I'm fascinated by volcanoes and am curious to learn more of the science behind the beautiful natural landscapes around us, let me know if you enjoy this type of informative, knowledge sharing video and I'd love to make more along the same lines!
Luke this is one of my favorite videos you have done to date. I really dig the interview and this was loaded with great info. Felt like I was watching pre-reality tv Nat Geo.
Thanks for the info Luke, I am also fascinated about volcanos as well that's why I took Earth Science in school. Also CONGRATS on reaching almost 26K subscribers, Sorry I am a little behind in watching my UA-cam channels because of the holidays and work, I hope you had a GREAT Holiday Season and a HAPPY NEW YEARS!!!!!
Gorgeous shots Luke!! It really is clear you put a lot of time & effort into your videos, I am so grateful to be able to go along for the visual ride & soak up some knowledge! Appreciate you!!
The Nass river lava flow by Terrace was an eruption that occurred only 300 years ago. It also has great hotsprings. Shield volcanos west of Williams lake have been recent too. If you've never been there, go. Very interesting treeless lava flows
Luke!! I really enjoyed this video you did. You really do your homework with research and also getting out there to make your video’s. I never knew about this volcanic chain in south western BC. Thanks again!
Mount Meager also has active fumaroles that consistently emit a hot soup of volcanic gases like hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide. In fact, the fumaroles were relatively recently discovered and are noticeably melting the glaciers because of the gas’ thermal heat. Fumaroles are great indicators as to how active volcano is. Great video Luke!
Thanks Konrad! You are correct, the fumaroles were subject to a couple articles written about them and Meager in the recent past. I find them fascinating, but couldn't make my way to the remote parts of the volcano to document them, although I'd like to one day.
There was a previous slide in 2007 at Meger volcano and i was living there when the landslide came thru and took out part of hwy 99 and one mile marsh area. We had blocks of ice the size of cars and thousands of obliterated trees raging with the flooding river past our house. My first floor started flooding early in the morning. And we all scrambled to clear our belongings off the garage floor/ It took our one of the hot springs. Only leaving one when i was there. Also black tusk in whistler is active If u hike that area near the civil defense base it stinks of Sulphur near waters fenced off next to the path .
John Baldwin, author of EXPLORING THE COAST RANGE ON SKIS, mentioned these peaks. You are so lucky to live adjacent to one of the great ranges. Nice video.
Your videos are so educational Luke! I am still amazed with the low number of your subscribers. I will continue to spread the word for you and your channel. I really think you will explode in growth. Thanks again Luke!! keep on doing your thing.
Spot on as usual Luke 😀 Your documentaries are educational and informative about our province. Incidentally, Mount Baker in the US is an active (dormant) volcano also. At times you can see steam rising up from the distance.
i went meager hot spring 2 times , the bride you filmed was 12 meter higher than river surface! now is same level! 12 meter sediments filled valley! and Pemberton city was lucky as the woods blocked flood and made dam and didn't flood to vally. 42 million metric cube flood but 2 million mettr cube passed to city !
Excellent topic very interesting well done. Prior to this only volcanic activity I knew of is the Nisga'a Lava Beds area. Thanks for bringing it to my attention now I'll do some additional reading about the area. Looking forward to your next installment.
very interesting Luke, I never knew we had a volcano in our back yard, Mt Baker is so visible to us I always thought that's the one we should worry about, your drone views were great.
It's hard to imagine what kind of damage a volcanic eruption could cause to our planet. A large eruption could have huge consequences even outside of It's close proximity. Crazy to comprehend what mother nature is capable of. It makes us seem insignificant. Thanks for the video- I didn't know about this volcano!
Just came across your channel. I enjoy what your channel does. I also make hiking videos in and around kitimat BC. Mine is mostly a weekend hobby though. Anyways you got a new subscriber from me. Keep up the local bc content. We need to keep showing the world how beautiful our area is.
