Experience a virtual field trip...

to Mount St. Helens using these two linked videos.  They were shot and narrated by me in the mid-1990s during a week-long EWU geology field trip to the volcano.  Realize there was no such thing as digital HD technology at that time, but they are still pretty cool to watch.  Enjoy.

• Mount St. Helens - The View From the Summit
• Mount St. Helens - Into the Crater

NOTE: These should work fine if you have the QuickTime player installed.

Where were you...

when Mount Saint Helens blew, 31 years ago on this date?  I was working on my Ph.D. at Colorado State University, and found the thinnest film of ash on my windshield days later.

My soon-to-be colleagues in eastern Washington had to contend with a more significant fallout of ash, and here's a shot of EWU geology professor Eugene Kiver's back deck the day after the eruption (click to enlarge):

Image courtesy Eugene Kiver, taken 19 May 1980 south of Spokane, Washington.

RELATED: When volcanoes erupt.

Mount St. Helens rumbles again...

4.3 quake hits near Mt. St. Helens.

Here's the technical info from the USGS.  It doesn't appear to be magmatic.

Related previous post.

Swarm of minor earthquakes...

reported near Mount St. Helens this weekend.

360-degree view from the summit...

of Mount Saint Helens.  Very nicely done, and very cool.

30 years ago this morning...

Mount Saint Helens erupted violently, killing 57 people and spewing ash across Washington and other northwestern states. Here's your one-stop shopping for any and all information about the volcano, both then and now, provided by the USGS.

And here's a video about the impact to eastern Washington days after the cataclysmic event. Fortunately I was still a graduate student at Colorado State University in 1980, and not yet a resident of eastern Washington.

Image courtesy of NASA's Earth Observatory.

Has it been that long?

It was 30 years ago this coming weekend a relatively small 4.2 magnitude earthquake beneath Mount St. Helens initiated a drama that lasted about two months, until its cataclysmic eruption on 18 May 1980, killing 57 people. The image shown above (click to enlarge) shows the mountain's northeast side, prior to the eruption.

Here's the announcement from the USGS: Mount St. Helens Reawakens: The Thirtieth Anniversary.

Image courtesy Wikipedia.

Doh...

Climber tumbles into crater at Mount St. Helens. More here.

UPDATE: The search and rescue effort has unfortunately turned into a body recovery.

Magnetotelluric sensors...

around Mt. Saint Helens suggests there "may be an extraordinarily large zone of semi-molten rock, which would be capable of feeding a giant eruption" according to some researchers.

29th anniversary of the eruption...

of Mount Saint Helens who blew her top on 18 May 1980 after a 123 year period of quiescence. The aerial image above (click to enlarge) shows the dominant north-side breach that was opened in the initial moments of the eruption sequence that began at 8:32 am local time. A 5.1 magnitude earthquake triggered the largest landslide ever recorded, and as the north flank of the volcano collapsed the pressurized magma was free to expand thereby creating an enormous directed blast that nearly instantaneously leveled ~220 square miles of forest.

In addition, the rhyodacite lava dome is easily seen in the crater, as well as the runout of the Pine Creek lahar on the southeast side of the edifice that was fed by the melting Shoestring Glacier. Subsequent lava domes have been constructed during 2004-2006.

Links to current status, a brief summary article, and a photo gallery.

Image credit: NASA

Washington State observes...

Volcano Awareness Month in May. The USGS news release also announces the publication of Professional Paper 1750 on the renewed eruptions of Mount Saint Helens during 2004 to 2006.