January 26, 2005

Dome Building Slows At Mount St. Helens



SEATTLE -- Growth of the new lava dome inside the crater of Mount St. Helens has gradually slowed and become less steady since it began in early October, scientists from the Cascade Volcano Observatory said Tuesday.

"The rate of dome growth has slowed since early October and the area in the crater that was deforming was (changing) much faster in early October than it is now," U.S. Geological Survey research hydrologist Jon Major said in a telephone conference update.

Molten rock has been oozing out from the surface of the volcano's crater since October, building a new lava dome that now has a total volume of 44 million cubic yards.

It's big enough to contain 134 buildings the size of the Rose Garden arena in Portland, Ore., scientists said.

The new dome is about 45 percent the size of the old dome to the north, which formed during a similar period of activity in the 1980s, and has grown 350 feet taller than the old dome during the current eruptive phase.

Scientists provided an update from the Vancouver observatory, about 50 miles south of the peak, nine days after a small explosion at the north end of the new dome sent ash nearly 2 miles from the crater.

The explosion Jan. 16 destroyed a camera and some measuring equipment that had been placed in the crater two days earlier. The blast was on a similar scale to explosive events in early October, Major said.

In the 36 hours the equipment was functioning, it recorded that the new dome grew 13 feet upward and about 23 feet to the south. Scientists also said there was a spike of sulfur dioxide right before the explosion.

"Right now we are being especially cautious and accessing whether this was an unusual event or if there will be repeats," geologist John Pallister said. "But we are wanting to move ahead with instrumentation on the crater."

Initially, the new lava dome switched between vertical growth and horizontal growth toward the southern edge of the volcano crater. Since December, the northern section of the new lava dome has continued its upward growth at about 33 feet per day.

The upward growth brings up concerns of possible collapse, Pallister said. In other volcanoes, a dome collapse can expose an interior with suppressed gases and produce some type of explosion with a significant ash cloud that could cause problems for aircraft flying around the mountain, he said.

But with Mount St. Helens, collapses thus far have produced small ash emissions, Pallister said.

The massive May 18, 1980, eruption of the volcano 100 miles south of Seattle blew the top 1,314 feet off the 9,677-foot peak, killed 57 people and covered the region with gritty ash.

February 2, 2005

Trying to read the mysteries of active Mount St. Helens

VANCOUVER, Wash. – The rock was at least the size of a man's head, and geologist John Pallister cradled it as he would a newborn – which, in a manner of speaking, it was.

As little as a month ago, this beefy slab was in liquid form, a pulsating 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit and working its way up from five miles below Mount St. Helens to form a chunk of the region's most active volcano.

For Pallister, a research geologist at the Cascades Volcano Observatory, evidence of how quickly Mount St. Helens is evolving doesn't get more solid.

"It's hard to believe that several weeks ago this was lava flow in the middle of the Earth," he said.

Four months after the volcano stirred back to life, drawing curiosity seekers from across the country, the bulging new oblong dome inside the crater has ballooned to 350 feet high, with nearly a 50-degree slope in places.

The dome now contains enough solid material to fill a basketball arena more than 100 times. At the peak of the flow, molten magma was being transformed into new rock pushing skyward at a rate of 11 yards per day.

Then earlier this month, an unexpected and significant explosion – the biggest since October – caught researchers by surprise and appears to mark some sort of transition on the sleeping giant's path to regrowth.

"It makes me think a lot differently about the range of possibilities for the future," Pallister said. "We were anticipating a different event.

"Figuring out what it means will take some time."

Finicky plumbing
At 3:18 a.m. Jan. 16, just 36 hours after geologists had walked along the surface of the new dome dodging vents emitting loud, hot blasts, a release of gas blew rocks and debris several hundred feet. It spread ash 8 inches or more thick inside portions of the crater and destroyed a few thousand dollars worth of instruments researchers had put there during their visit.

In its aftermath, the tremors at St. Helens have slowed, as the movement of rock creating the new dome slowed. As the sticky, newest sections of the dome are protruding, they are being scraped so hard against the existing surface they are turned white as the friction wears down the surfaces.

"We would have anticipated a different event," said Seth Moran, a U.S. Geological Survey seismologist.

Volcanologists would not have been surprised if there had been a significant rockfall, a continuing hazard as sections of the new dome jut higher and stretch more than a thousand feet to the side.

The explosive release of gas suggested that St. Helen's plumbing is more finicky than first believed, that even slight changes in gas, or moisture below the surface, can trigger a new scenario.

"The question is, why now?" Pallister asked.

