Write a description of the potential hazards that people living near Mount Rainier might face?

Answer 1

The main hazard is the potential for muflows called lahars. If Mount Rainier erupits, it may melt the snowpack on the volcano. The water could them mix with the ash to form a dense slurry. This can then flow down the Puyallup River and into Tacoma.

Answer 2

Residents nearby Mount Rainier may face the dangers of pyroclatic flow. This will cause ashes to poison the air, and lava to flow. Since Mount Rainier is a composite volcano its made up of alternate layers, causing pyroclastic flow.

Answer 3

Mt. Rainier would not necessarily need to erupt to cause major destruction. The volcano has several aspects that make it extremely hazardous to those living immediately around it. The volcano has a long history of both eruption, as well as an equally long history of flank collapse. These collapses are extremely dangerous as it does not require an eruption to take place. These events are sometimes very massive and can occur without any precursor events. The flanks of a Stratovolcano of the age and size of Mt. Rainier can be extremely unstable due to both the amounts of rock involved, as well as the amount of that rock that has been weakened due to hydrothermal altering. This form of altered rock is very weak and can crumble away without warning. These flank collapses can travel up to 60 miles from the volcano and bring mud flows from glacier melt. These flows have in the past reached the Puget sound area, and parts of the city of Seattle are built on top of the ancient flow fields.

As per the dangers involved if the volcano were to erupt (which it will sometime in the future) there is possibilities of both explosive activity as well as lava flows. These two different types of eruptions can bring their own kinds of hazards associated with them. As evident in the 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helens, a highly explosive eruption from Mt. Rainier would cause widespread mudlows from both glacier melt as well as snow melt. Which their is plenty of both present on Mt. Rainier to create a very large flow field. The other major problem would be air fallout as well as pyroclastic surges and flows from both a very large collapsing eruptive column as well as from simple outward directed explosions from the mountain. Associated with this type of eruption also as evident with the St. Helens eruption is the fallout of ash over an extremely large area, this would disrupt life as well as any form of travel. Volcanic ash is extremely fine and will ja up electrical devices as well as make engines cease to function with the inhalation of the ash. The hazard from lava flows are similar but would more than likely be on a much smaller scale. The Mudflows would more than likely be localized as there would be pockets of melt at the summit where the lava effusion took place. There would more than likely be an associated localized ash fallout. The lava eruption event is more than likely a best case scenario with the volcano in the future, this is from a stance of potential loss of life and property.

Answer 4

The most hazardous thing about Mount Rainier is the gases that is exposed from the mountain, the gases affect a lot of natural resources and can also affect humans in a lot of ways.