Mt. St.Helens Blows off some steam (and a little ash)

Mount St. Helens Erupts After 18 Years

Mount St. Helens, the volcano that blew its top with cataclysmic force in 1980, erupted for the first time in 18 years Friday, belching a huge column of white steam and ash after days of rumblings.

"This is exactly the kind of event we've been predicting," said U.S. Geological Survey scientist Cynthia Gardner.

Still, the eruption was nowhere near what happened 24 years ago, when 57 people were killed and towns 250 miles away were coated with ash.

So what does it mean? Conflicting views, another way of saying no body knows.

The earthquakes quit after the eruption, said University of Washington seismologist Tony Qamar.
"That makes us think this is the end of the eruption," Qamar said. "All this buildup was leading to that relatively small eruption."

But USGS seismologist Bob Norris said magma could be moving underground and he would not be surprised to see more explosions in the next days or weeks.

"The monitoring will definitely continue on a very intense scale until we can determine that the thing has really gone back to sleep," said Tom Pierson, a USGS geologist.

Those of us who were in Portland in 1980 remember the major eruption on May 18th was preceeded by over 2 months of events like the one today.