Apparently they are on their way...

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/en ... 52923094/1

Cool article

ExcitableBoy wrote:Bobby Jindal, Gov of Louisiana, called for eliminating federal funding of volcano monitoring programs because "there aren't any volcanos in the US". Having survived the eruption of Mt. St. Helens, I wonder how people so ignorant of science get elected. Oh wait, he is the Gov of Louisiana. Makes sense now.

Reminds me of some folks I've interacted with in my line of work...

"There's no fish in that crik, it's just a drainage ditch!"
"Actually sir, we just pulled out some endangered Chinook salmon from that creek."

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54U6aeIXwFw[/youtube]

Interesting!...lots of volcanic stuff to explore in CA, the PNW, and elsewhere in the west, and much of it may be more active than many would expect. My most recent crater visit, besides revisiting Crater peak near Lassen, was Capulin in New Mexico. I actually left my camera there for a week after my kids and I got distracted by talking with rangers who had shut down the road temporarily to make way for a tour bus full of boy scouts to proceed up the road. I set my camera down while waiting to be able to head down and then forgot it. Upon exiting the bus, the boy scouts made it hard for me to back out of my parking space by immediately standing in the middle of the parking lot to take pictures. Luckily, they made up for it by turning my camera in. After heading to Missouri and back, I returned to pick up the camera. I then wasted a few hours by reaching a roadblock at I-25 in Raton, NM (due to forest fires), and had to retrace my route for awhile on a detour to Denver. Anyway, I got lots of pics at Capulin, but was freed from my camera for everything to the east.

Anyway, if anyone makes it to Ubehebe, I've had my eye and imagination set on this many times while in the area (Thanks, Chad):
http://www.summitpost.org/tin-mountain/758488

It didn't look like the article had a picture of Ubehebe...



I've taken my kids around the big crater a couple of times. I haven't ever felt the urge to go to the bottom.

I'm sure I've got pics somewhere. For some reason lots of people post pictures with this sign on the internet.

lcarreau wrote:[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54U6aeIXwFw[/youtube]

I've still never made it past Arkansas to that big bayou south of there. The most legendary owner of my favorite team (the 49ers) got into some trouble when the governor there expected a bribe to build a casino (or something along those lines). It may keep him out of the Hall of Fame (Eddie De Bartolo is up for nomination this Saturday). Anyway, I think mrchad9 prefers the legendary team to the east of Lousiana.

Larry always manages to jar my memory somehow. Music and volcanoes reminds me of this:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-86dZWP92cw[/youtube]

not originally planned, but I couldn't resist...I think I'm on the verge of breaking the main rule of fight club

butitsadryheat wrote:Well, actually, he just called for the money in the stimulus package for the program to be eliminated, not the entire funding.

The take home point was he didn't know there are volcanos in the US. So much for being well versed in science.

They forgot the very active Long Valley caldera here in California: Mammoth Mountain is its western rim. IT does have a few fumaloes that act up occasionally - some on Mammoth itself that the ski patrol has to cordon off due to the gases coming out of them. ,

I remember seeing smoke rising from Mammoth back in 1989. I didn't perform an analysis, but I'm assuming it was Volcano smoke ..

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50CKhBaCHTQ[/youtube]

Wow! Look at that beard!
.
.
Yep, I found the neglect to at least briefly mention the Long Valley Caldera, and many other spots in CA, OR, and WA strange myself. My kids and I had a lot of fun around that region this past Autumn. Aside from visting Devils Postpile without all the summer season hassles (can't say I would revisit that spot during peak season), we did some exploring and camping south of Mono Lake. The scree and fallen chunks of obsidian were interesting in this spot:

http://www.summitpost.org/user-profile-image/774709

SeanReedy wrote:Interesting!...lots of volcanic stuff to explore in CA, the PNW, and elsewhere in the west, and much of it may be more active than many would expect.

http://www.vulcanospeleology.org

Some of us dedicate our free time to exploring volcanoes and volcanic caves.

Here's a lava cave in Australia


Here's a lava cave in Iceland


Here's a lava cave in Korea

Say what you will... IMHO Lava Beds NM can't be beat!

Sierra Ledge Rat wrote:Some of us dedicate our free time to exploring volcanoes and volcanic caves.

Wow, I'm not surprised. After looking at the Kazumura Cave photos on that website normal caves seem quite dull!

Yes, Chad; cool place! I'll be taking my kids there someday. For now, Subway Cave near Hat Creek/Lassen has been exciting enough. I also visited Shasta Caverns at Shasta Lake as a kid...boat ride, bus ride, and lots of stalagmites and stalagtites!

Sierra Ledge Rat, cool stuff! IIRC, I also saw some stuff in a cave diving thread. You taught me a new word above, but I had not forgotten about the rest of the Ring of Fire:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVISGGxXwcE[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KJKiCGjHZk[/youtube]