| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"stoney" |
| Date: |
08 Sep 2005 05:14:42 PM |
| Object: |
OT: Oregon 100 Mile Magma Bulge |
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9227930/
100-square-mile bulge keeps getting bigger
Oregon oddity could be another volcano in the making
Updated: 8:38 p.m. ET Sept. 6, 2005
BEND, Ore. [AP] - A recent survey of a bulge that covers about 100
square miles near the South Sister indicates the area is still
growing, suggesting it could be another volcano in the making or a
major shift of molten rock under the center of the Cascade Range.
Recent eruptions at nearby Mount St. Helens in Washington state have
rekindled interest in the annual Sisters survey and its findings.
Oregon has four of the 18 most active volcanoes in the nation — Mount
Hood, Crater Lake, Newberry and South Sister.
A recent U.S. Geological Survey report said monitoring is inadequate
at all of them, with only basic monitoring at about half of the active
volcanoes.
Unlike the volcanoes, the bulge gets an extensive annual survey to
track its growth. Spread out across an area nearly as big as the city
of Portland, It's centered about three miles southwest of the South
Sister, about 25 miles from Bend.
The results of the late August survey won't be ready for weeks, but
scientists have reached some conclusions about the bulge from past
monitoring.
They say it probably began growing in 1997 and has been rising ever
since at a rate of about 1.4 inches a year. It was first observed from
space using a relatively new imaging technology known as radar
interferometry that can measure changes in the Earth's surface.
The likely cause of the bulge is a pool of magma that, according to
Deschutes National Forest geologist Larry Chitwood, is equal in size
to a lake 1 mile across and 65 feet deep.
The magma lake is rising 10 feet each year, under tremendous pressure,
and it deforms the Earth's surface as it expands, causing the bulge.
Other causes could be anything from the birth of a new volcano — a
fourth Sister in the making — to a routine and anticlimactic pooling
of liquid rock, researchers say.
"The honest and shortest answer is, we don't know," said Dan Dzurisin,
a USGS geologist.
Dzurisin recently led a three-person leveling crew on a slow walk
across the top of the bulge. They were hoping to detect any change in
its surface using survey equipment accurate to one-sixteenth of an
inch for every mile measured.
Dzurisin's survey data, in concert with space imaging and satellite
positioning measurements from two dozen fixed points on the bulge,
give scientists an idea of the bulge's depth and size.
Additional information from seismographs and chemical monitoring of
area springs reveal movement of the magma underground. A swarm of 350
small earthquakes in March 2004 indicated magma was on the move, but
the bulge has been quiet ever since.
Whether the magma will move again or ever reach the surface is a
mystery. But if it did, geological history suggests it would result
only in small cinder cones that spew ash and lava.
The good news is that such an eruption likely would not seriously
affect any population centers, Chitwood said.
Such cones are the most common volcanic features on Earth, he added.
Central Oregon has about 600. Basalt flows have occurred in the area
of the bulge every 1,000 to 1,500 years for the past 4,000 years, he
said. And the area is due for another.
"The bulge is on time," Chitwood said. "The bus has arrived."
This report includes information from The Oregonian.
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press
--
Contempt of Congress meter reading-offscale.
Hello, theocracy with a fundamentalist US Supreme
Court who will ensure church and state are joined
at the hip like clergy and altar boys.
America 1776-Jan 2001 RIP
"As democracy is perfected, the office of president
represents, more and more closely, the inner soul
of the people. On some great and glorious day the
plain folks of the land will reach their heart's
desire at last and the White House will be adorned
by a downright moron." --- H.L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)
Religion is the original war crime.
-Michelle Malkin (Feb 26, 2005)
.
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| User: "Gregory Gadow" |
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| Title: Re: OT: Oregon 100 Mile Magma Bulge |
08 Sep 2005 07:17:10 PM |
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stoney wrote:
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9227930/
Who wants to bet that, if it blows in the next year or so, federal
response will be far too little, far too late and will come (when it does)
with sputtered excuses of, "No one knew this would happen. No one expected
this to happen."
--
Gregory Gadow
techbear@serv.net
http://www.serv.net/~techbear
"Without faith we might relapse into scientific or rational thinking,
which leads by a slippery slope toward constitutional democracy."
- Robert Anton Wilson
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| User: "stoney" |
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| Title: Re: OT: Oregon 100 Mile Magma Bulge |
15 Sep 2005 11:06:34 PM |
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On Thu, 08 Sep 2005 12:17:10 -0700, Gregory Gadow <techbear@serv.net>
wrote:
stoney wrote:
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9227930/
Who wants to bet that, if it blows in the next year or so, federal
response will be far too little, far too late and will come (when it does)
with sputtered excuses of, "No one knew this would happen. No one expected
this to happen."
Sucker bet.
--
Contempt of Congress meter reading-offscale.
Hello, theocracy with a fundamentalist US Supreme
Court who will ensure church and state are joined
at the hip like clergy and altar boys.
America 1776-Jan 2001 RIP
"As democracy is perfected, the office of president
represents, more and more closely, the inner soul
of the people. On some great and glorious day the
plain folks of the land will reach their heart's
desire at last and the White House will be adorned
by a downright moron." --- H.L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)
Religion is the original war crime.
-Michelle Malkin (Feb 26, 2005)
.
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