Posted on 10/05/2004 1:19:47 PM PDT by Dr. Zzyzx
MOUNT ST. HELENS NATIONAL MONUMENT, Wash. (AP) - Mount St. Helens exhaled a spectacular roiling cloud of steam and ash Tuesday, sprinkling grit on a small town some 25 miles from the volcano.
The volcano has been venting steam and small amounts of ash daily since Friday, but Tuesday morning's burst was the largest, producing a billowing, dark gray cloud that rose thousands of feet above the 8,364-foot-high rim of the crater and streamed miles to the northeast.
For days, scientists have been warning that the volcano could blow at any moment with enough force to endanger lives and property. After the latest burst of steam, it was not immediately whether the strong eruption was still to come or whether the pressure inside the volcano had eased.
Either way, scientists said there was hardly any chance of a repeat of the cataclysmic 1980 eruption that killed 57 people and coated much of the Northwest with ash.
The town of Randle, with a population of about 2,000, kept students with asthma inside after getting a light dusting of ash.
Officials of sparsely populated Skamania County also were concerned about that the ash might harm hunters in the area for elk season.
Officials at the Coldwater Ridge Visitors Center, 8 1/2 miles north of the mountain, told the several dozen people at the center's parking lot not to drive into the ash if the plume reached them. However, the cloud trailed away to the east.
Ken Marshall drove up from Valley Springs, Calif., hoping to see an eruption.
"It's almost like clockwork," he said. "It blows in the morning and then there are earthquakes and rockfall all the rest of the day."
Earthquakes below magnitude 3 continued into Tuesday morning, and the lava dome within the crater kept swelling. Geologists said molten rock, or magma, beneath the crater was apparently pushing it upward.
Scientists had been expecting steam bursts as superheated rock came into contact with runoff from melting snow and ice. Runoff from a melting glacier formed a bubbling pond about 120 feet across in the crater, U.S. Geological Survey spokeswoman Catherine Puckett said Tuesday.
The Johnston Ridge Observatory, about five miles from the crater, has been closed since the weekend, and most air traffic has been prohibited below 13,000 feet and within five miles of the volcano.
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Red
Would you like to be working on that drilling rig?
What happens to the person standing next to the fissure when its opened up. It's kinda like a giant pull my finger.
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EGBU-28
"“went through 20 feet of concrete like butter” and when dropped onto hard ground, penetrated down to 100 feet."
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/munitions/gbu-28e.htm
Ground penetrating munitions, no rigs involved...
Maybe it would be less severe, but I'm not even convinced about that.
It's trivial to the size and scale of the volcano.
Any fissure it would have the power to open would have already been opened by the magma below anyway.
I'm no geologist (although I did stay in a Holiday Inn Express once) but it seems to me that using something like a bunker buster to open a fissure and let off some of the pressure might have a very undesirable effect. It could, instead, set off an even bigger eruption than might otherwise have happened. Sometimes it is just wise not to mess with Mother Nature.
that puts you less than 10% of the penetration needed.
Is it me or is the volcano showing more smoke?
Well, the Geological Survey might ask the Air Force, politely, if they'd like some practice using their bunker-busters on a mountain...
It'll never work... we're doomed. ;0)
I agree. A cascade volcano is not an anthill.
I'm wondering if people are seeing this on TV, and not understanding the scale of how huge that mountain actually is...
I think it's a good idea.
You could use either a robotic rig or bunker buster bombs.
Drill in from the least populated direction.
I don't think it would affect the severity, but it could control (to some very limited extent) the timing.
I got to spend an hour looking at your exit sign a few years ago during a freeway closure, when some Vegas bound drunk plowed off I-15 and offed himself....ZZYZX Road, leading you to the long defunct Zzyzx Mineral Springs and Dr. Springer.
Yeah, seems smokier, could be a bit more steam, or the wind dying down so the steam hangs around more.
More smoke appearing now on the volcano cam.
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