You covered MSH's perfectly Rob. I don't see one thing missing. Every little fine detail is there embeded into your fascinating reaccount of the eruption. Great job! Couldn't have done it better myself. Hopefully if things settle down a bit here I will give you all an account of the Lassen Peak eruption. Fortunatly, I can take my time because Lassen Peak was countinously active from May of 1914 to far into 1915. I will post it when I can.

YIKES!!! This is SCARY!!! Check this web site out.... http://www.ess.washington.edu/SEIS/PNSN/HIST_CAT/STORIES/geology.html This what I am doing my research essay on in English. I thought this was very interesting. If Japan has a record of this, I bet you other countries aound the Pacific have records as well.

wow!! thanks julie!

Julie and I discussed it on IM. We even discovered seismogrphic tracings of "Ice Quakes" on the Cascades. But I will leave that to her telling. She discovered them.

Yup! Ice Quakes they are. Very fascinating! I have studied the seismograms of the Cascades for about a year now and I always noticed that Baker, Glacier Peak, and sometimes Rainer would have a lot of acitivty on them. At first I thought they were earthquakes, but after a while I began to realize they were too frequent to be quakes. So after being puzzeled for a while, I looked up some info about the webicorders and it shows you exactly what quakes will look like on there and what "other" things will look like. Seismographs are EXTREMLY sensitive. You can have an earthquake in Turkey for example and find it on the seismogram of Mt. St. Helens! I know, because I saw this exact thing happen. I don't remember the date, but in August of 1999 there was a large quake in Turkey. I was at the Johnston Ridge Observatory watching the seismograph right at that moment. It was amazing watching the needle go, although many people thought it was from Mt. St. Helens and started screaming that she was going to eru t! *laughs* But unfortunatly, seismograms are so sensitive that they also record things like trucks going by and even people walking near by. It can be very confusing if you don't know what you are looking for. But, look at the website below and go to Glacier Peak. All the activity that you see on there is ice quakes (the lines that seem to go straight down). Glacier Peak, Baker, and Rainer have extensive ice and snow on them, more so then the other Cascades. The temperatures are warming up now and the snow and ice is slowly begining to melt. Keep watch for this, because if I am correct the activity will increase as the temperatures get warmer. But for people that are in the Cascades this is a very serious problem that means only one thing....Severe Avalanche Danger!! Don't worry guys, Sean and I are going to take some serious percautions when we go out there in 3 weeks! http://spike.geophys.washington.edu/SEIS/PNSN/WEBICORDER/welcome.html

This teleseismicity is very important in determining the precise magnitude and epicenter for earthquakes. At HVO we have the tracings of the Good Friday Quake that hit Anchorage, Alaska some years ago. The seismograph tracings are kept files for years for correlation and research purposes.

And if you see whats on this seismogram below......its major intereference! http://spike.geophys.washington.edu/SEIS/PNSN/WEBICORDER/FMW_EHZ_UW.2002050800.html

Good Grief, Julie! It looks like modern art, not a seismogram.

There has been a slight change of plans to my dissapointment. Sean has to go to some mandatory meeting on June 5th so we have to cut our trip a day and a half short and it looks like we will be taking the plane back instead of the bus. No big deal though,I'm just going to have to go the 2 universities all in one day. Interestingly enough, when I get back, I may be going on a another hiking/camping/backpacking trip with a few of my friends up to Mammoth because one of them has a cabin up there. All this hiking and I just bought new hiking boots yesturday! Ugh! I need to break them in fast for the next 12 days or my feet are going to die. Ouch!! So far conditions in the Cascades seem to be improving. But to my dissapointment, the road to Windy Ridge at MSH's is still closed and won't be opened till mid June. But who knows, maybe conditions will change again. Too bad the Pacific Northwest isn't having some of our nice hot weather. It was 90. F (32. C) yesturday!!

Hope that you break in your new hiking boots without much trouble, Julie.

Mammoth?! Julie, how fantastic. My son and his wife spent last weekend there (in honor of his birthday) and hiked around in Long Valley Caldera. They liked the 50�F temperatures there much more than th 94�F on their return home near San Francisco. Lots of snow is still in the Sierras so you will have a really great time. Take notes and be sure Julie has a good time and stays safe. *HUGS*

Rob, you got quite a treat last night. Hehehe! Okay, guys, check this out! I wrote a song 4 weeks ago about the May 18th, 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helens. So.....for her 22nd anniverary, I thought I would post it for all of you to sing. It is sung to "Oh, My Darling Clementine." Enjoy!! "Oh, Mt. St. Helens On a Sunday In 1980 Was the 18th of May We all expected to be normal Was no ordinary day. Then at 8:32am An earthquake rocked her flanks Mt. St. Helens now awoke With a fury all so great. First the pressure of molten rock Had increased beneath the crater It blasted out in a huge explosion On the north face of her slopes. Then the landslide Sped down the valley As a scorching avalanche Rushing right through Spirit Lake And the North Fork River too. Then the blast cloud Roared down the mountain In a pyroclastic flow Going top speeds down the valley Wiping all out in its path. Now the ash cloud Shot up skyward Like a mushroom growing tall Spreading outwards across the country And diffused around the globe. Last the mudflow From melting snow And the slosh from Spirit Lake Came roaring down the streams and rivers Taking all up in its wake. When it was over All was silent 57 lives were lost Including that of David Johnston Who will remain here in our hearts. Mt. St. Helens Mt. St. Helens Why�d you shake and blow your top Now you have part of you missing And a crater filled with dust. Now your slopes Look like a moonscape But there still is life to grow Someday mighty Mt. St. Helens Will have some beauty of her own. Look inside your barren crater You have grown a lava dome Hope the pressure is not building Deep within your deformed cone. Mt. St. Helens Though you�re quiet You may soon erupt again Stunning us with your destruction And bringing life back once again.

i was actually singing it!!!!!

Julie, the Poetess Laureate of Geo!

Hi all Are you people aware of the treasure that you are awaiting, whose voice actually puts some "pop sensations" to shame?? Rob

*blushes* Thanks Rob. *sings* I'm off to see volcanoes, the wonderful volcanoes of Washington....3 more days left! Woooohoooooo!!! Things are really hectic right now. While I am busily studying for exams, during breaks Sean and I are trying to do prepare last minute things for our trip which is in about 156 hours!!! I think things will be worse Thursday, Friday, and Saturday because we have so much to do and there is hardly any time left. Thank goodness I took out the camcorder yesturday. The battery recharger is missing. But no worries, everyone is searching for it, so it should turn up by Saturday. I think I will hold in the rest of my excitment until after exams. I need to stop thinking of volcanoes and instead think Afrcia, Asia, Austrailia, and Porifera, Cnidaria, Platyhelminthes, Nematoda, Annelida, Mollusca, Arthropoda, Echinodermata, and Chordata! Yikes! I need to take a geology class again fast before I turn into a biologist! UGH!!!

Go Julie!!! I think our Poetess Laureate has a groupie already. I could not sing if my leife depended upon it. Genetic throat formation, I hear. Whatever it is, you will not hear music from me other than from my inept fingers. I see there are tornado warnings aroung the NW USA. Please be careful. Weather was not something I had though to be a problem!

Wooooooohoooooooo!!!!!!My semester is finally over. Now I can focus on more exciting things like my volcano trip that I will be going on in less than 72 hours! Unfortunatly though, conditions in the Pacific Northwest are worse than we anticipated. Sean and I looked at the weather satalites and it looks like it will be raining and snowing every single day we will be there. The weather just doesn't seem like it wants to coroperate. I thought we would be safe in just our hiking boots and side step crampons, but now with these conditions, we will have to have full boot crampons, an ice axe, and snow shoes. We are still climbing MSH's, but we may have to wait a few days until the weather is a little less brutal. Sean and I got full body rain suits. We will probably have to wear them the whole time we are there. *sigh* Why am I complaining? I love the rain and I love the snow. I just hope it doesn't ruin our trip completely. It doesn't llok like we will be climbing Mt. Adams though. The road to the trail s blocked, so we would have to hike about 12 miles to get to the trail and about 6 or so to the top. As for Mt. Rainer and anything north of that...your guess is as good as mine. But like I said before, we will make the best of it some how. And YES, for the 10th time, WE WILL BE CAREFUL!! Mom said she will kill me if I try to slide down a glacier. Glaciding is what its called. A fun trick, but if your not careful you can go flying right off the mountain or volcano in this circumstance!

It's raining there now according to my sources, Julie. Nothing is much more miserable than hiking and camping in cold rain. Take care, Sweetie! *HUGS*

I thought I would say my last goodbye to all of you, since we are leaving tonight. We have a fun and amazing trip planned, as long as the weather doesn't screw us up too much. I hope to get some great shots both with the camcorder and my regular camera to show you all eventually. Marcia, since I won't be here on your special day, I would like to wish you a wonderful, fantastic, amazing, and memorable birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARCIA!! Take care all. I will see you in about 2 weeks!

Thank you, Julie! Have a splendid time and return to us intact. Don't fall off the edge of the earth! *HUGS*

oh julie, i missed your bon voyage! please be careful out there and take plenty of pictures for those of us living vicariously through you!!!

Rob misses her already. So do I. I wish I felt better about the weather, but they are experienced climbers and ber brother is old enough to take care of her.

Hi all! I'm back! Not like I really want to be. They had to drag me on to the plane in Portland kicking and screaming.*laughs* When our plane landed in John Wayne Airport this morning I felt like I had walked into a foreign country. For some reason I don't feel like I belong in southern California anymore. Okay, anyway, about my trip. Some things we wanted to do we did not get to do and things we thought we couldn't do we did get to do. Overall we had an excellent time! Right now I am exhusted from not sleeping in 2 days and sore from a double sunburn and scrapes. I will tell you this though, I got some things on tape you wouldn't believe, including a real natural disaster taking place right before my eyes. AND I GOT IT ALL ON TAPE!! WOOHOOO!! You will have to wait and see. I will tell you about my trip in another day or so.

WooooooooooHoooooooo Julie!!! I fly to Oakland tomorrow. Ever been to Vacaville? Welcome home. I hdld Rob's hand for you. Busy packing - look in your email shortly!

I have to be hauled kicking and screaming away from eruptions. Each and every time. You really are my little twin sister! *BIG HUGS*

excellent news, julie--good to have you back and i can't wait to see your footage!!!

