2004 Essay Contest Winner

Entry by Bob Chab

Earth Scientists at Work

Hi, my name is Bob Chab and I work for the Volcano Disaster Assistance Program (VDAP). I am in the middle of investigating Mount St. Helens. The volcano started showing signs of a possible eruption last week. We were flown in along with our mobile volcano observatory and several new seismometers. We are using a mobile observatory because sometimes the volcanic eruptions will destroy the local observatory like what happened to us back in 1994 in Papua New Guinea. I remember it like it was yesterday. We were in the Rabaul Volcano Observatory and we detected that the volcano was going to erupt any minute. We got in the helicopter and were heading away when we saw it erupt. We could feel the vibrations and the heat from the eruption of the volcano. The head was almost unbearable and we thought we were history. When the eruptions died down, we brought a new mobile volcano observatory.

On the first day we arrived at Mount St. Helens, we dug several holes around the volcano to install the seismic stations to better monitor earthquake activity beneath the volcano. Some of the measurements from the seismic stations said that the volcano was about to erupt. Because of that we had to contact the local authorities and raise the alert status to level 4. One of my colleagues got 2nd degree burns from the steam from the volcano when he was installing one of the seismic stations. The danger level prompted us to close the Johnston Ridge Observatory. Now it is a few days later and the tremors are very sight and we have reduced the alert level to 2. They want to keep us near the volcano until all of the tremors have stopped.

I remember the biggest volcano I have ever dealt with is Mount Pinatubo back in 1991. My emergency response team was called in during April when Mount Pinatubo first showed signs of activity. Our team joined up with scientists from the Philippines to monitor the volcano. We installed instruments to detect earthquakes and volcanic swelling and mapped volcanic deposits to determine what the history of the volcano’s eruption was. Based on our measurements we determined that the volcano was going to erupt. We worked with the Philippine Government and the U.S. Military to evacuate people and military equipment. Some estimates showed that we saved over 5,000 lives and 250,000 dollars when the volcano erupted in June.

I’ve been at this for 18 years now. I want to be able to find a way to somehow stop volcanic eruptions and possibly harness the energy that would have been put into the eruption. Many scientists don’t believe this is possible event though geothermal energy is captured on a much smaller scale from geysers. However, I believe that if you could drill many small holes to relieve the pressure inside the volcano and capture the steam, this may be possible.