He wondered aloud if there was a more gas-rich flow farther below trying to push its way to the surface.

In fact, one of the most predictable things about Mount St. Helens has long been the volcano's unwillingness to act conventionally.

It's a reminder, said Jon Major, a research hydrologist at the observatory, that "we've learned an awful lot about what we don't yet understand."

By Craig Welch
THE SEATTLE TIMES

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me@rescam.org

February 14, 2005

Mount St. Helens Still Growing



VANCOUVER, Wash. -- Sensors placed on the lava dome at Mount St. Helens show it's still growing. A helicopter dropped the GPS and seismic sensors Tuesday in the crater. The first results show the lava dome is moving up about five feet a day, and moving southeast about 16 feet a day. That's a bit slower than previous readings last month. The volcano is still steaming and spouting occasional bursts of ash.

The Associated Press

February 22, 2005

Slideshow: Dome In Mount St. Helens Crumbling.


Geologists say the south end of the lava dome is crumbling leading to more steam emissions from the crater.

March 8, 2005

Large Ash Explosion From Mount St. Helens



A large plume of steam is being emitted this afternoon from the crater of Mount Saint Helens.

The plume was accompanied by an earthquake of about 2-point-zero magnitude.

The volcano in southwest Washington rumbled to life again last fall, pumping out lava as the mountain nears the 25th anniversary of the devastating eruption of May 18th, 1980, that killed 57 people.

This latest volcanic burp from the mountain comes just after the state Board on Geographic Names unanimously chose Tulutson, the Cowlitz Indian word for ice, as the name for the gracier that has grown inside the mountain's crater.

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me@rescam.org

> March 8, 2005
>
> Large Ash Explosion From Mount St. Helens
>
>
>
> A large plume of steam is being emitted this afternoon from the crater of
> Mount Saint Helens.
>
> The plume was accompanied by an earthquake of about 2-point-zero magnitude.
>
> The volcano in southwest Washington rumbled to life again last fall, pumping
> out lava as the mountain nears the 25th anniversary of the devastating
> eruption of May 18th, 1980, that killed 57 people.
>
> This latest volcanic burp from the mountain comes just after the state Board
> on Geographic Names unanimously chose Tulutson, the Cowlitz Indian word for
> ice, as the name for the gracier that has grown inside the mountain's crater.
>

I am more worried about the volcano under Yellowstone National Park. It might cause damage all the way down to Florida. It is due for eruption witin 10,000 years. It erupts every 60,000-80,000 years. It has bee well passed 60,000 years. No one has seen this type of volcano erupt and the last time a supervolcano erupted, it might of come close to extincting the human race.

PS its caldera is causing a deformation in park lands.

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>
> I am more worried about the volcano under Yellowstone National Park. It might
> cause damage all the way down to Florida. It is due for eruption witin 10,000
> years. It erupts every 60,000-80,000 years. It has bee well passed 60,000
> years. No one has seen this type of volcano erupt and the last time a
> supervolcano erupted, it might of come close to extincting the human race.
>
> PS its caldera is causing a deformation in park lands.
>

I'd be more concerned with Mammoth Mountain. It's more active (overall) than Yellowstone, and much closer to major cities than Yellowstone is.

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You will be assimilated...bunghole!

The last time Yellowstone erupted it killed herds of animals in Kansas and it covered about 75% of the US with ash.

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> I am more worried about the volcano under Yellowstone National Park. It might


Me personally, I'm more worried more about Mt Ranier erupting. It's less than a hundred miles from where I live in Tacoma (less than St Helens, and to the southeast). I'm fairly okay here elevationwise, but there's a huge area going from the mountain to the Tacoma tideflats and up north to Renton that could be buried under mud or flooded out with glacier melt, depending on the severity. They also project Ranier (should be called Tahoma) is due.

March 9, 2004

Earthquakes Continue To Rumble Under Mount St. Helens



VANCOUVER, Wash. -- Hundreds of small earthquakes have rumbled under Mount St. Helens since Tuesday as steam continues to vent at the top. The biggest quake registered a magnitude 2.6 on Wednesday.

Scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey's volcano observatory here were getting ready to head home when the squiggly line on the computer which tracks seismic activity at Mount St. Helens suddenly turned a solid black.

"It just kept on going and going and going," said research hydrologist Jon Major, referring to the seismic line which registered Tuesday's earthquake measuring a magnitude of 2.0.

Outside the building, the mountain -- 50 miles northeast -- was belching steam and ash seven miles high, signaling the most powerful blast since Mount St. Helens reawakened last fall.

