A volcanic feature in southwestern Oregon that attracts numerous visitors is the caldera of Crater Lake. The volcano known as Mount Mazama erupted cataclysmically about 7,700 years ago, blasting itself outward and then collapsing on itself to make a hole that eventually filled with water. The lake is now about 2,000 feet deep and is surrounded by the caldera’s walls that stand well over 1,000 feet above the water. The lake itself is five by six miles and is pierced by Wizard Island, a parasitic volcanic cone that formed in the caldera after the large eruption.
Unless one stands on the rim or walks down to the water, he or she has little concept of the size of the mountain and its interior lake. Pictures of the entire lake are usually aerial ones because of the size of the caldera. For those that stand on the rim of Crater Lake nature quietly announces its power. What kind of energy could have moved so much matter and reduced a mountain by twelve cubic miles of rock (50 cubic kilometers) that it ejected as far as Canada? Mount Mazama’s eruption ranks it among the most powerful volcanic eruptions of the past half million years.
So, why should I go about telling you this? Several reasons. First, humans have inhabited the planet without regard to natural dangers. This they did mostly out of ignorance. Did you, for example, check out the geology of your neighborhood before you moved in? Second, humans have sufficient hubris to believe that whatever bad can happen or did happen probably won’t happen to them. As an example take those who live on the banks or the floodplains of rivers capable of washing away their possessions and loved ones. How many have remained in homes along rivers that previously flooded those dwellings? Or, take the case of Harry Truman, not the president, but the guy who lived on the side of Mt. St. Helens and refused to leave when USGS geologists said he should evacuate. Harry is somewhere beneath a very thick layer of ash. He became one of the eruption’s casualties. Third, humans have a boy-who-cried-wolf state of mind. If a warning isn’t accompanied by exact proof or if it follows an earlier false warning, then it is ineffective. Why bother to listen? That happened in New Orleans even though government officials and the President advised people to flee the city before Hurricane Katrina struck. Some who had the means to leave the city decided to stay. Hey, they had been through big storms before. What could this one do that the others hadn’t done?
The natural beauty of Crater Lake came at a price for many organisms, including humans, that lived within about a 50-mile radius and possibly an even greater circle. Some Native Americans probably died in the blast; certainly a number of animals perished. If you look at a picture of the lake or have the chance to see it in person, think of that moment 7,700 years ago as the eruption started. Would you have fled? We can’t impose on those ancient people the knowledge we now have of volcanoes, but surely the ground started to shake a warning before the grand eruption.
You know this is not your practice life. There are real dangers. Maybe you should pay attention to warnings. Definitely, you should pay attention to your local environment’s potential dangers: Flood, landslide, sinkhole, storm, earthquake, ocean surge, and drought. Some live without regard to dangers, and they survive a disaster or never encounter a catastrophic event. But getting a little knowledge about the place where you live can’t hurt, and it might prevent your suffering property loss, injury, or even death. Fact is: IT can happen to you.
Unless one stands on the rim or walks down to the water, he or she has little concept of the size of the mountain and its interior lake. Pictures of the entire lake are usually aerial ones because of the size of the caldera. For those that stand on the rim of Crater Lake nature quietly announces its power. What kind of energy could have moved so much matter and reduced a mountain by twelve cubic miles of rock (50 cubic kilometers) that it ejected as far as Canada? Mount Mazama’s eruption ranks it among the most powerful volcanic eruptions of the past half million years.
So, why should I go about telling you this? Several reasons. First, humans have inhabited the planet without regard to natural dangers. This they did mostly out of ignorance. Did you, for example, check out the geology of your neighborhood before you moved in? Second, humans have sufficient hubris to believe that whatever bad can happen or did happen probably won’t happen to them. As an example take those who live on the banks or the floodplains of rivers capable of washing away their possessions and loved ones. How many have remained in homes along rivers that previously flooded those dwellings? Or, take the case of Harry Truman, not the president, but the guy who lived on the side of Mt. St. Helens and refused to leave when USGS geologists said he should evacuate. Harry is somewhere beneath a very thick layer of ash. He became one of the eruption’s casualties. Third, humans have a boy-who-cried-wolf state of mind. If a warning isn’t accompanied by exact proof or if it follows an earlier false warning, then it is ineffective. Why bother to listen? That happened in New Orleans even though government officials and the President advised people to flee the city before Hurricane Katrina struck. Some who had the means to leave the city decided to stay. Hey, they had been through big storms before. What could this one do that the others hadn’t done?
The natural beauty of Crater Lake came at a price for many organisms, including humans, that lived within about a 50-mile radius and possibly an even greater circle. Some Native Americans probably died in the blast; certainly a number of animals perished. If you look at a picture of the lake or have the chance to see it in person, think of that moment 7,700 years ago as the eruption started. Would you have fled? We can’t impose on those ancient people the knowledge we now have of volcanoes, but surely the ground started to shake a warning before the grand eruption.
You know this is not your practice life. There are real dangers. Maybe you should pay attention to warnings. Definitely, you should pay attention to your local environment’s potential dangers: Flood, landslide, sinkhole, storm, earthquake, ocean surge, and drought. Some live without regard to dangers, and they survive a disaster or never encounter a catastrophic event. But getting a little knowledge about the place where you live can’t hurt, and it might prevent your suffering property loss, injury, or even death. Fact is: IT can happen to you.
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