It was just announced on the local news here that the lava dome collapsed 2 hours ago.

Volcano SeismoCam
"Our Seismo-Cam shows you a regularly updated image of a drum called a helicorder. The helicorder receives ground sensor data from the UW Seismology Lab. Our feed normally comes from a sensor on Mount Freemont, which is near Mount Rainier. On 9/30/04, the feed was temporarily switched to the "Source of Smith Creek" sensor, northeast of the Mount St. Helens crater to better display vibrations there. Our helicorder displays quakes of greater than 1.0 magnitude. The Mount Fremont sensor will detect shaking of any significant magnitude anywhere in the Puget Sound area. It could also detect disturbances caused by nearby traffic or people. Some words of warning: You cannot, ever, determine the magnitude of a quake based on the size of the marks on our drum. There are many variables - including the distance, depth, type of quake, and the calibration on the helicorder itself. Seismologists use data from many sources to locate the epicenter of a quake and determine its magnitude. But, you can safely say the bigger the quake in our general area, the bigger it looks on our drum."

Ash Plume Rises From Mount St. Helens

July 3, 2005

MOUNT ST. HELENS -- A large chunk was knocked off the growing lava dome on Mount St. Helens Saturday, sending an ash plume above the crater rim. The U.S. Geological Survey reported a rockfall at 6 a.m. caused what scientists called a "substantial seismic signal" and knocked the piece off the lava dome. Despite persistent smaller rockfalls, the volcano was relatively quiet for the rest of the day. The U.S. Geological Survey and the University of Washington have monitored the volcano closely since it rumbled back to life September 23rd, with shuddering seismic activity that peaked above magnitude 3 as hot magma broke through rocks in its path. Molten rock reached the surface October 11th, marking resumption of dome-building activity that had stopped in 1986. On March 8th, it shot ash higher than 30,000 feet, but since then has maintained low-key activity, with wispy smoke regularly floating from the crater. Scientists have said a more explosive eruption, possibly dropping ash within a 10-mile radius of the crater, is possible at any time.

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me@rescam.org

Copper mine under consideration north of Mount St. Helens

By The Associated Press

July 8, 2005

VANCOUVER, Wash. — A company is looking into the prospects for a copper mine on the northern edge of the blast zone from the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980, officials say.

The site envisioned by Idaho General Mines Inc. of Spokane near 5,400-foot Goat Mountain, excluded from the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument because of old mining claims, offers the prospect of a $400 million-plus complex covering 3,000 acres and employing 400 people for 30 to 50 years, company president Robert L. Russell said.

The company recently applied for a lease to conduct exploratory drilling north of Green River Horse Camp in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, a "very, very early stage" of the process, Russell said.

The last drilling in the area was in the 1970s and early'80s and the mining potential is "very significant," he told The Columbian of Vancouver in a telephone interview Wednesday, "and it's also significant to a very depressed area that's lost a lot of logging and lumber jobs.

"Skamania County stands to particularly benefit from the jobs and economic momentum from a significantly sized industry."

Susan Saul of Vancouver, one of the activists who lobbied for establishment of the volcanic monument in 1982, said hard-rock mining elsewhere shows environmental damage would likely outweigh any economic benefits.

"They need to look at the Kellogg and Wallace areas of Idaho and the effects mining has had on human health and the environment that people are still dealing with," Saul said.

She also said the mine probably would be visible to hikers in the Mount Margaret backcountry area north of the volcano.

Leaders of the Gifford Pinchot Task Force, an environmental group, indicated Wednesday they will oppose a mine.

The backcountry area is prime habitat for salmon and wildlife, so an environmental analysis should be required before even exploratory mining is allowed, task force program director Ryan Hunter said.

"We're confident it will show the environmental impacts are not worth the costs," Hunter said.

With modern technology, mining can be conducted in an "environmentally enlightened manner," Russell countered.

"Requirements in the United States are very, very stringent," he said. "You either do it in a manner that takes care of the land, or you're not allowed to do it."

The earliest construction of the mine could begin is in eight years, Russell said.

According to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Idaho General dates from 1925, currently has seven employees and lists $1.2 million in assets.

Tom Knappenberger, a Gifford Pinchot spokesman, said forest officials had not decided whether to order a comprehensive environmental analysis before deciding whether to grant an exploratory lease.

"They won't really know the specifics of what they want to do until they do more exploring," Knappenberger said.

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me@rescam.org

Have you seen what has been growing in the dome lately? It's about 600 feet tall. now.



And it glows in the dark.

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That proves it. ET is here! see his ship?

[image removed]

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August 1, 2005

Quake Rumbles Under Mount St. Helens



VANCOUVER, Wash. -- A 3.3-magnitude earthquake trembled beneath Mount St. Helens early Sunday morning, the latest in a series of stronger than usual quakes at the volcano.

