New tremors at Mount St. Helens

SEATTLE (Reuters) - New tremors detected overnight at Mount St. Helens have increased the likelihood that the Washington state volcano will erupt again, scientists tracking renewed earthquake activity at the mountain say.

Willie Scott, a U.S. Geological Survey geologist, said on Sunday that tremors were detected in the crater of Mount St. Helens at 3 a.m. (11 a.m. British time) that indicated that a second eruption could be in store after Friday's minor explosion that sent up a plume of steam and ash.

The U.S. Geological Survey kept its warning level at a Level 3-Volcano Alert and kept off-limits a visitor centre at the Johnston Ridge Observatory about five miles (8 km) from the volcano's crater as a safety precaution.

Gases were also detected for the second day, Scott said, suggesting that magma may be building up underneath the crater's lava dome created after a 1980 eruption which killed 57 people, destroyed more than 200 homes, devastated hundreds of square miles (square km), and sent ash drifting across North America as far east as Oklahoma.

Scientists do not expect any eruption to cause damage to surrounding areas on the same scale. A Level 3 warning means that there is a potential hazard to life and property in the area, the Geological Survey said.

"We're not envisioning pyroclastic (lava) flows," Scott told reporters at the Cascades Volcano Observatory, in Vancouver, Washington.

The main concern is how any ash sent into the air might disrupt air traffic near the volcano, located about 100 miles (160 km) south of Seattle, and 50 miles (80 km) north of Portland, Oregon.

Mount St. Helens woke from its slumber 10 days ago with a series of small earthquakes and erupted briefly on Friday, spewing steam and ash for about 24 minutes to an altitude of 10,000 feet (3,050 metres).

Similar eruptions in the lava dome happened in 1986 but caused no serious damage.

The violent blast in 1980 blew off the top of the mountain and reduced the summit of Mount St. Helens to 8,364 feet (2,550 metres) from 9,677 feet (2,950 metres).

Now they're wondering whether to step it back to a Category 2 but they seem fairly sure that it is more than steam build up ... that magma definitely is involved.

If I was a superstitious person, all of these natural disasters, impending or otherwise, would have me wondering whether the jig was up.

<Edit>

The week before Mt. St. Helens acted up, there was a richter 6 earthquake in Claifornia followed by 3 aftershocks, one at 5.0 and the other two at 4.1 each.
The good news was that the epicenter was where no one lived and folks in the surrounding area have been living in quake hardened structures for over a decade. And, before that, there was an offshore quake of about 5.8 or so 50 miles due west of San Diego.... made for some good surfing, I hear.

Edited by - Indy11 on 10/4/2004 1:22:05 PM

"If I was a superstitious person, all of these natural disasters, impending or otherwise, would have me wondering whether the jig was up"

I've been saying that for years. we're all doomed you know. the Earth's fighting back because we're ruining it. We're going to be eradicated like infection germs by antibodies. inevitable really.