[Cincinatus' Wife]

AP The mound behind the lava dome at Mount St. Helens has grown, cracking the glacier to the right after a steam and ash eruption earlier this week.

[Conservative4Ever]

"There's many things going on down there, and Mother Nature doesn't choose to tell us what all those things are and at what rate they're taking place," Lowenstern said.

Translation....we haven't a clue what is going to happen.
Stay safe up there in WA.

Red

[oceanperch]

It could go anytime, but then it could go months from now and then again not at all.

All speculations.

Awesome natural event however.

Prayers still going up for those living around the mountain for no adverse health effects from ash it she blows.

[dandelion]

Earthquake activity has really picked up this evening on the Cedar Flats and June Lake PNSN stations... Epicenters of the quakes are between 1. 3 and 1.9 miles underground generally.

[glock rocks]

Here's a collection of awesome recent photos of the volcano...

http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Volcanoes/MSH/Images/MSH04/

[ApplegateRanch]

"There's many things going on down there, and Mother Nature doesn't choose to tell us what all those things are and at what rate they're taking place," Lowenstern said.

(Straw in hair, one hand scratching butt; other picking nose) Iff'n thay doesn't know iff'n the magma is a-pushhin on a rock block, whyun't they set off some dynamite, and read it on a sizemometer, likun they'ns do fer erl drillin?

Seriously, despite our vaunted (rightly!) technology & learning, some things we still just have to 'wait and see' to get the answer.

It sounds like one (lots of pressure; no blockage)way, we get a nasty explosion; another (shallow, little pressure) way, we get a relativly tame lava flow; and a third (deep, some pressure, but a strong enough 'lid') way we get nothing more than some more steam and ash, at most.

Glad I don't have to make the guesses.

[ken5050]

Glock..thanks for the loink..awesome pics..to both of you..on the pic on this thread..any sense of scale, size?...how big it is what we're looking at..?..it's hard to judge..