Living in the Pacific Northwest, one can't help but have an ongoing interest in volcanoes. We see the results of the earth's dynamism every time we drive to Portland under clear skies or head east to enjoy a day in the Cascades. Gazing at the peaks can easily bring back recollections of the excitement generated when Mt. St. Helen's erupted in 1980, an event that ignited "a volcanology career." Dr. Katharine Cashman, this month's ENHS speaker, says her career was "framed by eruptions of Mount St. Helens."
Katharine grew up in Providence, Rhode Island and remembers well participating in bird walks and trail clearings with her parents, active participants in The Audubon Society. As a youth, she enjoyed hiking and skiing and the world of nature. Now she says, "My job is my pastime as it involves spending time out-of-doors and traveling to volcanoes around the world doing field work." That's hot! (The 900-foot tall lava dome on Mt. St. Helen's that formed in the crater between 1980 and1986 still retains a considerable amount of heat today.)
Katharine received her BA with Honors (Phi Beta Kappa) in Geology/Biology, from Middlebury College in Vermont. She earned her MSc with 1st Class Honors, from Victoria University, New Zealand, and received her PhD from The Johns Hopkins University in Maryland in 1986.
In between degrees she worked at Woods Hole and the USGS Cascades Volcano Observatory; after earning her PhD she started her teaching/research career at Princeton University. In 1991 the University of Oregon hired Dr. Cashman to join the Department of Geological Sciences and she arrived in Eugene.
Friday evening Dr. Cashman will treat us to an insight into volcanoes, mostly from her research on Mount St. Helens, from 1980-2006.
Aside from her numerous publications found in, but not limited to Geology, Bulletin of Volcanology, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America and Science, Katharine has earned numerous awards including the 2003 UO Distinguished Professor award in the College of Arts and Sciences.
Dr. Cashman's primary interests in her field, according to her CV, cover the areas of volcanology, igneous petrology, crystallization and vesiculation kinetics, geologic hazards and lava flow emplacement. Just in the last two years she has spoken at the International Geological Congress (Florence, Italy), the International Association of Volcanology and the Earth's Interior (Pucon, Chile), the Geological Society of America (Salt Lake City) and the American Geophysical Union (San Francisco). And soon she can add: the Eugene Natural History Society. Join us for "Some Like It Hot," Friday night.
Readers who'd like to know more about Dr. Cashman and her research:
http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~cashman/
There's other life that likes it hot: "The 900-foot tall lava dome that formed in the crater between 1980 and 1986 still retains a considerable amount of heat today. Erosion from flooding and seasonal run-off has cut deep gullies in the crater floor. Where the groundwater beneath the dome is exposed, hot, mineral rich thermal springs occur. These thermal areas provide a special habitat for bacteria and other microbial life."
And this website is quite cool: Every 5 minutes get an updated look at Mt. St. Helens (it's been a mottled grey screen this week) and view the exceptional photo gallery from the day of the eruption forward on the website mentioned below. This comprehensive website includes an excellent historical perspective for Mt. Saint Helens: "earthquake swarm information, USGS Advisory Notices, visitor access information, hiking trails, lava tubes and camping." The site posts general and current events in conjunction with the public viewing centers along Spirit Mountain Highway, taking visitors on a journey that culminates at the Johnston Ridge Observatory. Additionally, find links for every aspect of interest regarding The Mountain, from current scientific research to where one can get a mushrooming permit.
A little History: In case your remembrances of May 18, 1980, are similar to the current live cam shot, here's the skinny: "At 8:32 Sunday morning, May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted. Shaken by an earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale, the north face of this tall symmetrical mountain collapsed in a massive rock debris avalanche. Nearly 230 square miles of forest was blown down or buried beneath volcanic deposits. At the same time a mushroom-shaped column of ash rose thousands of feet skyward and drifted downwind, turning day into night as dark, gray ash fell over eastern Washington and beyond. The eruption lasted 9 hours, but Mount St. Helens and the surrounding landscape were dramatically changed within moments.
"In 1982, the President and Congress created the 110,000-acre National Volcanic Monument for research, recreation, and education. Inside the Monument, the environment is left to respond naturally to the disturbance."
Salvage logging or huckleberries? "Huckleberries (Vaccinium spp.) and other forest understory plants resprouted from soil on the root masses of blown down trees providing an early glimpse of green in a mostly gray landscape. - J. Franklin, USDA Forest Service"
http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/mshnvm/