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Mt. St. Helens STILL active

The lava-dome building eruption of Mount St. Helens continues, but at a slower rate than in previous years.

The current eruption started October 2004, with a dump-truck load of lava (0.6 cubic yards) per second. The current level of lava is about a small pickup-truck load (0.35 cubic yard) every three seconds.

Putting this growth rate in perspective, the average growth rate of Mount St. Helens over the last 4,000 years. At this rate it will take a couple hundred years for the volcano to rebuild itself to its former height (the elevation was 9,677 prior to the 1980 eruption, now it's 8,365).

Currently, approximately 10% of the pre-1980 volcanic cone has been replaced and about 11% of the present horseshoe-shaped crater.

Posted by Debi Wright on 09/29/2007 02:20 PM

Comments (2)

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2 Comments on Mt. St. Helens STILL active

OCT

2007

Debi - Were you a Washingtonian when Helen blew her lid? I lived in Northern California and that's all anyone talked about. I think I still have a baggie of ash somewhere.

OCT

2007

Tom - Yup, I was here when she blew her lid... I was really young (I'm not going to say...) but, my dad threw us in the car and DROVE to see it erupting! What a treat! Two weeks later we were camping (close - but not too close - to the mountain) when she burped again and the ash went toward Seattle (instead of Spokane) and we got dumped on... that was the scariest drive home ever! People were driving down I-5 with their heads hanging out windows like dogs just so they could see. It was 'pitch-black' at noon... very spooky. I've found a video that shows the dome growing. I'm going to attempt to post it... I'll follow your instructions! Thanks

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