With all the recent seismic activity around Mammoth Lakes, the possibility of Mammoth blowing looms once again into the limelight.
       And what does that mean for the Mountain Area, which is approximately 40 miles from Mammoth as the crow flies?
       It's highly likely that it means nothing at all.
       "There's a one-in-200 chance that there would be an eruption in any given year, roughly estimates David Hill, the U.S. Geological Survey's chief scientist for monitoring the Long Valley Caldera, which includes Mammoth.
       "And if there was, the chance of the wind, which typically blows west to east, blowing towards Oakhurst at the same time of the eruption, is one-in-2,000.
       Mammoth's largest eruption, which occurred 700,000 years ago, resulted in ash traveling great distances to the east. Areas to the west, such as the Mountain Area, were unaffected.

NF student dies in wreck

by Jerry Newton
of the sierra star

       A North Fork resident died in the flaming crash of a pickup truck at the north approach to Deadwood on Sunday evening.
       Rescuers were unable to save Elisa Earls, 18, daughter of Steve and Cindy Earls and of Patricia and Steve Mills of Fresno.
       Miss Earls was riding in a 1983 Toyota pickup truck driven by Megan Smith, 19, Ahwahnee.
       The pickup was heading into Oakhurst on Highway 41, just north of the "40-mile curve, .5 mile south of Victoria Lane, a few minutes before 7 p.m.