Growing Bulge in Oregon

Dustin M. submitted the following bit of information that has been floating around the internet for the past few days. Scientists have noticed a bulge that covers 100 square miles of area in Oregon. The bulge has been growing at a rate of 1.4 inches a year since 1997. The likely cause of the bulge is a pool of magma that, according to Deschutes National Forest geologist Larry Chitwood, is equal in size to a lake 1 mile across and 65 feet deep. The magma lake is rising 10 feet each year, under tremendous pressure, and it deforms the Earth’s surface as it expands, causing the bulge. Other causes could be anything from the birth of a new volcano — a fourth Sister in the making — to a routine and anticlimactic pooling of liquid rock, researchers say.

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