Pinatubo and Other Volcanoes With Attitude     • Share   • Read
Later  Any day now--at least according to government geologists
--the little town of Orting, Washington, will cease to exist.
Located in the thriving Seattle-Tacoma area, Orting, with its
low crime rate and pleasant neighborhoods, has long been thought
of as a delightful place to live. But it's also an endangered
place.  Like so many other towns in this part of the Pacific
Northwest--including Microsoft's hometown, Redmond--Orting was
built in the shadow of Mount Rainier, and Mount Rainier has a
nasty little secret. Beneath the 14,410-ft. mountain's sugary
caps and forested flanks lies a mammoth, smoldering pot of
magma. Summoned up from the earth's subterranean ovens perhaps
40 miles below, the molten rock simmers under the mountain at up
to 3600[degrees]F. As the magma cooks the rocky innards of Mount
Rainier, it slowly helps turn them into unstable clay. At the
same time this internal furnace corrodes the mountain from the
inside, rain and melt