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Giant Rock Growing in Mount St. Helens' Crater
An anonymous reader writes to mention a CNN article about the huge geological formation growing in Mount St. Helens' crater. From the article: "The fin-shaped mass is about 300 feet tall and growing 4 feet to 5 feet a day, said Dan Dzurisin, a geologist at the U.S. Geological Survey. The rock in the crater began growing last November, steadily moving west and pushing rock and other debris out of its way as it goes." Scientists think the mountain will eventually replace the lave dome blown out by the original 1980 eruption.
Maybe it's just happy to see you.
this one time in geometry class i developed a 'huge formation', and then the teacher called me to work out a problem on the board!
the girls all laughed at me. hopefully mt. st. helens won't have that problem.
I wonder how long it would take for the old dome to be rebuilt? Didn't find it anywhere in that article.
with any luck, it will go after it's creater!
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
"Given the way things are going now, there's no hint of any sort of catastrophic eruptions," USGS geologist Tom Pierson said. "At any time, however, things can change."
I hate quotes like that in news stories. They amount to "there's nothing happening right now, and I dont know if anything is going to happen, as the situation could change as soon as I finish telling you everything is fine". An eight-year-old could have offered us as much insight.
It was on a Sunday if I recall (I was all of 9 years old)and I slept right through it. Some people claimed they could hear it, and you could see a funny shaped cloud on the horizon if you squinted real hard. I kept waiting for the predicted ash fall, but it never got as far as Seattle.
I visited the mountain some years later, and I can't begin to describe how small I felt looking at the devestation. Miles and miles of forests flattened, all the trees lined up in the same direction, following the contours of the hills. Everything coated in a layer of fine ash. Scary, in a "look how freakin' insignificant you are" kinda way.
If you ever go, be sure to bring a lantern and visit Ape Caves, a 5 mile long lava tube near the base of the mountain. It's an easy hike even if you've never been in a cave before, and unlike most caves the sole improvement is a rickety metal staircase leading down in the middle. You can hike 2.5 miles up and exit out where it collapsed, and/or hike 2.5 miles down and it gets really narrow and stops. (By "up" and "down" I just mean the thing runs down the side of the mountain, so one end is higher than the other, not that it goes straight up and down.)
As for this latest development, 5 feet per day?! Wow, that's pretty dang fast. I'd heard a new lava dome was growing, but this speed is certainly a new develpment. Still, it will take a long time to get back to its former size. Over 1,000 vertical feet of mountain got blown off the top, and most of one side slid away.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
it seems that 3d virtual environments are getting pretty good. lots of people playing WOW and 2nd life, simms...
When I see an article like this - I want a 3D environment. I want to download the "map -o- the crater" and be able to fly around and see what it's really like there.
it wouldn't need to be that detailed, or be a replacement for pictures. it's just that I can't seem to get a sense for the size or the scope of what we're talking about.
3D standards litter the last 10 years like dead bodies in war zones - but it still is nice to dream.
Maybe so.
With reasonable men I will reason; with humane men I will plead; but to tyrants I will give no quarter. -- William Lloyd
TFA links to a "volcano cam"
http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/volcanocams/msh/
reading more into the eruption... found some cool before and after pics
8 0_st_helens_from_johnston_ridge_05-17-80_med.jpg
8 0_st_helens_from_johnston_ridge_09-10-80_med.jpg
Before:
http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Imgs/Jpg/MSH/Images/MSH
After:
http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Imgs/Jpg/MSH/Images/MSH
wow
It's how the dolphins are planning to get off the planet.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
Except we get lava, not hot water.
I think we all know how a "relaxation oscillator" works, and Mt. St. Helens sure looks like the physical implementation of one to me.
The difference is the volcano has the phase change difference of the liquid lava forming a dense rock upon cooling which introduces a significant chaotic factor into the dwell time, so no one knows just when its gonna cycle.
Not the thing for a good night's sleep.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
I was pretty young.. but I sort of remember..
It was a Sunday (for the first bigger eruption in 1980). We were supposedly in the 'safe zone', but we all know how that went. We had just gotten up out of the tents when the ground shook continuously for minutes like an earthquake.. Then we could see a grey cloud rising up near the horizon.
Very quickly, the cloud appeared to go so high that it was over us. There was lightning at the edge of the cloud. Rain began to fall immediately, I remember it was warm and black.. Looking closely at a drop you could see the individual ash particles.
By that time, we had pulled up the tent with everything in side it and threw it in the back of the truck in a single motion.
The ride back to Yakima, WA was slow, and the visibility was just about zero. It was hard to breath and the roads were jammed with panic'd people.. We later found out that the campground we were at was covered in a large amount of burning hot mud.
When we got home there was ash everywhere, and it stayed dark for what seemed like days. I remember wearing a mask for weeks afterwards to go outside.
Giant paper.
Follow the adventures of the new wandering jews
Everybody out of the lava right now!
Engineering is the art of compromise.
This latest activity is normal for a volcano that typically erupts more silicic lava. The magma at depth is generally more viscous and after an eruption the momentum of the magma migration slows, but still continues to rise up through the vent due to residual pressure beneath the volcano. This type of thing occurs quite a bit at another volcano in Kamchatka, Russia, called Bezymianny. The dome builds up, then collapses, then rebuilds, etc. The USGS should no doubt be concerned with the growth of the dome at MSH, as a major collapse can easily cause a pyroclastic flow...nasty stuff. Questions remain, however, how much more magma is beneath the volcano and what is the rate of replenishment?
.. giant paper and giant scissors.
I was in Eugene, Oregon when it blew in the 80's. I heard and felt a double blow all the way from there. All the Windows in the neighborhood were rattling. The news may keep saying it blew the top off, but that's wrong. Most of the mountain came down in a landslide. Once the landslide started, the pressure blew up and in the direction of the slide. It's the biggest landslide in recorded history. Watch out because when Rainier slides, it will be bigger. Scientists believe it's overdue. There are deposits from a previous slide in Seattle.
Ops, I shuld have usd the prevuwe but in.
I guess I should have RTFA.
Ops, I shuld have usd the prevuwe but in.