Ahrcanum

Mount Saint Helen’s volcano erupted thirty years ago today-May 18, 1980.  “The devastation erupted so violently that it leveled 150 square miles of trees, sent the mountain’s north face 14 miles down the Toutle River and dropped gray ash around the world.”  http://www.usatoday.com/NEWS/usaedition/2010-05-17-mtsthelens17_ST_U.htm?csp=34 

The destruction began at 8:32 a.m. on May 18, when the north side of the mountain slid away after two months of intense earthquake activity and weaker eruptions. The landslide uncorked pressurized magma and released a blast so powerful that 1,300 feet of the mountain’s peak collapsed or blew outward, 24 square miles of valley was filled by a debris avalanche, 250 square miles of land was damaged by a lateral blast, and 57 people were killed.

Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull began the eruption in the same way, with an increase an increase of earthquake activity.  Eya continues to erupt and cause disruptions, but no one has died and the lava has not spread 150 miles of devastation.  Eya is holding us hostage,  not sending us running for cover-at least not yet.  

It is Iceland’s other major volcano’s that are becoming increasingly the center of debate.  Scientists are predicting  decades of ash disruptions and predictions of eruptions from Katla, which lies only 15 miles to the east of Eyjafjallajokull volcanic eruptions. 

Lo and behold there was a quake beneath both Hekla on May 16 and Katla, May 17. via The Ice Met Office.  Uh, oh.

An eruption at Katla would cause very sudden jökulhlaups (glacier outburst floods).  They occurred during the subglacial eruption in Eyjafjallajökull volcano but have slowed.  Katla’s ice crater is estimated to be 2,000 feet thick and if she blows, that ice is going to melt fast and quickly wiping out everything in it’s path.  It is the fourth largest volcano in Iceland -220 sq. miles (580 sq. km). A large caldera 9 miles (14 km) in diameter underlies the ice.

At least three other big Icelandic volcanoes are building towards an eruption, according to Thor Thordarson, a volcanologist at Edinburgh University.  The three other volcanoes cited by Thordarson as being potentially close to a large eruption are Grimsvotn, Hekla and Askja — all of which are bigger than Eyjafjallajokull. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article7127706.ece

Looking ever so peaceful, is the Hekla crater in this 2008 photo by David Adamson. http://picasaweb.google.com/thunder.son Hekla is 75 miles (120 km) east of Reykjavik and last erupted in 2000.

The Institute of Earth Sciences reports, “Hekla is a volcano with special seismic characteristics. During non-eruptive periods it is virtually aseismic, and does not give any obvious long-term or intermediate-term precursory warning before eruptions. The eruption-related seismicity starts only 30-80 minutes before its onset.  http://www.earthice.hi.is/page/ies_heklaseismicity

Mount St. Helen’s and Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcanic eruptions gave obvious seismic warning signs far ahead.  A quiet Hekla poses a huge challenge for predictability, warnings and safety. 

There is perhaps no other natural disaster quite as spectacular or potentially as destructive as that of an erupting volcano. Spewing out ash and magma that can kill a human in seconds, unleashing toxic gases from the belly of the planet, a volcano is truly nature’s fury unleashed. http://scrapetv.com/News/News%20Pages/usa/pages-4/Climber-unexpectedly-dies-after-falling-into-volcano-Scrape-TV-The-World-on-your-side.html

Human curiosity via webcams and tours to view volcano’s are common. Falling to your death in one is not so common. In February 2010, Joseph Bohlig posed for a picture with Mount Rainier in the background when he turned around and took a final step on the cornice and fell to his death. 

Though the connections go down pretty often, I’ll stick to the webcams at: 

 link to sv.tinypic.com]  [link to eldgos.mila.is]  [link to www.ruv.is]  [link to www.vodafone.is] [link to www.mulakot.net] [link to www.sat24.com]  “We have limited TV footage of the volcanic eruption. It’s all the same shots, and the same angles. Surely there must be something new to show? And there was a shot of a car in a dust cloud. Easily staged, and the only “evidence” of dust,” wrote  http://citizengodden.com/2010/04/16/iceland-volcanic-cloud-conspiracy/.

Putting our tinfoil hat back on, we search for any connections between natural physical science and the possibility of man causing volcano’s, earthquakes, tsunami’s and related disasters.  A cover-up of some sort?  An intervention with HAARP, ESCAT, CERN, etc., and quite possibly the impact on Earth’s magnetosphere from the atmosphere all offer some plausibility.  Others would say, God is just ticked off, that some catastrophes are just an, “Act of God.”

One thing for sure, volcano’s and magma’s muscle put humility in man and the power beneath our planet.

Watch the Mount St. Helen’s Volcano courtesy of your tax dollars at, http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/volcanocams/msh/.

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