Rainier Earthquakes

here is an update, the Camp Muir webicorder still shows constant tremors, as does Longmire. The Mt fremont one also shows it looking quite closely.

Does anyone know if this is harmonic tremor, as looking at the picture I posted yesterday it does look similar.

Heres an update:

Back at the flank of the volcano there are still earhquakes going on apparently:

Magnitude 2.2

earthquake.usgs.gov...
Depth 4.7km

The Camp muir and Longmire stations are showing activity again. Most of the time the Rainier seismograms aren't completely straight either.

This shows the locations of the stations, pity it's so small:



This shows the latest quakes at the summit, with the closest stations. Camp muir is RCM:



[edit on 10-11-2006 by apex]

Apex, just wanted to say "good job" on the volcanic posts! I for one find them facanating and check back daily to see the progress. Thx for the effort!

Thanks, it just fascinates me. I kept having a feeling about rainier and would see if there were any near it, then there was that 4.5 and all this activity since. i'm thinking something will happen, but i should keep this thread serious.

my thread about my dream of it is here;

Dream about mount rainier

Found some new info about the previous earthquakes, a cross-sectional view of the area:




Location of the cross-section:



Some useful info:

Seismicity within the volcano is not well understood, but most is likely of volcanic origin. Both high- and low-frequency events are located at shallow depth and occur at a rate of almost two dozen per month. The low-frequency events are usually poorly recorded, and most are probably seismic signals generated by glacier movement. The shallow high-frequency events are usually well recorded and fall in the magnitude range -0.5 to 3.0. Epicenters appear to align in a NE-SW trend across the summit, and three available fault-plane solutions agree in general with this trend. Because of the difficulty in determining accurate hypocenter depths within the mountain, interpretation of this alignment as representing a fault zone or potential zone of weakness is premature. Moran et al. (1995) showed that the allignment is likely an artifact due both to poor station distribution before 1989 as well as to use of an inappropriate velocity model. Thus additional seismic velocity structure studies are needed.

Source: www.pnsn.org...

Given that Rainier is second only to St Helens in the Cascades, this is quite a difference in seismicity:




This was 1981-1996.


[edit on 11-11-2006 by apex]

Another quake visible on USGS:

Magnitude 1.5 - WASHINGTON
Depth 0.9km

earthquake.usgs.gov...

Here is how it appeared on the Webicorder:

More Quakes, these are both on either side of the volcano:

Magnitude 2.0 - WASHINGTON
Depth 0km
46.823°N, 121.504°W

earthquake.usgs.gov...

Magnitude 2.5 - WASHINGTON
Depth 6.9km
46.859°N, 121.981°W

earthquake.usgs.gov...

Looking on the Webicorders of the Cascades, this from Mount St Helens yesterday is perhaps most similar to the picture i posted of Harmonic tremor:

Currently it is only Longmire that has any activity, and that is small. Most of the quakes seem to be normal tectonic activity sort, IE non volcanic.

There doesn't seem to be much activity, again the only place that has much is Longmire, the others show very small quakes, but they could be big quakes a long way away.

Does anyone have any idea what causes this sort of thing:

Well there has been another quake, this to the North west, about 10km from the summit.

It looks to be a normal quake from the seismographs.
Depth 6.3km

earthquake.usgs.gov...

Other than that there doesn't seem to be much activity. There is a little, but no large constant seismic ativity.

There is currently a little activity going on at mt Fremont and the Longmire stations. there was activity up until a few minutes ago at Camp muir, but it was quite small.

Still at normal background activity. But if that is the case i wonder why Rainier has the second most stations on it, while the others have just one or two.

Got two earthquakes visible on USGS:

Magnitude 1.3 - MOUNT RAINIER AREA, WASHINGTON
Depth 0km

earthquake.usgs.gov...
Distance to summit ~4.37km


Magnitude 1.0 - MOUNT RAINIER AREA, WASHINGTON
Depth 0km

earthquake.usgs.gov...
Distance to summit ~0km

This web page might be useful, it has several different seismic signatures from Rainer:

volcanoes.usgs.gov...

Thinking of the way most recent earthquakes on rainier have been on the eastern side, the webicorders that are on that side seem to have the most ongoing tremors, Longmire and Camp muir. I suppose it could be a glacier moving, but they move constantly, not stopping and starting surely?

Here are some more on the eastern flank that show up on USGS:

Magnitude 1.0 - WASHINGTON
Friday, November 24, 2006 at 04:43:44 (UTC)
Depth 7.2km
earthquake.usgs.gov...


Magnitude 1.8 - WASHINGTON
Friday, November 24, 2006 at 01:53:53 (UTC)
Depth 4.3km
earthquake.usgs.gov...



The Camp muir webicorder is currently looking really strange:
Camp Muir webicorder

As is Mt Fremont: (the black bit in the middle is the 4.43 quake)




[edit on 24-11-2006 by apex]

Currently the webicorder with the most interesting activity s Mt. Fremont, which is showing the constant large tremor that was visible at the other webicorders before.

All I wonder about though is this:
www.pnsn.org...

look at the Blue tremor and the large looking signal part above and part below it that has different colours. That isn't one signal, somehow there were tremors in such a way as to create that in 10 minute intervals.

Another on USGS:

Depth 6.3km, on the eastern side.

earthquake.usgs.gov...

[edit on 27-11-2006 by apex]

There has been some fairly constant activity on most of the webicorders, however they are currently all quiet, which is quite strange.

Anyone else is welcome to look at the webicorders and post if they want to.

[edit on 1-12-2006 by apex]