St. Helens' big Sunday morning boom on 18 May 1980 -- which I felt, heard and witnessed as a 13-year-old PNW native -- earned a VEI rating of 2 (not 5). The numerical rating system is based on a long list of factors, including magma composition and total volume of ejected material. Each number also has a corresponding name, i.e. Vulcanian, Plinian, Pelean, Strombolian, etc. Of the volcanic processes in play, the two which pose the greatest downstream risk are 1) Pyroclastic flows, a high-speed "avalanche" of superheated gas, meltwater and pulverized material during the initial eruptive event, and 2) Lahars, high-viscosity mudflows resulting from large volumes of meltwater flushing ash and detritus (trees, stone, etc.) into the drainages. In terms of the historical record, there are often references to "pre-colonial" eruptions in the tribal lore of most native cultures along the western margins of North America. Just as interesting as this sociological story is the ever-expanding knowledge of accreted "terranes" (correct spelling) piling up against the NA craton. The Coast Range and much of Vancouver Island (except the southernmost part) are part of "Wrangellia", for example. ua-cam.com/video/jG0w6BgLWUE/v-deo.html Highly recommend the work of Central Washington University geology professor Nick Zentner, available here on YT, as a starting point for the curious layperson. His entire body of ongoing geology media is also archived for easy perusal at his website : www.nickzentner.com As a lifelong backcountry type and geology enthusiast who grew up in the Cascades, it becae clear long ago that the political boundaries are a hindrance to understanding, as certain structural elements in BC/Alaska (north to the Yakutat) and the rest of Cascadia (as far south as Lassen) are clearly related in the larger picture. All that said, thanks much for yet another excellent episode exploring one of my favorite parts of BC. If it floats your boat, check out the steadily advancing case supporting the now decades-old "Baja BC" theory. Fascinating stuff.
The extremely serious downstream FLOODING potential of an eruption (or another gigantic landslide) within the Mount Meager Massif, threatens the whole of the upper Lillooet River Valley! That would include all of the farms and farmland of Pemberton Meadows as well as almost all of the town of Pemberton, as well as the village of Mt. Currie and the Lilwat First Nation. Well beyond the direct reach of LAHARS and PYROCLASTIC FLOWS, devastating FLOODING could well impact downstream into Lillooet Lake and perhaps even into Harrison Lake and the Fraser River Valley! ⛰️ 🏔 🌄 ⛰️ 🏔 🌄 ⛰️ 🏔 🌄 ⛰️ 🏔
1:33 Ahhh yes emperor Christyu Clark was told of Geothermal energy and went with the Dam instead as her leagcy of power to the people. Now the new dam is fraught with geological cracks and a massively ballooning debt. A decent sized drill program on the Meager creek area seems to be in order and not, "legacy look at what I done " projects
There was a killer volcanic eruption around 270 years ago in the Nass Valley, N E of Terrace BC. Mount Tseax killed 2ooo native Nisga'a in two villages. We're you aware of this one? Lava beds of over 2oo,ooo. Acres.
To be honest I just turned volume off and watched shots. Tho this would be perfect for school presentations. One go whips out powerpoint. other uses his drone to catch mountains of the live thing.