Lukcy for me, I kept a jounral my entire trip so all I have to do is cut and paste. I recorded everything that we saw and everything that was happening. Here is Cascades Adventure 2002.....enjoy! Sunday, May 26th: We took the bus from Santa Ana station to L.A. There weren�t many people going from Santa Ana to L.A, but L.A station was packed. The station was very confusing because there were so many lines. We were at the end of the line for our route, so by the time we got on the bus there were no seats left. We had to seat separate from each other. I sat next to this one guy who just slept and snored very loudly the whole time. Sean sat in back of me next to some other guy. I couldn�t sleep at all that night. My neck hurt really badly from seating up and being tossed around. I looked around the bus to find everyone asleep, including Sean. What was my problem? While I tried to drift off, this man kept getting up to go the bathroom every 10 minutes and every time he passed my seat he hit me. That�s what I get for seating in the aisle I guess. We did make two rest stops in Bakersfield at 12am and Fresno at 2am. I watched the moon for half of the night. It looked very eerie with clouds sca tered all over it. Finally, I could see the sky getting lighter in the east. I couldn�t tell where we were going or where exactly we were because people�s heads were in the way. The bus smelt really bad, especially when that same man kept going by our seats to use the bathroom. I don�t think he had taken a shower in a very long time. Another man had gotten some perfume at the last stop to spray all over the bus so it wouldn�t smell so bad. Eventually we ended up at Sacramento station at 5am. When we got there, we decided to wait in line by the door so we could finally get a seat together on the bus. Monday, May 27th: We were back on the bus at 7am. Sean and I got the last seats on the right side of the bus. We wanted to have views of Shasta and Lassen. Sean took a nap while I studied the California map and its geography for the central and northern part of the state. Just as Sean woke up, I pointed out the Sutter Buttes. The clouds began to form unusual pattern in the sky; long wavy rows of cirrus, altostratus, and altocumulus. We then made another stop at Williams. Once on our way again we saw the snow covered peak of Lassen far in the distance above the clouds. We stopped again in Willows. Everyone wanted to get off the bus to have a smoke! Back on the road I saw two deer on the side of the road in the bushes grazing. We began to get closer to Lassen Peak, but not close enough. The Coast Range Mountains had lots of low clouds on them, but their peaks could easily be seen above the white cloud blanket. We made another stop at Red Bluff. I was starving, but I didn�t feel like getting of the us at the rest stop, so I had trail mix for the next 4 hours! Ugh! A few hours later we stopped in Redding. I was finally getting excited now. Mt. Shasta was coming up in the next few hours. We drove over Shasta Lake, but so far there was no sign of Mt. Shasta. Suddenly, this guy in the middle of the bus opens the emergency exit and tries to jump out. The girl seating a few seats in front of us, yells out, �Holy #$@%, the homeboy is going out the window!� The bus driver pulls off the side of the road and comes back and closes it. He looks quite pissed. As we drove off, I began to get impatient. Waiting for Mt. Shasta to appear behind the forest was torture! Suddenly this guys eating in the seat next to Sean asks him where he could buy some Weed. The guy says, �You look like the type that smokes Weed.� Sean and I had quite a laugh about that the rest of the bus ride. After about 30 minutes or so, Mt. Shasta appeared as big and as beautiful as ever, with lenticular clouds swirling over the summit. Mt. Shasta�s other volcanic neighbors, Chaos Crags and Black Butte were also seen in this area. As we came into the town of Weed, we took pictures of the 3 volcanic features. We then stopped in Weed to get some lunch and buy some postcards of Mt. Shasta. It was already starting to sprinkle out. Later, after we went over the Klamath River, we began to see beautiful basalt formations in the area surrounded by bright yellow flowers. I finally drifted off to sleep for about 2 hours and woke up as we made our stop in Medford for a rest break. A few moments later the bus pulled into a gas station and we all got out to get some dinner at the mini-mart. We decided to get Taco Bell and save it for later, since it was only about 4pm and way to early to eat dinner. Then we began our drive towards Eugene. As we left Eugene we saw a beautiful rainbow over the sky. This cute little girl who looked about 8 or 9 had gotten on with her parents in Eugene. She and her father sat in the seats behind us. She kept telling all these funny jokes to her father, but loud enough so we could hear her. She sort of reminded me of myself when I was younger; cute, funny, asking lots of questions, and keeping everyone well entertained. And I defiantly needed to be entertained because my CD player broke about the time we got to Weed and I was going bored out of my mind. Finally, after driving everyone crazy on the bus by imitating cartoon characters, we arrived in Portland. It was still slightly raining as we reached the bus station. We then got off and took a taxi to Alamo Rent A Car and drove out about 20 minutes later in a white 4 door Mitsubishi with a CD player! We drove through Vancouver to the Best Inn and Suites and after repacking everything we went to bed. Tuesday, May 28th: We woke up at 7am and ate the hotel breakfast they were serving in the lobby. As we ate, we began to plan our day out. We then came back to our room to decide again what we were doing. Then we packed the car and checked out of the hotel. We first stopped at the AAA to get maps of the specific areas we were going to in Washington. Next, we made a stop at Target and bought some extra supplies. Then we drove over to the Gifford Pinchot National Forest Headquarters, bought some maps and asked about hiking, camping, and trail conditions. The weather didn�t look good for Wednesday, which was the day of our climb. Finally, we drove to Woodland area where we went to Jack�s Climbing Store to see if we could change the day of our climb. They sent us down the road to the Mt. St. Helens National Monument Headquarters to change our day and find out the conditions again. We actually could climb both Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Adams if we wanted too. The conditions at Mt. Adams had actually impro ed since the last time we had checked, which was way before our trip. But our final decision was to just do Mt. St. Helens. We drove back to Jack�s and bought our permits. After we had our permits, we headed back towards Vancouver and had a quick lunch break at Arby�s. Then we headed south again to Jansen Beach and went to REI. At REI, we rented our crampons, ice axe, and snow boots. Then we headed to Mt. Hood, finally! We stopped in the town of Gresham to buy some more camp food at Safeway. Then we drove towards Timberline Lodge and Government Camp to look for a campsite. Most were snowed in and the roads were closed. After going back and forth several times, we finally pulled into the Trillium Lake Snow-park area and decided to camp in our car, since it was still raining quite heavily. For dinner we had bread, peanut butter, and trail mix. I was a little worried about sleeping in the car because I didn�t want to freeze to death like I almost did in Arizona. Sean said not to worry though because the temperature won�t get below freezing like it did in Arizona. He was wrong though, because later that night I was shivering to death again! But I curled up and suffered through it this time, until 5am, when Sean woke up and turned on the heat. We then headed up towards Timberline Lodge. Wednesday, May 29th: As we were driving up, we saw dozens of mini waterfalls on the side of the road coming down from the mossy slopes. When we got to Timberline Lodge though, it was closed. Since Mt. Hood was still in thick clouds, we headed back down the mountain. Along the way, we picked up two ash samples and took some pictures of the waterfalls. We then headed out of Mt. Hood National Forest. As we drove down HWY 35, we saw another rainbow. And as we entered Colombia River Gorge Scenic Area, we saw yet another rainbow. After a quick bathroom and snack stop at McDonalds, we headed down towards the Mt. Adams turn off where we saw another rainbow. I couldn�t believe how many rainbows we had seen in the past few days. It was incredible! We first went into the Mt. Adams Ranger Station in Trout Lake to find out about hiking and attractions in the area. Since Ice Cave was really close by, we decided to go there first. When we got to the cave entrance, we had to put on our ski jackets, gloves, cram ons, and use our ice axe to climb down the mouth of the cave. The cave itself was spectacular looking. Icicles, some 10-12ft long, hung from the ceiling to the floor. Each one was dripping water into a frozen or semi-frozen pool. I went over to lick one of the huge icicles hanging from the ceiling. Suddenly, I heard it crack, and before I could move out of the way, the whole icicle fell right on top of my head. It stung for a second, but then I stumbled ahead of Sean. There were 2 chambers. The main one was about 300 yards or so and it extended into a smaller ice cave that I had to crawl thru to get to. Sean was reluctant to crawl on his stomach like I was, so I didn�t go in very far. After taking some shots of the ice cave, we climbed out and had some snacks at the car. We then drove up to the South Climb Trail, but we had to turn back because the road was blocked by snow. After getting some rock and ash samples and trying unsuccessfully to find Mt. Adams through the clouds, we headed back down owards Vancouver. We took the toll bridge to HWY 84 through the beautiful Colombia River Gorge Scenic Area. The basalt cliffs were amazing looking, especially with the low clouds hugging it. We stopped at Multanomah Falls to take some pictures and then bought a few things at the gift store to the right of the falls. Multanomah Falls flows over an ancient lava flow 620 feet tall. As we headed back towards Portland on HWY 84, we could see several of the waterfalls cascading down the basalt cliffs. This scenic road was one of the most beautiful and magical things I had seen on the trip so far. With the clouds starting to clear, we might be able to see some of the Cascades someday! Ugh! As we were driving on Hwy 503, we could see the base of Mt. St. Helens peaking out through the clouds. She looked to be completely covered by snow. What a beautiful sight! We decided to stay at the Cresap Bay Campgrounds. These campgrounds were next to a beautiful lake, called Merwin Lake. The forest that surrounded t e campgrounds was its own little tropical paradise, with ferns, thick trees, mosses, and plants growing densely and thickly along the shore of the lake. After setting up camp, we put our backpacks together for our Mt. St. Helens climb the next day. Once we had our packs together, we ate macaroni and cheese and soup for dinner. Then we took a little hike to the lake at twilight where we saw the alpine glow light up the surrounding area. By that time, we hiked back and got ready for bed. I watched as the sun set into a thin layer of clouds, casting a pinkish glow throughout the sky. All night long we kept hearing this strange sound. Sean said it was a peacock, but I never heard a peacock sound like that before. I called it the creature of the Cascades. Whatever it was, it was doing a good job keeping me up most of the night. Thursday, May 30th: After a short sleep, we woke up at 4:45am and got ready for our climb. We ate some Cliff Bars as we were driving towards Jack�s Climbing Store. The sky looked very clear today, finally! We could see Mt. St. Helens very well now. A thick snowy blanket of white covered her. Once we got to Jack�s Climbing Store, we signed in, figured out our climbing route, and drove to Marble Mountain Snow-Park. We began our climb at around 7am, but before we were a little bit more than half way from the summit, we realized our pace was too slow and it was already getting late. The snow was extremely slushy, and it just got worse as the sun got higher into the sky. Every time we would take a step, we would sink down to our ankles or higher. The crampons didn�t seem to be very useful and all they did was slow us down. What we really needed was skis, poles, and snowshoes. Finally, after a painful decision, we decided to turn around. We may attempt the summit again on Sunday or a Monday if we can et another permit. If we did go, we would have to start our climb at 4am. After a tiring and defeating walk to our car, we drove over to Ape Cave, where we decided to explore the upper level. The upper level was very treacherous because of all the loose lava rocks. Since we were still tired from our climb, we decided to explore the lower level again instead. Then we drove over to the Trail of Two Forests where we got to see what the 2,000-year-old lava flow did to an ancient forest. We got to crawl through a lava cast tree cave as well. I got a little freaked out though after I heard this scratching sound at the other end of the cave. It�s the creature of the Cascades! Ahhhhhh! On our way back to the campgrounds, we stopped at some viewpoints of Mt. St. Helens and then stopped back at Jack�s to sign out. We then called Mom who sounded frantic on the phone. She told us about the 2 fatal accidents that had occurred on Mt. Hood and Mt. Rainer. Everyone at home was going crazy because we had not been y a phone for several days and my cell phone hardly ever had a cell. Everyone back at home thought we had been the ones in the accident because we had been thinking about climbing Mt. Hood and some of Mt. Rainer. Mom told us we better call every single day now so everyone will know what�s going on. Once we got back to the campgrounds, we ate chicken stew and spaghettios. Then we cleaned up while watching the stars and went to bed.

