2. Mount Rainer
Mount Rainer is located in Washington state 54 miles southeast of Seattle. It is part of the cascade Mountain Range. At an elevation of 14,411ft it is the tallest mountain of the Cascade Range and in Washington. On clear days it can be seen well from Seattle and Tacoma. On very clear days it can.be seen from Portland, Oregon and Victoria, British Columbia.
Mount Rainer is covered in glaciers and snowfields and because of that it is considered one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world. It's listed on the Decade List(here's a link that explains the Decade List http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decade_Volcanoes). If it were to erupt(or maybe I should say when it erupts) the melting of its glaciers and snow fields would cause devastating lahars that would effect dozens of towns. The last eruption is believed to have been at the end of the 1800s. Although it's been 100+ years since its last eruption it is still active and busy. There are around 5 earthquakes at the mountain a month and there are times that there are swarms of earthquakes. I think people have been lulled by the mountains beauty, much like Mount St. Helens but it's still a dangerous volcano.
I like Mount Rainer because of its beauty and prominence. I haven't seen a picture of it that didn't take my breath away. You can just see the power it contains by looking at it.
1. Mount St. Helens
Mount St. Helens is also part of the Cascade mountain range in Washington. It is located 96 miles south of Seattle and 50 miles northeast of Portland, Oregon.
Mount St. Helens is geologically the youngest mountain in the Cascade range but the most active.
The most famous eruption of Mount St. Helens is of course the May 18, 1980 eruption. At 8:32 AM PDT a 5.1 earthquake caused a massive landslide that released the gases in the volcano causing a large lateral explosion. The explosion knocked down trees and scorched everything to the north of the volcano in a 30km wide fan shaped area of an area of 20km. The eruption melted the glaciers and snow on the mountain causing huge lahars that flowed down the North Fork of the Toutle River. As the lahar traveled it picked up trees and other stuff. For 9 hours Mount St. Helens continue to erupt with Plinian column that rose high in the sky and pyroclastic flows down the sides of the mountain.
When the ash cleared Mount St. Helens and the area around it were completely different. The volcano which once stood 9,677 feet was now 8, 365 feet with a giant horseshoe crater. The trees were all leveled and most living things were dead. Spirit lake had been filled with dirt and rocks from the landslide. So much so that the bottom of the lake now sits higher that the top of the lake used to. The area was covered in ash.
The eruption killed 57 people and thousands of animals, destroyed or severely damaged 250 homes, 185 miles of highway, 47 bridges, and 15 miles of railway.
But lots of things were learned not only during the eruption but also in the months before and the months and even years after. The things the volcanologist learned from Mount St. Helens has save many many lives.
I was in the 5th grade the first time I heard about Mount St. Helens. I had an amazing Science teacher and we spent several days studying Mount St. Helens and volcanoes in general. By the end of it Mount.St. Helens hooked. I'm not sure what it is about Mount St. Helens that hooked me but some 16 odd years later I still watch and read anything about Mount St. Helens that I can get my hands on. I've watched it erupt and change. I've watched the land around it continue to rebound. I plan to spend the rest of my life continuing to watch it and learn about it and enjoying whatever she had in store.
Well that finally wraps up my list but I will continue to post about different volcanoes and eruptions. Volcanos are always erupting and I'm always discovering new volcanos.
PS: Random tidbit, my mom graduated high school on May 18th, 1980. For some reason I've always thought that was cool lol.
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