I specifically wanted to use the drone to do exactly that, document with real live images, not just words and data on a screen - "a picture's worth a thousand words"
Dear Canadians, Do yourselves a favor and don't wait for the inevitable. We have monitors on top of Rainier because it is a Decade Volcano and because it is huge: twice the height of Vesuvius. Rainier is a BIIIIIG BOY. We have monitors at Crater Lake, the largest boom boom ever recorded in the Cascades: it used to be a HUUGE volcano at least as big as Rainier, Mazama, but the eruption was as big as Krakatoa and caused the mountain to *IMPLODE*. Mount Lassen in California?-boiling mudpots, sulfur works at the surface, and other than St. Helens, it also had an eruption in 1915. Google it: it is one of the very first eruptions of a volcano caught on film, and it was VEI 3. That is about the equal of the boom boom at Montserrat in the 1990s and people still cannot live there. Meager, as Luke has demonstrated, is not dead yet. None of them are: Cayley, Garibaldi, or Meager. The US may have the lionshare of snoozing Cascade volcanoes, but that does not mean you should not ramp up monitoring "The Triplets". Lassen Peak in California was thought to be dead. Nothing had happened there in 27,000 years. Then, BOOM!! Phreatic at first, then graduated to pyroclastic flows that cooked the valley. Without monitoring it, St. Helens in 1980 could have killed many more people and the locals, I assure you, are quite happy with the advances in tech that have come in the past 40 years: more time to leave, more time to plan, better understanding of what is happening miles below the surface by knowing how big the magma chamber is. Currently most of the infrastructure in Canada is dedicated to non-volcano related earthquakes and since forever Vancouverites have been told to look south to Mount Baker. I assure you, Mount Baker showed a little activity some years ago, farted, and then went back to sleep. Nothing since. Zzzzzz.....Zzzzzzz.... If Meager wakes up, Pemberton will go bye bye and so will Whistler. There is only one road in and out of that Valley and there are no emergency roads up there. The population keeps growing up there, too. The ash cloud definitely could affect Vancouver as well as its drinking water. Don't take the chance. Once it is shaking, it is already too late. You don't want to risk people thinking it will be just another landslide.
All good points, Mary! I didn't go into it here in this video, but there is some monitoring of Meager and it's been increased since the 2010 slide, but definitely not to the extent of Mt Rainier or Mt St Helens. I find the history of all PNW volcanoes very fascinating.
@@lifeofluke Hi, Look, I am sorry to bother you again, but in the past year I did a little sniffing around. I found out more, and the news is not good. (It has also taken me some time to relocate this video.) Meager does not have ANY monitoring on the actual peak, but a mile or two away: this is better than nothing of course, and would be fine for some types of landslides, but it would not be enough to save Whistler or Pemberton denizens. It would only be able to help predict an eruption if such was imminent. Looking back at St. Helens in 1980, the last volcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc to go kerblooey, they were smart enough to place seismographs in a lot more places. They do this with Rainier anyway because Seattle sits at the mouth of Puget Sound and the record is clear as crystal that Rainier is a powerful, big boy with very large natural glaciers on it. That means lahars. In an eruption Seattle would be in grave danger as the Green River and many others would dump a gumbo of mud, debris, rock, and the already dead on Seattle and Tacoma. Tacoma sits on top of old mudflats from PAST eruptions as it is. St. Helens is 50 miles away from Rainier, so in the early stages the equipment used to monitor each would be dead useful: one might faintly be able to feel the other rumbling and confirm that it was not just some grad student's mind playing tricks on him. In 1980, they also brought in other equipment, like gadgets to measure how much sulphur dioxide was dissolving into water: just like Meager, several US volcanoes in the same Arc have natural hot springs. St. Helens has a few, there are several near Crater Lake that feed into the Rogue River close to the Oregon/California border, etc. For reference, what they discovered there in 1980 was not good. Remember the poem: Billy was a chemist's son/ But Billy is no more/For what he thought was H2O/ Was H2SO4!! At St. Helens, the spring water was getting more acidic and the temperature was rising, and yes, sulfuric acid WAS detected and at higher concentrations than normal. Toxic gases were leaking out of the mud pots, gas compounds that weren’t supposed to be there. Note that I am using St. Helens as a guide for what could go down with Meager as it is still the best documented Cascade eruption the world has. That, and Meager's last known eruption followed a similar pattern to 1980 and was in the same class of VEI 5. Menwhile, nobody in Canada is watching the mudpots