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Oregon Is Growing A Mystery Bulge
nedwolf writes "LiveScience is reporting that a 100 square mile bulge has been rising in Oregon. First observed from a satellite using a relatively new technology called 'radar interferometry', some believe this to be the formation of a new volcano. I think it's just happy to see me."
To put things into perspective here's recent quakes throught the US, notice the activity in the state of California, to the south.
Back in the late 90's there were swarms of minor earthquakes around the Long Valley Caldera, the vicinity of California where Mammoth Lakes and Mammoth Mountain are located. Swarms of earth quakes, 4.0 (Richter) and lower, most lower than 2.0, were up to 600 per 24 hours for a period of about two weeks, and ground elevations were observed changing (similarly to those in Oregon) slightly, but as you can see all is quiet and nothing happened. Long Valley is the caldera of a very large, dormant volcano.
Here is a good example of a swarm of aftershocks.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
When asked for comment, Oregon said, "I can't help it! California's been rubbing against me for millions of years!"
But I thought America's wang was Florida.
Good afternoon, gentlemen. As you are all no doubt aware, I have perfected a device capable of generating volcanoes at my whim. Even now I have raised a titanic bulge of liquid hot mag-ma under the state of Oregon. This device, which I've dubbed 'The Erupteron', has passed its field test with flying colors, I'm sure you'll agree...
You see, gentlemen, 'The Erupteron' will be used to generate bulges under one of your major cities every six hours, causing them to sink into firey hot mag-ma, utterly destroying them...that is...unless you pay me...
One hundred billion trillion fafillion dollahs!!!
(cue dramatic music)
Gentleman, you have my demands...peace out.
____
~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey
The U.S. hit puberty and Oregon got the country's first zit
A shield volcano is formed when a large pool of magma forms and pushes the land above it upwards. These types are not likely to erupt, though they will erupt violently if the magma is able to push through the surface (kind of like a giant geologic pimple). These volcanos are great for tourism because of the typically accompanying hot springs and year-round greenery.
I like Oregon a lot. I just wish it were easier to get to.
Jesus saved me from my past. He can save you as well.
since when are volcanos square? must be some giant square monolith planted by aliens years ago rising out of the ground
Pretty cool either way though. If there is a correlation it could be very useful predictive data.
When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.
After all, now there's just more of it to love.
My comments are my own, and do not represent the views of my employer, my spouse, my children, or my cats.
both regions lie along the same fault line.
No. Both regions sit atop the seismically active area named "The Ring Of Fire", which is a poetic name given to a seismically active rim boundary indicated by plots of earthquake epicenter. The purple band you see on the map is the area is the subduction zone of the Pacific Plate.
This is not a fault zone. Fault zones arise in response to subduction.
"Rocky Rococo, at your cervix!"
Yeah, that's what I first thought upon reading this, too, since 100 square miles sounds pretty darn big. Then I looked it up, and realized that the Yellowstone caldera is an order of magnitude bigger (28 * 47 = ~1316 square miles), and that only includes the actual part where magma comes out. In comparison, this 100 square mile figure includes the entire area of uplift.
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
It's where they stash their weed.
Angela Dodson: I guess God has a plan for all of us.
John Constantine: God's a kid with an ant farm, lady. He's not planning anything.
There's no place like ~/
If this is indeed another one, then the fallout from Katrina is going to seem mild in comparison.
I live in Oregon, and let me tell you, if a volcano blew 25 miles from Bend, the most we'd lose is some trees and scrub brush. Even if Bend got taken out...it's only a town of about 60,000 with roads leading out in all directions. Wouldn't be a particularly bad disaster. Most of the population of Oregon lives about 150 miles west on the other side of the Cascade mountain range.
Don't take life so seriously. No one makes it out alive.
Has anyone looked toward their Garbage Removal manager? is Oregon going to be picking up & moving to Washington?
"There is a reason Linux is free"
~me~
You ever get the feeling that we are on the receiving end of someone that got tired of playing Sim City and is now just unleashing disasters and seeing what will happen.
A week and a half ago, I climbed South Sister for the first time. Again, no sacrificial maiden (they're hard to find in Oregon.) The clock is ticking.
Not always. San Andreas is a transform fault - no subduction involved. See http://jersey.uoregon.edu/~mstrick/AskGeoMan/geoQu erry22.html
If the g'vt kept the data on you that google does you'd better believe you'd be calling it "doing evil"
Q: How many Californians does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Six. One to turn the bulb, one for support, and four to relate to the experience.
Q: How many Oregonians does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: Five. One to change the bulb and four more to chase off the Californians who have come up to relate to the experience
--From the The Cannonical [sic] Collection of Light Bulb Jokes, Usenet, October 1983 Edition
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
His Noodily Appendage works in awesome and mysterious ways.
If His Noodliness says Oregon needs a bulge, then it shall be so.
Throw me a frick'n bone here.
A Californian a Texan and an Oregonian are sittin around a fire sipping their evening beverage.
Texan pulls out a 45 caliber hog leg, tosses his empty of Lone Star Beer up in the air, and plugs it dead center.
Californian finishes his mulled Petite Sara, tosses the wine bottle in the air and shatters it with one round from a Saturday night special.
The Oregonian takes a last sip of his bottled Starbucks Late`, tosses it in the air, grabs his deer rifle, plugs the Californian and catches the bottle
"Why'd ya go and do THAT?" says the Texan.
"Because", says the Oregonian, "We have plenty of those up here" gesturing at the dead Californian, "and this", holding up the bottle, "is worth FIVE CENTS!"
- Minutus cantorum, minutus balorum, minutus carborata descendum pantorum.
At the 98th Annual Meeting of the Cordilleran Section of the Geological Society of America (May 13-15, 2002), in Corvallis, Oregon, there were several papers on this bulge in the "Hazards and Risks from Cascade Volcanoes" session. Apparently it was discovered in April 2001; the GSA even sent out a press release about the bulge in May 2002.