Sign up for an airline credit card and get a lot of bonuses. That's what the airline attendant announced aboard today's flight home. And true, I could get extra free miles as a bonus for signing up immediately - and more if I spent lots of money on the card.

But you know what? Because I was lucky enough to fly on a clear sunny day, I received a bonus rarely given to any flier. At thirty-nine thousand feet, every sleeping volcanic peak - and one that blew out seven thousand years ago - were pleasantly visible from Mazama (Crater Lake) to Mount Rainier stood out in pristine relief above the shadowed green tree line: Mount Bachelor, three fingered Jack, and the Sisters. I could see the crest of South Sister up which I walked back in days of yore when in my prime. Mount Jefferson, Mount Hood, Mount Adams marched along with the MD80 in which I sat. Mount St. Helens steams a little creating its own wispy veil trailing toward the northeast - the same direction the ash and fumes went when the old girl blew her top in 1980.

Geologists monitor these mountains because they will spew out lava or blow up again. The skin of the earth floats on molten lava and pieces crush against, slide under (subduction), or break and slide. The old earth does not stand still but it looked benign today as I flew over the geography of California, Oregon, and Washington.

I has a rare glimpse of these snow covered beauties and I consider that the real bonus from flying.

KEY WORDS:

geology, volcano, tree line, Mazama, plate tectonics, geography, subduction, joy of flying,