The geology of the Lassen volcanic area in the U.S. presents a record of
sedimentation and volcanic activity in and around Lassen Volcanic
National Park in Northern California. Heat from the subduction of
tectonic plates has fed scores of volcanoes over at least the past
30 million years, including those in the Lassen volcanic area. Lava
flowed over a lahar-based formation to create the lava plateau that the
park sits on. About 600,000 years ago, Mount Tehama started to rise in
the park's southwest corner. Roughly 27,000 years ago, a lava dome
pushed through Tehama's former flank, becoming Lassen Peak. Phreatic
(steam-blast) eruptions, lava flows, and cinder cone formations have
persisted into modern times, particularly the formation of Cinder Cone
and the 1914 to 1921 eruptions of Lassen Peak (eruption pictured).
Since the latter eruptions, the only volcanic activity has been from
mud pots and fumaroles. Renewed vigorous volcanic activity could
threaten life and property in the area.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geology_of_the_Lassen_volcanic_area>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1897:
The first Blackwall Tunnel under the River Thames was opened to
improve commerce and trade in the East End of London.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwall_Tunnel>
1905:
Sultan Abdul Hamid II established the Ullah Millet, a separate
millet for Aromanians within the Ottoman Empire.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ullah_Millet>
1972:
The Dominion of Ceylon changed its name to Sri Lanka, adopted a
new constitution, and officially became a republic within the
Commonwealth.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Lanka>
2002:
Police announced that the skeletal remains of Federal Bureau of
Prisons intern Chandra Levy, who had been missing for a year, had been
found in Rock Creek Park in Washington, D.C.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Chandra_Levy>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
mouthbrooder:
(zoology) Any animal that cares for its offspring, either eggs or
juveniles, by holding them in its mouth for extended periods of time.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mouthbrooder>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
I have often tried to isolate that quality of "Zen" which
attracted me so powerfully to its literature and later to the practice
of zazen. But since the essence of Zen might well be what one teacher
called "the moment-by-moment awakening of mind," there is little that
may sensibly be said about it without succumbing to that breathless,
mystery-ridden prose that drives so many sincere aspirants in the other
direction. In zazen, one may hope to penetrate the ringing stillness of
universal mind, and this "intimation of immortality," as Wordsworth
called it, also shines forth from the brief, cryptic Zen texts, which
refer obliquely to that absolute reality beyond the grasp of our linear
vocabulary, yet right here in this moment, in this ink and paper, in the
sound of this hand turning the page.
--Peter Matthiessen
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Peter_Matthiessen>