Melted Ice Lake Atop Volcanic Mt. Spurr (AK) Triples In Two Months - NYT

[hatrack]

Click on link below, then scroll down right side of page for "A Mountaintop Caldron In Alaska". Very interesting short article.

http://www.nytimes.com/pages/science/index.html

[phantom power]

1. I wonder if this has any connection to Mt St Helens

[hatrack]

2. I thought that, too - distant, but tied into the same plate system

However, Spurr's been a bit restless for the last four or five years. My brother lives in Anchorage, and was there when it erupted back in 1991 or 1992.

He's pretty used to earthquakes, snowstorms, moose, bears and so forth, but a volcanic eruption was indeed something new.

[bemildred]

3. St. Helens and the Cascades are stratovolcanos

generated by subduction of the Juan De Fuca plate, which
is being crushed between the Pacific plate and the N. American
hash East of it. Alaska lies far North of the Juan De Fuca Plate.
While the case is similar in that both are subduction stratovolcanos,
there would not seem to be a direct connection.

The subduction of the Juan De Fuca plate has generated some of
the largest known earthquakes.

http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Glossary/PlateTectonics/Maps/map_plate_tectonics_cascades.html

A bit on Mt. Spurr:

http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/volc_images/north_america/alaska/spurr.html

[phantom power]

4. Curses... apophenia strikes again!

[bemildred]

5. Apophenia is more interesting than the opposite.

I don't know if there is a name for not making connections
when there are connections. Oh, that's right, that's called "dumb",
or "Bush". Making correct connections, and ONLY correct connections
seems to be a tricky business, and subject to heated dispute.