Volcanologists said they were surprised, but not too worried. This time the mountain's bark was worse than its bite.

Compared to the blast which killed 57 people on May 18, 1980, the plume "is really small potatoes," said Major. Tuesday's emission lasted for roughly 10 minutes, compared to the eruption 25 years ago which went on for nine hours.

The outpouring began with practically no warning at around 5:25 p.m., about an hour after the quake registered on the east side of the 8,364-foot volcano, said Bill Steele, coordinator of the Pacific Northwest Seismograph Network in Seattle.

The blast of ash and gas was not powerful enough to visibly scar the surface of the crater, but it was strong enough to destroy several monitoring stations. It also may have created a new vent.

Slideshow: Footage From Tuesday's Ash Plume

Scientists did not know what had caused the larger-than-normal plume, but noted that in the hours preceding the incident the seismic readings had changed. While the peaks, indicating the strength of each seismic burst, were no higher than normal, the line separating them had become "noisier," said Major.

"Usually that line is nice and flat. Instead it was creeping up and getting noisier and noisier," he said, drawing on his pad a vertical squiggle that became darker as he drew it out horizontally.

But volcanologists had seen that pattern before when it did not lead to such a large belch.

What scientists do know is that the plume rose very rapidly and much higher than in previous months. That indicates that there was an explosive element inside, rather than just a collapse of the crater's roof. "The fact that it rose so fast and so high means it's not just a simple collapse of the lava dome," said Major. "If so, the plume would have risen more lazily."

Nevertheless, scientists described the event as "just another beat," in the volcano's escalating drumroll, said Peter Frenzen, monument scientist for the U.S. Forest Service at Mount St. Helens.

Volcano tourists rushed to the mountain to snap pictures, hoping to capture the drama up close.

Brian Atchison, 31, was visiting Washington from Pittsburgh, Penn., and took the opportunity to drive up to the last outlook open to visitors at Mount St. Helens. "It's cool to watch," he said. "It's remarkable. The potential for it to go off at any time is amazing."

Scientists will spend the next few days combing through the hours of data just before the plume to see if they missed any markers. They also intend to gather ash samples near the crater to study its rock chemistry and to determine if the composition of the magma has become richer in explosive gases.

As a precaution, officials with the U.S. Forest Service said they had closed an area in a 5-mile-radius around the cone to foot traffic. The area includes the Johnston Ridge Observatory, which officials had hoped to reopen in May for the 25th anniversary of the 1980 eruption. Officials said their plans are on hold.

"The volcano's really in charge at this point," said Todd Cullings, assistant director of the U.S. Forest Service's visitor center at Mount St. Helens.

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me@rescam.org

Video report on steam eruption


Click the pic!

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me@rescam.org

> I am more worried about the volcano under Yellowstone National Park. It might
> cause damage all the way down to Florida. It is due for eruption witin 10,000
> years. It erupts every 60,000-80,000 years. It has bee well passed 60,000
> years. No one has seen this type of volcano erupt and the last time a
> supervolcano erupted, it might of come close to extincting the human race.
>
> PS its caldera is causing a deformation in park lands.
>
Discovery.com/supervolcano

I watched the show on the Discover channel when it aired about the Yellow Stone supervolcano. If that thing blows big there will be major global effects.
the tsunami victoms will be sitting at their TVs goin' " holy crap!! "

> Discovery.com/supervolcano

Yellowstone Volcano Observatory

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me@rescam.org

Mount St. Helens Woke From Long Slumber 25 Years Ago

March 30, 2005

MOUNT ST. HELENS, Wash. -- A traffic reporter from Portland, Ore., was the first to see steam and ash spew from Mount St. Helens a quarter century ago -- less than two months before the volcano blew its top, killing dozens of people.

"Hey, this thing's exploding!" Mike Beard, a KGW traffic spotter radioed back to the station as he flew over the snow-peaked mountain around 1:15 p.m. on March 27, 1980.

He saw steam and black ash bursting from a hole in the snow.

"There is no doubt the eruption is starting," he said. "You can see ash very, very clearly against the snow."

It was the first sign of volcanic activity on the mountain in more than a century, "an event that unequivocally showed its reawakening from a 123-year slumber," the U.S. Geological Survey's office in Vancouver, Wash., said Sunday in its daily update of activity on the mountain.

That initial burst left a crater 200 to 250 feet wide near the summit. Emergency officials advised everyone within 15 miles to leave.

Harry Truman, a longtime resident of Spirit Lake, refused. Many others shared his skepticism.

