Posted on 09/19/2004 9:25:02 PM PDT by Mo1
.....Westy.....
*chuckle*
My mind refuses to be amazed by your mazes!
It is impervious to that kind of thing!
/ joke.
Thanks!
Steam blast on Mount St. Helens
MOUNT ST. HELENS, Wash. - An explosion of steam and ground up rock punctuated a week of small earthquakes at Mount St. Helens around noon Friday.
The steam and dust cloud rose to about 7,000 feet, but the explosion itself was almost anti-climactic from a distance, beginning as a small white cloud rising slowly from back side of the dome.
Closer views showed dark gray pulverized rock spraying into the air and blanketing the glacier behind the dome with a thick layer of ash.
SkyKING also showed a 200- to 300-foot gash in the glacier behind the dome where the steam and rock came up.
The burst of steam began and ended within about 20 minutes and the steam and dust cloud slowly dissipated, winds carrying it to the west-southwest.
Cynthia Gardner at the Cascades Volcano Observatory in Vancouver said it was the event scientists had been predicting because of earthquake swarms at the volcano.
Monitoring stations initially showed a drop off in seismic activity immediately after the eruption, but the activity resumed again quickly. One seismic monitoring station inside the dome was blown away by the explosion, according to University of Washington seismologist Tony Qamar.
FAA spokesman Mike Fergus said the FAA had sent out a notice to airmen to steer clear of the cloud, but that the cloud was not high enough to affect most air traffic.
Geologist Jon Major said there was a chance the eruption could just be the opening salvo and there could be more like it.
The May 18, 1980 eruption killed 57 people and blanketed much of the Northwest with ash. The most recent surge in activity on the mountain is now a week old.
Jeff Wynn, chief scientist at the U.S. Geological Survey's Cascade Volcano Observatory in Vancouver, said Thursday that tiny quakes occurred at the rate of 3 or 4 a minute. Larger quakes with magnitudes of 3 to 3.3 occurred every 3 or 4 minutes.
Wynn said new measurements showed the 975-foot lava dome in the volcano's crater had moved 2.5 inches to the north since Monday. Before the 1980 eruption, the north flank of the mountain swelled 5 to 7 feet per day.
Before Friday's eruption, USGS Staff Geologist Jon Major said researchers discovered that the glacier on the south side of the dome where the explosion happened had developed some cracking, which scientists attribute to deformation happening underneath.
Few people live near the mountain, which is in a national forest about 100 miles south of Seattle. The closest structure is the Johnston Ridge Observatory, about five miles from the crater.
The heightened alert has drawn a throng of sightseers to observation areas. Dawn Smith, co-owner of Eco Park Resort west of the mountain, told The News Tribune of Tacoma, "It's just been crazy the past couple of days."
A sign in front of her business reads, "Here we go again."
The Geological Survey raised the mountain's eruption advisory from Level 2 to Level 3 out of a possible 4 on Wednesday, prompting officials to begin notifying various state and federal agencies of a possible eruption. The USGS also has asked the National Weather Service to be ready to track an ash plume with its radar.
The USGS has been monitoring St. Helens closely since Sept. 23, when swarms of tiny earthquakes were first recorded. On Sunday, scientists issued a notice of volcanic unrest, closing the crater and upper flanks of the volcano to hikers and climbers.
Scientists said they believe the seismic activity is being caused by pressure from a reservoir of molten rock a little more than a mile below the crater. That magma apparently rose from a depth of about six miles in 1998, but never reached the surface, Wynn said.
The mountain's eruption on May 18, 1980, blasted away its top 1,300 feet, spawned mudflows that choked the Columbia River shipping channel, leveled hundreds of square miles of forest and paralyzed towns and cities more than 250 miles to the east with volcanic ash.
A very interesting post Loddy.
Residents of the town of Cougar, about ten miles south of Mount Saint Helens, saw the cloud rise from the volcano.
But Carol Hubbel at the "Cougar Store" told KIRO 7 Eyewitness News no ash fell in the town.
Westy, if that ash starts blowing in the wind, don't you inhale it, you hear?
Yep - the best government that $$$ can buy.
Sada cheers, over there.
The sky is nice and blue, not a thing in sight....The media is making a bigger deal out of it than it really is right now....
.....Westy.....
Weathermen, and weather-freaks, everywhere are getting excited - if yaknowwhatImean.
That a good place to up-wind of.
Not much going on right now...
....Westy...
Good. Remain calm, Helen...we're dealing with enough stuff, without worrying about you.
Good evening.
Hey Darks. What's going on? I just discovered I got another conservative in my office. Not Republican, but mostly votes that way. I met his mom earlier today too, while I weas out seeing a client. It's pretty funny. She calls herself a moderate and her son much more right wing. He says that he is the moderate and that his mom is so far right that she makes Rush Limbaugh look like a moderate.
LOL!
Sounds like the byplay between my father and I.
Nothing much going on.
Just the usual same old same old.
And where were YOU when that mountain erupted?
For once, sitting in front of my machine.
Heard about it erupting from Previously A Lurker first before checking it out.
I've had our girls here for hours, and I never laughed so hard.
What a great time we had listening to all their war stories from their jobs. Omg.. people are odd.. and so very funny. They both work with the public, so they had us in stitches.. No nap... so tired... :(
See you in the morning..
Ciao, chickens..
I didn't do it!
Evenin' Gran. Have you been up to mischief today?
You know she has.
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