DNR weekend reading: Research findings about earthquakes, volcanoes, and forests

Twenty-five years after the 1980 eruption, the Pumice Plain north of the Mount St. Helens crater is covered in wildflowers. Photo: P. Frenzen/USDA Forest Service (2004).

Here are links to articles about natural resources, climate, energy and other topics published recently by universities, scientific journals, organizations, and other sources:

University of Pennsylvania: Penn Research Helps Paint Finer Picture of Massive 1700 Earthquake
Researchers from the United States and Canada used a fossil-based technique of investigation to provide a finer-grained portrait of a massive earthquake and tsunami that hit the Pacific Northwest coast of the United States in the year 1700. Understanding the changes in coastal land level produced by the estimated 9 magnitude earthquake will help citizens and government to better prepare for future large earthquakes.

Mother Nature Network: Which U.S. volcanoes are likely to erupt next?
There are three main sections of the U.S. that tend to experience volcanic activity, and scientists believe many of the volcanoes there may be about due for a major eruption. Seven U.S. volcanoes (including four in Washington State) pose some of the highest risks.

University of Alberta: Helping forests gain ground on climate change
Timber industry and government foresters are using tree-planting guidelines developed by University of Alberta researchers to get a jump on climate change. Researchers also have developed maps of likely climatically suitable habitats for tree species based on climate predictions for the 2020s through 2080s.

Deep Carbon Observatory: Presence of Life in Oceanic Crust Confirmed
Researchers have discovered evidence of life 500 meters below the seafloor of the Juan de Fuca Ridge. “They found genetic evidence of Methanosarcinales, anaerobic archaea known to metabolize methane. Further experiments showed that microbes have affected the chemical signature of sulfur in the host basalt, suggesting they could harness energy from the breakdown of sulfates.

Mount St. Helens: The big blast was 33 years ago today

On the morning May 18, 1980, Keith Stoffel, then a DNR employee, took this photo while on a sightseeing flight over Mount St. Helens. It is the only known image of the initial eruption. Photo: Keith Stoffel (c) 2010.

The explosion of Mount St. Helens on May 18, 1980, produced a powerful blast that destroyed 230 square miles of national, state and private forest, and took 57 lives. Some of those who died from powerful shock waves and clouds of hot ash and superheated gases were several miles away. Others drowned when  lahars — mud flows – spilled down local valleys and river beds.

Today, a 110,000-acre area around the mountain is a National Volcanic Monument. The mountain has been a lot quieter since the events of May 18, 1980; several steam eruptions occurred in 2004, but caused no injuries or deaths.

DNR’s Geology and Earth Resources Division works with the U.S. Geological Survey and other agencies to monitor Mount St. Helens and the other active volcanoes in Washington State.

Read more about Keith Stoffel’s narrow escape from the mountain’s blast after snapping today’s photo, and learn more about the eruption on our Mount St. Helens information page.

More photos of Mount St. Helens are on the DNR Flickr page.

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May is Volcano Awareness Month

Mount St Helens, May 18, 1980. Photo: DNR.

May is Volcano Awareness Month in Washington State. This Saturday, May 18, will mark 33 years since the deadly explosion of Mount St. Helens. The eruption produced a blast that, traveling at the speed of sound, mowed down thousands of acres of forest and showered hot ash and gases across the landscape. Fifty-seven people died, including two people who were watching the eruption some 25 miles away from the mountain.

Helping us to prepare for the next time one of the state’s five active volcanoes threatens to erupt is the Washington Emergency Management Division with some helpful reminders.

Visit the website of the U.S. Geological Survey to view an informative, illustrated paper about Mount St. Helens and what the mountain has been up to since 1980. Throughout the week, we will look at what’s known about Mount St. Helens and the four other active volcanoes in our state: Mount Baker, Glacier Peak, Mount Rainier and Mount Adams. And we should not forget Mount Hood, just over the border in Oregon, which is considered the most potentially hazardous of the five active or potentially active volcanoes in Oregon.

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New study sends (DNR and UW Washington) scientists 60 miles deep into Mount St. Helens

A national monument for scientific research of Mount St. Helens was created following its massive 1980 erruption. Photo: DNR

A new study funded by a $3 million National Science Foundation grant will take DNR, Rice University, Columbia University, the USGS, Oregon State University, and University of Washington scientists 60 miles down inside Mount St. Helens to examine what happens between the mantle and the volcano itself.

One of the principle investigators, UW Professor John Vidale, says that taking images of the reservoirs of molten rock beneath the volcano could help us to predict the risk of volcanic eruptions in Washington and around the world.

Most volcanic studies only look into the top 10 miles of a volcano’s crust; this study will be the first of its kind to dive deep into the mountain to find out what happens 60 miles below the surface.

