Ferguson Volcanoe Research Paper

With no prolonged periods of inactivity the volcano has continuously built up on itself. The last major eruption took place in 1790 and killed many people and animals, but numbers are unknown4. Starting in 1983 there was a chain of several eruptions that started and have yet to stop pushing lava through a lava tube till it reaches the Pacific Ocean. Over a span of twenty year the flow has

The west coast of North America has been tectonically and volcanically active for billions of years. The Sierra Nevada Mountains in eastern California were born of volcanoes, and magma has been erupting in the Long Valley to the east of the mountains for over three million years (Bailey, et. al., 1989). However, the climactic eruption of the region occurred relatively recently in the region's geologic history. About 760,000 years ago, a huge explosion of magma warped the Eastern Sierra into the landscape that exists today. The eruption depleted a massive magma chamber below the earth's surface so that the ceiling of the chamber imploded, forming what is now known as

To begin my search I went to my favorite search engine, Yahoo.com. I have always found that this engine is the easiest to use, and gives you the best information. At first, I researched all volcanoes, not just Mt. Rainier. There was so much information out there that I found it difficult to narrow it down to just 10 for my annotated bibliography. I was able to spend hours on the computer exploring the various sites and finding out new information. From most of the sites I went to I was able to link to other sites that had to do with the same subject. I found this to be very useful in doing my research. Not only did I find information about volcanoes and how they work, I found places where I could buy volcano merchandise, watch real time videos of eruptions, and look at volcano cams from around the world. I learned so much about all kinds of volcanoes from my research, but when it came down to answering the questions that I had asked, there were two web sites that I found were the most useful, The US Geological Societies Cascades Volcano Observatory, and Volcanoes Online. These two I found to be the most useful in my research.

Mount St Helens erupted on the 18th May 1980 at 9am and is an active strata volcano Washington State USA, a MEDC. Where as on 18th July 1995, during the daytime, Montserrat, a LEDC during the day, Montserrat's Soufrière Hills composite volcano of a height 1050m, meaning sulphur hills, dormant for centuries, erupted and produced a phreatic eruption. The volcano is a strata volcano also. Mount St. Helens is a composite volcano which lies near to a destructive plate boundary where the small Juan de Fuca Plate is being subducted underneath the North American Plate where as the eruption

Washington has five major volcanoes as a part of the Cascade Range. Ten volcanoes line the state of Washington as a small portion of the ring of fire. Washington’s weather can also change rapidly at anytime and anywhere unexpectedly.

Mount St. Helens Location: Washington, United States Latitude: 46.20 N Longitude: 122.18 W height: 2,549 meters or 8,364 feet - 9,677 feet before May 18, 1980 Type: Stratovolcano Number of eruptions in past 200 years: 2-3 Latest Eruptions: Between 1660-1700, around 1800-1802, 1831, 1835, 1842-1844, 1847-1854, 1857, 1980-? Present thermal activity: strong steaming Nickname: Mount Fuji of the West Remarks: continuous intermittent activity since 1980 with occasional eruptions of steam and ash; occasional pyroclastic flows; intermittent dome forming. MSH is considered a young volcano that developed over the last 40,000 years and is one of the most active volcanoes in the Cascade Range. Geologists predicted that the

Mt St Helens (or the Fuji-san of America) is known for the May 18th, 1980 eruption which destroyed the whole north side of the volcano in just a few minutes within a 6 mile radius. Mount St Helens is named by George Vancouver after a British Diplomat nicknamed Baron St Helens. Mt St Helens is located in Yakima, Washington State, United States, North America on the North American tectonic plate. (Which is a continental plate) Yakima, Washington is almost right in the middle of the state, but Washington borders British Columbia and Alberta, Canada and Idaho and Oregon, United States, and of course, the Pacific Ocean.

Lava flows of rhyolite and basalt have flowed through parts of Yellowstone as recently as 70,000 years ago. These lava flows destroyed everything in their paths while moving slowly at a rate of a few hundred feet per day, flowing months, or sometimes even several years. They are thick and cover as much as 130 square miles. They have nearly filled the Yellowstone Caldera, and spilled beyond the caldera’s border. These lava flows are responsible for forming four of the nine named plateaus in

Simultaneously, Mt Adams is the second highest mountain and the most under looked volcano in Washington State. In terms of volume, Mt. Adams is the second largest volcano (behind Mt. Shasta) in the Cascade Range (Alt & Hyndman 1984). Since it has been relatively quiet for the past couple millennia, it does not receive as much attention as it’s counterparts and draws very few tourists due to it’s remote setting (Hill 2004). Prior to recent research, not much was known regarding Mt. Adam’s eruptive history, frequency or how explosive previous eruptions have been. (Hildreth & Lanphere 1994). In this paper, I will discuss the geography, history, geology, and hazards of Mt. Adams and it’s surrounding area; focusing heavily on its geology and geologic hazards.