Reporters, photographers and geologists packed into airplanes to get a look at the peak, causing aerial traffic jams. Pilots eventually established a rule that all aircraft had to fly counterclockwise around the mountain.

Then-Gov. Dixy Lee Ray flew near the mountain in her State Patrol plane and said the experience was "quite a thrill."

The massive May 18, 1980, eruption of the volcano 100 miles south of Seattle blew the top 1,314 feet off the 9,677-foot peak, killed 57 people and covered the region with gritty ash.

Mount St. Helens rumbled back to life most recently in late last September, with shuddering seismic activity that peaked above magnitude 3 as hot magma broke through rocks in its path. Molten rock reached the surface Oct. 11, marking a new period of dome-building that had stopped in 1986.

Scientists have said a more explosive eruption, possibly dropping ash within a 10-mile radius of the crater, is possible at any time.

The most recent eruption on March 8 sent a towering column of steam and ash billowing tens of thousands of feet into air not long after a magnitude-2 quake rumbled on the east side of the mountain.

On Sunday, the USGS said eight earthquakes ranging from magnitude 2 to 3 had struck in the past few days, comparable to a swarm of quakes that occurred in November and December.

Crews planned to conduct observation flights over the mountain once clouds and rain cleared away.

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me@rescam.org

April 12, 2005

Mount St. Helens' Dome Changes Shape



MOUNT ST. HELENS, Wash. -- Surging seismic activity at Mount St. Helens has changed the whale-back shape of the volcano's emerging new dome, leaving it more like the back of a stegosaurus -- a dinosaur with bony plates of armor along its spine.

The outer edge of the jagged, plate-like protrusions matches the smooth old whale-back profile, so it appears the new look reflects a sinking away of some segments of the dome, said David Sherrod at the U.S. Geological Survey's Cascades Volcano Observatory, 50 miles away in Vancouver, Wash.

New snow blanketed the simmering volcano Monday as scientists logged a scaling back of seismic movement over the past week or so after intensified activity in February and March.

The mountain has been shuddering with quakes since October, when magma deep below the surface began moving up the throat of the volcano, spewing molten rock into the crater and rebuilding the volcano's dome -- the plug in the throat that eventually becomes the mountain peak.

So far most of the action has been inside the crater, with occasional plumes of gritty ash posing concerns to air traffic.

Mount St. Helens erupted with devastating violence 25 years ago, on May 18, 1980, blasting open its once-perfect peak, leveling forests for miles and killing 57 people. It rumbled sporadically for several years afterward and then subsided, reawakening last fall.

Now, after weeks of increased seismic activity with quakes as large as magnitude 3.4, the mountain is settling back down to a drumbeat of temblors magnitude 1 or smaller -- too small to be felt -- every minute or two, Sherrod said.

The ups and downs have been somewhat cyclical since the volcano reawakened in October, with increases in December and again earlier this year.

But for much of this winter, clouds hid the crater from view and scientists weren't sure what was happening inside.

When the weather cleared last week, "Viola! The very smooth elongated whale back ... is getting all busted up, with big longitudinal cracks, rockfalls, with areas of broken rock all over the flanks," Sherrod said.

The former shape of the dome -- like the underside of an aircraft carrier or perhaps a huge loaf of French bread, Sherrod said -- was somewhat unusual.

"We don't have a lot of experience with a long, linear dome like this," he said.

Now, it appears the dome is spreading out or "pancaking."

"It's starting to sag a little bit" on the sides, Sherrod said.

It appears the jutting slabs "are parts that aren't dropping yet," he said. The outer edge of the dome's formerly smooth profile "is now preserved only as those jagged peaks."

The bulk of the dome has dropped by 30 to 90 feet except for these high-standing remnants, said a USGS news release.

It appears magma is still being extruded from the volcano's core -- temperatures in cracks on the dome surface range from 1100-1300 degrees Fahrenheit, reflecting the core heat of about 1650 degrees, Sherrod said.

"We know it's very hot as it comes out, which means the core is plastic," he said. "It now seems to be oozing onto the glacier" -- which has emerged since the 1980 eruption, draped around the neck of the old dome like a collar.

The seismic activity also suggests continued magma movement, Sherrod said

The dome's new profile is visible from the Coldwater Canyon Visitor Center, about 8.5 miles from the volcano in the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument.

Scientists observe the mountain with instruments and via helicopter. Action inside the crater keeps destroying instruments placed on the new dome, so it's not clear how much movement has occurred there.

