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Conclusions
By briefly examining Mount Shasta's jokulhlaups, snow avalanches,
and one unique debris flow, I hope to have made a convincing
case that California's highest volcano does indeed present non-eruptive
hazards worthy of study and deserving of our respect. Without
so much as an eruptive puff of steam, Mount Shasta has blocked
roads and water supplies, polluted rivers, drowned vegetation
in mud, cleared 300-year old forests, and threatened climbers.
Similar principles of physics apply to each mass wasting event.
As physicist Charles Coulomb found, shear strength holds materials
in place, and shear failure can occur if the stress is strong
enough to overwhelm the forces of cohesion and resistance in
the material (Easterbrook 1999). Whether the materials are rock,
ice, snow, volcanic debris, or a mixture thereof, the same principles
of physics apply. Mount Shasta has proven to be fertile grounds
for my own modest studies, and the mountain continues to offer
geographers and other students many opportunities for study.
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