“We’re trying to look all the way down to the mantle, to see the deep structures and see what magma bodies we can find and how it rises to the surface,” Vidale said. “It’s an ambitious study.”

The four-year study will likely begin operations next summer. It will cover about 60 square miles around Mount St. Helens and will involve setting up about 2,500 small seismographs and setting off 10 – 20 underground explosions in 80-foot-deep wells in the next two years.

“They won’t disturb the ground much, but they will produce a signal you can see out 100 miles,” Vidale said. “With all those instruments we should have a very detailed picture.”

Volcano’s ‘plumbing and electrical’ systems under scrutiny 

Our top posts in May: Volcanos, turtles and wildfire safety were popular topics

 Here’s a round-up of some of Ear to the Ground’s most popular posts during May.

Photo: Keith Stoffel (c) 2010

Mount St. Helens blew its top 32 years ago
Highly popular with readers in May was our blog commemorating the 32nd anniversary of the Mount St. Helens eruption on May 18, 1980. This posting apparently spurred many to glance back at other blogs we’ve published about Mount St. Helens, including one we published on the 30th anniversary, Unique vantage point gives a very close look at the eruption of Mount St. Helens in which former DNR employee Keith Stoffel describes his too-close-for-comfort encounter with the mountain back in 1980. Stoffel, his wife, and the pilot of the small plane in which they rode barely escaped when the volcano exploded just as they happened to be flying over it. Stoffel managed to take a few photos including the one at the left.

Pitiful fire pits get marvelous makeovers from volunteers
Our description of the fine work that Boy Scouts of America and other volunteers put in over a couple of weekends in May preparing campfire pits in DNR campgrounds for summer recreation was a popular read.

 

Community wildfire preparedness prevents a costly fire
Sometimes what doesn’t happen is what’s most interesting. Many of you read our description of how a rural community’s attention to wildfire prevention (especially brush clearing and tree maintenance) helped save at least one rural home from a wildfire.

 

DNR-managed inmate crews aid restoration of native turtle habitat in Columbia River Gorge
Many of you are drawn to stories about wildlife. Our blog on how DNR-managed inmate work crews are playing a major role in habitat restoration for the native western pond turtle in the Columbia River Gorge was one of the most highly read stories that we posted last month.

 

Hiking Alert: Mount Si and Teneriffe Falls Trails Temporarily Closed
Our blog about a temporary closure of trails in the Mount Si Natural Resources Conservation Area for a helicopter operation also was a popular posting during in May (though the closure wasn’t very popular). All in all, more evidence of how popular this scenic area is with hikers and Ear to the Ground readers.

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Mount St. Helens blew its top

Keith Stoffel, then a DNR employee, took this photo which is the only known image of the initial eruption of Mount St. Helens. Photo: Keith Stoffel (c) 2010.

A massive eruption shook Mount St. Helens 32 years ago on this date. The ash cloud created after the mountain’s upper 1,000-plus feet was blown away rose to 80,000 feet elevation in less than 15 minutes. Within two weeks, the ash cloud had completely encircled the globe.

The initial eruption on that Sunday morning 32 years ago destroyed 230 square miles of national, state and private forest, and took 57 lives – some of those who died from shock waves and clouds of hot ash and superheated gases were more than 10 miles away. Others drowned in rivers swollen by mud flows that spilled down local valleys and river beds. Experts say the loss of life would have been much greater had the eruption occurred on a weekday when many more workers would be in the surrounding forests.

Today, a 110,000-acre area around the mountain is a National Volcanic Monument. The mountain has been a lot quieter since the events of May 18, 1980; though a smaller series of steam eruptions occurred in 2004 , but caused no injuries or deaths.

In October 2004, a small steam eruption, with minor amounts of ash, issued from a vent near the lava dome that formed between 1980 and 1986. Photo: John Pallister/USGS.

DNR’s Geology and Earth Resources Division works with the U.S. Geological Survey, and other agencies to monitor Mount St. Helens, and the other active volcanoes in Washington State, including Mount Rainier.

Visit our Mount St. Helens information page to take the Mount St. Helens quiz and see photos of the 1980 eruption and its aftermath.

See what the volcano looks like today on the Mount St. Helens VolcanoCam, located at Johnston Ridge Observatory about 5 miles from the mountain.

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DNR summer intern reflects on experiences in Communications and Outreach

Seth Elson, a recent DNR summer intern, atop Mount St. Helens.

Shelton resident Seth Elsen, who is studying Environmental Science and American Indian Studies at University of Minnesota, Morris (where he has an atheletic scholarship) reflected recently on his experiences this summer as an intern with the DNR Communications and Outreach Group.

