Mount Rainier Rumbling?? Let's watch her.....

So we just had a 3.4 quake at .08km depth right at the base of Rainier, followed by a 2.9 at 0km depth smack dab in her cone. I don't like that. (ETA: the depths have been updated to 8.5 and .9 respectively)

MAP 2.9 2011/10/14 23:29:13 46.854 -121.754 0.9 MOUNT RAINIER AREA, WASHINGTON

MAP 3.4 2011/10/14 22:25:17 46.753 -121.946 8.5 WASHINGTON

USGS source


Before anyone yells "FEAR MONGER".....I would like to point out that a this series of quakes in nothing to scoff at. I am NOT saying that she is erupting...not even close. I AM saying that these warrant some close scruitiny and those of us in the shadow of this giant need to pay CLOSE attention when we get this large of a quake in her seismic field.

THIS seismo from PNSN is a good one to see the quakes on.....

THIS is the main PNSN source for the above siesmo plus many, many others.


Here is a screen shot showing the locations:





HERE is the source for the above map....a wonderful resource.


I will be gone for a few hours, but I wanted to alert my neighbors to the activity. I just noticed it and I think we need to watch her.

reply to post by westcoast

I think it warrants watching as well.
Thank you for the alert, I hadn't noticed
anything on the other threads or sites
today and I always check in the region
of volcanos.

reply to post by westcoast


Great call. And by call, I mean the point of "staying alert" and "watching the data". That is my MO here in the bay area. Lot's of anomolies with the EQ data here (from time to time,but not now) . . and when we get mixed / different signals, it is a moment to take notice, stay watchful and do our best to be prepared.

Keep watching the data. Best of luck!

reply to post by westcoast


Thanks westcoast. It's always a pleasure reading a thread by you as you really just stick to facts.

I agree that worldwide volcano's seem a bit more active, El Hierro - Sakurajima and now this. You may all be thinking it's only 3 but it's more, these Volcano's are all in populated areas. There is no need to say the economic effects if any of these volcano's happened to experience a full scale eruption. Look at the European Ash Cloud dilemma.

Thanks again West Coast.

reply to post by westcoast


Uh dude. Considering that map you showed had the epicenter right ontop of the volcano, you folks better get the hell out. That earthquake could be the extreme pressure of the magma trying to find a way out of the earth. I know Renier is like a dormant or extinct volcano but if theres earthquakes happening there thats a red flag for an eruption.

reply to post by lonewolf19792000


No, it is not extinct OR dormant, but active. It is the largest threat to the continental US as far as volcanos go.

That 2.9 is concerning, but certainly doesn't mean it is erupting. It is not at all uncommon to have small quakes in the dome...but the 3.4 along with that one is getting my attention.

Originally posted by lonewolf19792000
reply to post by westcoast

 

Uh dude. Considering that map you showed had the epicenter right ontop of the volcano, you folks better get the hell out. That earthquake could be the extreme pressure of the magma trying to find a way out of the earth. I know Renier is like a dormant or extinct volcano but if theres earthquakes happening there thats a red flag for an eruption.

It's not extinct, just like Mt. St. Helens, the next cone to the south in the range. My kids live on Lake Tapps, a few miles away. According to the maps, the lava will just surround them before heading for Tacoma along the Puyallup, wiping out the tide flats (some would say that would be a good thing) or North through Auburn, Kent, and Renton until it stops at Lake Washington at the site of the 737 plant, which some would say would be a bad thing.

I'm across Puget Sound from it, but if the prevailing winds headed northwest, I could get hit by an ash cloud. With St. Helens the winds pushed the ash cloud east and we did not get hit. That's more likely in this case as well.

There's a hazard map here, but the fact is, I saw a large map at the University of Washington in Seattle that indicated a far wider devestation area. This map shows how it gets to Tacoma, but it doesn't show a northerly reach to Renton, which I saw on that map in the library years ago.

Some info about Mt Ranier

www.nps.gov...





Did You Know?
About 5,600 years ago the summit and northeast face of Mount Rainier fell away in a massive landslide accompanied by volcanic explosions. The Osceola Mudflow, a towering wall of mud and rock, thundered down the White River Valley where it deposited 600' of debris eventually reaching the Puget Sound.

reply to post by westcoast


Once again, thank you WC for keeping watch. This mountain and all of its beauty has been known to be long overdue for an eruption of some sort.

I recall a time that I was at my grandparents house in the town of Ranier as a child. They would have backyard fires and jam sessions frequently. There was a man there, a friend of my dads, who was singing the lyrics "Oh where do we go, when the mountain blows".

At the time it was an estimated 500 years overdue and staring us directly in the face, haha!

My father and grandparents still live in Ranier. My oldest daughter in Morton. We all experienced the St. Helens eruption in several ways. I have read about your experience also in your other thread.

Thank you so much for the heads up to watch and keep our ears peeled to the current events surrounding our majestic icon of a mountain ( its even on a beer can, haha). Simply put, you are awesome!

And now a salute! Rrrrrrraaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnneeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr beeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.....

That's me driving away

reply to post by westcoast


Well whatever the case, i'd still be careful. Volcanoes are one of those most destructive forces on the planet. The romans at pompeii found out the hard way what happens when you take the earth's rumblings lightly. Keep a wary eye on that thing and the first sign its going to blow get your family and go. It's easier rebuilding than it is bringing the dead back to life.

FEAR MONGER ER !!!

Sorry jus had to
I think this is awesome,. the Geoguys have been worried about this one for
a long time,. the Granite around the mountain top has been crumbling from
the gassing, so it has been long awaited. We will see

reply to post by westcoast


Cheers and a Toast,

Lots of fun ahead,in a sarchastic kind of way.