Friday, May 31st: We woke up later that morning and ate cinnamon buns, oatmeal, and cocoa for breakfast. As we were packing up our stuff and taking the tent down, we fed the chipmunks some nuts. We then left the campgrounds, and drove back to Portland to return our equipment back to REI. Then we headed towards the north side of Mt. St. Helens by way of a quick stop at Castle Rock. We listened to my Dante�s Peak soundtrack as we drove up HWY 504. Before we reached Johnston Ridge Observatory, we stopped at several vistas to see Mt. St. Helens. Once at Johnston Ridge Observatory, Sean suggested I give them a copy of my Mt. St. Helens song. I was sort of embarrassed to do something like that, but I did it anyway and now I am glad I did. The ranger told me it was excellent and that it would be a great way to teach kids and adults about the eruption of Mt. St. Helens in a fun way. My song is now being put on display at Johnston Ridge Observatory! Woooohooo! After touring Johnston Ridge again very quickly we headed back down the road. We stopped a few times along the way to drink some real Mt. St. Helens water from the waterfalls cascading out through the cracks in the rocks. On the way down, we stopped at a turn off where we say about 4 or 5 other cars pulled off too. We decided to hike up the trail to see what was going on. We reached the top of the cliff to find a small group of people watching hang gliders take off and land on the ridge. It would be awesome to hang glide near Mt. St. Helens. As we were driving back, we saw a rainbow halo around the sun. We pulled into Seaquest State Park, which was right in front of Mt. St. Helens Visitor�s Center and got a campsite near a beautiful fern and moss forest. There were a few trails leading from our campsite. After a dinner of soup and lasagna, we hiked 2 of the trails to see where they went. But we didn�t get very far because the plants were too thick. After the hike, we went back to call Mom and then went to bed. Saturday, June 1st: We woke up at 6:30am and ate a nauseating mixture of granola, raspberries, and powdered milk with peaches. Then we packed up and headed up to Johnston Ridge Observatory again to begin a 4.5 mile hike to Harry�s Ridge where we would get up close and personal with Mt. St. Helens, her lava dome, and Spirit Lake. The hike went through some of the slushiest snow I had ever seen. As we were hiking up, I fell through a slushy snowdrift and cut my hand open on a sharp piece of rhyolite. Once we got to the top of the ridge, the wind started to really blow and the wind-chill went down to about 25. F. We could see Mt. Adams as well from the top, but clouds again covered the summit. At the top of Harry�s Ridge there was an old earthquake station situated at the very end of the ridge. We found out later that there was also a machine up on top of the ridge that bounced laser beams off of the lava dome to see how much it was growing. Spirit Lake looked bigger now than when I had last seen it n 1999, probably because of more snow melt, rain, and due to the fact that more of the logs have sunken from the surface to their watery grave at the bottom of the lake. We had a quick lunch of trail mix at the top, while admiring the magnificent views. On the way down, we sloshed though ankle deep snow and I walked across a creek that I thought was frozen over, but I learned very quickly that it was not, once I fell in knee deep in ice cold slushy water. As we were hiking back towards Johnston Ridge Observatory, we saw other people coming up. You can tell the people that know how to hike and those that don�t. Some people were wearing sandals and shorts down the trail! Hehe, they have no idea how wet and cold they are going to get! We then got back to the car and drove down to Cold Water Ridge Observatory where we got some more postcards. We tried to make it down to the Mt. St. Helens Visitor�s Center, but they closed before we had even parked the car. We then headed back I-5 and took HWY 12 towards the south entrance of Mt. Rainer. As we got closer, the views were quite impressive, but soon we were too close to the snowy slopes, and eventually the trees covered everything up. We were going to stop at Longmire, but since I had gone there last time, we headed to Cougar Campgrounds to set up camp. There was big signs everywhere saying� CAMP AT YOUR OWN RISK! THIS AREA IS SUBJECT TO LAHARS, AVALANCHES, MUDFLOWS, AND OTHER GEOLOGICAL HAZARDS! But since this was the only campground around the area, we pitched out tent up anyway. Though I began to wonder, what if� For dinner we had a nasty chicken rice meal, mashed potatoes that stuck to the back of my throat, and pasta. We then took the firewood we had bought earlier, and made a small campfire while toasting marshmallows. I threw a few into the fire. It was neat watching them expand, sizzle, and run like molten lava. The campgrounds were inside a valley with mountains on either side of us. We could see a large waterfall flowing down high up on the mountain. The snow in the area was hard packed and the temperature went down to the low 40�s that night. It will probably be very cold when we wake up. After we cleaned the dishes, we put out the fire and went to bed. The waterfall was so loud though, that I heard it all night long. A few times I woke up from it thinking it was the roar of some geological force heading towards us, but I ignored it and went back to sleep. Sunday, June 2nd: We woke up at 6:30am. It was freezing out. It took me about 20 minutes, just to have enough guts to unzip my sleeping bag and crawl out. I reached over on the other side of the tent for my jeans, but found them completely frozen. I had forgot to put them in my sleeping bag last night. Opps! I reluctantly put them on anyway. We then packed up and Sean ate a quick breakfast. I was too cold to even take my hands out of my pockets! We headed up to Paradise and went into the Paradise Inn. It was very fancy inside. It sort of reminded me of the lodge at Crater Lake. We went in to raid the gift shop anyway though. The views of Mt. Rainer from Paradise were incredible. No wonder they called it Paradise. Though, I�m sure it would look better with all the wild flowers that bloom every time in the later summer months. From there, we went over to Henry M. Jackson Memorial Visitor Center, but it was closed until 10 am, so we had a snack by the car as we were figuring out what we were g ing to do next. Suddenly this Stellar Blue Jay lands right by my feet. I take out the camera and start shooting. Just then, a Gray Jay lands on top of the car door. I turn the camera for a blurry but close up shot. We decided to head over to Ohanapecosh Visitor Center to find out about the hiking in the area. As we drove, we saw hundreds of waterfalls cascading down old basalt cliffs. Some of the waterfalls even hit the car as we were going by. We also saw some deer cross the road and go to drink at one of the miniature waterfalls. After the Visitor�s Center, we headed over to Silver Falls to take the .5-mile trail through a moss-covered forest along side the Ohanapecosh River. We had to climb down the rocks to get a better view of the falls. After we had hiked back up, we headed over to Falls Creek and then stopped at a vista of Mt. Rainer. Finally we got to Box Canyon, which is very beautiful in the fall and summer months, but now since there was so much snow, it wasn�t as impressive in my o inion. Box Canyon is 180ft to the water surface. We stopped on the way back up to get pictures of the waterfalls splashing on the road by the two lava tunnels we had to drive through. After seeing some more views of Mt. Rainer, we headed back to the Henry M. Jackson Memorial Visitor Center to look around. I was getting a little sick of having Cliff Bars for lunch, so I talked Sean into getting a volcano chicken sandwich with fries at the cafeteria they had inside. We then headed back towards Paradise Inn and parked the car. We began to get ready for out hike on the Skyline Trail. We put on out ski pants and gators, but it was still warm enough to just wear a t-shirt. We then hiked up the slopes of Mt. Rainer admiring the views, as we seemed to get closer and closer to the summit. Okay, not really. The summit was still about 4 miles away or so. But it looked so close! We could see the Nisqually and Wilson Glaciers very clearly from the trail. We then had fun slogging and sliding back down the sl pes. I wanted to go faster so I took the steepest ways down, only to do a face plant and eat some snow! Once down, we left Paradise and headed over to the Wonderland Trail and crossed the Nisqually River, where we collected some ash and rock samples. We then headed out of Mt. Rainer National Park and towards the town of Orting by HWY 161. When we arrived at the town of Orting, we explored the Carbon River coming from the Carbon Glacier on the slopes of Mt. Rainer. We saw the sirens all over the town and lots of volcano evacuation signs. The people in Orting are so friendly. They all seem to go on with their every day lives not worrying about the danger that stands in shadowy views in front of them. We saw Mt. Rainer from Orting at sunset. We took some pictures as the Alpine Glow spread across the mountain. It was so peaceful watching Mt. Rainer as twilight turned into night revealing a clear starry night sky. It�s hard to believe how dangerous and destructive Mt. Rainer can really be. It was alre dy past 9pm, so we decided to eat dinner at the McDonalds in Orting. They had the cleanest bathrooms I have ever seen! After buying some more water at Safeway, we headed over to the town of Puyallup to find a campsite. We found it about an hour after going in circles, but realized it was just for RV�s. So we drove around through Puyallup and then trough Tacoma, but finally pulled over on a quiet street in Tacoma. I argued with Sean for about 45 minutes how I didn�t want to sleep here because it didn�t feel safe. But Sean was tired from driving so much so I soon gave up and let Sean get some sleep. As I locked the doors, I decided I would keep watch. But like in the movies, the person that keeps watch always falls asleep too and that I did. I was almost sound asleep when I heard this voice coming from outside the car. I looked up, horrified to find a man standing outside my door. He must have wanted something because he kept yelling at me to open the door. I shook Sean awake and I think he was ho rified just as much as me if not more. He really freaked out. He fumbled for the keys and put them in the ignition and drove out of there about 40 mph above the speed limit! We drove through the city of Tacoma once more, this time trying to look for a motel. Finally, we found a cheap motel for $30.00, but it only had one bed. So I gave Sean the bed and I took in my sleeping bag to sleep on the floor. The room was nasty looking and quite a fire and earthquake hazard. The T.V was high on a tilted shelf in the corner and was only loosely glued down. The 3 picture frames on the wall were completely shattered. Any sudden movements and the glass was sure to fall out all over the bed. The heater looked very old, the kind that can easily leak carbon monoxide out into the room. But I suppose the room was better than trying to find a place on the side of the road again. It was 12:30am when we went to bed.

