Posted on 10/21/2011 5:12:18 AM PDT by winoneforthegipper
Should anyone ever decide to make a show called "CSI: Geology," a group of scientists studying a mysterious and rapidly inflating South American volcano have got the perfect storyline. Several universities are essentially working as geological detectives, using a suite of tools to piece together the restive peak's past in order to understand what it is doing now, and better diagnose what may lie ahead.
It's a mystery they've yet to solve.
Uturuncu is a nearly 20,000-foot-high (6,000 meters) volcano in southwest Bolivia. Scientists recently discovered the volcano is inflating with astonishing speed.
"I call this 'volcano forensics,' because we're using so many different techniques to understand this phenomenon," said Oregon State University professor Shan de Silva, a volcanologist on the research team. [See images of the inflating volcano here.]
(Excerpt) Read more at ouramazingplanet.com ...
Yes, that is what happened with Mt. St. Helens.
From a 2007 article about Yellowstone:
The caldera floor, the ground of Yellowstone, has risen about 3 inches a year for the past three years. The rise is more than three times greater than the fastest observed since monitoring began in 1923, the study says.
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/695226889/Magma-rising-fast-under-Yellowstone.html
Okaaaayyyyy.... I admit I'm somewhat of a firebug! LOL
One cubic meter per second is pretty impressive! Let's hope it's just taking a deep breath...
Is there a way to release some of the pressure so that it doesn’t reach an explosion point?
It’s amazing it has a breath at all....lol
Hey before I forget you will love this new link towards everything Yellowstone....consider it an early Christmase present....lol
http://www.wsgs.uwyo.edu/Yellowstone/Default.aspx
If there is directionality to the bulge, then I would say the first thing is to get everyone out of the direction of the bulge for at least 10 miles away. Also identify underground areas within and beyond the danger zone to hide if you can’t move even farther away. When the north slope of Mt. St. Helens blew, it killed for at least 5 miles in that direction. After evacuation, one might try a very large explosive, but you would still probably have a very large pyroclastic blowout. It might be slightly better than waiting for nature?? Any other opinions out there?? Of course, then you might have legal liability issues.
I finally got my stubborn computer to go to the continuation link. Now I see this volcano is way out in the middle of nowhere, and the bulge is not in the volcano itself. Also it is raising at a very slow rate. It is nothing like the bulge at Mt. St. Helens, nor is it like the 300 foot bulge not many years ago at a Japanese volcano. It may not be much of a danger to anyone unless it has a climate affecting superexplosion.
Thanks gleeaikin.
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