SCI/TECH: Movement of Lava Dome at Mt. St. Helens; New Sign of Possible Eruption

Following days of minor earthquakes and careful scrutinization of Mt. St. Helen's, scientists have discovered that the lava dome in the center of the crater has been growing. The movement and growth of the lava dome is another sign of an upcoming eruption of the volcano. The results of the testing are preliminary and scientists will continue to carefully monitor Mount St. Helen's to learn more and help predict the impending eruption.



With the scientists focused and the public now aware of the possible dangers, hopefully when Mount St. Helen's blows her top, there will be no loss of life.

Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
Mount St. Helens may erupt soon!


[edit on 1-10-2004 by Banshee]

29-9-2004 - St. Helen might explode but, according to NASA, this is FOR SURE one of the most important days in your generation :

On Wednesday, Sept. 29 it will be within a million miles of Earth, or about four times the distance to the Moon.

No space rock this big will pass so close in the next century, scientists say. And while similarly large asteroids have hit the planet in the distant past, none so big have come so close since astronomers have had the means to notice them.

Time to get the truth about the Toutatis hoax
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Ahem.


Toutatis hit its perigee a few hours ago. It's already moving away from earth.


Yes this MSH data is worrying but i dont believe we'll see a 1980 repeat. Maybe just a small scale eruption but nothing huge.

Scientist have theories about how the mountain will react, but they can't actually tell you what is going to happen for sure. They can't even predict the weather half the time. I would keep a look out for anything unusual going on there. Hopefully Toutatis won't crash in to the mountian and start a big eruption.

This might sound foolish, but why not blow a hole in the top to bleed the pressure off,
With a say bunker buster

It is quite likely the Mount St. Helens wont have another major eruption in the very near future. However the amount of sesmic activity in along the west coast is a bit troubling.

The earthquake swarms that were in Northern California 2 weeks ago, the rumbling under Mt. St. Helens, and the quake and 100's of aftershocks in CA, in my mind, all point to some serious instability along those fault lines. I would be concerned that some very serious natural disaster is brewing.

Originally posted by phreak_of_nature
all point to some serious instability along those fault lines. I would be concerned that some very serious natural disaster is brewing.

It does look spectacular, doesn�t it?

That shot is from last night. If you look at the quake activity for Parkfield, CA today it is continuing. 100's of aftershocks including a 5.0 and a number of 3+ aftershocks have occured today.

It's neat but not unexpected. Earthquakes in this area tend to do that. Heck, the site of last year's earthquake (San Simeon) is still getting aftershocks. You can see a cluster of them to the left of Atascadero. I'm not overly worried about anything major (unless you count the "big one" that has been predicted for 30 years now). In any event, if another earthquake was brewing, it would be significantly less powerful now that the energy was released from this one.

This is earthquake country. Earthquakes happen. Nothing to get overly excited about.

Silly, but is there at all a link between the volcano and the earthquakes in California??

Originally posted by dgtempe
Silly, but is there at all a link between the volcano and the earthquakes in California??

I doubt it, unless in some butterfly-effect kind of way. The Parkfield earthquakes have been happening with regularity for at least 150 years now (every 22-38 years or so). Now if there was an increase in both the number and magnitude of earthquakes along a much longer section of the fault, then I would be more inclined to believe something bigger was up.

On a side note, the Parkfield Experiment should have gotten some really good earthquake data. Be sure to check it out when everything gets analyzed.




[edit on 9/29/2004 by Tanin]

Don't know if this was posted in another thread but:



Seems to me she's gonna blow.

Hmmmmm, I remember that the USGS was saying there was no chance of a Yellowstone eruption nor a chance of a MSH eruption. Now with MSH getting ready to blow her top, and the USGS saying she will, it makes me wonder if Yellowstone is any closer to blowing her top.

Do we no yet an estimet on the serisness of the eruption if it does occur?So big eruption or small eruption?