and fewer go up there to get a closer look at the fumaroles or springs, the last having no monitors whatsoever. Not monitoring it might give some sleazy politician an excuse to lie by omission someday. In my head, I can hear it: “We do not have enough proof to say if Meager is waking up. We are sending in experts in 5 days time.” Keep in mind, Luke, that the hidden lie here in this scenario would be that the BC government never BOTHERED to put enough funding or effort into monitoring Meager on purpose, because they were hungrier for the investment of geotherm businesses. And oops, look what is happening now- geothermal energy companies are sleazing around all three of the Triplets, distracting Canadians by making them feel all warm and tingly and progressive…🤢🤢🤮🤮🤮🤬🤬🤬) Second, the make up of Meager bears a strong resemblance to its cousin, Glacier Peak. This basically means the rocks in parts of Meager are soft as tofu. Porous. Crumbly. Imagine what the landslides are like now, then multiply by a factor of 100. In a bigger eruption above 3 on the explosive index, well, that would mean a lot of big boulders the size of houses getting displaced and then damming up water in unexpected areas….and if the ground keeps shaking, the dam could break and release water in all sorts of directions unpredictably. Other rocks will BURY that whole valley for miles , not to mention the lava bombs Meager is very likely to be capable of torching the forests for miles in BC, with little in the way that could possibly stop the wildfires (heaven help Canada if a Meager eruption comes in the summer.) My main point is that a lot of Canadians would be killed if Meager finally stops sleeping. I personally do not like the idea of damning innocent people to die because of buffoons in Ottawa. There is one way into that valley, and one way out. Not good if you want to evacuate an ever growing number of people or want to send help to stop the wildfires that come from pyroclastic flows and lava bombs. Getting planes anywhere near the volcano in the first 2 weeks would be a logistics nightmare since the ash cloud would clog plane engines and make navigation of choppers very difficult. There is also no guarantee that there will be as long a period between the big eruption and the signs the mountain is waking up:the legends of Natives tell us to know better than that, and might I add, they have rarely been wrong yet as to what a particular volcano is capable of. (The folklore around Mazama is absolutely terrifying…and thus far has been chillingly accurate. Mount St. Helens had a pause between signs of instability and then losing an entire flank. Mazama did not. It went by much faster and more violent, violent enough to be preserved in memory for almost 7 thousand years by the Maklaks and Klamaths. I hope you will do a follow up, Luke. Maybe even go visit Glacier Peak or Lassen. People need to learn how to save their little heinies and say “emergency evacuation routes first, THEN we shall talk about getting rich off geotherm. Funding a bunch of PhD's from McMaster and Simon Fraser first with the proper equipment to accurately study the fumaroles, THEN we can talk about new housing initiatives, ski resorts, ANY NEW CONSTRUCTION WHATSOEVER!!”
I'm fascinated by volcanoes and am curious to learn more of the science behind the beautiful natural landscapes around us, let me know if you enjoy this type of informative, knowledge sharing video and I'd love to make more along the same lines!
Check out oceanic fossils in Jasper national park (shells and coral).extinct volcanos near scotch creek B.C. many interesting sites to see.
Nice interview, and nice exposition on the volcano
Love it, as usual
Love the geology lesson,hope to see and learn more about b.c geology Luke.awesome video
Luke this is one of my favorite videos you have done to date. I really dig the interview and this was loaded with great info. Felt like I was watching pre-reality tv Nat Geo.
A very interesting video Luke. 👍👍
Thanks for the info Luke, I am also fascinated about volcanos as well that's why I took Earth Science in school. Also CONGRATS on reaching almost 26K subscribers, Sorry I am a little behind in watching my UA-cam channels because of the holidays and work, I hope you had a GREAT Holiday Season and a HAPPY NEW YEARS!!!!!
great vid
Really enjoyed the footage presented in this video….. beautiful landscape and a concise explanation of what really lurks beneath the surface.
Thanks Jules!
Great, great footage with detailed commentary to boot. Thanks!
Thanks Cole!
Gorgeous shots Luke!! It really is clear you put a lot of time & effort into your videos, I am so grateful to be able to go along for the visual ride & soak up some knowledge! Appreciate you!!
Much thanks, Emily!
Sure miss those hotsprings at the creek !
The Nass river lava flow by Terrace was an eruption that occurred only 300 years ago. It also has great hotsprings. Shield volcanos west of Williams lake have been recent too.
If you've never been there, go. Very interesting treeless lava flows
Mt. Ediza, too
@@skiboot1 mnt edziza is a spectacular area to hike, went through in the late nineties..
