Giant Rock Growing in Mount St. Helens' Crater 144
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.
Rebuilding (Score:2, Interesting)
I was living in Seattle when St. Helens blew (Score:5, Interesting)
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, [wikipedia.org] 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.
3d info - fly throughs (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
Re:Is that a rock in your pocket.... (Score:5, Interesting)
Maybe so. [usgs.gov]
volcano cam (Score:5, Interesting)
http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/volcanocams/msh/ [fs.fed.us]
before and after pics (Score:2, Interesting)
Before:
http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Imgs/Jpg/MSH/Images/MSH
After:
http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Imgs/Jpg/MSH/Images/MSH
wow
Re:Rebuilding (Score:4, Interesting)
-- I was camping near the blast zone (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re:Rebuilding (Score:3, Interesting)