Third Line

Just in case anyone sees this on the quake list and is wondering; it is on the other side of the mountains and not near to Rainier:

MAP 3.2 2011/10/15 06:11:29 46.410 -119.262 1.4 WASHINGTON

source


There have been some swarms in this area (near Richland)....a newly discovered fault, I believe. Not normal to see this size in that area though.

Several more little quakes up on Rainier can be seen here (micro quakes) seismo A nice little rumble there around the 2300 mark.

Again...I am not implying that there is any kind of pending eruption. Hopefully there would be many other signs before that happened!

I was looking at the seismos a few days ago thinking...hmmm it's grumbling, but didn't post anything cos Puterman always gives me a good reason not to worry when I notice these things. So I prefer to wait for you knowledgeable lot to assess it. Thanks again Westcoast for putting yourself out there and giving us a heads up. I look forward to Puterman's assessment.

Thanks for bringing this to our attention westcoast. Being in the SeaTac area, I too am gonna have to watch this one closely. Nothing to be too worried about at the moment. When the snow melts off of her cap, THEN we worry/leave.

Again though, thanks for your due diligence!!

TheBorg

reply to post by westcoast


Well they got lotsa money to install new regimes around the world and kill people with military might, but funny how there's no money to maintain/upgrade seismos on Rainier. :shk:



Most of those darn stations on the UW network at Rainier are spewing garbage, replete with errors, and need fixing. I can't pull up a single station in GEE at Rainier- and yes I am trying SHZ channels, EHZ, BHZ, you name it. NADA. Zero. "No Data Available"

If it goes into harmonic tremor, or just even volcanic tremor during one of those squiggly spells, how the heck are they going to know? By the gas emissions?

Grrrr. Sorry, but on this one I am blind and cannot alert. Got no GEE at Rainier, so people are going to have to settle for F16's, M1's, and C130's instead. Be happy with the investment decisions your government makes for you, or you will be branded a domestic terrorist.

reply to post by lonewolf19792000

Your comments about the destructive effects of volcanoes are quite correct and certainly don't over-state the matter.

I'd recommend that if any members would like to read a fairly "close and personal" perspective on the eruption of Mt St Helens, just click on the first link in Westcoast's signature -- the one that's entitled "The Day My World Shook". It's an excellent presentation of what she experienced.

Regarding the comment that the quake directly below Rainer could indicate magma pressure buildup, I'd suggest that it doesn't. Granted, it could be an indicator that magma might be shortly on the move, but not right now: while the seismo Westcoast linked to shows quakes there (including many microseisms), there is no suggestion of harmonic tremor (HT), and it's the HT that scientists look for as the primary indicator of magma movement and related pressure buildup.

If we start to see HT on the seismos close to Rainer along with quake swarms, then it's time for people in the vicinity to make sure all bug-out bags are ready. It was the increase in HT (and associated small, volcanism-induced quakes) at El Hierro that led the experts and authorities to call for evacuations of people there. HT is the key indicator because it's possible to track the actual movement of magma by studying the HT traces and locations, so it's the one that we have to watch for.

I am watching Rainier right now on GEE, on the seismo TA.F04D-Rainier. No HT there at this time, which is good news. (EDIT: Please see TrueAmerican's note to me below...)

There are a few of us who'll be keeping an eye on this, at least while Westcoast and other members in that part of the world are getting some shut-eye. If we see anything important we'll post about it, either here or in the ongoing Quake Watch or Volcano Watch threads -- or in a new thread if it's very significant.

Also, I have ways to contact some people directly in some parts of the US if the need is urgent and I believe there are other members who have similar arrangements. In fact I'd recommend that if you live in a region like the PNW and down to Cali (where eruptions and large quakes are always possible, even if relatively rare), it would be worthwhile to set up contact arrangements with people who live several time zones away and who can get a message to you even if it's the middle of the night where you are. They don't need to be people who can read seismos, if it's something very major they'll probably know about via MSM -- or most likely sooner if they're on ATS!

For example, it's just on noon here on Friday Oct 15, but in the PNW it's still some hours before dawn of Friday morning. In situations where there might be a serious threat from nature's forces we can often be online and watching when you need to sleep.

Mike

reply to post by TrueAmerican

Hi TA,

sounds like the GEE problem could be local to your part of the globe. I'm watching TA.F04D-Rainier right now and it's running fine. Nothing major seems to be going on there right now. (EDIT: I thought I was watching Mt Rainier! See TA's note below!)

But I agree: even though I'm not an American I can see that your govt could direct some of its tax-acquired dollars a lot better in this regard. Sooner or later there will be another major volcanic or seismic event on US soil and the financial losses alone could be huge. Those losses could, in some cases, be reduced if people had better warning of what might be in the offing. And they wouldn't need ten of billions of $ to upgrade/install equipment and employ the needed experts. Even some tens of millions per annum would be very helpful.

But then, I have never seen a govt anywhere that truly understood the need to correctly prioritize in order to best provide for the needs of its people -- both present and future -- especially in terms of the potential effects of natural disasters.

Best regards,

Mike

Originally posted by JustMike
I am watching Rainier right now on GEE, on the seismo TA.F04D-Rainier. No HT there at this time, which is good news.

Umm, TA.F04D is nowhere near Mt. Rainier. It's in Rainier, OR.

UW has the only seismos that I know of at MT RAINIER in WA.

So yeah, you aren't gonna see too many harmonic tremors there.

It's ok man, that's easy to confuse. But try again...

reply to post by TrueAmerican

Darn... How DARE they confuse me?? I don't think I've ever been that badly wrong in a location before when using GEE.

Gee, I'm dumb...

But I have to offer you my humble thanks, man... Okay, I feel like an idiot but at least I know now that I was right and there was no HT at TA.F04D.

Mike