Posted on 04/28/2002 4:15:45 AM PDT by 11B3
Are Some of The Cascades Waking Up?
I apologize for the vanity post, but things around Mt Rainier seem a little different as of late. When visible, there have been some obvious rock-slides as well as some odd looking releases of gases. This all started back in June, when Mt Rainier had a mud flow - there has been seismic activity almost constantly since then. Unfortunately, the official monitoring sites are all very quiet about this - none of them want to mention this activity.
During November of last year, Mt St Helens showed a swarm of earthquakes under the lava dome. This swarm was considered to be enough of an event to archive the seismograph records for instructional use, yet these swarms were almost insignificant in comparison to the current activity at Mt Rainier. What I'm hoping is that there are a few geophysicists here that can evaluate the seismographic records from the region and tell me the truth about what is going on under the mountain right now. If you go to the link above, you will see the current (as this was written) seismograph for one of the Mt Rainier monitoring stations. By clicking on the other stations above the graph you can check other locations in the Cascade Range. Some appear to be the output of a dead person's heart monitor, while others are nothing but a sea of ink. Normally during this time of year, I would contribute much of this activity to glacial movement and other spring break up - but the freezing level has been far below the monitoring stations that have been so active. Actually, they've been active all winter.
When you consider that over a million people live in the shadow of Mt Rainier, the authorities have a vested interest in keeping us from worry about the mountain. But some of us would like to hear the true facts - because if these charts are showing the movement of magma as it appears, then we're looking at the possibility of an eruption and the chance of a real catastrophy. I'm tired of the same old "Nothing to see here, move along" story - please check out the chart and let me know. Thank You.
I live in Puget Sound, on an island with a great view of Ranier. Front row seat for eruption. I'll keep you posted.
I agree with the posters who say that the Cascades have never really gone to sleep...I do believe that is the case...there used to be Ice Caves up near Mt Rainier, and people used to be able to go inside of them...but I think in the last several years, those caves have been closed off to tourists, simply because they are slowly melting, and have become unstable and dangerous...so why are they melting? I suspect because the activity beneath Rainier is very much alive and active, and causing the ice to melt...
He had some very compelling evidence.
Notice how close the cities are!!!
Bingo and thanks for pointing this out. Even the USGS and PNW Webicoder site you can view these on states the readings are not reliable because of interference from all sorts of outside sources.
If this one was at Longmire, guess what? The road is a mere 500 yards from the instrument. Trucks, busses and cars travel that route constantly. Besides, others are correct as well, the Cascades have never gone to sleep. And as long as I've been here there have always been reports of activity of one form or another. If it's gonna blow, it's gonna blow and there is nothing we or the government can do about it.
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