Large rock avalanche on Mt. Rainier caught on camera

KOMO News ^

[NavyCanDo]

Mount Rainier has been a flurry of activity over the past few days as climbers have witnessed a few major rock avalanches along the Nisqually Glacier.

According to the Mount Rainier Climbing Blog, there have been slides that have featured a "50' wall of snow, ice, water, dust, and rock coming down the glacier that would outrun anything in its path."

The first avalanches were reported on Friday when rangers reported feeling the earth shake and hearing a loud rumble, according to the blog.

Then on Saturday afternoon, two climbers up on Mt. Rainier had their cameras rolling when the latest slide began.

[NavyCanDo]

VIDEO ON LINK

"park officials have not closed off the area to climbers but the blogger suggests avoiding that glacier area for a while." Ya Think?

[cripplecreek]

Almost looks like river rapids.

[NavyCanDo]

This beautiful mountain is visible from my home and is only about a 90 min drive to the park entrance, but I have had the worse luck visiting it. From heavy fog moving in hiding the mountain, to the day my girlfriend and I were hulled out in an ambulance because of Carbon Monoxide Poisoning caused by a hole in a friend’s 55 Chevy’s muffler, and another hole in its floor so we can breath the stuff in for 90 min. I could write a book on my bad Mt. Rainer experiences. If the camera person was me, either my battery would have died just as the slide started, or I would be standing a thousand yards closer to the slide and ground to a pulp.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

THAT is amazing!

[ml/nj]

So if I went up to where this rock slide originated sometime last week, my guess is that I would have seen a surface of mostly solid rock. That is I wouldn't have seen the relatively small stones that are seen flowing down the mountain here. My question is: what causes the rock to fragment like this?

ML/NJ

[patriot08]

Wow. Thanks for posting.
_____________

FRIDAY SMILES
Live Camera:
Phoebe Allen, the hummingbird, cares for her babies.
They will leave the nest any day now.
http://phoebeallens.com/

.

[super7man]

Nice camera work.

[Turbo Pig]

With your experiences, do you even contemplate what’s going to happen to you when Rainer goes active and erupts; avalanches, landslides, floods, lahars, large pyroclastic flows?

[Bean Counter]

Notice how the rocks, gravel, soil, snow, boulders and other debris flows like water, even though it is all solid material.

That is exactly what a volcanic lahar looks like, only smaller. This was only a rockslide/avalanche but if Mt. Ranier ever erupts, it will trigger a lahar that will flush the Puget Sound like a giant toilet, right out into the Pacific Ocean. So many people live in the likely path of such a lahar that if a sudden eruption of Ranier did occur, evacuation would be nearly impossible and the death toll would be staggering.

[NavyCanDo]

I live at the 415 foot level on a hill above the lahar flood plains. In fact the lahar evacuation signs point up my hill. And the normal prevailing winds would carry most of the ash another direction.

[Wally_Kalbacken]

Feets don’ fail me now!

[harpu]

Looks to me like it's George Bush's fault for whatever ridiculous reason the media wants to throw up as the cause.

[NavyCanDo]

Although, though my house would be safe, my job title in the valley below would be changed from Project Manager to shovel man. Part of those shovel ready jobs Obama was referring to?

[bert]

That is the reason good hiking boots have scree cuffs

[NavyCanDo]

St. Helens woke up this way, with swarms of seismic activity causing rock and snow slides. Not saying Rainer is waking up, small earthquakes under it are quite common - but it is something to think about.

Recent Mount Rainier Earthquakes

http://www.pnsn.org/RAINIER/rainrec_eqs.html

[NavyCanDo]

History shows we don’t need an eruption. Mount Rainier has an active hydrothermal system, which acts like an acidic sauna that essentially steams the mountain’s rocky interior into soft, gooey clay. The rock eventually becomes so weak that it can collapse under it own weight. There are also 25 glaciers on the mountain, covering some 36 square miles with an average depth of 100 feet of ice. This ice does its share of damage, freezing and expanding, slowly eroding the volcanic rocks, and dripping melted water into the acidic interior.

Looking at Mount Rainier, you might think there is a large chunk missing from the top. You would be right. Apparently, some 5,600 years ago, the summit collapsed and turned into one of the biggest mudflows in history. This lahar, called the Osceola mudflow, was so big and fluid that it traveled at least 100 miles before stopping in Puget Sound. An ancient forest of vast trees — some ten to fifteen feet wide — covered the valley floors, but did little to slow the powerful flow.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/savageplanet/01volcano/03/indexmid.html

[InvisibleChurch]

Mt.s are incredibly dangerous! Mr Obama, help us!

[PastorBooks]

NavyCanDo,

First, let me thank you for your service to our country.

Second, take care of yourself up there near Rainier. I don’t know if you believe in things like prophecies — I know many don’t — but I have heard one that said that there was going to be, at some time in the future, a major eruption with some volcano here in the US. I thought I would mention it since you’re so close to Rainier.

Be sure to have plenty of supplies, food, bottled water, etc. on hand, and a place to meet with family members elsewhere if you are separated. You might not be at home when/if anything happened.

Take care!

PS. Check your mail for a private message.

[zeugma]

bfl

[Bean Counter]

yah...St. Helens is a different beast all together, and if Ranier erupts it will be much more destructive because there are so many more people in proximity to the volcano.

Not sure it is waking up, but people sure better pay attention if it does....