Luke!! I really enjoyed this video you did. You really do your homework with research and also getting out there to make your video’s. I never knew about this volcanic chain in south western BC. Thanks again!
Buddy forgot to talk about pyroclastic flow! Still a great chat and another great video as always, Luke! Your channel is a national treasure.
Ya I just forgot to ask about them! Thanks JFC!
@@lifeofluke Thanks for subbing to me, you’re a real gem bud 💙👊🏼🇨🇦
Isn't that just a lahar?
a pyroclastic flow is hot gases, solidified lava, and ash moving together, whereas a lahar is mud and debris traveling downhill
@@lifeofluke dropping hikes and knowledge, what a guy
Mount Meager also has active fumaroles that consistently emit a hot soup of volcanic gases like hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide. In fact, the fumaroles were relatively recently discovered and are noticeably melting the glaciers because of the gas’ thermal heat. Fumaroles are great indicators as to how active volcano is.
Great video Luke!
Thanks Konrad! You are correct, the fumaroles were subject to a couple articles written about them and Meager in the recent past. I find them fascinating, but couldn't make my way to the remote parts of the volcano to document them, although I'd like to one day.
Amazing video! All the fly overs with the drone give such great perspective and is so nice to watch. Thanks Luke keep it up! Happy holidays!
Thanks Scott, same to you!
Beautiful video Luke.!:)
Thanks Emily
There was a previous slide in 2007 at Meger volcano and i was living there when the landslide came thru and took out part of hwy 99 and one mile marsh area. We had blocks of ice the size of cars and thousands of obliterated trees raging with the flooding river past our house. My first floor started flooding early in the morning. And we all scrambled to clear our belongings off the garage floor/ It took our one of the hot springs. Only leaving one when i was there. Also black tusk in whistler is active If u hike that area near the civil defense base it stinks of Sulphur near waters fenced off next to the path .
Yeah I'll have to hike up to the base of black tusk again as I saw that it has been venting some gases. Thanks for the comment!
Such a great video, thanks Luke!
Thanks Arkady!
Thank u for this video n history ❤️ I had no idea that this mountain was a volcano 😳
Congrattulation very informative.thank you for great effort.truly magnificent,and interesting.GOD bless.
Excellent video!
John Baldwin, author of EXPLORING THE COAST RANGE ON SKIS, mentioned these peaks. You are so lucky to live adjacent to one of the great ranges. Nice video.
Thanks Rainer! John Baldwin is a legend
Your videos are so educational Luke! I am still amazed with the low number of your subscribers. I will continue to spread the word for you and your channel. I really think you will explode in growth. Thanks again Luke!! keep on doing your thing.
I definitely appreciate that, Chad!
Spot on as usual Luke 😀
Your documentaries are educational and informative about our province. Incidentally, Mount Baker in the US is an active (dormant) volcano also. At times you can see steam rising up from the distance.
awesome video!
thanks!
Luke, my man, keep up the great work. This was one of your best.
Thanks Keith!
i went meager hot spring 2 times , the bride you filmed was 12 meter higher than river surface! now is same level! 12 meter sediments filled valley! and Pemberton city was lucky as the woods blocked flood and made dam and didn't flood to vally. 42 million metric cube flood but 2 million mettr cube passed to city !
Excellent topic very interesting well done. Prior to this only volcanic activity I knew of is the Nisga'a Lava Beds area. Thanks for bringing it to my attention now I'll do some additional reading about the area. Looking forward to your next installment.
Really appreciate you and your channel. Keep up the good work. An inspiration to all
Thanks man!
Great video! More please.
Thanks Tracey!
Big thumbs up again!!!
Wow what a beautiful area. Another need to visit place
Love your videos and learning a little each time. Thanks🙂
Thank you!
Please do more geology videos in & around BC.
I hope to! I'm not a geologist but maybe I can talk to some. Have any mountains you'd like to see?
very interesting Luke, I never knew we had a volcano in our back yard, Mt Baker is so visible to us I always thought that's the one we should worry about, your drone views were great.
