Mount St. Helens Releases Plume of Steam
MOUNT ST. HELENS, Wash. – Mount St. Helens began belching ash and a huge column of white steam Friday after days of rumblings and earthquakes that suggested the volcano that erupted with cataclysmic force in 1980 was about to blow its top again.
“This is exactly the kind of event we’ve been predicting,” said U.S. Geological Survey scientist Cynthia Gardner.
The steam cloud poured from the southern edge of a 1,000-foot-tall lava dome in the volcano’s crater. Steam frequently rises from a lava dome in the crater of the volcano, but it had not erupted in 18 years.
For the past week, scientists have detected thousands of earthquakes of increasing strength – as high as magnitude 3.3 – at a mountain best known for its 1980 eruption. The eruption killed 57 people and coated towns 250 miles away with ash.