Skip to footer

When will Mount Rainier erupt again? Magma study offers clues.

Scientists have mapped the electric and magnetic signatures of magma flows beneath Mount Rainier, which scientists expect to erupt again. 

|
Rachel La Corte/AP
Mount Rainier is seen from the road to Paradise Visitor Center at Mount Rainier National Park in June.

| Seattle

Experts have mapped a huge magma reservoir below Mount Rainier in Washington state that begins melting deep in the Earth's mantle before pushing upwards to where it will eventually be tapped for eruption.

Researchers from the United States and Norway used seismic imaging and the measurement of variations in electrical and magnetic fields to create a detailed road map of the pathway molten rock takes to the surface.

Their findings, published this week in the journal Nature, are aimed at helping experts understand the volcano's inner workings, and eventually determine when it might again erupt.

A state landmark, Mount Rainier last erupted in the 19th century. It is widely expected to erupt again, according to the U.S. National Park Service.

The tallest volcano and fifth-highest peak in the contiguous United States, it towers some 14,410-feet (4,392 meters) about 58 miles (93 km) southeast of Seattle, from most of which it is visible.

Phil Wannamaker, a geophysicist at the University of Utah, said the new images were most detailed to date, but that they did not provide any information on the timing of future eruptions by Mount Rainier or other Cascade Range volcanoes.

The volcano's magma forms deep in the Earth's mantle, the layer between the planet's crust and its core. The magma, which is fluid molten rock, then flows upwards to a pool about five miles (8 km) below the peak, the study found.

The pool appears to be about 5 to 10 miles (8 km to 16 km) thick and the same width, the researchers said.

(Reporting by Victoria Cavaliere; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Eric Walsh)

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to When will Mount Rainier erupt again? Magma study offers clues.
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2014/0718/When-will-Mount-Rainier-erupt-again-Magma-study-offers-clues
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe