Mount Rainier Research Paper

Let’s begin with Mount St. Helens which is located in the pacific northwest of the United States. To be more specific it is located in Washington State and is a part of the Cascade mountain range that spans from California to Canada. It is a composite volcano, which has steep sides that are formed by alternating layers of lava

A volcano is an earth hazard that occurs on faults between tectonic plates on a destructive boundary and an eruption is a natural disaster. A primary impact happens immediately after the disaster and before any response like death or collapsing or destruction of buildings. A secondary impact occurs later after the disaster, such less farm produce or a reduction in tourism. The severity of these impacts will differ considerably in a MEDC and LEDC where volcanic eruptions have taken place. These may be seen in the Mount St. Helen volcano eruption as well as in the Iceland volcanic eruption. They may also

A hazard is a situation that poses a level of threat tolife, health, property or environment. The level of hazard posed by different volcanoes can very greatly, from a weak eruption with minimal impact that causes little damage, to a voilent and life threatening explosion. Most of the sixty-plus volcanoes that erupt each year are low risk, however a combination of factors can cause a volcano to be a serious hazard. The factors causing these variations will be explained in this essay.

Volcanoes are one of the most destructive, yet, most beautiful things on Earth. They can make a famous city choke in its own ashes in one day, like Pompeii. Or they can turn a once damaging mountain into a graceful and peaceful home for new life, like Mount St. Helen’s. All volcanoes are unique, and no two are the same. Some erupt differently than others, some look different than others, and all are located in different spots all over the world. I learned this while completing the project and the five volcanoes I researched are examples of my discoveries. The five volcanoes I researched were Mount Hood, Mount Mageik, Long Island, Mount Muria, and Las Pilas.

Another physical factor is snow; if a volcano is snow capped, like Eyjafjallajokull, then the lahars and flash floods become a greater hazard. The flooding in Iceland in 2010 caused 700 people to be evacuated. Without the snow then lahars and floods may not be a problem at all.

Martin, Sean. “Mt St Helens: Fears Volcano Responsible for Deadliest Eruption in US History Is RECHARGING.” Express.co.uk, Express.co.uk, 8 June 2017, www.express.co.uk/news/science/814620/Mt-St-Helens-LATEST-volcano-recharging.

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.

On May 18th, 1980 one of the worst volcanic eruptions occurred in the United States. Triggered by an earthquake, Mount St. Helens erupted in Washington State at 8:39am. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, it was "the deadliest and most economically destructive event in the history of the United States." There were many effects from this terrible, natural event. People, animals, and the environment were all effected.

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

Mount St. Helen is a very active volcano classified as a stratovolcano, stratovolcano is basically a tall volcano built up of layer after layer of hard lava, tephra, pumice, and volcanic ash. Mount St. Helens location is in Skamania County in Washington, with coordinates of 46 12'00.17"N122 11'21.13"W. Mount St Helen is famous because of its catastrophic eruption on May eighteenth in nineteen eighty. The eruption measured a five on the volcanic explosivity index. This is an index created by Chris Newell and Steven Self in the year nineteen eighty-two it was designed to try and measure the explosiveness of volcano eruptions to determine the value of the explosivity and qualitative observations ranging from zero to eight, eight being the

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

The third eruption happened about 640,000 years ago, and spewed 240 cubic miles of material. This third eruption created the third and largest of Yellowstone’s calderas, Yellowstone Caldera, which is 30 by 45 miles in size. The pyroclastic lava flows from this eruption formed the north wall of the caldera and are visible from the south-facing cliffs east of Madison. (Solcomhouse) This third eruption is said to have vaporized an entire mountain range. Smaller eruptions have also helped to shape Today’s Yellowstone, such as one that occurred 174,000 years ago and created what is now the “West Thumb” of Yellowstone Lake. (National Park Service) Many sources say that a catastrophic eruption, such as those that have formed the three calderas at Yellowstone, is unlikely during the next several hundred years, but if one such eruption did occur it would devastate much of the United States and would have the potential to alter the global climate.

Some of the history comes from the destructive volcanoes, Mount Vesuvius and Mount St. Helens. First, in 1978 volcanologists, warned that Mount St. Helens, in Washington State, USA , would erupt before the end of the century. On May 18, 1980, there prediction became true with horrifying consequences. The disaster began with a large earthquake at 8:32 that morning with a Richter Scale of 5.1, and triggering a series of explosions that increased in frequency and intensity. The eruption reached its peak with a violent explosion at 3:50 in the afternoon, causing the largest debris avalanche ever to be recorded to power 14 miles west! On top of this a large cloud of ash rose up to 15 miles into the atmosphere. The combined results of the seismic activity rose throughout the day causing the devastation of the landscape. The environmental cost was one thing, but the human cost was to be even more significant. Moments after the main avalanche, an explosive blast ripped through the area destroying everything in its path, killing 57 people. Another historic event of the volcanoes, is Mount Vesuvius in Naples, Italy and it remains one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world, exacerbated by the fact a population of 3,000,000 live in close proximity. The deadly power of Vesuvius was dramatically demonstrated in AD 79, when a monumental eruption wiped out the Roman cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii. Vesuvius has been showing sign of activity for several years before the great eruption, the most dramatic of which was a powerful and destructive earthquake 17 years previously. Earthquakes and volcanoes commonly occur in tandem, and this phenomenon would not have been lost on the Roman population. On August 24, in AD 79, Vesuvius erupted, spewing a column of ash and pumice high into the atmosphere around the volcano. The column rose more than 15 miles, and carried the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum by strong easterly

In these eruptions, instead of the mixture of gas and ash flowing upwards, it flows outwards and hugs the ground. These eruptions are extremely dangerous.

Many people claim how dangerous a volcanos is but, are they really that dangerous? They may have caused some tragic outcomes throughout history, like Pompeii, but the real question is: How do volcanoes effect people and environments?