Thanks Denis, even closer to Squamish is Mt Garibaldi which is a dormant volcano as well
Superb video Luke🌟
Thanks Brooke!
It's hard to imagine what kind of damage a volcanic eruption could cause to our planet. A large eruption could have huge consequences even outside of It's close proximity. Crazy to comprehend what mother nature is capable of. It makes us seem insignificant.
Thanks for the video- I didn't know about this volcano!
Just came across your channel. I enjoy what your channel does. I also make hiking videos in and around kitimat BC. Mine is mostly a weekend hobby though. Anyways you got a new subscriber from me. Keep up the local bc content. We need to keep showing the world how beautiful our area is.
Thanks! It definitely is an incredible backyard!
See Luke, more great content , is it true Slumach found gold there?
Nice episode Luke. Is Mt Meager on your summit list?
Yep, I wanted to do it this summer, but it'll have to wait until next year
love the hot tubs
Looks like Olympic Park in Whistler.
Nice Nina the Amazing dog.
St. Helens' big Sunday morning boom on 18 May 1980 -- which I felt, heard and witnessed as a 13-year-old PNW native -- earned a VEI rating of 2 (not 5). The numerical rating system is based on a long list of factors, including magma composition and total volume of ejected material. Each number also has a corresponding name, i.e. Vulcanian, Plinian, Pelean, Strombolian, etc.
Of the volcanic processes in play, the two which pose the greatest downstream risk are 1) Pyroclastic flows, a high-speed "avalanche" of superheated gas, meltwater and pulverized material during the initial eruptive event, and 2) Lahars, high-viscosity mudflows resulting from large volumes of meltwater flushing ash and detritus (trees, stone, etc.) into the drainages.
In terms of the historical record, there are often references to "pre-colonial" eruptions in the tribal lore of most native cultures along the western margins of North America.
Just as interesting as this sociological story is the ever-expanding knowledge of accreted "terranes" (correct spelling) piling up against the NA craton. The Coast Range and much of Vancouver Island (except the southernmost part) are part of "Wrangellia", for example. ua-cam.com/video/jG0w6BgLWUE/v-deo.html
Highly recommend the work of Central Washington University geology professor Nick Zentner, available here on YT, as a starting point for the curious layperson. His entire body of ongoing geology media is also archived for easy perusal at his website : www.nickzentner.com
As a lifelong backcountry type and geology enthusiast who grew up in the Cascades, it becae clear long ago that the political boundaries are a hindrance to understanding, as certain structural elements in BC/Alaska (north to the Yakutat) and the rest of Cascadia (as far south as Lassen) are clearly related in the larger picture.
All that said, thanks much for yet another excellent episode exploring one of my favorite parts of BC. If it floats your boat, check out the steadily advancing case supporting the now decades-old "Baja BC" theory. Fascinating stuff.
What model multi rotor are you using?
mavic 2 pro
@lifeofluke super interesting video and so cool! Love all your vids, keep it up!
thanks!
So this mountain is more likely to have a slide than the frank slide mountain? That's a scary thought
Ya, the 2010 slide was enormous, and only less than 12 years ago. They had to emergency evacuate the Pemberton valley on short notice
that would explain all the Gold in the area
There is actually 18 volcanoes in B.C
Can you do a video on why potatoes are illegal in Pemberton
Haha, ya that would be an interesting one! A subject I haven't dove into just yet.
The extremely serious downstream FLOODING potential of an eruption (or another gigantic landslide) within the Mount Meager Massif, threatens the whole of the upper Lillooet River Valley!
That would include all of the farms and farmland of Pemberton Meadows as well as almost all of the town of Pemberton, as well as the village of Mt. Currie and the Lilwat First Nation.
Well beyond the direct reach of LAHARS and PYROCLASTIC FLOWS, devastating FLOODING could well impact downstream into Lillooet Lake and perhaps even into Harrison Lake and the Fraser River Valley!
