Posted on 10/12/2004 12:29:33 PM PDT by Michael Goldsberry
MOUNT ST. HELENS, Wash. -- Volcanic rock has flowed to the surface of Mount St. Helens' crater, creating a new lava dome after weeks of seismic activity, a geologist said today.
Scientists had known for days that magma or molten rock was nearing the surface, as a bulge grew on the south side of the existing 1,000-foot lava dome and the increasingly hot rock gave off steam as it met water and ice in the crater. The bulge is now considered a new lava dome, the scientists said.
"Now that we have new lava at the surface, we're comfortable saying" that dome-building has resumed at the volcano, U.S. Geological Survey geologist Tina Neal said.
The bulge had risen at least 330 feet since scientists noticed it Sept. 30.
Geologists said there is still a chance of explosive ash eruptions from the 8,364-foot mountain, and the immediate area around the volcano remained closed.
The mountain exploded on May 18, 1980, with a massive landslide as the top of the mountain collapsed. Any new ash eruption, scientists say, would likely be much smaller and would shoot vertically, instead of horizontally as in the devastating blast that left 57 people dead, leveled trees for miles around and covered much of the Pacific Northwest with ash.
The mountain in the Cascade Range rumbled back to life Sept. 23, beginning with thousands of tiny earthquakes. For five days earlier this month, it spewed clouds of steam mixed with small amounts of old volcanic ash.
Earlier today, more steam rose from the crater as geologists kept up their close watch on the volcano.
Red, Hot, Liquid--MAGMA
Is that magma in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?
...sorry couldn't resist.
WHOA! You usually have to pay $1.99 a minute to heat talk like that.
I can't tell, is that lava or a river of water running from the mountain on the webcam picture?
Well, since no one seems to have a gigantic bottle of Pepto-Bismal to relieve Helen of her acid indigestion, when she blows, I hopes she regurgitates heavily into the backyards of Baghdad Jim McDermitt, Patty "Moron" Murray, Maria Cantbudgetwell and Gary Locke, to name a few liberal leftist demoncRATS on the west state of the state. "Let 'er blow!"
A river. Been there for a while.
Thank ya Thank ya Thank ya Sgt Carter!
One MILLION DOLLARS!
Maybe it's just me, but I'm thinking that if this thing blew itself to pieces their statement would go something like...
"Now that there is nothing left of Mt St Helens, we're comfortable saying that it blew up real good!"
LVM
AUSTIN Dr. Evil, do you really expect them to pay? DR. EVIL No, Mr. Powers, I expect them to die. Even after they pay me the money, I'm still going to melt all the cities of the world with hot magma.
""Now that we have new lava at the surface, we're comfortable saying" that dome-building has resumed at the volcano."
Is dome building like nation building?
Funny, but at the same time a metaphor for how Kerry will fight the WOT
I figured as much.
Happy 1yr anniversary!
Thanks! I forgot actually ... wow a whole year. It seems longer for some reason, like the recall election was a few years ago.
I don't understand the timestamp on your picture. I have the same identical picture, stamped 13:49 Pacific Daylight Time. Yet your picture is 13:59 PDT and your post was 12:32 PDT. And pictures before and after 13:49 on my computer are different. Strange!
Never mind. Your link is refreshing the pic. Doh!
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