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Imminent Volcanic Eruption
At Mt. Rainer Feared
By J.J. Johnson
SierraTimes.com
8-24-1

MT RAINER NATIONAL FOREST - Not much in Washignton Media, but here's what we know: Evidence is growing of a imminent volcanic eruption at Mt. Rainer in the state of Washington - within view of the Seattle - Tacoma area.
 
Last week, reports had come from Canadian sources monitoring the Mountain that a possible volcanic eruption was coming soon, but that was quickly dismissed by the U.S Geological Service (USGS). This was reported on 1130 AM News Radio in Vancouver, British Columbia.
 
However, this reporter, while on route back to Nevada witnessed a growing dome over on the southeast side of the mountain face from 37,000 feet. Then on Thursday, sources from the University of Washington told Sierra Times that mud was seen flowing from the mountain. Mt Rainier has been upgraded to a Level 2 - meaning a possible eruption in 30 to 90 days.
 
Mount Rainier, the highest volcano in the Cascade Range (16,181 ft - 4392m), towers over a population of more than 2.5 million in the Seattle Tacoma metropolitan area. The National Park Service says the mountain has had recent volcanic events (last eruption was about 150 years ago), and it is likely to erupt again, based on past history; its location poses significant hazards to the heavily populated area.
 
Mount Rainier and other similar volcanoes in the Cascade Range, such as Mount Adams and Mount Baker, erupt much less frequently than the more familiar Hawaiian volcanoes, but their eruptions are vastly more destructive. Hot lava and rock debris from Rainier's eruptions have melted snow and glacier ice and triggered debris flows (mudflows). The northeast part of Mount Rainier slid away about 5,600 years ago as part of a catastrophic collapse similar to, but much larger than, that of May 18, 1980 at Mount St. Helens. Debris from this collapse created the Osceola and Paradise mudflows that traveled down the White and Nisqually Rivers, reaching Puget Sound and pushing out the shoreline by as much as several miles. The scar from this collapse was a horseshoe-shaped crater, about 1.25 miles (wide, open to the northeast. Since the collapse, lava flows and avalanches of hot lava fragments have erupted from the crater and largely filled it, forming the present summit cone of Mount Rainier. A much larger dome is now visible from the naked eye on the southeast corner
 
There is nothing to suggest that volcanic activity has ended at Mount Rainier, according to the USGS. Mount Rainier will surely erupt again, and this will affect people who live in the surrounding areas or who visit Mount Rainier National Park. Experience at other volcanoes indicates that renewed eruptions will likely be preceded by weeks or months of small earthquakes centered beneath the volcano. These earthquakes can be accompanied by swelling or other changes in the shape of the volcano, as well as changes in ground temperatures and the amount and type of gas released from the volcano. Earthquakes at Mount Rainier and other Cascade volcanoes are monitored by the University of Washington and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), and the volcanoes' shapes are measured regularly by staff of the USGS's Cascades Volcano Observatory, located in Vancouver, Washington.
 

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