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

_______________________________ 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

_____________________________ 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

___________________________ 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