash I purchased with a photo of the eruption. I'm not sure if I've ever shared that little nugget of info with her.
I vent steam from my ash all the time!
If it's not Consolidated Lint, it's just fuzz!
Uno momemto por favor...
Bush tried to use the simultaneous eruption of a Mexican volcano to garner Mexican support for the War on Terror. The Mexican ambassador to the US said "Bush is loco. Muy, muy loco." No members of Bush's inner circle could be reached for comment.
As you know we simply can't have a commander in chief sending "Mexed Messages." Please cease and desist....
and even then population density in the Seattle area is well below that of any place south of San Francisco on the California coast or north of Arlington, on the Eastern seaboard, all the way to Boston or so.
So? He didn't say "the most densly populated." Are you arguing that Seattle isn't densly populated?
Well, there's a reason they call it Hurricane *season.* ;) So I guess if any mediumish-rare thing happens during fall, it's linked, right? Now I'm waiting for someone to explain to me how a hurricane - in the atmosphere above Florida - is going to affect magma buried miles beneath WA state. But there I go being cynical again.
As for earthquakes and volcanoes, there's a pretty damned good correlation there.
-Looking for a job as a materials chemist or multivariat
Is this the same volcano that someone had put a pink toy (or stuffed) dinosouar in front of the camera recently?
um...what about portland, OR?
The one we worry about is Rainier and when talking about densities in Seattle you also have to consider, Renton, Kent, Auburn, Puyallup, Sumner, Orting, Tacoma Olympia and others. So add all the densities in the area of the volcano's reach and it makes it worse. Than is if it blows out the Eastern side.
I can't use my sig - my computer can't read my handwriting.
Population of Portland: 437,000. In fact the entire population of Oregon fits in the city of Cleveland.
More importantly, at the visitor center, the expected path of the run off in case of an eruption is described as North towards Tacoma. Moreover it is not expected to reach that far, even assuming a volcano explosion of unusually high intensity.
The ash is starting to settle in Wood Village, there's a fine layer on the cars here now. The USGS is also saying on NWCN that the odds of further, more severe volcanic activity is 100% at this point.
Help us build a better map!
Its Friday. Be nice. ;)
A man flying in a hot air balloon realizes that he is lost, so he reduces his altitude and spots a man on the ground down below. Lowering the balloon a little further, the balloonist shouts "Excuse me Sir! But can you help me? I promised my friend that I would meet him half an hour ago, but I don't know where I am!" The man on the ground replies, "Yes. You are in a hot air balloon, hovering at approximately 30 feet. You are between 40 and 41 degrees north latitude, and between 58 and 59 degrees west longitude." "You must be a geologist," says the balloonist. "Why, yes I am," replies the man on the ground. "How on earth did you know?" "Well", says the balloonist, "Everything you have told me is well described. It is also technically and geographically accurate. However, I have no idea what to make of your information, and the fact of the matter is I have spent much valuable time conversing with you and I am still lost. Furthermore, I will not be able to make my appointment now." The geologist below nods his head and says, "You must be a manager in an oil company." "Why, yes I am," replies the balloonist, "But how did you guess that?" "Well," says the geologist, "You have no idea where you are or where you are going. Also, you have made a promise which you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve your problem for you. The real fact of the matter is that you are in exactly the same position now as what you were in before we met, yet now your predicament has somehow become my fault."
One more:
Here in California, when a bridge falls down, we know it must be San Andreas' Fault!
Hahahaha!! Sheer comic genius!
That is exaclty what I'm arguing. Seattle is #98 in terms of density of population out of the top 100 metropolitan areas in the US. Here are some of the major "metropolis" which are more densely populated than Seattle:
Middletown, CT
Kenosha, WI
Youngstown-Warren, OH
Grand Rapids, MI
Sarasota, FL
Danbury, CT
Nashua, NH
Wilmington, NC
Gary-Hammond, IN
Salt Lake City-Ogden, UT
Cincinnati, OH-KY-IN
Hartford, CT
Akron, OH
Norfolk-Virginia Beach, VA
Buffalo, NY
Milwaukee, WI
If it erupted big time and blew north it would only be what you (native) Washintonians deserve anyway, with the way you drive and all. Remember seeing those "Slower Traffic Keep Right." signs last time you were in Oregon? They are there for YOU! But noooooo, 'I'm planning on taking a left about seveteen miles up the road so I'll just sit here in the left lane making sure I am extra safe by going eight miles per hour below the posted speed limit'.
AFK, volcanic eruption.
Ummm...isn't that photo from May of 1980?
I probably would have never known about this if I hadn't read about it here on Slashdot. I need to look outside more often since Mount St. Helens is in viewable range of my window.
That is exaclty what I'm arguing. Seattle is #98 in terms of density of population out of the top 100 metropolitan areas in the US.
So out of the hundreds of thousands of populated areas in the United States, Seattle ranks it at #98. That's in the upper 90% range in terms of overall population density.
Seattle is densly populated whether you like it or not. You can't simply measure it against the top 1% and say, "Oh, it's not dense. Look, there are 97 areas here that are even denser." You have to measure it as a whole. And as a whole, it's a very dense place, filled with dense people (did I just say that?).
The population of Portland is more like 550k nowadays, and the metro area (all within affected area of the 1980 St. Helens blast) is 1.95 million people.
That makes it the 24th largest metro area in the United States, beating out a number of other "high profile" metro areas that may have larger name recognition.
http://www.demographia.com/db-usmet2003.pdf
-Jayde
What's a sig?