⛰️ 🏔 🌄 ⛰️ 🏔 🌄 ⛰️ 🏔 🌄 ⛰️ 🏔
1:33 Ahhh yes emperor Christyu Clark was told of Geothermal energy and went with the Dam instead as her leagcy of power to the people. Now the new dam is fraught with geological cracks and a massively ballooning debt. A decent sized drill program on the Meager creek area seems to be in order and not, "legacy look at what I done " projects
✅
There was a killer volcanic eruption around 270 years ago in the Nass Valley, N E of Terrace BC. Mount Tseax killed 2ooo native Nisga'a in two villages. We're you aware of this one?
Lava beds of over 2oo,ooo. Acres.
Yes, I know of that one but have yet to go there to see it
To be honest I just turned volume off and watched shots. Tho this would be perfect for school presentations. One go whips out powerpoint. other uses his drone to catch mountains of the live thing.
I specifically wanted to use the drone to do exactly that, document with real live images, not just words and data on a screen - "a picture's worth a thousand words"
Dear Canadians,
Do yourselves a favor and don't wait for the inevitable. We have monitors on top of Rainier because it is a Decade Volcano and because it is huge: twice the height of Vesuvius. Rainier is a BIIIIIG BOY. We have monitors at Crater Lake, the largest boom boom ever recorded in the Cascades: it used to be a HUUGE volcano at least as big as Rainier, Mazama, but the eruption was as big as Krakatoa and caused the mountain to *IMPLODE*. Mount Lassen in California?-boiling mudpots, sulfur works at the surface, and other than St. Helens, it also had an eruption in 1915. Google it: it is one of the very first eruptions of a volcano caught on film, and it was VEI 3. That is about the equal of the boom boom at Montserrat in the 1990s and people still cannot live there.
Meager, as Luke has demonstrated, is not dead yet. None of them are: Cayley, Garibaldi, or Meager. The US may have the lionshare of snoozing Cascade volcanoes, but that does not mean you should not ramp up monitoring "The Triplets". Lassen Peak in California was thought to be dead. Nothing had happened there in 27,000 years. Then, BOOM!! Phreatic at first, then graduated to pyroclastic flows that cooked the valley. Without monitoring it, St. Helens in 1980 could have killed many more people and the locals, I assure you, are quite happy with the advances in tech that have come in the past 40 years: more time to leave, more time to plan, better understanding of what is happening miles below the surface by knowing how big the magma chamber is.
Currently most of the infrastructure in Canada is dedicated to non-volcano related earthquakes and since forever Vancouverites have been told to look south to Mount Baker. I assure you, Mount Baker showed a little activity some years ago, farted, and then went back to sleep. Nothing since. Zzzzzz.....Zzzzzzz.... If Meager wakes up, Pemberton will go bye bye and so will Whistler. There is only one road in and out of that Valley and there are no emergency roads up there. The population keeps growing up there, too. The ash cloud definitely could affect Vancouver as well as its drinking water.
Don't take the chance. Once it is shaking, it is already too late. You don't want to risk people thinking it will be just another landslide.
All good points, Mary! I didn't go into it here in this video, but there is some monitoring of Meager and it's been increased since the 2010 slide, but definitely not to the extent of Mt Rainier or Mt St Helens. I find the history of all PNW volcanoes very fascinating.
@@lifeofluke Hi,
Look, I am sorry to bother you again, but in the past year I did a little sniffing around. I found out more, and the news is not good. (It has also taken me some time to relocate this video.)
Meager does not have ANY monitoring on the actual peak, but a mile or two away: this is better than nothing of course, and would be fine for some types of landslides, but it would not be enough to save Whistler or Pemberton denizens. It would only be able to help predict an eruption if such was imminent.
Looking back at St. Helens in 1980, the last volcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc to go kerblooey, they were smart enough to place seismographs in a lot more places. They do this with Rainier anyway because Seattle sits at the mouth of Puget Sound and the record is clear as crystal that Rainier is a powerful, big boy with very large natural glaciers on it. That means lahars. In an eruption Seattle would be in grave danger as the Green River and many others would dump a gumbo of mud, debris, rock, and the already dead on Seattle and Tacoma. Tacoma sits on top of old mudflats from PAST eruptions as it is.
