The only problem with that is, last time the caldera erupted, it put down nearly a meter of ash. Once that gets wet, it essentially turns to concrete. Kind of tuff (heh) to grow things in. It would probably take at least a century of freeze-thaw to break it up enough to start things growing again.
Did you sleep through the last few months? We've got labor coming up. They can break it up.
You decide whether I'm joking or not.
I know which way I would bet. I don't have a century left in me.
Besides, Mt. St. Helen didn't take a century to grow 12" pines. History mean anything to you?
/johnny
I don’t know about that. Eastern Washington got a lot of ash from Mt. St. Helens and they’re not dealing with “cement” over there. I’ve been up to Mt. St. Helens many times now and it’s not that way with the ash.
I was out there before it blew ... at those camp-out parties where everyone was just “hanging around” waiting for it to blow. Fortunately I wasn’t there that particular Sunday morning.
On that map of the ash fall, how deep was the ash at the outer perimeter, for example, northern Texas?
Well, we have bulldozers, excavators, etc. to help Mother Nature a bit.