The Axial Seamount volcano may (or may not) have erupted off the coast of Oregon and Washington

By Jack Brummet, Rim of Fire Ed.

Over 80 scientists from around the world gathered in Seattle last week to discuss the first time that seafloor instruments were providing a real-time look at the active, submarine volcano Axial Seamount off the Northwest coast. The signs all pointed to it erupting soon. it might erupt soon. Sandi Doughton of the Seattle Times wrote: "But even the researchers most closely monitoring were stunned by what happened next" (doesn't that sound like clickbait?!), As it turns out, Axial may have actually erupted.

On Thursday, April 23, the new sensors placed on and near the volcano (see photo below) recorded 8,000 small earthquakes in a 24-hour period. The volcano’s caldera, which had been expanding rapidly with magma, collapsed like a deflated balloon.

Scientists are debating whether  this was actually an eruption, with actual molten rock flowing over the seafloor. No instruments were destroyed and there was no temperature spike. It is possible the volcano didn't erupt, but filled subterranean fissures, with lava.

---o0o---

The Eruption of Mount Edgecumbe

By Jack Brummet, Volcanology Ed.

Photo by Harold Wahlman

This is a leftover from April Fool's Day I never got around to posting.  The residents of Sitka, Alaska woke up on April 1, 1974 to see clouds of black smoke were rising from the crater of Mount Edgecumbe, a dormant, nearby volcano. People went out into the streets to gaze up at the volcano, terrified that it would erupt. 

A local practical joker named Porky Bickar had flown hundreds of old tires into the volcano's crater and lit them on fire (note the day this occurred) to fool city dwellers into believing the volcano was coming back to life.

Great prank.  How can I fly a few hundred tires into the crater of Mount Rainier?

---o0o---

Poem: The Earth Is In Motion

By Jack Brummet

The mountain is the youngest child
Of heaven and earth,
Striving ever upward

And simultaneously tumbling down,
Like the five volcanoes
That surround me.
  ---o0o---

Poem: The Earth Is In Motion

By Jack Brummet

The mountain is the youngest child

Of heaven and earth,

Striving ever upward

 

And simultaneously tumbling down,

Like the five volcanoes

That surround me.
            ---o0o---

Decade Volcanoes (and Mount Rainier in particular)

By Jack Brummet, Seattle Metro Editor

The Decade Volcanoes are sixteen volcanoes "identified by the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior (IAVCEI) as being worthy of particular study in light of their history of large, destructive eruptions and proximity to populated areas."  I live fifty miles from one of them.

click to enlarge - licensed from Wikipedia Commons

According to the Wikipedia, "Mount Rainier is a massive stratovolcano located 54 miles (87 km) southeast of Seattle in the state of Washington, United States. It is the most topographically prominent mountain in the contiguous United States and the Cascade Volcanic Arc, with a summit elevation of 14,411 feet.  Mt. Rainier is considered one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world because of its large amount of glacial ice."

The three summits of Mount Rainier

In an eruption, Mt. Rainier could produce massive lahars that would threaten the whole Puyallup River Valley.  A lahar is a mudflow or debris flow composed of a slurry of lave, rocky debris, mud, and water. 

Hazard Map showing potential mud and lava flows

The U.S. Geological Survey says that "150,000 people live on top of old lahar deposits of Rainier. Not only is there much ice atop the volcano, the volcano is also slowly being weakened by hydrothermal activity. According to Geoff Clayton, a geologist with a Washington State Geology firm, RH2 Engineering, a repeat of the Osceola mudflow would destroy Enumclaw, Orting, Kent, Auburn, Puyallup, Sumner and all of Renton.  Such a mudflow might also reach down the Duwamish estuary and destroy parts of downtown Seattle, and cause tsunamis in Puget Sound and Lake Washington."

IAVCEI's list of the 16 decade volcanoes:


Avachinsky-Koryaksky, Kamchatka, Russia
Colima, Jalisco and Colima, Mexico
Mount Etna, Sicily, Italy
Galeras, Nariño, Colombia
Mauna Loa, Hawaii, USA
Mount Merapi, Central Java, Indonesia
Mount Nyiragongo, Democratic Republic of Congo
Mount Rainier, Washington, USA
Sakurajima, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan
Santa Maria/Santiaguito, Guatemala
Santorini, Cyclades, Greece
Taal Volcano, Batangas, Luzon, Philippines
Teide, Canary Islands, Spain
Ulawun, New Britain, Papua New Guinea
Mount Unzen, Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan
Vesuvius, Naples, Italy

Mount Rainier in 1895

---o0o---

Poem: The earth in motion

The mountain is the youngest child
Of heaven and earth,
Striving ever upward

And simultaneously tumbling down,
Like the five volcanoes
That surround me.
---o0o---