In Vancouver, U.S. Geological Survey scientists at the Cascades Volcano Volcano Observatory reports the quake at 2:34 a.m. likely triggered the overnight collapse of large section of rock at the north end of the growing lava dome.

Much of the smooth surface of the ridge has now been removed by rockfalls over the past few weeks. The ridge is created as rock extrudes from the vent.

After years of quiet, the mountain rumbled awake last September, and in October a flow of molten rock reached the surface, marking a renewal of domebuilding activity that had stopped in 1986.

A deadly eruption in 1980 killed 57 people and sent a river of hot mud and ash down the Toutle River Valley.

USGS and the University of Washington continue to monitor the mountain.

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

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me@rescam.org

August 1, 2005

Earthquakes collapse St. Helens lava dome



MOUNT ST. HELENS, Wash. - The rumblings at Mount St. Helens have been so strong, the lava dome has collapsed. Scientists are trying to figure out what's behind the recent string of stronger-than-normal quakes at the volcano

In the last 24 hours, the seismograph has recorded three earthquakes with a magnitude at or near 3.0, and these quakes are shaking things up inside the crater. St. Helens is at it again, shaking and rattling and sending the seismograph needle into overdrive.

Compare a printout of the mountain at rest and of St. Helens in the last several weeks, and you'll notice a striking difference. "At least one 3.0 magnitude quake everyday." What do these rumbles mean? Are they a preview to the next big one? Experts are not sure.

They do know the quakes are shaping and reshaping the mountain, specifically the lava dome in the heart of the crater. Each time the dome protrudes out to a certain size, a quake comes along and the dome collapses, making way for another dome to grow.

"Now, anytime during this process, it's possible to get an actual explosion." And this is a process of the mountain slowly rebuilding itself. Each dome fills up the crater some more, and the mountain is showing no signs of slowing down.

"It's gone on longer than I thought it would. I thought it would have stopped this last spring." This mountain-rebuilding process usually happens in spurts. After all, it stopped in 1986 and didn't start up again until last fall.

At this rate, experts say the lava dome would refill the crater in two or three decades. Park rangers at Mount St. Helens say contrary to rumors, the Johnston Ridge Observatory is still open despite the recent earthquakes.

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me@rescam.org

August 2, 2005

Recent volcanic activity drawing tourists



MOUNT ST. HELENS, Wash. - A good chance of seeing an ash plume at Mount St. Helens is drawing visitors back this summer to the volcano in southwest Washington. About 25 percent more people have visited this year than all of last year, according to volcanic national monument officials.

Magma pushed to the surface in October for the first time in 25 years and began adding to a lava dome in the crater. Falling rocks and magnitude three quakes about once a day usually send an ash plume over the crater wall.

There was one three-point quake Monday morning, just after midnight and three Sunday. No one knows how long this will continue, but at this rate the lava dome would refill the crater in two or three decades, according to Willie Scott, a volcanologist at the U.S. Geological Survey's Vancouver office.

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me@rescam.org

August 9, 2005

Scientists record video inside St. Helens crater



SEATTLE - The U.S. Geological Survey released a videotape to the media on Tuesday that shows dramatic pictures taken inside the Mount St. Helens crater. The video was captured by a helicopter circling close to the lava dome.

We've streamed over 5 minutes of the videotape, which includes an infrared view of the lava dome. At 1 minute and 40 seconds into the video, you can see a section of the lava dome collapse in a giant rockslide.

Over the past few weeks, Mount St. Helens has experienced one or two earthquakes a day with a magnitude at or near 3.0.

USGS scientists shot the videotape over April and May of this year.

Video news report from the UW Seismology Lab

Click title link for USGS raw video. Click above link for UWSL video report.

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me@rescam.org

Misfit,

Thanks for the report. The video was awesome.

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Mt. St. Helens occasionally has interesting cloud formations over the crater due to released heat - one I received.....

http://www.johnph77.com/gr/mtsthelen.jpg

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Blessed St. Leibowitz, keep 'em dreamin' down there.

What a wondefully beautiful sight! Thank you for sharing that.

Mt. St. Helens occasionally has interesting cloud formations over the crater due to released heat - one I received.....

http://www.johnph77.com/gr/mtsthelen.jpg

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Mt. St. Helens occasionally has interesting cloud formations over the crater due to released heat - one I received.....

http://www.johnph77.com/gr/mtsthelen.jpg

That is one creepy looking picture.

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Video news report from the UW Seismology Lab

Click title link for USGS raw video. Click above link for UWSL video report.

That was a nice time-lapse video of the dome growing.

