Geological Survey Professional Paper Volume 676-679

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... its terminus. Photograph taken September 18, 1967, by Austin S. Post, U.S. Geological Survey. the clouds the rest of the afternoon and evening from the point where the Wonderland Trail crosses Emerald Ridge and noted that clouds were still being formed the next morning when she left the area. She described the weather both days as hot, dry, and clear. Hikers and climbers reported seeing an unusual number of dust clouds rising from the area near the head of South Tahoma Glacier earlier in the summer, and some days these could also be seeen from Longmire. It seems likely that the clouds were caused by recurring rockfalls. Small rockfalls continued at the same general locality at least until mid-October (N. A. Bishop, oral commun., 1968) (fig. 32). While at Longmire one evening in August 1968, D. C. Thompson and Duane Nelson of the National Park Service observed four or five clouds of what seemed to be water vapor which rose at intervals above the cliffs at the head of South Tahoma Glacier. They noted that each of these white clouds was followed by a cloud which was brown and apparently consisted of rock dust. Another observer witnessed a similar succession of clouds at the same place a few days later (D. C. Thompson, oral commun., 1969). The recurrence of clouds of what seemed to be water vapor and of dust could have resulted from a succession of small steam explosions which caused repeated rockfalls. On February 16,1969, still another event occurred on the west side of Mount Rainier which may bear on the origin of the recent floods and lahars in the South Tahoma Creek valley. Local newspapers in western Washington reported that on the afternoon of that day Mr. and Mrs. Oliver Edmonds of Seattle had seen "steam and smoke" rising from the west side of th...