vulcan flood alert

[Guest guest]

I just caught this on the KATU Channel 2 local news out of Portland, Oregon. It's not up on their website as of yet.

 

Areas around Mount Hood, east of Portland, Oregon are being closed for fear of a glacier outburst as happened recently on Mount Rainier. The Deschutes, Sandy, White, Salmon, Zigzag, Bull Run and Hood Rivers are all in danger of debris flows and flash flooding. The towns of Troutdale, Sandy and Hood River, along with surrounding areas are under flood warnings. Check the link for a map of the area. Portland is not threatened.

 

 

Map of the Mount Hood area

 

 

[Guest guest]

 

<font size="2" FACE="arial,geneva">NISQUALLY - by KOMO-TV News, Seattle

 

 

PIERCE COUNTY - First it was a lahar.

 

Then it wasn't.

 

Then it was a glacial outburst.

 

Wrong again.

 

Geologists Wednesday pinpointed the source of a gush of water from a Mount Rainier glacier that sent rocks and trees rushing into the Nisqually River.

 

 

They said it was a plain old debris buildup that gave way, not anything geological, seismological, volcanic or otherwise extraordinary.

 

No Injuries, Damage

 

No injuries or serious damage was reported from the Tuesday night event, but it sent emergency officials scrambling to gauge the severity of the event at the 14,410-foot mountain. The fear was that a lahar, a potentially deadly flow of mud and debris, might be coming down the river.

 

Mount Rainier is an active volcano, and its glaciers feed rivers that run through some of the most populous regions of the state.

 

"Reports are still coming in, but we're lucky at this point," said Jody Woodcock, spokeswoman for Pierce County Emergency Management. "This isn't the big one we've been practicing for."

 

Surge Came Down

 

The surge of water sent water and debris rushing into the Nisqually and its tributaries, and left some mud and rock on a park road, said Maria Gillett, spokeswoman for Mount Rainier National Park. Despite initial concerns, it had little effect downstream, where the Nisqually showed no indication that it would overflow its banks.

 

Nevertheless, the rising water scared campers at several locations within the park, which receives more than 1.2 million visitors a year. The road to Paradise, where the park's main visitor center and hotel are located, was closed briefly as a precaution, but all facilities were open Wednesday morning, Gillett said.

 

Some campers left, but no evacuations were ordered, she said.

 

Mud and debris was left on the road to Paradise near Christine Falls, just above where Van Trump Creek enters the Nisqually River, but the mess was cleared by dawn Wednesday, said park spokeswoman Alisa Lynch.

 

A helicopter with geologists from the U.S. Geological Survey plus park and Pierce County officials flew Wednesday by the glaciers high on the mountain's southern flank to look for melting, she said.

 

Better Safe Than Sorry

People in nearby communities were asked to stay away from the river, just in case. Tuesday night, Gillett and several of her neighbors in Ashford, site of the park's headquarters just outside the park's southwest entrance, took survival supplies and left their homes.

 

"I grabbed my pack, grabbed a cell phone and a park radio, and went and grabbed an elderly neighbor who I wasn't sure would know what was going on," Gillett said. "We drove up what's basically a logging road and ran into several of my neighbors up there."

 

The rushing water apparently came from the Van Trump or Kautz glacier on the volcano's south side, officials said.

 

Officials have been particularly sensitive to potential eruptions of Mount Rainier following a recent computer simulation that showed the region isn't prepared for one. The simulation, done in May with the help of the federal government, showed that as many as 5,000 people could be killed in an eruption.

 

An electronic sensor on the mountain, designed to warn of impending eruptions or mud flows, was tripped Tuesday night, apparently by the rushing water and debris. It sounded an alarm at the Pierce County dispatch center, said Sheriff Paul Pastor.

 

Orting Police Chief Ron Emmons said no siren was sounded in the town, as might have happened if the flow had been into the Carbon or Puyallup rivers. Still, roads above Orting were closed.

 

"Everything here is fine," Emmons said Tuesday night. "Probably it was a pretty good drill, but we don't like those kinds of things, at night especially."

 

Common Event On The Big Mountain

 

Glacial outbursts are among the most common types of events a volcano like Mount Rainier can produce, said Bill Steele of the University of Washington seismology center in Seattle.

 

"It's a hot summer, a dry year," Steele said. "The water builds up, gets trapped under the glacier and then can burst forth suddenly, causing a flood down the channel which can be quite dangerous if you're near the river."

 

The rising water level was noticed at about 10 p.m.

 

Pastor noted the water surge occurred in "a very isolated part of the county -- a wilderness area."

 

Pierce County activated its emergency operations center and called out its search and rescue personnel and swift water rescue teams, sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer said.

 

For More Information:

 

 

What's a Lahar? - volcanoes.usgs.gov/Products/Pglossary/lahar.html

 

 

Lahar Warning System - volcanoes.usgs.gov/About/Highlights/RainierPilot/Pilot_highlight.html

 

 

Mt. Rainier Web site - www.nps.gov/mora/

 

 

[mahak 0]

Haribol, Ill call it a lahar for now. Glaciers are difficult to melt from the top down, as in a hot year, but if the ground temp increases, it makes a slide, and the glacier loses friction.

 

Mexico is doing this, too. Northeast of Popocateptyl, the temp of the ground is often much warmer than the air temp, meaning that magma is very near the surface. This is also the case from alaska to jellystone to the sierras.

 

No quakes prominant enough to be associated with magma movement on Rainier, however, very little movement will be felt at the depth of the problem (30+ miles below the surface.)

 

The media changing of the story indicates that someone is indeed worried. Keep the eye on adams, hood, glacier, even three sisters to the south. If they have stable glaciers, then the present "melt-off" theory is bogus. Glaciers on all the cascades are similar, and the drought is the same all around, so "all" should be having similar problems.

 

Have fun, the vulcans are with you, Im goin to the beach, French Beach, B.C. Wish me waves, ys, mahak

[Guest guest]

big Wwves wish, mahax. heat wave ending today with a small low from the alaskan gulf coming ashore with wind, so the waves may be good (for bc anywayz )

 

here's a good vulcan resource:

http://gldss7.cr.usgs.gov/neis/bulletin/bulletin.html

 

[This message has been edited by rand0M aXiS (edited 08-17-2001).]

[Guest guest]

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[Guest guest]

Mt. Rainier Showing

Signs Of Possible Eruption

 

 

By J.J. Johnson

 

 

Washington: Mt. Rainier

 

 

Mt Rainier 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 (14,000 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.