Word: mountainous
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Though trees worth at least $ 1 billion were flattened-including 4% of Weyerhaeuser's total timberlands-executives expect to salvage about 80% of the logs by sawing those not badly scorched into usable lumber. Sportsmen who venture into what was once prime fish and game area on the mountain's flanks will find nearly all life wiped out within a 15-mile radius of the crater. The rivers and state-run fish hatcheries near the mountain have been ruined as breeding grounds for steelhead trout and Chinook salmon. Said Mike Wharton, an employee of the Washington State department...
Farther away from the mountain, Northwesterners who were never in any danger heard what many at first thought were sonic booms and then saw a spectacular-and frightening-drama in the sky. Said Harvey Olander, a retired geologist who now cultivates a 40-acre apple orchard outside Yakima: "I was working on an irrigation ditch. The sky got dark, and I thought we had a hailstorm coming. Then it got deathly still, and all you could see through the darkness was the purple-pink glow of sheet lightning." Said Chuck Taylor, a reporter for the Tri-City Herald in Pasco...
Except in the immediate vicinity of the mountain, livestock escaped almost unscathed. State officials advised ranchers to put out fresh hay so that cattle would not eat the dusty forage in the fields. Ranchers were also told not to move their herds to avoid increasing the cattle's breathing rate and thus their intake of silica-laden dust. Breeders protected valuable race horses by keeping them inside barns with towels over their noses...
From the moment Mount St. Helens began acting up, dozens of scientists flocked to its flanks to plant instruments and set up observation posts. Indeed, until last week's eruption, the scientists hovered over the mountain almost as intently as parents do over a precocious child. Geologists even flew curiosity, over the fuming crater. Why the seemingly foolhardy curiosity, which almost surely cost the lives of three investigators? Explains one researcher: "Volcanoes are windows through which the scientist looks into the bowels of the earth...
...under, heats up and begins to melt. This molten material, or magma, is lighter than neighboring and slowly rises, often triggering earth tremors. Eventually the magma may break through the surface as lava. In some cases, like that of Mount St. Helens, the magma remains in pools under the mountain, but still releases enough heat to cause explosive ejections of steam, fumes and ashes. The mountain literally blows its top. Eruptions may also occur where the plates tear apart. One such place is the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, site of Iceland's volcanoes. Finally, there are volcanoes, like those...