Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Weekly Volcano #12: Danger at Long Valley

Heed the warnings!
Long Valley is a super volcano, measuring 11 miles N-S and 20 miles E-W.
The movie, Dante's Peak, was based upon the monitoring of Long Valley, and I knew the volcanologist that consulted on the film. 

It is also the sight of one of California's largest ski resorts, so real estate agents and town officials forced the U.S Geological Survey to stop issuing activity warnings. Nonetheless, carbon dioxide emissions are common, almost killing a U.S Forest Ranger several years ago.  Micro earthquakes (a sign of magma moving underground)  are also common.

3 comments:

  1. The power of money versus the power of the vulcano - I hope he remains friendly...

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  2. Not a hazard you see everyday in the UK.

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  3. Money definitely matters. They are now having the same problem with Yellowstone, another supervolcano. There was a lot of micro earthquake activity this past winter. But they said it didn't mean anything. Yet the govenrment has set up a volcano observatory there. Something they only do when the risk has reached a certain level.

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