On Sunday, a helicopter retrieved a couple non-functioning instruments -- Global Positioning System and seismic monitors -- from the crater. Meanwhile, a GPS receiver about 500 feet north of the new dome continues to creep north-northwest at a rate of about 4 inches a day, suggesting the magma is budging rocks around the dome.

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me@rescam.org

I don't know, but from what I've been reding here lately, it looks like this volcano is getting ready to blow sooner or later. I'm wondering just how bad it might be compared to the big one in 1980.

April 29, 2005

Report Calls For Increased Volcano Monitoring



WASHINGTON -- While Mount St. Helens and Kilauea generate the most attention, many other volcanoes in the United States have little or no regular monitoring and need to be watched for potential eruptions, a new report warns.

The U.S. Geological Survey said Friday that monitoring gaps exist for volcanoes in Alaska, California, Washington, Oregon, Hawaii, Wyoming and the Northern Mariana Islands that could pose a hazard both on the ground and to aviation.

The report reviews the hazard of 169 volcanoes in the U.S. and its territories and calls for a 24-hour, seven-day Volcano Watch Office and increased monitoring at many of the peaks.

"We cannot afford to wait until a hazardous volcano begins to erupt before deploying a modern monitoring effort. The consequences put property and people at risk including volcano scientists on site and pilots and passengers in the air," said Survey Director Chip Groat.

"It forces citizens, scientists, civil and aviation authorities, and businesses into playing catch up with a dangerous volcano, a risky game indeed," he said.

Monitoring volcanoes in advance of problems is essential to help develop emergency response plans to keep communities safe, he said.

The study said three groups of volcanoes are the highest priority for study:

--The volcanoes erupting now -- Mount St. Helens in Washington State, Anatahan in the Mariana Islands, Kilauea in Hawaii -- and the volcanoes that are showing periods of significant unrest, Mauna Loa in Hawaii and Mount Spurr in Alaska.

--The 13 very high threat volcanoes with inadequate monitoring. These include nine volcanoes in the Cascade Range -- Rainier, Hood, Shasta, South Sister, Lassen, Crater Lake, Baker, Glacier Peak and Newberry. Also, four Alaskan volcanoes, Redoubt, Makushin, Akutan and Augustine. The agency noted that while Cascade volcanoes do not erupt frequently, they threaten major populations and developments.

--Nineteen volcanoes in Alaska and the Mariana Islands that pose high risks to aviation combined with no real-time ground-based monitoring to detect precursory unrest or the onset of an eruption.

"We nearly lost a fully loaded Boeing 747 to volcanic ash cloud in Alaska in 1989," Capt. Ed Miller of the Air Line Pilots Association said in a statement.

Flying into a cloud of volcanic ash can cause jet engines to fail. Many flights every day pass over volcanic areas.

In addition to the top priorities, the report said 21 under-monitored volcanoes in Washington, Oregon, California, Hawaii, Alaska, the Marianas and Wyoming are also important targets for monitoring.

May 6, 2005

Johnston Ridge Observatory Opens



VANCOUVER, Wash. -- The first visitors to the Johnston Ridge Observatory Friday saw a view of Mount St. Helens obscured by clouds.

It may be a couple of days before the weather clears enough for visitors at the observatory to see the five miles to the volcano.

The U.S. Geological Survey says the mountain is relatively quiet, rumbling with small quakes as magma pushes up to add to the growing lava dome.

The observatory opened to the public Friday for the first time in six months. It was closed in October when the volcano began its dome-building eruption.

Visitors to Johnston Ridge are advised to bring a dust mask in case of another ash-spewing eruption.

May 18, 2005

Moment Of Silence Held On Anniversary Of Eruption



VANCOUVER, Wash. -- Visitors to Mount St. Helens observed a moment of silence at 8:32 Wednesday morning to mark the time 25 years ago when the volcano erupted. The blast killed 57 people, leveled hundreds of square miles of forest and dumped gritty ash across Washington. It sent mudflows down the Toutle River that clogged the Columbia. One of those killed was a U.S. Geological Survey scientist named David Johnston. He was monitoring the volcano from a ridge five miles away and just had time to radio his office and shout, "Vancouver! Vancouver! This is it!"

Anyone visiting the mountain Wednesday needed rain gear as clouds obscured a view of the mountain. The mountain rumbled back to life last September with shuddering seismic activity that peaked above magnitude three as hot magma broke through rocks in its path. Molten rock reached the surface in October. In March, it shot ash higher than 30,000 feet. But since then, the volcano has maintained low-key activity, with wispy smoke regularly floating from the crater.