Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
What am I thinking? I can’t move here!
Something new to fear: lahars.
An eruption of Mount Rainer would include lava flows like those that scientists have discovered from past Rainier eruptions – flows that stretch more than nine miles from the volcano’s peak. In and of themselves, these scalding rivers of molten rock will be the least of our worries. What’s far scarier is the prospect of a massive, eruption-triggered lahar that travels more than 60 miles per hour down the side of the mountain.
“Lahars can be directly triggered from the eruptions because there’s a lot of snow and ice on the surface [of Mt. Rainier],†says Pierson. “You dump out a bunch of hot rock and have it flow over all that snow and ice, you’re gonna produce a lot of water from melting snow, and mix it with the rock to form devastating lahars.â€
The largest mudslide the world has ever seen occurred on Mount Rainier 5,600 years ago. The Osceola Mudflow dumped 10 billion cubic meters of mud over more than 200 square miles. Six other massive lahars have occurred since then. The most recent happened only 600 years ago and didn’t require an eruption to begin. With a 4.5 billion cubic meter glacier resting atop Rainer, lahars that stretch more than 50 miles are not unimaginable, which puts the city of Tacoma at risk of being submerged in mud, trees and volcanic ash.
What do you think, folks — should I risk a lahar?
D.
Just don’t live any of the low-lying areas that flow into Tacoma: Enumclaw, Buckley, Auburn, Puyallup.
“Nah, that would never happen while we’re living” is perhaps one of the most dangerous thoughts ever expressed.
Had dinner with my cousin tonight, and that’s what she said — “Head for the hills!” essentially.
Of course, if we get a home up in the hills, won’t we be attacked by hordes of mud-fleeing Tacomites?
Buy in Gig Harbor. That way you’ve got the Tacoma Narrows as a moat 🙂
First thing we do, barricade the bridges!
Methinks the world has a lot, far more likely disasters in store. Let me predict that a lahar is going be the least of your problems in the next 30 years.
(Can you tell I’m feeling gloomy and just a little pessimistic at present?)
Actually, the income differential between Gig Harbor & Tacoma is such that the GHPD probably would do exactly that in such a situation… When the 2nd Tacoma Narrows bridge was built, they probably bought themselves an armored car and heavy weaponry for just such an occasion.
(Sorry. Been feeling as pessimistic as Microsaur lately. I want to be wrong, but, well, you know…)
I’d move there in a heartbeat – pending natural disasters and all – if the right opportunity presented itself. Besides, every are of the country has its own risks. Earthquakes in California. Tornadoes in the midwest. Rednecks in the deep south. Etc.
Rednecks in the deep south. Etc.
They’re not just in the deep south anymore . . .
i am too country and southern to even postulate such a move
have a grteat weekend man
Ah, but I love it in the Northwest.
I wonder what you would miss the most?
Let’s see. Are those the same experts who keep telling us we’re due for the next big quake? Then again, Southern California is just as likely to get one of those as anything up this way. Of course, I may just be jaded from the years of looking south-east at the plumes coming off Mount Baker.
Edwin
Tornadoes in the midwest.
And earthquakes (New Madrid). The last ones (1800s) were, I think, stronger than the more frequent ones in California.
And flooding.
At least with tornados, you can build underground shelters (or homes). And, for earthquakes, you can build buildings that can survive them (unless, of course, the earth cracks open right beneath them). But, not much you can do about the flooding, unless you design your house to float, but then it would be blown away by a tornado.
Perhaps the best solution is to have a mobile home trailer on wheels (earthquake shock absorbers) with floats on either side (to float on the water in a flood) that you can back into an earth shelter during a tornado.
Then, you’ve got to worry about NBC attacks, in which case your earth shelter is going to need to be well-fortified. But, then if there’s an NBC attack followed by a flood, you’re going to have problems!
Oh, and you’ll also have problems if a flood is followed by tornadoes.
Unless your mobile home on floats can also submerge like a submarine.
Okay, so we need a submarine on wheels plus an earth shelter fortified against NBC attacks.
Then, we just need to worry about meteors. Okay, so now we need forcefields and shields…
But, if we had forcefields and shields, we could build spaceships and leave this deadly little rock.
Then, we’ll just need to worry about the Klingons…
That’s why the best thing to have is a TARDIS. 😉 Which, unfortunately, we don’t have.
Yup:
Next time, it’ll kill thousands. St. Louis is about as seismically-prepared as Sichuan.
Let’s not forget that we’re just between subduction zone EQs out here. We’ve got an M8 to M9 waiting for us within the next century, I’ll bet.
The danger of a Ranier lahar is pretty much confined to the drainages. So stay out of the Nisqually valley, etc., and you should be OK. I find it unlikely, given the demographics of Tacoma, that any survivors will be motivated to get further than the closest standing 7-11.