- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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
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- 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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