Article

2004-12-15 -Signs, Portents, and the Weather-

Scientists Amazed at Mount St. Helens' Growing Dome

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Posted by Steve 2004-12-15 1:36:15 PM|| || Front Page|| [1 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Take cover, eggheads, me thinks Miss Helens is gonna let fly once more.

Posted by Laurence of the Rats 2004-12-15 1:48:27 PM|| [http://www.punictreachery.com/] 2004-12-15 1:48:27 PM|| Front Page Top

#2 "There's a truckload of hot rock coming out of the mountain every second," said Dan Dzurisin of the U.S. Geological Survey. "We're scratching our heads about it."

They got a spot open for this genius over at the UN? Maybe he could be a Weapons Inspector.

Posted by tu3031 2004-12-15 1:54:37 PM|| 2004-12-15 1:54:37 PM|| Front Page Top

#3 We know how to prevent An Earth-shattering Kaboom. The only problem is finding the virgin grad students to "go collect some samples".

Posted by N Guard 2004-12-15 2:02:03 PM|| 2004-12-15 2:02:03 PM|| Front Page Top

#4 I majored in Geology in college, but never used my degree in that field.

Seems to me Dan Dzurisin isn't using his either.

However, despite my never using that knowledge for the past 35 years, I do remember some things, and one of those things is that a growing lava dome is caused by lava rising to the surface.

Here's a clue, Danny-boy: Expect an eruption. If you're very lucky, you'll get the Hawaiian kind instead of the Mount Pinatubo (or Mt. St. Helens) kind. But I wouldn't depend on it.

The worst possible thing that could happen is for the lava dome to rise but not erupt (or flow out), cooling in place. That would plug the natural vents for the magma below. The magma might subside now, but it will eventually rise again, and put so much pressure on the mountain that it will either blow out somewhere else or blow the plug off the top.

I'll be glad I live on the East Coast if/when that occurs.

Posted by Barbara Skolaut 2004-12-15 2:07:52 PM|| 2004-12-15 2:07:52 PM|| Front Page Top

#5 I wonder if there's any way we could convince the moonbats its all a Bush-Halliburton plot and get them to start protesting on top of the thing.

Posted by Laurence of the Rats 2004-12-15 3:03:14 PM|| [http://www.punictreachery.com/] 2004-12-15 3:03:14 PM|| Front Page Top

#6 I have a good friend who's a retired vulcanologist for the USGS. He studied Mt. St. Helens after the earlier eruption. His comment to me: Don't move anywhere within 500 miles of the place, it's going to be the next Mt. Mazama. If you don't know what that means, do a Google search, then check out Crater Lake National Park. He also predicted that Mt. Hood and Mt. Rainier, as well as a couple of other peaks, could "go active" in the next 50-75 years. Not a good time to buy Oregon or Washington real estate...

Posted by Old Patriot 2004-12-15 3:21:04 PM|| [http://oldpatriot.blogspot.com/] 2004-12-15 3:21:04 PM|| Front Page Top

#7 I majored in Geology as well but never used it. Trend? Anyway it will not be a Hawaiian style eruption. In Hawaii the basaltic magma is not rich enough in water to be explosive so it just oozes out. The andesitic magma in the Cascade Range is. I agree the volcanoes are not extinct just dormant. Mt. Ranier is the big kahuna. Here's a webcam site for Mt. St Helens

http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/volcanocams/msh/

Posted by Warthog 2004-12-15 3:41:43 PM|| 2004-12-15 3:41:43 PM|| Front Page Top

#8 tu: I suspect the reporter didn't understand what was puzzling the geologists, so he left that part out. A clue might be the "unusually smooth" part of the article. Maybe they were expecting more earthquakes?

Posted by James 2004-12-15 4:10:16 PM|| [http://www.idontknowbut.blogspot.com] 2004-12-15 4:10:16 PM|| Front Page Top

#9 Warthog - Trend? Looks like it. I barely used my geology degree. Now I sit in a cube farm in a computer company.

Posted by Laurence of the Rats 2004-12-15 4:31:37 PM|| [http://www.punictreachery.com/] 2004-12-15 4:31:37 PM|| Front Page Top

#10 I think James is right. MSH type volcanos normally have sticky lumpy magma with explosive eruptions. The smooth dome may indicate an imminent non-viscous lava flow, i.e. non-explosive..

Posted by phil_b 2004-12-15 5:10:28 PM|| 2004-12-15 5:10:28 PM|| Front Page Top

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