Mt. St. Helens, and volcanic ash

A jar of volcanic ash from 1980.

As Mt. St. Helens has awakened again I have been thinking about volcanic ash. It was like gray flour blowing and drifting with the exception of the time when it was raining when it fell. Yes it can rain mud. I remember cleaning it out of my gutters for 5 or 6 years after the eruption. It was so fine that it would find it's way under the shingles and wash out when it rained.
The current 2004 edition is apparently not over. After a few hours of seismic quite after yesterday's eruption the earthquakes are ramping up once again. Before the May 18, 1980 eruption we had 2 months of small steam explosions. All of us who were in Portland in 1980 remember that.

UPDATE, sooner than later?

Mount St. Helens steams, another eruption 'imminent'


Steam plume comes off Mount St. Helens on Saturday.