Monday, June 3rd: We woke up at 5:30am, gathered our stuff up and left the nasty motel at 6:30am. After getting gas, we took I-5 to Seattle. As we drove through Seattle, we could see the Seattle Space Needle, the downtown area, and Mt. Olympus in the west. Mt. Olympus is the highest point in the Olympic National Park. We went past Everett and took HWY 2 to the 204 to the 9 to the 92 towards the Mt. Baker and Snoqualmie National Forest. We could see Mt. Baker in the distance covered with a few scattered clouds. We headed over to Big Four Ice Caves trailhead and parked the car. As we got our gear ready, I heard a faint roar in the distance. I turned towards Big Four Mountain and to my surprise I saw snow coming down in a huge white blanket. �AVALANCHE!� I yelled out to Sean. I grabbed the camcorder and began to record. I could barely hold it still though because I was beginning to tremble. Fortunately, the avalanche was too far away to reach us, but I began to tell Sean how staying in this area as a bad idea. There was signs everywhere saying� WARNING! HIKING IN ICE CAVES IS NOT RECOMMENDED DUE TO AVALANCHES. DANGER! SEVERE AVALACNHE CONDITIONS. There was also another sign that said we could hike as far as Stillaguamish South Fork River. So we did exactly that. As daring and adventurous as I am I certainly didn�t want to venture any further, so we turned back towards the car. Big Four Mountain is made from sandstone that was uplifted about 60 million years ago, which makes them way older then the Cascades and maybe even older than the dinosaurs. After a snack, we drove towards North Fork Falls to find the road was snowed in at Barlow Pass. We stopped off at the Mt. Baker and Snoqualmie National Forest Ranger Station to look for Glacier Peak postcards. We found none, so we drove to Jordan Road out of Granite Falls to Arlington. As we went through Darrington, we stopped at a few stores trying again to find postcards of Glacier Peak. The man who owned one of the stores told us that maybe G acier Peak was not a very photogenic volcano. Yeah, right! We then headed 10 miles up this little paved dirt road to the White Chuck trailhead. Along the way we could see some of Glacier Peak through the trees. Once at the trailhead, we got out of the car to look around and tried to see if we could find Glacier Peak through the thick forest. Suddenly, I heard a loud familiar roar. I chill ran down my spine as I figured out what it was. The roar was so loud I had to cover my ears. As I ran terrified across the snow to the car, Sean ran after me. My pulse must have been racing at 300 beats per minute because I could feel it in my throat. I sank down near the side of the car sobbing waiting for the snowy white wave of death to crash down upon us. This was the worst way to die, I thought. But strangely, nothing happened. I stood up, and Sean and I looked towards the sky and the trees trying to find something. The noise began to fade though, and finally Sean pointed through the trees. It wasn�t an valanche at all! It was the sound of two fighter jets flying very low! I collapsed near the car relieved. After pulling myself back together, we took the White Chuck trail about a mile and a half. We saw a brown and yellow stripped snake and some strange fungus along the way. We hiked across 12-inch deep creeks and ankle deep slushy snow to obtain some ash and rock samples of Glacier Peak. Once back at the car, we headed back down into Darrington and stopped at the Ranger Station. Then we continued up towards Mt. Baker. After a long drive, we finally saw Mt. Baker rise up above the clouds. We drove around trying to find a campsite with a view of Mt. Baker. Boulder Creek Campgrounds was the best. After we set up the tent, Sean and I climbed down to Boulder Creek and explored the area. Boulder Creek came from Boulder Glacier from the slopes of Mt. Baker. I looked around to find some interesting rocks and took a few ash samples. I think I got a little too close to the river. The current was movin very fast, but I walked half way across the river on a rotting log. On our way back up to our campsite, we caught two tiny brown frogs that we had fun playing with before they hoped under a huge piece of polished rhyolite. Dinner was pasta, beans, and mashed potatoes. As we ate dinner, we burned the rest of the remaining firewood. Then later, as we ate hot cocoa and toasted marshmallows, I told Sean some volcano stories. Finally, the last of the flickering flames died out to glowing orange embers. A thin layer of clouds covered the starless night sky. Sean and I both crawled into our sleeping bags exhausted and went right to sleep. That night, I had a dream that I was flying back home in the airplane and right when we were over Mt. Shasta, it erupted and caused the plane to crash. I guess I was still worrying about the plane trip home, since this was going to be my first plane ride since 9-11. Tuesday, June 4th: We both woke up that morning to hear a rhythmic beating on the tent. After nearly a week of partly cloudy skies, it was starting to rain again. Fortunately, we had put the rain fly on the tent the night before, but taking it all down and trying to fold it back up was a disaster. Finally, after we had everything packed up, we drove back to HWY 20 and then took HWY 542 up towards Mt. Baker Ski Resort. We could see Mt. Shuskan, but not Mt. Baker. There were just too many clouds. We then drove down a ways and took some shots of Mt. Shuskan and got some samples of the column basalt from the cliffs. Then we headed to Nocksack Falls. The falls were somewhat impressive, but not at all like Proxy Falls or Multanomah Falls, which I find to be the most beautiful and scenic waterfalls in all of the Pacific Northwest! As we were driving back down again, we saw 2 newborn fawns and their mother cross the road. A few hours later, we ended up in Bellingham where we took a tour of Western Washingto University. The campus was beautiful. It overlooked the North Cascades and Bellingham Bay. The geology department looked great! It almost looked like a museum because there were so many samples and displays all over the building on 3 different floors! Finally, we were on the road again driving on I-5 back towards Seattle. I fell asleep for a few hours, but woke up just as we were passing Everett. Suddenly, this depression came over me as we were driving down the state of Washington. I didn�t want to leave tomorrow. The Pacific Northwest felt like home to me. I loved it here. I didn�t want to go back to my boring, ugly, pollution infested city in California. Why couldn�t I stay here, in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, where temperate rainforests and breathtaking waterfalls cover the most scenic chain of volcanoes on earth, the Cascades? We drove into Orting again, this time to get some information. I went into the City Hall and was given evacuation info, a map, and a USGS info sheet about his oric lahars in Orting and Puyallup. She also gave me the phone number of fire chief, Ron Splain. She said he would probably be a lot of help because he knew more about the historic lahars in Orting than anyone else in the town. I thanked her for her help and we began to drive towards Tacoma. In Tacoma, we went to Mail Box Etc to mail some of our bulky items home. Because of the strong airline regulations, we didn�t have enough room in our bags to bring home everything, so we decided to mail our ski clothes and our sleeping pads. We then finally began our decent towards Portland. The clouds were still very thick, but we could see just the base of Mt. Rainer as we passed Olympia. As we passed Chehalis, I saw Mt. St. Helens in the distance surrounded by gray clouds. And as we got closer to Portland, we could see both Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Adams through the storm clouds. Finally, as we were nearly in Portland, we saw the peak of Mt. Hood for the first time the whole trip. We decided to drive up HWY 4 again along the Colombia River Gorge Scenic Area. We drove over to a viewpoint of Mt. Hood on the north side, where we finally saw the whole volcano poking up through the storm clouds. There were lenticular clouds swirling around the summit. The whole sky turned a pale pink as the sun set in the westerly sky. The whole sky was covered with pink and purple lenticular clouds now, casting a spectacular alpine glow on top of Mt. Hood. After taking some pictures, we drove across the toll bridge again and headed to Trout Lake near Mt. Adams Recreation Area. We finally arrived at Mt. Adams way after sunset, but we could still see the outline of the volcano in the darkening sky with purple lenticular clouds covering up the summit. The speed limit on the road was 60 miles an hour so Sean went exactly at 60, but unfortunately he was going a little too fast for what happened next. Suddenly, the headlights of the car, fell upon a huge porcupine walking across the road. Sean couldn�t stop in time, so he tried to swerve the car to the right a bit so the porcupine would go under the car and not the tires. But I guess the clearance of the car from the ground was not high enough. We hit it with a sickening thud. I screamed at Sean to go back. This was a hit and run! Well, sort of. Finally I made Sean go back, but we couldn�t find the body anywhere. Maybe it flew up and landed in the bushes. When we got to a gas station down the road, Sean looked under the car to see if maybe we had dragged the poor animal with us. There was no sign of it, except for one thing. The whole underside of the car was covered with quills. Little ones and big ones, some 6 inches long, stuck underneath the entire car. It looks like maybe the porcupine may have gotten away alive. Its quills are very thick and used to protect itself from predators. But the question is could it protect itself from a car? I guess we will never find out, but we do have a nice souvenir of quills to bring home. It was 11:00pm by the time we reached th hotel in Portland. It took hours to clear out the car and pack everything back up. We had missed dinner and now it was 2:30am and then 3:00am. Sean got about an hour of sleep. I didn�t get any at all, because I was too worried about the plane ride home. Wednesday, June 5th: We got up at 4am, ate a quick breakfast, and loaded our bags into the car. Then we brought the car back to the rental place, where the shuttle brought us to the airport. We waited in the check in line first. When we got to the front, the lady said there was an earlier flight that left at 6:40am and asked us if we wanted that instead, so we said yes. Then she said that our 4 bags that were going to be checked in needed to be searched. A man with a big cart took our bags to a big x-ray machine. Other people were waiting around for their bags to be searched as well. We waited for our bags to go through. And not surprisingly, they didn�t like them, maybe because of all the camping equipment that was metal or my rock hammer that defiantly looked like a weapon. So they searched all 4 of our bags right in front of everyone. It was sort of embarrassing as they held different items up and asked questions about it. The lady inspected the lantern and then the rock hammer, which I think s e thought looked like a gun when she saw the handle sticking out! On the other side another guy was growing through another one our bags and asking Sean questions about it. I watched him take out the rest of our remaining food and all the dishes. Finally, our bags checked out okay, so we left the area and went to part 2, the security check in point. I went through the metal detector no problem at all, but then a lady said she had to pat me down just to make sure. �Hold your arms out and spread your legs.� She then asked me to take off my shoes. As I was taking of my shoes, the guy next to me was doing the same thing. He and I exchanged glances. Both of us knew how crazy this was, but I guess it was okay to be safe. Then he said, �We should just run through naked. Then we could go through a lot quicker.� He was right, we could. Suddenly, this huge alarm goes off a few lanes down. Somebody must have brought a scissors in their carry on bag. Tsk, tsk, tsk. The back of my leg and my foot kept going off when she waved the wand over me for some reason. I don�t have any metal plates in me. It must have been some interference. Then she made me lift my shirt up part way so she could make sure I didn�t have a bomb strapped to my waist. I felt very violated, but still, I knew things needed to be done this way to be safe. After both Sean and I got through, we thought the checking was over. Wrong! When we got to our gate number and gave the lady our tickets to board the plane, she told us our carry-on bags and our bodies needed to be searched again. Is it just me or are we being picked on today? We waited in line for our turn. We were the very last ones to get checked. Two security personal looked through our bags, while the other ones patted us down and made us strip off our shoes again. We were the last ones on the plane. As we walked through the terminal, they shut the door and the minute we were seated, the plane took off. We thought we were on the right side to see the rest of the Cascade Ran e, but we weren�t, so we had to switch sides to the other side of the plane to see the Cascades. We took some shots of the Southern Cascades in Oregon and Northern California. Later we passed over the Sierras and then the San Andreas Fault. Once we landed in John Wayne Airport, I felt very depressed to be back in southern California again. Suddenly I heard an announcement. The plane that we just got off of was now flying to Portland! If there weren�t so much security, I could easily slip on! I muttered some rude comments about how much I hated southern California, as Sean and I walked to the baggage claim area. Sean and I decided on our trip that we will try to come back again next year in August. But next time, we will try to stay a whole month so we can have time to see the entire Cascade Range and plenty of time to climb Mt. St. Helens, the South Sister, Mt. Shasta, Mt. Adams, and maybe a few other of the Cascade Volcanoes. Until next time, I guess I will be hiking and climbing them in my dreams

So I bet you all want to know what of my trip do I have video footage of, huh? Well, I'm sure you have figured out now that the natural disaster I got on tape was of an avalanche. I hope none of you thought it was an eruption. I wish it had been! I got both the ice cave and Ape Cave, many waterfalls, all the Cascade Volcanoes in Washington, a few and Oregon and all in California. the San Andreas Fault, the Sierras, all kinds of wildlife. Fortunatly, I didn't get a shot of the porcupine being run over but I did take a shot of something dead. You will have to see for yourselves. I narrated the whole video, messing up only on a few times. You will notice the camera scanning things a little too quickly in some parts and shaking in some parts, but hey, this is my first time making a video! There is also pictures of the moss and fern forests and many other things that I can't even remember. Sean is in some parts, and yes, I am in alot of parts. Sean wanted to shoot me doing some of the stupid things I do as insurance and to show Mom and Dad so they can lay in to me. *laughs* Thats okay, wait till Mom and Dad hear about the side street in Tacoma that Sean took us to sleep for the night. And I was the one who told him we should leave! *laughs evily* I will be sending my tape to Marcia in a few weeks, so please be patient.