Thanks Misfit

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(This is an older story from 5/18 but still informative.)

Tools of science have evolved since St. Helens eruption

When Mount St. Helens blew 25 years ago, scientists didn't have the kinds of tools they have today to study the mountain.

And those new tools are telling a lot about how the mountain is behaving.

For University of Washington Volcano Seismologist Steve Malone, the explosion on May 18 was a surprise. Not that it happened, but that they thought they would get a clear warning.

"My first reaction was not, excitement. It was, 'Oh my gosh.' We missed the precursors just beforehand. And it was worry. It was concern We didn't know what happened to some of our colleagues," he said.

The eruption of Mount St. Helens was not an explosion. It was really the result of biggest landslide in recorded history. A growing bulge on the north side of the mountain was being watched closely. But would it stop? Would it keep growing? Would the mountainside blow out?

"We were watching for any little thing that said there was going to be some change, that would tell us, it's coming tomorrow or it's coming in one hour," Malone said.

The technology now available to scientists has come a long way since 1980.

Twenty-five years ago, scientists used laser rangefinders to measure the threatening bulge. The laser beams bounced off roadside reflectors glued to rocks. They had to calculate those measurements and write the results down.

"As the dome began to swell up, as lava rose beneath it and into the dome itself, the highway reflector would move toward you toward the instrument and we'd see that distance getting shorter and shorter," said scientist Dan Dzurisin.

Global positioning antennas have replaced the laser rangefinders, feeding information through satellites, directly into computers.

But some clues are as old as the rocks themselves, which in Mount St. Helens' case isn't very old at all.

The study of a massive mountain, sometimes involves the examination of microscopic particles.

In the rock lab, scientist Carl Thornbur looks at small minerals called hornblende inside a lava sample.

The way the mineral forms is an indication of how quickly the magma moves to the surface.

Why, for example, are there so many earthquakes, more than a half million since this eruption began in late September.

Examining scrape marks on the sides of the lava, USGS Geologist John Pallister can tell where a series of small earthquakes took place.

The scrape marks are created when the sides of the lava dome stick and slip, kind of like dragging a chair across the floor.

Scientists know a lot more about the mountain than they did 25 years ago. But predicting what will happen tomorrow or next week is still a challenge.

Click title link for video news report.

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me@rescam.org

Mount St. Helens 25 years later - interactive Flash feature

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me@rescam.org

August 19, 2005

Mount St. Helens 'Light Show' reported



VANCOUVER, Wash. - Observers at Mount Saint Helens reported seeing an intense glow and vertical column over the volcano Thursday night - a sight that lasted several minutes beginning around 9:20.

The sighting from nearby Coldwater Ridge corresponded with two rockfall signals recorded by seismometers. Another rockfall was associated with a magnitude two-point-nine earthquake at about 10 minutes to 11 p-m.

Photographs from a camera on the mountain show that the volcano's new lava spine continues to grow and steepen as a formerly active spine sags and collapses. The activity is expected to produce continued rockfalls and associated ash plumes - and, at night, light shows.

The mountain - site of a deadly eruption in 1980 - had been quiet for several years. It rumbled back to life last fall and resume building a lava dome in its blasted crater. The activity can cause short-lived explosions that can send ash clouds as high as 30-thousand feet. Ash from these events can travel as much as 100 miles downwind.

The mountain's pattern over centuries has been to pile up layer upon layer of lava. Before the 1980 eruption, Saint Helens's snow-capped peak was so symmetrical it was called America's Mount Fuji.

The mountain is being monitored by scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey and the University of Washington.

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me@rescam.org

Thread keyword search: VOLCANOS

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me@rescam.org

July 18, 2006

Magnitude 3.6 Earthquake Shakes Mount St. Helens



MOUNT ST. HELENS, Wash. -- A magnitude 3.6 earthquake shook Mount St. Helens Tuesday morning, one of the largest earthquakes recorded during the ongoing eruption, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The 9:56 a.m. quake triggered significant rock falls from the lava dome and crater walls that sent plumes of dust to the rim.

Lava has continued to push into the crater -- most recently forming a sheer rock fin -- since the 8,364-foot mountain reawakened with a drumfire of low-level seismic activity in September 2004.

The crater was formed by the volcano's deadly May 18, 1980, eruption that killed 57 people and blasted about 1,300 feet off the then-9,677-foot peak.

The volcano reopens to climbers on Friday. Climbing the volcano has been banned since September 2004.

The National Volcanic Monument limits the number of climbers to 100 a day and requires a permit available online through the Mount St. Helens Institute.

Before the latest eruption more than 10,000 climbers took the 5-mile hike to the rim at an elevation of about 8,364 feet.

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me@rescam.org