Keeping an eye out

Mount St. Helens is the most active volcano in the Cascades. It's major eruption in 1980 has been succeeded by about 10 other smaller eruptions and maintains near-constant microseismicity. The first pictures show one of the close-in monitoring stations at Windy Ridge. The USGS Cascade Volcano Observatory maintains a number of large monitoring stations close to the mountain, near the vent, where they've been armored to protect from eruptive activity. These stations typically include a seismometer (seismogram here), a GPS station (the white dome), and other equipment like geophones or a webcam. Volcanoes never erupt spontaneously, they are always preceded by some kind of activity - usually small earthquakes - and let you know when they're ready to go. St. Helens hasn't done anything since about 2010, taking a well-deserved rest after the major lava dome growth in 2004-2008.

Around the mountain to the southeast, you can hike through the Plains of Abraham's pumice fields and past the slot-canyon head of Ape Canyon to the rim of the Muddy River, where another monitoring station reports seismicity and GPS data. The GPS stations observe the shape of the volcano over time. As gas, fluids, and magma move around inside the mountain, the surface deforms. Rapid or dramatic deformation is often indicative of impending eruption or other activity, and is one of the most important parameters in the volcanologists' arsenal.

Mount Adams, Gifford Pinchot NF, Washington, USA

By Daniel Gomez

Seems good right now...

Mt. Adams Wilderness, WA.

Mt. Rainier from Pacific Crest Trail Between White and Chinook Passes, Washington, 2004.

Rainy Day on Cowlitz River - Near Packwood, WA

Gifford Pinchot National Forest

TAKHLAKH LAKE

MOUNT ADAMS

JULY 18, 2023

graveyard in the woods at Pinchot

"The exploiters were pushing further and further into the wilderness. The man who could get his hands on the biggest slice of natural resources was the best citizen. Wealth and virtue were supposed to trot in double harness."

--Gifford Pinchot, one of Teddy Roosevelt's political advisors, author of many of TR's speeches, and the first leader of the National Forest Service

This quote is specifically criticizing the timber barons of the time, and the US government for handing thousands of acres to the logging interests. And while the harness metaphor has gone the way of the buggy whip, the idea that wealthy people are automatically considered morally upright is one that still troubles our own times.

Perspectives

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Gifford Pinchot Falls, PA

Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument

We’re standing on the Boundary Trail at Johnston Ridge in the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument. Forty years ago today, more than 44,500 hectares within Gifford Pinchot National Forest was dedicated to memorialise the deadliest and most destructive volcanic eruption in the United States. On 18 May 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted, forever changing the Washington landscape. The volcanic event started at roughly 8:30 on a Sunday morning with a 5.1 magnitude earthquake. This triggered what is known as a lateral eruption, which means the lava blast comes out of the side of the volcano, rather than the top, resulting in a massive avalanche and the destruction of about 388 square kilometres of surrounding forest.

The monument was established by President Ronald Reagan in 1982 to preserve the area for research, recreation and education. The land inside has been left to mostly recover naturally since the eruption. While it’s believed that Mount St. Helens will erupt again sometime within the next few centuries, that has not deterred people from hiking and climbing at the monument, which has been allowed since 1986.

“Conservation means the wise use of the earth and its resources for the lasting good of mankind” – Gifford Pinchot

Observed on July 28 annually, World Nature Conservation Day acknowledges that a healthy environment is the foundation for a stable and healthy society. Earth’s natural resources include air, minerals, plants, soil, water, and wildlife. Conservation is the care and protection of these resources so that they can be preserved for future generations. It includes maintaining diversity of species, genes, and ecosystems, as well as functions of the environment, such as nutrient cycling.

“Conservation means the wise use of the earth and its resources for the lasting good of mankind” – Gifford Pinchot

Observed on July 28 annually, World Nature Conservation Day acknowledges that a healthy environment is the foundation for a stable and healthy society. Earth’s natural resources include air, minerals, plants, soil, water, and wildlife. Conservation is the care and protection of these resources so that they can be preserved for future generations. It includes maintaining diversity of species, genes, and ecosystems, as well as functions of the environment, such as nutrient cycling.

Glacial Stream, northwest face of Mt. Adams, Washington, 2000.