#Volcano in PA?
6 messages in this thread
Heard a rather wild if intriguing story over thanksgiving.
My aunts nephew who lives in PA said that a lava dome was rising in the
Palmerton/Jim Thorpe area of Pennsylvania. He also said that weel water was
too hot to drink. I thought that the East was less active-his story sounds
VERY odd but I thought I would run it by a general forum like this.
Scott
Scott::
I have taken the liberty of changing your message to section #12 … you have a
better chance of a good answer here .. I live in Pa. and have not heard
anything about this "volcano" however, we are in an area … especially in
southern >Pa which has a lot of warm and hot springs … perhaps that is what
is happening.
Rick Needham/SYSOP
Hi, Scott–
With no subduction zone nearby, PA is not a likely place to hunt for
volcanoes. But no place is totally safe from the arrival of a new hot spot –
the Hawaiian islands are volcanoes with no subduction zones nearby.
Earth magazine Jan. 1994 reports on a possible mantle plume (which would be how
a hot spot starts) rising off the western Canadian shore, but I have seen
nothing about PA there, and these things cannot be common (I think).
–Doug
<< said that a lava dome was rising in the Palmerton/Jim Thorpe area of
Pennsylvania. He also said that weel water was too hot to drink. >>
Haven't heard of anything like this. I'd find it very unlikely given the
geology of NE PA … that being the hardcoal country. I wouldn't normally
think of warm springs in an area like that either. As a whole, the region is
quite inactive.
It would be a lot more believable that the warm well water might be caused by
some smouldering mine fire than by any geothermal process. But I'd be
fascinated to hear anything more about the phenomenon!
Actually it cant be a fire. The mines were all flooded in 1959 when they were
robbing the support pillars in the mines right under the Susquehanna river.
They took a little too much and the roof caved in with the river right behind
it. This gets my vote for Dummies of that year.
The information is not from a reliable source. It was still an interesting
story.
Scott
Scott –
I think that there are plenty of mine fires left in NE Pa. The collapse you
site under Susquehanna river flooded the deep mines in the Scranton
Wilkes-Barre area only. The upper mine shafts were untouched and are still dry.
I lived and worked in that area in the early 1970's there were mine fires in
Centralia (one of the most famous), in the southern outskirts of Scranton, in
the mountains west of Wilkes-Barre and along Interstate 81 highway between
Scranton and Wilkes-Barre. I believe some of these fires are still burning.
There are warm springs a little farther west and south in the Warm Springs
Virginia and White Sulpher Springs West Virginia area. I have no idea what they
attribute them to but it shouldn't be too hard to find out.
-Paul