Before I call Rob Splain of Orting, I want to know if anyone has any questions you want me to ask him about Orting, their evacuation plans, the geologic history of Orting, Mt. Rainer in general, anything, please let me know in the next week or so because I will be giving him a call by the end of next week. Rob, I bet you have some questions.

That's great Julie, thanks for sharing your journal. I don't have time to read it this morning, but plan on printing it out to read over breakfast or lunch later today.

I can't believe this, but I think I have a volcanic rock stuck in my hand! The day we climbed Mt. St. Helens, I remember stopping in the snow because my hand was hurting. Sean looked at it and said something was in there, but it definatly wasn't a splinter and I do remember falling quite a few times before then on the rocks. Sean said we would take care of it after the climb, but I guess we forgot and it stopped hurting anyway. Well, now its starting to hurt again and it all red around the wound so I think I have an infection. Now I have to go to the doctor's and get it removed. OUCH! I hope it is a volcanic rock though, then I can add one more thing to all my souviners!

*laughing* Julie, i hope for your sake it REALLY is a volcanic rock... are you going to frame it??? ;-) *kiss* (to make it better) :-)

Julie! Fantastic! Tomorrow WE are going to Shasta. I think our visit will be less traumatic than yours but hardly as memorable. I will print out the epic of Sean and Julie and read it to David and Iris on the way! Please... you are scaring me. I worry about your safety. Btw, you are the only one with whom I managed to have a conversation via IM yesterday. Today it is not working right and I am left with only email and Geo to contact people. How frustrating!

I learned a little bit about one of the lesser known Cascade Volcanoes on my trip, Glacier Peak. I bet you had no idea that Glacier Peak is the most explosive volcano in Washington. I don't know why its not considered one of the "major" Cascade Volcanoes, but if it were to erupt again, the ash would circulate around the globe causing temperatures to drop as much as 5. F. Let me give you a little background information on Glacier Peak. Glacier Peak is not one of your most stunning volcanoes to look at, nor is it the tallest. It rises above some of the neighbooring peaks and trees at only 10,451 feet tell. In fact, Sean and I had a hard time finding it because there aren't even any roads that go close enough to it. Glacier Peak has erupted about 6 times in the past 15,000 years. Its eruptions have been enormous and one of them, about 12,000 years ago has deposited the largest layer of ash in all of the Pacific Northwest! Glacier Peak seems to erupt massive quantities of pumice. Glacier Peak and Mt. t. Helens are the only volcanoes in Washington to produce large, explosive, and violent eruptions. About 13,100 years ago Glacier Peak erupted tephra 9 times. The largest ejected was more than 5x as much ejected from the May 18th, 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helens. The eruption was also the largest in the Cascade Range since the last ice age. Lava domes have also formed in the summit during many of these eruptive cycles. These domes would collapse and cause pyroclastic flows. Disappointment Peak is the reminant of one of these lava domes. Glacier Peak has also produced some very large lahars that have severely effected river valleys, including the two that I was near, the White Chuck River and the North Fork Stillaguamish River. I saw huge walls of lahar deposits. Glacier Peak is very much eroded now and I think the possibility of an eruption is probably very slim, but we should still keep an eye on this one because you never know. And just because it is 70 miles northeast of Seattle and in a desolit and remote location doesn't mean that it won't effect us. The deposit layer is huge! If you thought Crater Lake erupted alot, you should look at the layer of Glacier Peak's eruption nearly 12,000 years ago. The layer for Crater Lake is about 6x smaller!

I'll download my pictures and post them here. Thye Cascades were glorious to day and the weather in Weed was perfect. I thought of you, Julie!!!

*stomps her foot angrily* NOT FAIR!! Just less than 2 weeks after I get back from the Cascades, Gifford Pinchot National Forest decided to open HWY 99 that leads up to Windy Ridge near MSH'S! UGH!! I'm packing my bags and leaving tomorrow! I wish! ARGH! I miss MSH's, Mt. Hood, Mt. Rainer, Mt. Adams, Mt. Baker, and Glacier Peak. I actually waved goodbye to them as we took off in the plane! *Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa* Take me back, take me back!!!

You're really leaving tomorrrow? Or were you just being metaphoric?

Hi all Methinks metaphoric. Though I know that if she had a realistic chance of going to Windy Ridge immediately, that girl would be gone from CA faster than lightning jumps between clouds, and that is pretty fast. Rob

No, I ain't really going (don't think I wasn't serious though), but....I was talking to Sean last night before I went to bed about next year. We are already planning the next trip. Both of us agree we didn't stay long enough this year, so next year we are definatly going for 3 to 4 weeks. We think that will be plenty of time to drive up there by car and start in northern California and work our way up to B.C. We will go in August so there is no worry about snow, avalanches, freezing weather, and roads and trails being closed up. Until then, I need to train like mad because obviously I wasn't ready for such a trecherous volcano climb to the top of MSH's (in the snow). So as soon as my ankle is all healed up, I'm going back on the track team and running probably the whole spring semester of next year. I also need to practice hiking with a 40lb pack on. Its not that easy hiking up the slopes on loose volcanic rocks and ash in 95. F weather with a heavy backpack on. I have hiked level ground with a 45lb ack in 115.F heat in the Grand Canyon, but if I were going uphill doing that, I think I would have died.

WOOOOOOOHOOOOOOO!!! I am now an officialy licenced driver in the state of California! I passed my drivers test! WOOOOOOHOOOOO!! Do you know what this means? Now next year when Sean and I go back to the Cascades, I will be able to drive there and Sean will be seating in the passanger seat! And if Sean doesn't want to go back to MSH's again, well too bad, because I will be driving. Hehehehe!

look out!!! mad woman on the loose!!!

Hi all Now you can take me to see the resurgent domes of Mammoth! WOOOOOHOOOOO!!!!!! Well done Julie. Considering your other news today was hardly flash, this is brilliant. Anyway I plan to get my learners this summer coming (New Zealand is in winter incase you have forgotten), and my full license the following summer. How does that sound? I figure I have at least another year to go at University so it is not too surprising that I am going to do it during the summer months. Rob

Oh Lordy, and my son is a risk now!!! Julie, seriously - congratulations and well done. You have over-achieved me already. When we were at Lassen just about all trails were still closed and a whole lot of things were still buried under many feet of snow

Hello everyone! Surprise, surprise! Hehe! Did you guys honestly think I could stay away from the computer for more than 3 days? I think not! I knew I would find a way, even if it was uncomforatable. Its quite interesting typing laying down, although I don't recomand you try it unless you have a lot of patience. The surgery went great. My anesthesiologist looked like Tom Hanks! He was hot! *laughs* The pain isn't so bad because I've been taking lots of pain pills. But the pain pills make me dizzy and make things look blury. Its only been 2 days since the surgery and I am so bored. I am so sick of watching t.v, videos, and listening to music. Thank god for my lap top! I just wish I could figure out another way to use it without laying down. But I have to keep my foot elevated until Saturday or Sunday. This is really annoying though. I am so used to doing things myself, but now I have to let Mom, Dad, and Sean do them for me. I feel like I am 3 years old. Oh well, as soon as I can get around better I think things will be a little easier on everyone else as well.

Hope that you're feeling better soon, Julie.

maybe you can prop your head up a bit? hope you got good drugs and not motrin!

Glad your surgery is a thing of the past Julie! :-) Feel better soon -we miss your cheerful post around here when your gone *hug*

I've been missing you guys too! Marcia is right, Geo is very addicting, no matter what shape I am in. I have so many friends here and its just so much fun. *HUGS*

I understand you completely Julie. But your case is very simple I believe. I will tell you my fresh experience. See it as an example. Existing more bad cases... I had my leg up for five months. Pain was very strong but I had my computer as pain alleviating medicine. Now I can walk but not absolutely free and without a little pain. I have 100% of my leg in the morning, 50% at noon and do not ask for later. I was using my computer with legs up for five months and for many hours per day. I was sitting in a big office chair having my legs on a writing desk on my computer's left side. I had the keyboard on my abdominal regions. Add also a live TV transmission from my laboratory a few days after the major surgery� Have you seeing some dream in the operation theatre? I had a strange one. I want forget it but I can't. *Laughs* I must return in the operation theatre for the second half in a few months� I suggest you patience. You can find an easy avocation and accommodate it to your case. Three days is not the eternity. My experience says that your leg will show you itself, when and how you can use it. Feel better soon John

Wow, John you are very right. I am very sorry. My case is very simple compared to yours. Good luck with your operation. I hope everything goes well. I'm here for you if you need anything.

It's OK Julie. Thank you. I was trying to give you some courage comparing my case with yours. I think that our pain exists also in our familial and chummy environment. A smile is the best gift for all. It is enough also for me. Unfortunately, none can go against to his destiny. John

Guess what guys? For several years now I have been entering stuff in the Orange County Fair. Well, this year, I entered quite a few things. Mom and Dad helped me this afternoon to take in two photos and a bunch of my volcano stuff. The two photos were of Terry at the beach during sunset and Lower Proxy Falls in the Cascades of Oregon. The volcano stuff I entered in the Collections catagory included a bunch of my volcano postcards, volcano pins, volcanic rocks, and of course volcanic ash. Both these things are going to be judged and then put on display during the fair. I don't care if I win, but I always think its so cool to have my stuff on display so everyone can see it. But if I do win, there is money prizes for the photos. I am also going to be working at the fair too. Crutches and all, lol. The club I belong to, Santa Ana Rock and Mineral Club, puts on a display every year to teach kids about rocks, minerals, and geology. Should be fun, even if I can't walk around the fair like I usually do. The Orange County Fair is from July 12th to July 28th.

