Is
an eruption of one or more of the major volcanoes in the northwest United
States imminent?
In recent days, very large earthquake swarms have been
reported at Mt. Hood, Mt. Rainier and Mt. St. Helens. It is certainly not
unusual for each of these volcanoes to experience earthquake swarms from time
to time, but right now we are seeing this happen at all three volcanoes simultaneously, and
this comes at a time when seismic activity along the Ring of Fire is on the
rise all over the planet.
If you have followed my work for a while, then you probably already know that I
have been consistently warning that an eruption of Mt. Rainier is coming, and
of course Mt. Hood and Mt. St. Helens are exceedingly dangerous volcanoes as
well. If any one of the three were to erupt on a massive scale, it would
instantly become the biggest news story of the year.
Mt.
St. Helens
Many
of my older readers remember the devastating eruption of Mt. St. Helens back in
1980 very well. This volcano is probably not as dangerous as Mt. Hood, and it
is definitely not as dangerous as Mt. Rainier, but a full-blown eruption could
still do an immense amount of damage to nearby communities.
Over
the past couple of months, there has been a very disturbing series of
earthquakes at Mt. St. Helens, and just within the last 30 days, there have
been 103 quakes. In this article, I am going to share with you a series of maps
that come from the Pacific Northwest
Seismic Network via Google Earth.
Scientists
tell us that the reason for all of this activity at Mt. St. Helens is
because the magma chamber is likely
recharging.
Multiple
small earthquakes beneath the surface of Mount St. Helens the past two months
suggest it may be recharging magma.
These
tiny quakes which started March 14 have been happening at a depth of two and
seven kilometers—or 1.2 to four miles beneath the surface. Over the last eight
weeks, there have been over 130 earthquakes formally located by the Pacific
Northwest Seismic Network and many more too small to be located, says USGS.
The
small earthquakes beneath the surface may suggest Mount St. Helens is
recharging magma. The magma chamber is likely imparting its own stresses on the
crust around and above it as the system slowly recharges. The pressure drives
fluids through cracks, producing the small quakes, per USGS.
Mt.
Hood
Mount
Hood is located only about 50 miles away from Portland, Oregon, and it is one
of the most dangerous volcanoes in America. Over the past 30 days, there have
been 96 earthquakes at Mt. Hood, and most of them have been centered on the
south side of the mountain.
According
to Wired, the majority of
the earthquakes that are happening are at a depth of between three and five
kilometers, and this could be a sign that magma is ascending.
Right
now, the earthquake swarm at Mt.
Hood is centered just to the south of the main
edifice (see below) and most of the earthquakes are between 3 and 5 kilometers
below the surface. This is likely the zone where magma is being staged as it
ascends from its source.
Mt.
Rainier
There
haven't been quite as many earthquakes at Mt. Rainier over the past 30
days—only 37—but without a doubt it is potentially more dangerous than either
Mt. Hood or Mt. St. Helens because it sits so close to major population
centers.
For
a long time, I have been warning about the apocalyptic consequences that a
major eruption of Mt. Rainier would have. For example, here is an excerpt from one of my previous
articles.
Mt.
Rainier has been dubbed a "time
bomb," "the most dangerous mountain
in the United States" and "one of the most dangerous
volcanoes in the world" because it
sits so close to Seattle, Tacoma and other major cities along the coast of
Washington state.
In the event of a full-blown eruption, countless numbers of
people would literally be buried alive in a tsunami of super-heated mud.
These
tsunamis of super-heated mud are known as "lahars," and scientists
believe that Mt. Rainier is capable of producing lahars that could move at
speeds of up to 50 miles per hour.
I am so convinced that an eruption of Mt. Rainier is in our future that I even
put one in my novel.
My
wife and I once lived out near Seattle for about a year, and we know very well
that Mt. Rainier looms in the distance as an ever-present reminder of the major
disaster that is coming someday. This extremely dangerous volcano is clearly
visible from the central part of Seattle.
It
is hard to even describe the death and destruction that we could potentially
witness during a full-blown eruption of Mt. Rainier.
According to Wikipedia,
super-heated mud from Mt. Rainier could potentially even "destroy parts of
downtown Seattle."
If
Mt. Rainier were to erupt as powerfully as Mount
St. Helens did in its May 18, 1980,
eruption, the effect would be cumulatively greater, because of the far more
massive amounts of glacial ice locked on the volcano compared
to Mount St. Helens[33] and the
vastly more heavily populated areas surrounding Rainier.[38] Lahars from
Rainier pose the most risk to life and property,[39] as
many communities lie atop older lahar deposits.
According to the United States Geological
Survey (USGS), about 150,000 people
live on top of old lahar deposits of Rainier.[8] Not only is
there much ice atop the volcano, the volcano is also slowly being weakened by
hydrothermal activity. According to Geoff Clayton, a geologist with a Washington
State Geology firm, RH2 Engineering, a repeat of the Osceola mudflow would
destroy Enumclaw, Orting, Kent, Auburn, Puyallup, Sumner and all
of Renton.[32]
Such a
mudflow might also reach down the Duwamish estuary
and destroy parts of downtown Seattle,
and cause tsunamis in Puget
Sound and Lake
Washington.[40] Rainier is
also capable of producing pyroclastic
flows and expelling lava.
Scientists
assure us that someday Mt. Rainier will experience another massive eruption,
and it will be an apocalyptic event unlike anything the northwest United States
has ever experienced before.
Let us just hope and pray that we have a lot more
time until that happens, because nobody should ever want to witness death and
destruction on that scale.
Unfortunately,
the crust of our planet is becoming increasingly unstable, and the west coast
of our country sits directly along the Ring of Fire. It is only a matter of
time until a major seismic event strikes, and it may be a lot sooner than a lot
of people think.
Related Posts:
Michael Snyder is the founder and publisher of End Of The American Dream. Michael’s controversial new book
about Bible prophecy entitled "The
Rapture Verdict"is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.
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http://www.charismanews.com/opinion/57245-major-eruption-imminent-earthquake-swarms-reported-at-mt-hood-mt-rainier-and-mt-st-helens
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