Mount Hood is awfully big. Obviously, it'd depend on the size of the explosion, but the potential exists for something that would make Mount St. Helen's 1980 event look like something mild.
Despite comments by other posters on this, before, I can't help but feel that the Cascades affect each other. Even if there is no direct connection, the mere proximity means that the internal structure of each volcano may be affected by earthquakes caused by the others.
Mount Hood hasn't (so far) had a major increase in pressure build-up. However, isn't it within the realms of possibility that the Mount St. Helens quakes may block vents, compress the magma, etc? Sure, the shock waves haven't been big (so far), but that's relative. It might not take a whole lot to set Mount Hood off.
The Cascades are part of the so-called "Ring of Fire", which is a massive chain of volcanos. KATU talked about it having 3/4s of all the volcanos on Earth. That's a lot. I don't know if this Mexican volcano that's also gone off is also part of the Ring, but if it is, I (for one) would be very much in favour of increased monitoring over the whole of the Ring. Things seem a little too active, right now, and it probably isn't sensible to just sit back and wait.
Even if the probability of any further eruptions in the near future are extremely low, and even if the probability of either of these events triggering further volcanic activity elsewhere is minimal, it might be prudent to make sure of that.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
That makes it the 24th largest metro area in the United States,
Actually it is 31th according to the US census, which I take any day over "demographia.com".
More importantly affected area is not the same as "in peril". The entire world was affected by St. Helens (slight increase in atmospheric dust for a few days IIRC, this does not mean that the entire world population is/was at risk).
Well, Yellowstone park is supposed to blow up some time, unless someone helps to relieve the pressure under the hot baths.
I'm still trying to figure out what people mean by 'social skills' here.
I for one welcome our Volcanic OverLords, as a matter of fact I am rounding up virgins for the volcano right now. Any interested parties should meet me tonight at the base of St. Helens were we can discuss further details concerning your last swan dive.
If we don't make light of everything, we are just stumbling in the dark - Blank
Unless you can link otherwise, IIRC the metro area statistics on census.gov are pretty old--the ones on the linked PDF are based on projected 2003 US census data and not 2000 figures. (The Portland metro area has grown at a higher than average rate over the last number of years.)
http://www.census.gov/popest/metro.html
The linked PDF also shows the official 2000 figures for comparison.
-Jayde
What's a sig?
"Mt Rainier would send it's load toward Seattle, where I live."
:) And for that matter, a few mudflows towards Tacoma :)
Possible, but unlikely. Prevailing winds are towards eastern Washington. Seattle actually is relatively safe from Rainier. Now Tacoma could get a few mudflows-of course this could happen WITHOUT an eruption. And frankly, would the loss of Orting REALLY be that bad
And you are correct that Olympia wouldn't be touched (excluding any ashfall). I doubt much there would be much effect on the lower Nisqually either.
I am making an observation. Generally, when the ring of fire gets active, it gets REALLY active, then goes through a cyclical calm spell. The recent observations point to an active spike, and I am making that observation. I have no idea if anyone has recently produced a paper on this, but when I was in college this cycle of activity in the ring was a commonly observed phenomena my professor seemed to think was worth watching. Just passing it on. I didn't advise anyone to go buy "End of the World insurance" or anything.
"Curiosity killed the cat, but for a while I was a suspect."- Steven Wright
But it is right in the middle of it
"Curiosity killed the cat, but for a while I was a suspect."- Steven Wright
Upon logging into our shell server my fortune read:
Mount St. Helens should have used earth control.
Good timing fortune!
I was watching FNC when it went off ... and I wondered: what if they dropped a MOAB or bunker-buster into the crater right now ... what would happen?
I've heard that all the ordinance dropped in Afghani mountains ended up causing earthquakes for months afterward. So, then, it'd seem that a handful of biggo bombs might have an effect on a semi-dormant volcano.
Call me childish, but if it was one nobody lived near, and I had enough money, I'd try out this experiment.
Global warming is neither science, nor politics. It is a religion.
There continues to be some sesmic activity after the small eruption of steam and ash. So it might not be over yet.
Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
"(someone had to say it)"
Why? To make sure the joke's never funny again?
"Derp de derp."
"As it started to erupt, I caught this spectacular shot. You should have been there!"
How'd you get that photo of my boss catching me reading Slashdot?
"Derp de derp."
I hope that little Dino toy is still ok!
or was that some other volcano....?
we had to carry lava down from the volcano in baskets and throw it on sleeping villagers.
/. sig, I don't remember. Not enough drugs.)
(I think I got it off a
When you sympathize with stupidity, you start thinking like an idiot.
Okay slashdotters! Time for a timely /fiction check. (does not require that you create a new root "fiction" directory but it might help).
1) What black and white scifi movie features a scientist who predicts correctly, and in part has a hand in, a widely moving seismic phenomenon that traces a closed loop, so that the tremendous subterranean pressures throw a huge flaming chunk of the Earth into orbit? I don't think aliens are at all involved though the net seems to. There are also a cute couple who try to survive it all. Neat!
2) What contemporary scifi novel features a visionary seismologist who uses (still unavailable) high-tech sensor networks to predict, correctly and repeatedly, the time and place of earthquakes around the world, and profits on it for a while? Also neat! and has a similar cute couple I believe.
3) Here's a hard one. What novel from the Golden Age of science fiction features a beam of light that crosses time and space to plunge into our hero's skull and warp or seriously bend the plotline? I don't remember anything seismic being involved but there were some good robots, maybe a latent memory brought this one up. Also I would give this one an extremely neat! times 10^8.