GOOD LUCK JULIE!!! Kisses on all the places that hurt, Julie. Ouch! Jus my luck that everything possible that can go wrong with my computer DID go wrong. I cannot put Yahoo on my host's computer so I will make do until mine gets back to me. Or for certain I will buy a B\NEW one. I have never felt so frustrated in my life, and now I have let Julie down. I feel terrible. Just wne you needed me the most. I can vouch for John's tale and the impossibility of being unable to do anything for a long time. I did my best to entertain him. Geo is addictive, but only because the people here are what makes it this way. *HUGS* A hui hou

Marcia, you have not let me down at all. How can you possibly think that? I may be having a difficult time right now, but I am trying to manage. I understand totally about all your computer problems. Stuff like that happens. Really, its okay. I hope everything works out for you. Hope to hear from you soon. *HUGS*

Ackkkkk!!! Just when I think all is well with that laptop, I find another email from David in my inbox telling me what else is wrong with it. Now that the new hard drive is installed the CD ROM player will not work so I must have that fixed then perhaps it might be shipped to me. Thanks to all of you for hanging in there - and hugs to those of you who are ailing. Special hugs and thanks to John for sharing his chair in the summer house with me and ekeeping Geo interesting. This really IS a nice place to come when you are far from home. I never saw it from this angle before! Big sister Hugs to you, Julie. I have a whole new flashcard full of digital images to share but NO volcanoes in this part of the world in the last billion or so years. Coal, though! More on the Appalachian chain soon!

Geo was excellent pain alleviating medicine in my case. It was also equilibrating the constrictions of life inside the house for long time. I must thanks Marcia and Geo for that. I feel comfortable in Geo as on my chair in the summerhouse. I hear also soft music there during the hot summer nights. It is the other face of life. Hebetic enthusiasm is decreasing by the time and gives more space to perfectionism. It is an excellent place for philosophical thoughts. John

My delight is knowing you have such a refuge from the stresses of life and you can contemplate in serene beauty in your summer house. Think of me occasionally as I do of you. You have enriched my life and Geo immeasurably. In fact, I think my host is tiring of hearing your virtues extolled. As I said beforer, Yahoo will be my first installed program on my new computer so I can talk to you and to those who wish there. Julie, that means you, too. I miss our discussions of those things "closest to our hearts"... YOu know who they are! HUGS!! John and Julie. My heart is with you even if my body is far from where it usually is!

HUGS!! Marcia, where ever you are right now. You are right about Geo being excellent pain alleviating medicine, John. And its a good thing too because the pain pills are not working for me anymore. In fact they are making me very sick. Maybe thats because I have taken 30 of them in just one week! I decided I would rather stand the pain in my ankle than be so sick in the morning that I can't even get out of my bed. Nothing is worse than having your head stuck over a toliet bowl for hours at a time disposing your stomach contents while your head is spliting in two. So no more of those pain pills for me. I will just grit my teeth for the next few weeks or months. 4th of July is just a week away. This has always been my favortie holiday, but this year without Terry and not being able to walk, it isn't going to be the best. But I will tough it out. We will still go on our usual picnic at Irvine Park, but I don't think I will be hiking or climbing this year for obvious reasons. As for celebrations at nig t, we usually have our own. There is only 3 cities in Orange County that allow fireworks and Santa Ana and Costa Mesa are two of them. But this year, we will be going to a firework display probably on the beach and maybe lighting some sparkelers or fountains later. And some ground bloomers. I love those things! Hehe. Usually I am the lucky one that gets to water the roof every year, but this year I guess Sean will do it. Everyone in our neighborhood has to water their roofs becuase of the problems with illegal fireworks (most of which are rockets that shot up 100's of feet into the sky). People buy them in Mexico and take them back across the border. They are very very dangerous. 2 years ago we saw one shot up and land in the house in back of ours and we watched in horror as it caught fire. Luckily, no one was in the house at that time. So please, all of you that decide to set off a few...be careful.

Julie, I will be spending the 4th in kentucky or somewhere near it. Down here they do such things as "shooting the anvil" - you take two anvils - like blacksmiths use. Place a charge of powder in one and set the other on top of the other anvil but upside down. Light the powder and see how far it tosses the top anvil. Yikes!!! It has been ages since I celebrated the 4th in anywhere but Hawaii. There it is not hardly celebrated at all. It will be fun I think. I have already heard a lot of illegal fireworks going off - just like Hilo! My son is planning a weird celebration. They are getting a new little kitten for Critter to play with. Critter is a regal and older cat of very sober mein. He will NOT be amused. Poor Critter!!! Julie, I'm with you on those pain pills. They make me very sick so I "bite bullets" or do what is necessary to ride it out. HUGS!!! I miss talkling wityho you but this coming week should determine what laptop I use - a whole new one or the rebuilt Toshiba now in California.

Hi Julie Why pain is not reduced? What says your doctor? Try natural pain-alleviating medicine such sleep. But keep always your leg up. Geo family is also here. We can discuss anything you have in mind. I think that it matches the Greek song the music of which you must hear now. Its words are approximate the following The mesh When you open road in the life Do not wait it finds you the midnight Have your eyes open, in the night and the day Because in front you unfolds a mesh If sometime you tangled in its meshes No one can remove you Alone find the end of thread And, begin again if you are lucky John

That is a very wonderful song John. Thanks so much for sharing it. Oh gosh, I have done something stupid. I bet you are very careful with what you do with your ankle, John. I thought I was being careful too, until this evening when I got careless and irresponsible. I left my crutched in the computer room, but I had to get another photo in my room to scan. I thought I could make the 6 feet by hoping on one foot. And I did, but on the way back from my room to the computer room I tripped over the telephone cord and fell. And of course hoping on one foot I landed on the one that was not on the ground, my injured one and I put all my weight on it. It hurt terribly. I am going back to the doctor's anyway tomorrow, but now they will probably have to take another x-ray to make sure I didn't damage anything. I can't beleive I was so stupid. I hope my ankle is okay or I am in trouble, serious trouble.

Oh...NO!......... Normally I must administer a rebuke to you. I will have right! I hope you didn't damage anything. But it was very painful and a hard lesson for the future I think. What I can say more? I am very sorry. Ok. Let�s see it from one other side. Perhaps you must remain quiescent in the house for some unknown reason. I believe that nothing is happenstance in this life. I made steps ahead for my research during my compulsory captivity in the house. I found also some answers for my life, for my mistakes for what I am doing finally. I see also with a new eye some things. I disappointed for several stupid actions in my life. I made a hard self-criticism. The secret is to become you forceful and do not make the same mistakes. See to the future and make your own best program. Have you seeing a mule before? Do you know that the mule never drops again in the same place? That was saying my father when I was doing continued mistakes. I was feeling hurt with the idea that I was inequitable of a mule�. Please remember the existence of the mesh on which adverts the song. It is not only a wonderful song but is also perceptive. It continues like this: That mesh has several names. Some they say it the down world foxiness. Other they say it the first spring love� I wish you good news and quick remedy. Forgive my hard words. John

Rob where are you?

Your right John, I would not want to make the same mistakes again and I probably should be staying at home more instead of trying to stay out for hours at a time increaseing the risk of reinjuring myself again. Fortunatly, everything is okay. They took another x-ray and everything still looks great, although I have some more bruising that wasn't there before probably due to my little accident I had last night. The stitches and staples (I discovered there are 11 staples and 11 stitches holding the incision) will be coming out June 8th. They put on a semi-removable cast on today that I have to take off 6 times a day to do an excersise. The goal right now is to start flexing my foot back to the 90 degree position, which is basically the walking position. It will probably take a few weeks for that to happen, and as long as I don't do anything stupid that will make me fall again, I may be starting to walk again before school starts the end of August, I hope. I think and I hope I have learned my lesson.

i'm glad your ok , Julie

WOW! I can't believe this! Wooohooo! Something is really going on near Mt. Hood. I have never seen so much activity. Seismic activity has increased since the begining of May and this looks to be the most I have seen in one day. I am cautiously getting excited. It could be nothing, which probably is true, but all the depths of the quakes are all simalar. We will have to see how long this seismic swarm is going to last. Check out the seismic data here... http://www.ess.washington.edu/recenteqs/Maps/122-45.html

Hi B.J. I am glad too that you are Ok Julie. You say that the depths of the quakes are all similar. I don�t think so. Look at the graph below. (Attention: Time is running from right to left). I constructed this graph from the data table here: http://www.ess.washington.edu/recenteqs/Quakes/quakes0.html White line is the line of depth and fat Red line is its trend. DEPTHS BECOME LOWER! In contrary, Magnitudes (Green line) are about stable as appeared by its trend line (fat yellow line). I don�t know volcanology or what can mean that. But I try to learn. You have taken your lesson but we need your own lessons now! Can you tell us what says theory or practice in similar cases? What we must expect there? Perhaps Rob can help too from his side. John

I think I am better at volcanology than I am at seismology, lol. Here is what we do know. Mt. Hood has had small eruptions since the 1830's. The most recent one being in 1865. But the largest eruptions began about 1760-1810. These eruptions formed Crater Rock which is the pointed portion of Mt. Hood's peak. These eruptions also caused pyroclastic flows, mudflows, and a several inch thick layer of ash. Many of the mudflows may have flowed all the way through thr Colombia River Gorge area. Mt. Hood is known to produce lava domes, pyroclastic flows, ash clouds, and large mudflows. As I probably mentioned before, the major Cascade volcanoes seem to erupt every 200 years or so. Mt. Hood could just be waking up, or most likely just shaking things up a bit and not much else. Only time will tell.