From what I understand and have read, no CO2 gas has been detected being emited from the region, and no one has been able to determine if there is lava movement. However, when Mt St Helens blasted last time, it was preceeded by dramatic swelling. Someone mentioned the Scientists can't even predict the weather. Well, ignoring whats going on would be like not looking at hurrican activity off the coast of africa when you live in florida. Are the estimates precise? No. But they can be helpful.

Originally posted by ImAlreadyPsycho
Hmmmmm, I remember that the USGS was saying there was no chance of a Yellowstone eruption nor a chance of a MSH eruption. Now with MSH getting ready to blow her top, and the USGS saying she will, it makes me wonder if Yellowstone is any closer to blowing her top.

Maybe there's something to your concerns: (Yellowstone Lake Webicorder)

mbmgquake.mtech.edu...

[edit on 29-9-2004 by honeybee]

It seems the activity continues to ramp up, tons of 2.0+ magnitude with several above 3.0 with 3.3 being the highest listed so far.


Last updated Thu Sep 30 11:48:45 PDT 2004

Number of well-located earthquakes in current month = 555

List and Map of 20 most recent earthquakes:

(Note: Times are in GMT => subtract 8 hours to get PST,
7 hours to get PDT)

DATE-(UTC)-TIME LAT(N) LON(W) DEP MAG QUAL COMMENTS
yy/mm/dd hh:mm:ss deg. deg. km Ml
04/09/30 08:41:02 46.19N 122.18W 0.8 2.9 AA
04/09/30 09:49:17 46.20N 122.18W 1.1 3.3 AA
04/09/30 10:42:08 46.20N 122.18W 1.4 2.8 AA
04/09/30 10:44:16 46.20N 122.18W 1.0 3.1 AA
04/09/30 12:06:42 46.20N 122.18W 1.3 2.5 AA
04/09/30 12:11:27 46.20N 122.18W 1.3 2.6 AA
04/09/30 12:15:10 46.20N 122.18W 1.4 3.0 AA
04/09/30 12:50:26 46.20N 122.18W 1.0 2.6 AA
04/09/30 12:55:45 46.19N 122.18W 0.0 2.9 AB
04/09/30 13:17:51 46.20N 122.18W 0.0 2.6 AB
04/09/30 13:31:07 46.19N 122.18W 0.0 2.5 AB
04/09/30 13:35:57 46.19N 122.19W 0.0 2.5 AB
04/09/30 13:49:17 46.20N 122.18W 0.1 2.7 AA
04/09/30 13:58:02 46.20N 122.18W 0.0 2.8 AA
04/09/30 14:14:38 46.20N 122.19W 1.6 2.2 AB
04/09/30 14:30:39 46.19N 122.18W 0.1 2.6 AB
04/09/30 15:10:33 46.20N 122.18W 0.0 2.1 AA
04/09/30 15:24:24 46.20N 122.18W 1.3 2.8 AB
04/09/30 15:36:40 46.19N 122.18W 0.2 2.2 AB
04/09/30 15:51:32 46.20N 122.18W 0.0 2.3 AB

Originally posted by honeybee
Maybe there's something to your concerns: (Yellowstone Lake Webicorder)
mbmgquake.mtech.edu...

Ay, Caramba! Yellowstone!
Doesn�t look much better today:
mbmgquake.mtech.edu...

Yeah, that's not good about Yellowstone.......... even the 1980 St.Helens eruption would look like a tiny firecracker compared to the Yellowstone Supervalcano. YIKES.

not a webcam, but here is real-time seismographs for the area.
www.pnsn.org...

This is realy big, I was in the area during the first (big) St Helens event and the other mountains only reflected sympathetic reports. In this case, St Helens is going bugf**k and Mount Constitution (which is out an Orcas Island in Puget Sound, MCW on the seismograph selector) and Mount Rainier (LON on the selector are showing a LOT of activity) this is new. St Helens did not affect the Rainier machine and for it to affect Constitution is VERY strange. Something BIG is up in the Northwest.