"Poof!" there it is

Mount Saint Helens, as I mentioned earlier, has huffed and puffed and spit a bit of steam and ash out. Check out the seismic readings from a station on the south flanks of the volcano (at bottom). Notice all the quakes, a big boom, then flatline. That's the way the mountain crumbles, I guess. The event happened at 12:04pm and lasted for about 20 minutes. Thankfully it was nothing more than a puff as was predicted. I'm excited for the geologists in the area because the sensationalism of local press surrounding this event will provide them with great footage to study exactly what happened. Just as in 1980, St. Helens has proven an incredible source for data that has save countless lives of people near volcanoes around the world. Have fun with that, guys! Oh, and have a beer on me.

Update (2004-10-01 @ 2:08pm)
Here's a video I put together showing St. Helens' steam eruption as taken in 5 minute increments from the suddenly popular VolcanoCam: View video (WMV, 924K)

Update (2004-10-01 @ 10:45pm)
I've added some digital shots taken from a helicopter by some USGS folks of the eruption coming right out of the earth. Here's a folder of those photos in higher quality. The activity on the mountain is also rather lively again as you can see in the later seismic traces.

Comments (0) | To Top