Mount St. Helens Starts to Rumble
July 19th 2005
EARTH CHANGES TV NEWSLETTER
Mount St. Helens Starts to Rumble
by Mitch Battros – ECTV
Over the last few days earthquake activity has increased at Mount St. Helens. The latest was today’s 3.2 magnitude quake. This comes on the heels of a series of smaller quakes in Utah, Colorado, and Arkansas.
Today, the USGS Cascade Range Observatory released this notice:
Current status is Volcano Advisory (Alert Level 2); aviation color code ORANGE: Growth of the new lava dome inside the crater of Mount St. Helens continues, accompanied by low rates of seismicity, low emissions of steam and volcanic gases, and minor production of ash. During such eruptions, changes in the level of activity can occur over days to months. The eruption could intensify suddenly or with little warning and produce explosions that cause hazardous conditions within several miles of the crater and farther downwind. Small lahars could suddenly descend the Toutle River if triggered by heavy rain or by interaction of hot rocks with snow and ice. These lahars pose a negligible hazard below the Sediment Retention Structure (SRS) but could pose a hazard along the river channel upstream.
Potential ash hazards: Wind forecasts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), coupled with eruption models, show that any ash clouds that rise above the crater rim today would drift eastward.
Potential ash hazards to aviation: Under current eruptive conditions, small, short-lived explosions may produce ash clouds that exceed 30,000 feet in altitude. Ash from such events can travel 100 miles or more downwind.
Recent observations: A M2.8 at 8:55pm yesterday caused a large rockfall that sent an ash plume about 2,000 feet above the rim of the volcano. The rockfall removed a large piece off the top of the growing dome, and it destroyed one of the seismometers in the crater. Seismicity returned to normal levels after the event. Next week crews will go out to make visual observations and possibly deploy a new seismometer.
Although my research does not address a connection between solar activity and seismology and volcanism, I certainly cannot rule it out.
EARTH CHANGES TV NEWSLETTER
Mount St. Helens Starts to Rumble
by Mitch Battros – ECTV
Over the last few days earthquake activity has increased at Mount St. Helens. The latest was today’s 3.2 magnitude quake. This comes on the heels of a series of smaller quakes in Utah, Colorado, and Arkansas.
Today, the USGS Cascade Range Observatory released this notice:
Current status is Volcano Advisory (Alert Level 2); aviation color code ORANGE: Growth of the new lava dome inside the crater of Mount St. Helens continues, accompanied by low rates of seismicity, low emissions of steam and volcanic gases, and minor production of ash. During such eruptions, changes in the level of activity can occur over days to months. The eruption could intensify suddenly or with little warning and produce explosions that cause hazardous conditions within several miles of the crater and farther downwind. Small lahars could suddenly descend the Toutle River if triggered by heavy rain or by interaction of hot rocks with snow and ice. These lahars pose a negligible hazard below the Sediment Retention Structure (SRS) but could pose a hazard along the river channel upstream.
Potential ash hazards: Wind forecasts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), coupled with eruption models, show that any ash clouds that rise above the crater rim today would drift eastward.
Potential ash hazards to aviation: Under current eruptive conditions, small, short-lived explosions may produce ash clouds that exceed 30,000 feet in altitude. Ash from such events can travel 100 miles or more downwind.
Recent observations: A M2.8 at 8:55pm yesterday caused a large rockfall that sent an ash plume about 2,000 feet above the rim of the volcano. The rockfall removed a large piece off the top of the growing dome, and it destroyed one of the seismometers in the crater. Seismicity returned to normal levels after the event. Next week crews will go out to make visual observations and possibly deploy a new seismometer.
Although my research does not address a connection between solar activity and seismology and volcanism, I certainly cannot rule it out.
Starmail - 20. Jul, 11:54
