I have pictures of the geologists trying to get rock samples from the "fin". Flying a chopper, suspending a bucket from a rope over 100 feet long. The chopper is barely visible next to the wall of the fin.
The fin is every much as big as they say it is. The pictures from Johnson Ridge are taken 15 miles away from the crater.
The size and scope of this thing is magnificent. When it blew in 1980, they equate it to a 30 megaton explosion.
djf -- Thanks for explaining and telling me about those new photos. I took a peek at the St. Helen's site and did some searching. They have some images posted of the new dome. But it does not look to be anywhere near 30 stories high to me. Of course, distance could throw off my perspective.
Images from Nov. 4th are available here:
http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Volcanoes/MSH/Images/MSH04/
Example:
Oceanperch -- I changed my tag line to 'see you again.'
Cunning, deceptive Froggies . . . Chirac visited Arafat briefly and then skipped out of the EU meeting. Froggies are probably worried about getting their cut of Pali pay-off money. But perhaps it has already been looted from Arafat's Swiss bank accounts by systemic electronic transfer recently?