Julie!! i'm just now catching up--you be careful on that foot!!!! *HUGS* Hi BJ, John, and Marcia *HUGS*

Hi Wolfie We�ve lost you here together with your twin. But she is absolutely excusable. I hope you are OK and all things being right there. �HUGS� Thank you Julie. John

The following is something special that I dedicate to students like you Joulie and Rob. Perhaps it will become useful to you. 4 Common Ways to Remember Material by Lenny Laskowski Remembering speeches can be a very intimidating experience. There are many ways one can remember material and I would like to focus on what I believe are the 4 common ways to remember material. -Memorizing -Reading from complete text -Using Notes -Using Visual Aids as Notes -Let's take a look at each of these in detail. 1. Memorizing -In my opinion, this is absolutely the worst way to keep track of material. People are preoccupied with trying to remember the words to say and not the ideas behind the words (or with the audience). As a result, normal voice inflection disappears. With memorizing, mental blocks become inevitable. With memorizing it is not a matter of will you forget; it's a matter of WHEN! 2. Reading from complete text - Listening to someone read a speech or presentation is hated by most people. People say, If that's all they were going to do is read their speech, I could have read it myself. I'm sure many of us have experienced this at least once while attending a conference or two. Below are some reasons why I believe people read poorly: The speaker loses normal voice inflection because they lose touch with the ideas behind the words. Listen for pauses, Natural speech is filled with pauses; unnatural speech is not. The text isn't spoken language - too often speakers write their speeches in business language. That is often hard to read, much less listen to. The speech is static - the potted plant will probably move more. There is little movement, little energy, and little interest behind the lectern. There's no or little eye contact - any eye contact is with the text, not the audience. To read text while trying to maintain eye contact with the audience takes a lot of practice. The speaker is scared - many speakers read because they are afraid to try anything else. They know reading will fail but at least it will fail with a small f rather than a capital one. NOTE: Don't get me wrong, there are times when speeches MUST be read. Many times it is necessary to read policy statements or company announcements. Also, some speeches must be timed right down to the second. WHEN YOU HAVE TO READ! If reading is absolutely necessary, here are some suggestions: Pay attention to the inflection in your voice - to sound natural, rehearse often, checking yourself for pauses. Ask yourself if your words sound the way you would say them if you weren't reading. Tape yourself and listen to your own voice. Take notes where changes should be made with the inflection in your voice. When preparing your written speech, say the words out loud first in order that your written text will read closer to your speaking style. This will make it easier to read and much easier to listen to. People often DO NOT write the same way as they speak and this makes reading more difficult. If we use wording and phrasing we normally use in our everyday language it will be easier to add the correct voice inflection and tone. Annotate your text to indicate which words to emphasize. Numbers are the easiest target words to say slowly with emphasis on each syllable. One of the biggest problems speakers face when reading text is that we often forget to use gestures. We are so busy making sure we read the text we fail to communicate effectively with our entire body. One thing we can do to help this is to double space your typed text to leave room to add notes or cues about gestures and other reminder type clues. We need to practice using this annotated text of our speech so we can easily and smoothly react to these cues for our gestures while at the same time correctly read the text. This does take some practice. Some people do this very effectively. I work with ministers who do this extremely well, but they also practice a lot! Videotape yourself reading the speech and then sit and watch the speech, making notes as to the gestures which could have been used. Add notes to your written text based on this review, using notes or even pictures of the gestures to use and deliver the speech again, trying this time to add gestures. After a little practice, this will become second nature. When we read speeches, the amount of eye contact with our audience is usually less. In some cases, people who read speeches have NO eye contact. To avoid this, first write like you speak (see suggestion 2). When typing the text, use upper and lower case letters. This will make it easier to read. TYPING EVERYTHING IN UPPPERCASE, AS I HAVE DONE HERE, MAKES IT MORE DIFFICULT TO READ. Don't have long paragraphs or you will lose your place every time you look up. Start a new paragraph every sentence or two. Also, have your text double spaced. Some people even so far as alternating the color of the text for each paragraph. Use unstapled pages for your text. Paper clip your pages and just before you begin, remove the paper clip. As you prepare your text, keep in mind that you will have to handle these pages and you want to do this smoothly and as quietly as you can. Do not have part of a sentence begin on one page and continue onto the next page. End the page with a complete sentence and paragraph. During your pauses, smoothly slide the page you just finished using to one side and continue with the text on the next page. Do not pick up the page and place it behind or turn the page over when done. This will be distracting and will bring attention to the fact that you are reading. Avoid handling the pages as much as possible while you are reading. With a lot of practice and careful preparation, you can deliver a powerful speech, even when reading. Some of the world's greatest speeches were read, but you can be assured, they weren't reading them for the first time when delivering their speech to their audience. Practice, practice, practice. 3. Using Notes - This is the most common way for remembering material. Using notes is better than reading since the speaker can have normal voice inflection and make more effective eye contact. If your notes are on the lectern, you probably won't move very far from them. If notes are in your hand, you probably won't gesture very much. Below are some suggestions to consider if you decide to use notes: USING NOTES Use note cards. Include quotes, statistics and lists you may need, NOT paragraphs of text. VERY IMPORTANT: Number you note cards! (Just in case you drop them). Don't put too much information on each note card or you will find yourself reading too much. Put only a few words or key phrases. Leave your notes on the lectern or table and move away occasionally. Don't be afraid to move away from your notes and get out of your comfort zone. Too many speakers use the lectern to hide behind and this restricts the effective use of your entire body. Practice using your note cards. If you find yourself reading your note cards too much, this is a sure clue you need to reduce the amount of written text on each card. Remember, all you need are short phrases or key words, enough to jog your memory. Use pictures or picture maps to guide yourself. Pictures help you to visualize the key points of your speech. Use mental pictures as well to tell the story in your head. This will take some creativity, but will be worth the effort. 4. Using Visual Aids As Notes - Simple visual aids can effectively serve as headings and subheadings. Speak to the heading. Say what you want to say and move on. If you forget something, that's okay; the audience will never know unless you tell them. Practice creating just a few meaningful headings to use and practice using only these headings as your cues. This will take practice, but practicing using only these few words will force you to better internalize your speech. This has four important advantages: You don't have to worry about what your are going to say next. Your visual aids provide you with your cues of your next major idea or thought. All you need to do between ideas is to use an effective transitional statement. (See my tips on using transitions). Having only a few key words on your visual aid allows you to move around the room without the need or feeling you need to go back to your notes. In fact, most inexperienced speakers don't move around at all. Movement also helps you to relax and adds energy to your presentations. Movement also allows the listeners to follow you and pay closer attention to you and your message. Plan you movements during your rehearsals. Decide where in your presentation it makes sense to move. If you find yourself starting to sway from side to side, take one or two steps and stop again, standing evenly on both feet. Keep your weight evenly distributed on both feet. This will help you from swaying. You can have good eye contact with your audience. You can look at your audience all the time while speaking - except for that brief moment you look at your visual aid. But that's okay since the audience will probably follow you and also look at your visual aid. This will help the audience to "see" your message as well as hear your message. The more you rehearse and the more you become familiar with your visual aids, the easier it becomes. Your audience will feel comfortable that you are on your planned track. Well-designed visual aids show that audience you DO have a plan and have properly prepared and are following your plan. Keep in mind, your visual aids do not have to be only word charts. They can contain diagrams, pictures or even graphs. When you use visual aids, always introduce the visual aid BEFORE you show it using one of your transition statements. You can even use the looking back / looking forward transition: Now that we have seen the ...let's now look at... Regardless of which method you chose to use to remember your material, nothing will help you more that proper planning and preparation. Remember to prepare, prepare, prepare! http://www.ljlseminars.com/remember.htm John

Thanks John! This is VERY helpful to me. I have never been that great at giving speeches. Not only do I have stage freight, but I just sometimes forget things and keep pausing and saying those two words that professors and students both hate...."like" and "ummm" over and over again. We never really gave many speeches in high school so I never really had enough practice. When I give a speech I usually write the key ides on notecards and then try to learn them that way. Trying to memorize everything is too difficult. Its better to learn the concept and understand it. But, if you are like me and procrastinate, which I tend to do rather nicely unfortunatly, sometimes all you have time for is memorizing and that leads you in to big trouble if you have to rush. None of those 4 concepts will work if you don't make time to do them, and that is what I still have yet to learn.

Hi all GEE WHIZ!!! I have been missing heaps. How are you all today?? News from my patch will be posted in Robs Geo World shortly but a couple notable things include a "weather bomb" (a rapidly deepening depression with storm force winds, and torrential rain)that hit the North Island recently, and an ongoing earthquake pattern in the southern part of the South Island. This is a worry for some people who fear the long awaited magnitude 8 earthquake may not be far of. More details to be posted shortly in Robs Geo World Rob

Nice to hear from you again Rob. Weather becomes crazier around the world. We are witnesses of extreme weather events more frequently during the last years. The oncoming EQ is only a fear or is based on some observations? John

Well, Mt. Hood's tremors are slowing down quite a bit now, and other than that the Cascades are quiet. Although the Pacific Northwest has been having quite a bit of seismic activity over the last week, mainly in the Seattle, Olympia, and Western Washington resions. Most of the quakes are very small, but I keep wondering when their next big quake will come. After doing my research paper on the Mega Quakes of the Pacific Northwest I realized like so many other places in the world that they are way over due. Last one in the Pacific Northwest was in 1700. Supposivly the interval between each quake was about 300 years. So add 1700 and 300 and you get 2000. Depending on where the quake hit it would be extremly damaging to the Pacific Northwest. If it were to hit just offshore, the results would be devastating. These Mega Quakes are usually 8.0 or greater. There is alos a theory that the Juan de Fuca Plate and the North American PLate could be locked. And if that is the case, we could be looking at possi ly a 9.0 in the Pacific Northwest. This is just a theory though since no one can be exactly sure. If you want to read more about the Mega Quakes of the Pacific Northwest and about a potential 9.0 in that area try reading Living with Earthquakes in the Pacific Northwest by Robert S. Yeats, The Oregon Earthquake Handbook by Vern Cope, and Agents of Chaos by Stephen L. Harris. All of these are great books, but the first one I mentioned is very chilling and when I was reading it I actually got chills down my spine.

Aloha Y'all ( southern speak )! Hugs all around. I have missed you and promise to keep updating my progress. Soon my computer will be in hand and Julie and I can talk = as can the rest of us with IM. That pleases me greatly! Meanwhile, Wolfie,, I miss you!!! The rest of you know I do, also!!!

Mr Hood has been on and off active on a very low seismic level for many months now. I am not surprised at the new flurries of activity. A little eruption might be nice, though. Wait till I am back visiting in California, please!

Hi Julie, Marcia and all, I don�t know much about volcanoes. But I know that only is not enough population a few events in order we can say that is expected strong EQ activity, soon in the area of Mt Hood. My opinion is that statistics can show (if we have enough historical data) only the tendency and not the reality. Statistics is good assistant tool but it is strongly recommended scientific proof that is based on physics finally. Personally I don�t trust statistics. I have never successfully predicted LOTTO numbers, using it even if i had enough number of historical data. "Laugh" John

Julie, First, find what you want to learn and then search for new ways of searching. Scientists must always� SEARCHING, SEARCHING, SEARCHING, SEARCHING, SEARCHING, SEARCHING, SEARCHING, SEARCHING! *Tsats* says it, as my daughter says! (From my last name). John

can't remember if rob posted it here or not, but where is pompeii? is it italy? (i'm showing my poor geography skills *LAUGH*)

Yeah Wolfie, Pompeii is in southeast Italy and located about 15km southeast of Herculaneum, both of which were destroyed when Mt. Vesuvius erupted in 79 A.D.

John Dear, lotto has nothing to do with logic or reasoning. If these so-called psychics were worth anything, they could have predicted the numbers of the lotto winners before the event and become rich. That according to Don, our archaeologist. You and he think very much alike. Mt Hood is not likely to do much with the current little swarms other than to release a bit of stress. If they were harmonic tremors, I would be nore concerned. As they are not, It matters little. but makes for fun speculation!