St. Helens is 50 miles away from Rainier, so in the early stages the equipment used to monitor each would be dead useful: one might faintly be able to feel the other rumbling and confirm that it was not just some grad student's mind playing tricks on him. In 1980, they also brought in other equipment, like gadgets to measure how much sulphur dioxide was dissolving into water: just like Meager, several US volcanoes in the same Arc have natural hot springs. St. Helens has a few, there are several near Crater Lake that feed into the Rogue River close to the Oregon/California border, etc.
For reference, what they discovered there in 1980 was not good. Remember the poem: Billy was a chemist's son/ But Billy is no more/For what he thought was H2O/ Was H2SO4!! At St. Helens, the spring water was getting more acidic and the temperature was rising, and yes, sulfuric acid WAS detected and at higher concentrations than normal. Toxic gases were leaking out of the mud pots, gas compounds that weren’t supposed to be there. Note that I am using St. Helens as a guide for what could go down with Meager as it is still the best documented Cascade eruption the world has. That, and Meager's last known eruption followed a similar pattern to 1980 and was in the same class of VEI 5.
Menwhile, nobody in Canada is watching the mudpots and fewer go up there to get a closer look at the fumaroles or springs, the last having no monitors whatsoever. Not monitoring it might give some sleazy politician an excuse to lie by omission someday. In my head, I can hear it: “We do not have enough proof to say if Meager is waking up. We are sending in experts in 5 days time.” Keep in mind, Luke, that the hidden lie here in this scenario would be that the BC government never BOTHERED to put enough funding or effort into monitoring Meager on purpose, because they were hungrier for the investment of geotherm businesses. And oops, look what is happening now- geothermal energy companies are sleazing around all three of the Triplets, distracting Canadians by making them feel all warm and tingly and progressive…🤢🤢🤮🤮🤮🤬🤬🤬)
Second, the make up of Meager bears a strong resemblance to its cousin, Glacier Peak. This basically means the rocks in parts of Meager are soft as tofu. Porous. Crumbly. Imagine what the landslides are like now, then multiply by a factor of 100. In a bigger eruption above 3 on the explosive index, well, that would mean a lot of big boulders the size of houses getting displaced and then damming up water in unexpected areas….and if the ground keeps shaking, the dam could break and release water in all sorts of directions unpredictably. Other rocks will BURY that whole valley for miles , not to mention the lava bombs Meager is very likely to be capable of torching the forests for miles in BC, with little in the way that could possibly stop the wildfires (heaven help Canada if a Meager eruption comes in the summer.)
My main point is that a lot of Canadians would be killed if Meager finally stops sleeping. I personally do not like the idea of damning innocent people to die because of buffoons in Ottawa. There is one way into that valley, and one way out. Not good if you want to evacuate an ever growing number of people or want to send help to stop the wildfires that come from pyroclastic flows and lava bombs. Getting planes anywhere near the volcano in the first 2 weeks would be a logistics nightmare since the ash cloud would clog plane engines and make navigation of choppers very difficult. There is also no guarantee that there will be as long a period between the big eruption and the signs the mountain is waking up:the legends of Natives tell us to know better than that, and might I add, they have rarely been wrong yet as to what a particular volcano is capable of. (The folklore around Mazama is absolutely terrifying…and thus far has been chillingly accurate. Mount St. Helens had a pause between signs of instability and then losing an entire flank. Mazama did not. It went by much faster and more violent, violent enough to be preserved in memory for almost 7 thousand years by the Maklaks and Klamaths.
I hope you will do a follow up, Luke. Maybe even go visit Glacier Peak or Lassen. People need to learn how to save their little heinies and say “emergency evacuation routes first, THEN we shall talk about getting rich off geotherm. Funding a bunch of PhD's from McMaster and Simon Fraser first with the proper equipment to accurately study the fumaroles, THEN we can talk about new housing initiatives, ski resorts, ANY NEW CONSTRUCTION WHATSOEVER!!”