Debates and domes

Sarah took off for a business trip to Las Vegas for her first ever formal focus group experience. Yup, the one-way glass and all, apparently. Well, if focus grouping in Las Vegas isn't enough excitement for you how about that debate tonight, huh?! I'd expound on it for a few paragraphs but, I must confess, I had to make a trip up to Seattle tonight and missed all but the first question or two. So the links, for me, are as follows:

Read | Watch | Listen to tonight's debate.

I will do my duty and inform myself on these candidates in the next day or so. Opinions to follow.

In other news, since Mt. St. Helens has been so active in the last few weeks it's pretty fascinating to see how much has changed inside the volcano. An area of intense uplift on the south side of the caldera has pushed up a major area that now rivals the original 1986 lava dome. Check out the difference before and after three weeks of activity. Even for those of you without a geosciences degree, these are pretty impressive. The scale there is both the domes are hundreds of feet tall.

Comments (6) | To Top

10/14/2004 @ 12:10am

Amazing pics! I seriously was wondering how much had changed on the dome landscape as I was flying over that very mountain of activity earlier this evening. Kind of a cool experience to see the steam/ash clouds first hand. One lady sitting next to me swore she saw glowing red lava as well, but I think that was the Baileys talking. Still, it was a pretty impressive site, even if it was only a couple of seconds. Remind me again, why don't I borrow your camera more often?

by Cassioposa

10/14/2004 @ 6:21am

Yes, very good pictures. It really helps me understand the degree of what has happened inside the dome. Thanks for putting them up.

by Bobby

10/14/2004 @ 6:42am

Although the lady sitting next to Sarah on the flight no doubt may have had a little too many Baileys, the mountain IS showing molten rock now. At night, it appears glowing red. (Maybe the lady had her night-vision goggles on, and SARAH had too many Baileys to notice... Hmmm.)

Check out a local story on this subject:
http://www.katu.com/news/story.asp?ID=71823

This also raises a good question: Is everyone aware of their standard lava drill where you work?

by Mandy

10/14/2004 @ 7:04am

I wish I snapped those pics. The credit goes to the USGS and all their photos can be seen at http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Volcanoes/MSH/Images/MSH04/

KATU had a daytime photo up they thought was glowing magma but it was just the color of the rock -- slightly pink like landscaping lava rock. The pink was enhanced in Photoshop to make it look more intense than it really ways. This night stuff is very cool, though. Check out their raw video of a helicopter flight over the crater at http://easylink.playstream.com/katu/041013helens_hot_lava_night.wvx

There's no narration but they have some pretty impressive close-ups of the glowing stuff. This is truly rare at a volcano like this since there's no flowing like Hawaii volcanoes this sort of dome building even is the only opportunity it has to come out and shine.

by KevinFreitas

10/14/2004 @ 9:24am

You didn't miss a great deal in last night's debate. I'm disappointed at the degree to which I heard both candidates recycled their rhetoric and distortions from the past two sessions. There were a few new bits that might be worth catching, but you'd be better served with a highlights reel, IMO.

Good find on the St. Helens pictures and video. It's too easy to take the earth we stand on for granted as a static entity. There's action going on beneath our feet. It's nice to see that from time to time.

by Matt Turner

10/14/2004 @ 9:54am

The first couple questions I heard on the radio weren't that spectacular -- you'd think they'd head to http://www.factcheck.org and read up on their errors but they seem to blindly stay "on message" as it were. I guess the "flip flop" stigma is a negative one even if someone's statements go from wrong to right.

Geology rocks!

by KevinFreitas