I thought it was just talk, but its official now. As for what day exactly, that is still undecided. But sometime between August 4th and August 26th I will be going back to the Oregon Cascades. Since I can walk sort of now and I was out riding my mountain bike this morning for the first time, I am hoping that my ankle will be ready for short hikes by that time. My parents are planning the trip, but I know we will definatly be going to Crater Lake to be there for their 100th Anniversery of their National Park. I really want to go back there because when I was there last year with Sean we tried so hard to get tickets to take the boat to Wizard Island and every boat departure was sold out! Mom has expressed an interest in seeing the South Sister. I would love to climb it again like I did last summer when I was there, but that I know is out of the question. I will be lucky if my ankle is ready for short hikes by then. I can't believe how fast my ankle is healing! And yes, I know not to push it. I have been v ry cautious the past few weeks. I certainly don't want to have surgery again, at least on the same foot. I may have to have the same operation on the other ankle in the future if I start having problems with it too since it has the same extra bone. My doctor said for now do what I can handle, but if I start to have any pain to stop and use the crutches again.

Oooh Julie! How splendid. I also want to see Crater Lake and surely will with my son and wife one of these days. Enjoy, but do not use heroics on this. I am assuming that you want to heal well and completely. In that case, listen to your doctor and use support when it hurts. You will not like the alternative! Good luck HUGS!!!

oh wonderful julie!!!! you'll just have to trudge along slowly this time!

Now this is interesting. PNSN didn't even record this yet, probably because it was so far offshore. A 5.9M quake hit 150 miles west of Coos Bay, Oregon. Check out this web address out for more detail. The quakes depth was only 10km. Thats pretty shallow I would say, especailly since this is the Cascadia Subduction Zone. Most offshore quakes in this area are usually deeper from what I noticed. What do you think about it John? http://wwwneic.cr.usgs.gov/neis/bulletin/neic_gjax.html

Marcia and Don, The only logical way to play LOTTO is by using statistics and using the previous results. The same is doing seismologists with their measurements! Is it WRONG? John

Wrong? Not at all. However, it still seems like an exercise in futility when those who win are one in several hundred million odds. I stand a better chance of dying in a freeway crash, and that doesn ot appeal to me at all!

I wrote the example of LOTTO having in mind the Earth�s rotation mechanism around its axis: 1.Inner core runs faster from the rest Earth. 2.Crust has a complex moving depending on several forces from inside and outside too. 3.Movement of liquid and plastic materials between solid areas inside Earth is complex too. (Like the cake paste with mixer probe running inside). All this reminds me the LOTTO machine someway! Earth�s outputs are seismic and volcano activity instead of LOTTO spheres. Eventuality for death in a freeway crash is a pessimistic example. Please see always the optimist side. It helps always and anyway. John

This is a better scheme of how is the Earth�s interior. John

Oooh lovely, John! Sorry I sounded so gloomy. I was just putting things into perspective and that came to mind. I do NOT plan to join them. Ther are far too many wonderful things about the world yet to be discovered for me. Now that I look at your demonstration, I see clearly the LOTTO implications and how random is the choice of who gets the great quakes world wide. At least as far as I can see, it appears random just as LOTTO selection does. I never quite thought of it that way.

Hi all What an exotic range of volcanoes the Cascades have. Right Julie?? From volcanoes appearing as calderas (vast depressions formed by massive eruptions leading to subsidence)like Mazama and Newberry, to gentle andesite giants like Adams which build impressive mountains but actually are not all that violent. Lets just run through them briefly for the sake of the others here, shall we Julie? I will start the ball rolling. Rainier is the towering giant visible from the city of Seattle on the Washington State coast. It is a mountain so high that it is used to train people heading for the Himalayas and Mt Everest. A mountain of great picturesque beauty, it has a secret being withheld from her admirers, but which no town knows better than Orting. The mountain is notorious among geologists and volcanologists for unleashing, every few hundred years, mammoth lahars that travel down the valleys of rivers rising on Rainiers flanks with breath taking destructive power. Unfortunately as a town with a picturesque back drop, Orting knows it is living on borrowed time - in what may seem like an eternity to mankind, but in the blink of an eye in geological time, a lahar is expected. Might be another 50 years, or it might be tomorrow morning. But Rainier is well monitored. Seismographs monitor the mountain for the sinister shockwaves that will tell the people of Orting and other towns that the mother of all lahars is rolling toward them. They also detect shockwaves from magma breaking rocks as it rises in the volcano and tiltmeters show any displacement of the ground surface, while gas sampling tells whether magma is on the go. The vast majority of residents at Orting know about the lahar risk and many have planned their own evacuation procedures. The town tries to educate new comers to the area of the risk and authorities worry about the problem enough to test the warning system every month on the first Monday. Rob

Great idea Rob! Since you took the popular volcano, I will take some of the lesser known ones in the Cascades. Mt. Thielson, "Lightening Rod of the Cascades." Mt. Thielson is on of the most ususual volcanoes because of its distint shape. Only standing at 9,178 feet, its tall, jagged, and pointed peak sticks up into the bright blue sky like a spear. Mt. Thielson, along with three other simalar looking peaks in the Cascades (Mt. Washington, Union Peak, and Three Fingered Jack) belong to an older period of Cascade Volcanism. Mt. Thieson is a strao-volcano standing on a much older shield volcano. Mt. Thieson's eruptions were highly explosive. During its early life, Mt. Thieson was nothing more than a few hundred feet high of pryroclastic material. But after many series of lava flows, dikes and plugs cover the pryoclastic cone. Lastly, a massive plug of andesite was created in the central vent. After glacial erosion, the jagged plug was exposed which is why Mt. Thieson looks like it does today. Its jagged top s ems to attract lightening bolts. The andesite plug now is filled with holes and some of it has actually vaporized or has melted due to the tremondous heat of the lightening bolt. Called fulgurites, these carrot shppped tubes form when the heat fuses the andesite. So if you ever decide to climb Mt. Theison, make sure there is no chance of thunderstorms in the area or you may become part of the melted jagged peak!

Mt. Washington is also a strato-volcano and is very much simalar to Mt. Thieson, except the plug which has formed inside the vent is basaltic instead of andestic. Its history is also quite simalar to Mt. Thielson. Both Mt. Thielson and Mt. Washington are severly eroded and MAY be extint. Three Fingered Jack is built on several shield lavas consisting of several overlaying cinder and composite cones. Later in its life, Three Fingered Jack became more explosive anf formed two other cones, one south and one north of its main vent. Once the main vent had been plugged, balsaltic lava continued to come from the north and south vents. Cone building probably ended about 200,000 years ago. Glaciers also severely eroded much of its flanks. But even though Mt. Thielson, Mt. Washington, and Three Fingered Jack are quite old their lavas only show normal paleomagnetic polarity so they are younger than 700,000 years old. Black Butte, only 6,415 feet tall stands next to Three Fingered Jack and Mt. Washington. Black But e,an almost perfectly symmetrical basaltic composite cone, has lavas that show reverse paleomagnetic polarity that means that it is older than 700,000 years old. Union Peak I don't know much about, except that it is about the same age as Mt. Thieson.

There is also Mt. Bailey who is slightly younger than Mt. Thieson. Mt. Bailey's eruptions produced flows of andesite and scoriaceous lava. Mt. Bailey's last eruptions formed the explosion crater that is still visable today. Mt. Bailey looks like it has an ampithearter like Mt. St. Helens. Diamond Peak is also a strato-volcano made of basaltic andesite. But unlike Mt. Bailey, Diamond Peak still has glaciers on its slopes.

Hi all I will do Lassen Peak. Lassen Peak is the southern most of the recognised Cascade mountains, and is located in Northern California near Shasta. It is a volcano with a geothermal area in the national park. Lassen Peak was the last volcano to erupt prior to Mount St Helens, and this occurred in 1915, but continued sporadically for at least two years. Lassen erupted explosively in September 1915 sending a large mushroom shaped cloud 11 kilometres into the sky. It also oozed a thick tongue of dacite out of the crater that is clearly visible from the air. Lassen will erupt again and some lahars are possible along with further explosive events, and lava flows. Rob

I decided to let Rob do my favorite and the most popular volcano on the west coast.....Mt. St. Helens. I will do Crater Lake though, since I will be going there hopefully for the second time next month. Crater Lake is a good example of what most of the Cascade Volcanoes are capable of doing. That is, blowing itself up completly and collapsing in on itself. About 6,900 years ago, Mt. Mazama, (currently known as Crater Lake) stood high above all the surrounding peaks. There was speculation that Mt. Mazama was at least 16,000 feet , which would have made it the tallest peak in the conitnental U.S. Then, around 6,845 years ago, Mt. Mazama erupted with a fury making it the world's greatest volcanic eruptions since the last ice age. The eruption began as a giant cloud of ash was ejected from one of the craters. The ash was carried 500,000 miles covering all of the western states and Canada. Rhyodacite pumice began to rain down to the earth. The vent where the cloud of ash and gas was coming from widened when the eruption column collapsed on itself. The enormous volume and weight of the erupting pumice caused a massive pyroclastic flow down the slopes of Mazama. As the magma chamber underneath the volcano was draining, Mazama began to collapse on to itself. As this was happening, parts of the volcano were craking forming new vents in the collapsing volcano. Thes cracks erupted huge quantities of pumice. This ended with a seires of giagantic pyroclastic flows that rushed up ridges and down valleys some traveling 40 miles away. Some of the deposits from the pryoclastic flows are 250 feet thick in some areas. One of these flows also formed what is now known as Pumice Desert, which is a very fascinating view as you drive thru the National Park. After Mazama had fallen back in to her restless slumber, rain and snow melt began to fill the depression forming what is now Crater Lake. One of the most fascinating and unusual things at Crater Lake is the fossilized fumaroles in Annie and Sand Creek Canyons. After the pyroclastic flows had stopped, they still remained very hot. Gases began to rise from the scoarching deposits to form cylinder shaped vents called fumaroles. Wizard Island is a small rhyodacite cone that sticks up above Crater Lake's surface. This may be the youngest formation but it is at least 6,000 years old. There is also many other cinder cones around Crater Lake. Some are submerged in Crater Lake's depths, but others were formed around the caldera rim, such as Applegate Peak, Mount Scott, Grouse Hill, Hillman Peak, and Garfield Peak. Garfield Peak and Mt. Scott are wonderful climbs with fantastic breath-taking views of the caldera. If Crater Lake were to erupt again its eruptions would probably produce ash and pyroclastic flows and maybe form new cinder cones and dacite composite cones. But......since Crater Lake has produced a wide range of lava types, including the rhyodacite, which is highly silicic, it is not safe to assume that future eruptions would be small. Some eruptions could compare to that of the catostropic eruption that took place 6,845 years ago. There are only a few volcanoes in the world that are like Crater Lake, which can produce violent and catostrophic caldera-forming eruptions that may occur numerous times.