“Working at DNR taught me quite a bit about communicating with the various groups needed for successful outreach. It’s been fulfilling to work on projects that will help the average citizen understand what we do at DNR and how relevant the department is to many people’s daily lives.

Daily, I run into employees from diverse backgrounds working in every field, from legislative affairs to forestry to recreation planning. Every team member seems to be passionate about what they do, and it really shows.

As an American Indian, I’ve enjoyed observing how DNR interacts with Tribes because this collaboration on natural resource management is very important to all parties involved.

I hope others looking for internships will have the opportunity to work with this team on such interesting, important issues.

Nuwikôtam nákuskôyak, kôkicaq, kutápatamuyumô! (Mohegan)  Translation: Nice to have met you, be well, and I thank you all!)

Seth Elson

Learn more about internships  and job openings with DNR.

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Last month’s most popular Ear to the Ground posts

Here are links to the top five Ear to the Ground blog postings that you and others clicked on during May:

On this date in 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted (May18)
Thirty-one years ago, at 8:32 a.m. on Sunday May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted. The blast and flooding that followed killed 57 people; some of the victims were as far as 10 miles away. The eruption destroyed 230 square miles of forest, including many trees on DNR-managed state trust land.

Governor signs ‘Discover Pass’ bill into law (May 12)
This afternoon, Gov. Chris Gregoire signed a bill that will keep state recreation lands open with the help of revenue from a vehicle access pass. Facing unprecedented budget shortfalls that threaten funding for core services, such as health and education, the state eliminated all General Fund monies for DNR’s Recreation Program for the upcoming 2011-2013 biennium.

 

Volunteers and off-roaders celebrate new bridge in Capitol State Forest (May 5)
Thank you to everyone who attended the dedication ceremony of a new bridge for motorized recreation in Capitol State Forest last Saturday, April 30. The new bridge connects the Straddleline ORV Park to the forest.

DNR & UW open window into beauty, diversity of rarest plants in state (May 3)
The reviews are coming in and it’s ‘thumbs up’ for a new guide to Washington’s rarest plants. Years in the making, the Field Guide to the Rare Plants of Washington offers a window into the beauty and diversity of the rarest plants in the state. It includes contributions from hundreds of photographers and illustrators.

Award winning prevention efforts don’t go unnoticed (May 16)
Two firefighters received National Smokey Bear awards for their outstanding leadership in wildfire prevention efforts. Ray Kresek, curator, author and retired firefighter, received a 2011 Silver Smokey Bear Award; and John Foster Fanning, a DNR Fire Control Forester, received a 2011 Bronze Smokey Bear Award.

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Life returned slowly but steadily to volcano blast zone

New plants sprout in the blast zone just a year after the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. Photo: DNR

QUESTION: Name the four other Holocene volcanoes in Washington State besides Mount St. Helens.

ANSWER: Mount Adams, Mount Rainier, Mount Baker and Glacier Peak. Many scientists theorize that a volcano should be considered active if it erupted in the Holocene era, a geological period that started about 12,000 years ago. There is currently no way to know which one will erupt next, and it is possible that Mount St. Helens has not finished with the activity that began in 1980. 

Plant life has slowly but steadily returned to lands around Mount St. Helens over the past 30 years, as this article in The Columbian  describes.

Ash from Mount St. Helens has some uses

A microscopic view of Mount St. Helens ash finds plagioclase (a common mineral in the Earth's crust) which is encased in a glass jacket. Photo: DNR

Today’s Mount St. Helens quiz:
QUESTION: Name the four other Holocene volcanoes in Washington State besides Mount St. Helens?

ANSWER: Find out tomorrow on Ear to the Ground …or…  see the answer now on DNR’s Facebook page 

Yesterday’s QUIZ: Question: How many board feet of standing timber (trees) was blown down by the Mount St. Helens blast and smaller eruptions in the following days? A: 4 billion board feet – enough lumber to build 200,000 new 2,000-square-foot homes (Realty Times).

What does one do with millions of tons of volcanic ash? If you are a scientist, you can watch what happens naturally over decades as researchers are doing at the Mount St. Helens National Monument. But for cities, counties and landowners across Eastern Washington, the question was hardly academic. In the months and years following the volcano’s May 18, 1980, eruption, they had a lot of ash to deal with.

How about using it in bricks, pavement, paint, glass, waste treatment or other uses? Many asked and here are answers in this 1981 DNR monograph: Mount St. Helens Ash: Properties and Possible Uses.” See our Mount St. Helens information page for more links about volcanoes. 

See more photos of Mount St. Helens before and after the May 18, 1980, eruption on DNR’s Flickr page.