Mount Rainier is not getting ready to erupt, but scientists at the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network might blow their stacks over having to respond to a rumor about increased tremor activity at the Washington state volcano.
The Daily Mail reported this week that the mountain was sending up “a flurry of strange signals” and raising concern “that something inside the volcano might be shifting.”
“This towering stratovolcano looms over more than 3.3 million people across the Seattle-Tacoma metro area, threatening to cripple entire communities with ashfall, flooding, and catastrophic mudflows if it erupts,” The Daily Mail reported in dramatic fashion in a story that went viral online.
PNSN was forced to respond on Wednesday with a detailed blog post debunking the story, explaining that a likely buildup of ice on the antenna of a Rainier seismic station was causing radio interference misread as seismic activity.
PNSN said the station at St. Andrews Rock (STAR) is “one of the last remaining old analog sites on the mountain and uses very low-power radio transmission to send data down to a receiver site.” The system, located just west of the summit, is susceptible to weather-related interference and PNSN said recent stormy weather likely caused “rime ice buildup.”
The blog post contains recent seismograms and further explanation about how the station’s typical signals are affected by glacier slips, rock falls and high winds. PNSN said any unusual seismic activity such as significant earthquakes or volcanic tremor would show up on numerous other stations that are on or near the volcano and would be detected and reported by PNSN within a short time.
“We realized that what they were seeing was one, just one, of our many seismic stations that was sending out essentially static, just noise, instead of actual data,” PNSN Director Harold Tobin told KING 5. “And that’s the whole problem, and the thing that people think is tremor at the volcano, it’s just some static.”
PNSN is operated cooperatively by the University of Washington, the University of Oregon, and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)’s Seattle Field Office to monitor earthquake and volcanic activity across the Pacific Northwest.
The last minor eruption at Mount Rainier was recorded in 1884.
The last minor eruption at PNSN was Wednesday in response to The Daily Mail.
“Unfortunately, sloppy journalism by non-scientists who don’t understand seismology nor check with those that do can generate confusion in the public and more work for those who need to correct the clearly incorrect information,” PNSN’s blog post read. “It is no wonder that some publications are only considered tabloids and should never be believed.”
Previously:
- Seattle shakes again as Mariners grand slam triggers another big burst of seismic activity
Read the full article here
