A Supervolcano Beneath Mt. St. Helens? 180
We've discussed the supervolcano beneath Yellowstone a few times here (not going to blow, 2004; going to blow, 2008). Now scientists are pondering whether a large area of conductive material beneath Mt. St. Helens might contain enough magma that the area could be classed a supervolcano. The jury is still out on this one. Reader nhytefall sends us a New Scientist progress report. "Magma can be detected with a technique called magnetotellurics, which builds up a picture of what lies underground by measuring fluctuations in electric and magnetic fields at the surface. The fields fluctuate in response to electric currents traveling below the surface, induced by lightning storms and other phenomena. The currents are stronger when magma is present, since it is a better conductor than solid rock. ... [M]easurements revealed a column of conductive material that extends downward from the volcano. About 15 km below the surface, the relatively narrow column appears to connect to a much bigger zone of conductive material. This larger zone was first identified in the 1980s by another magnetotelluric survey, and was found to extend all the way to beneath Mount Rainier 70 km to the north-east, and Mount Adams 50 km to the east. It was thought to be a zone of wet sediment, water being a good electrical conductor. ... [Some researchers] now think the conductive material is more likely to be a semi-molten mixture. Its conductivity is not high enough for it to be pure magma.. so it is more likely to be a mixture of solid and molten rock."
Mount Helen? (Score:3, Funny)
Don't panic (Score:5, Funny)
If the west coast blows up (Score:5, Funny)
hmm if it did blow (Score:2, Funny)
The force could be enough to take out all the chairs in the Microsoft campus, regardless of what news was being digested by the CEO at the time.
pffft! It's not "Supervolcano" (Score:4, Funny)
You got that? It's a Megacaldera guys. Only total n00bz call it a supervolcano! I bet you guys called Yoda a Jedi Knight too....everybody knows he was a Jedi MASTER.
Wake me (Score:3, Funny)
Wake me when Rainer and Adams all start smoking at the same time.
Otherwise, in people as well as volcanoes, an occasional good healthy belch relieves a lot of pressure.
Re:pffft! It's not "Supervolcano" (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Gov. Jindal isn't worried (Score:1, Funny)
Fuck the south, and FUCK RELIGION. Hmmph. Talking to a fucking invisible man in the sky. Pure and utter stupidity.
Re:pffft! It's not "Supervolcano" (Score:5, Funny)
"...supervolcano was not a technical term used in volcanology. The term megacaldera is sometimes used.."
It's a supervolcano if it wears it's underwear on the outside.
So, to summarize recent science news on Slashdot: (Score:5, Funny)
If the supernova don't get us the supervolcano will!
Re:He Was Exactly Right (Score:2, Funny)
Re:pffft! It's not "Supervolcano" (Score:4, Funny)
In my opinion, all volcanoes are all "super." Monsters like Mt. Etna and Vesuvius would be typical in size. Super would be what? The size of Cuba, Iceland, Tasmania - that would be super. How about exovolcanoes (or is it exoplanetary volcanoes)? Do you use the same scale?
I suppose that since the Mt. St-Helens is in the USA, it must be a super something.
Re:Mount Helen? (Score:4, Funny)
Chances are that they'll forget to use sudo the first time...
HOUSE FOR SALE (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Don't panic (Score:4, Funny)
thats no moon
Re:Gov. Jindal isn't worried (Score:5, Funny)
fixed
Re:Gov. Jindal isn't worried (Score:3, Funny)
you should employ people doing whatever work that you can think of. Especially random, somewhat questionable research. Most of the major breakthroughs have been the result of random, somewhat questionable research
Monkeys with multiple asses?
Re:Gov. Jindal isn't worried (Score:1, Funny)