Usually, many earthquakes in succession can warn of a volcanic eruption. Warning systems for volcanoes are based on the possibility of a hazard. The volcanoes are classified based upon the likeliness of an eruption. An active volcanoe is currently erupting or expected to erupt in the near future. Dormant volcanoes are inactive, but they are likely to erupt sometime in the future. An extinct volcanoe is unlikely to erupt again. Even though a volcanoe is not expected to erupt, it could suddenly become active. Volcanoes are unpredictable because almost any of these mountains could erupt again. There is no current way to ensure that a volcanoe will not erupt. To prepare for a volcanoe families should have an emergency supply kit that includes food, first aid kits, and other supplies. Also every family should have a plan to stay safe during any natural disaster. The best way to stay safe from a volcano that is likely to erupt is to evacuate (Anderson, 2012). 260,000 have died within 300 years from different volcanoes and their aftermath (National Geographic, 2016). Volcanic eruptions can be accompanied by other natural disasters including mudflows, flash floods, rock falls, acid rain, and tsunamis. Devastation from a volcanoe can stretch for hundreds of miles (Anderson, 2012). Hence, volcanoes are unpredictable disasters that everyone near a volcanoe should be prepared for, even if it is not expected to erupt

agriculture and it many casualties and devastation resulted from Mt. St. Helen’s eruption. The Skamania County, Washington, and even though it was very tricky with many things lost and live too, but everyone from May 18, 1980 to now will still remember this day if they are still alive. If you ask some about this great eruption they person may know a thing or

The volcano continued to discharge an ash plume for hours after the lateral blast, rising over 20 km’s into the atmosphere. Prevailing winds blew over 500 million tons of ash across the United States reaching the east coast in 3 days and encompassing the globe in 15 days Regions as far as 400 km’s away were overwhelmed in complete darkness. Lakes, rivers, land, and the life they supported, appeared decimated. The familiar Pacific Northwest landscape was scoured of vegetation and buried under ash and pumice (USGS 2015).Mount St. Helens is located on a plate boundary where the oceanic plate (Juan de Fuca) meets the continental plate (North American) as seen in Figure 1 below. This boundary is part of the infamous Ring of Fire; a collection of volcanoes that form the margin around the Pacific Ocean. Mount St. Helens was created on a destructive margin where the Juan de Fuca plate subducts. Mount St. Helens is the youngest and most active of 13 volcanos in the Cascades and erupted last in 1857. The destructive nature of the margin between the two plates and the build up of pressure over 123 years is what caused this fierce 1980 eruption (Project Learning Tree, 2010). Rising temperatures due to the presence of magma and frictional effects, caused the crust to begin to melt, adding to the

The first sign of Mt. St. Helen exploding was a landslide starting at the rim of the summit crater. In 15 seconds, the north side of Mt. St. Helen was making its way down the side of the volcano. After the entire north side had collapsed superheated gasses and lava were released in a massive lateral explosion. This abrupt release of pressure created a nuees arfentes, “which is (in a volcanic eruption) a swiftly flowing, dense cloud of hot gases, ashes, and lava fragments.”1. The nuees arfentes wiped everything within 8 miles almost instantly. The shockwave rolled over the forest for 19 more miles forcing almost all of the centuries old trees to fall towards the north. After those 27 miles the trees remained upright but were burnt to death.

Mt. Saint Helens is a volcano located in Skamania County in Washington. It is the product of when tectonic plates on the surface of the Earth collide. Like how most volcanoes are formed, the formation of Mt. Saint Helens began with subduction of the Mt. Saint Helen Juan De Fuca plate underneath the North American plate. An explanation of why this happens is because the water weight on top of the oceanic plates increases the density of the oceanic crust in which eventually, it slides under the continental crust. The oceanic plate (Mt. Saint Helen Juan De Fuca plate) then goes farther underneath the continental plate and the lithosphere. It eventually reaches the asthenosphere part of the upper mantle where the plates are melted and turn into

However, Mt. Saint Helens was the smallest (at 3000 meters before eruption) and youngest of the range (Mount St. Helens Eruption: Facts & Information, livescience.com). With what we have learned in this course and in the book, this is consistent with what we know about mountain formation and volcanic activity. Thus, this would make sense that Mt. Saint Helens had been brewing beneath its surface, becoming closer and closer to eruption with magma levels within the mountain raising at up to more than 1.5 meters per day, (Mount St. Helens Erupts, history.com). The mountain is known to have erupted several times in the past, particularly in the early and mid