USGS releases new Mount St. Helens photos

01:45 PM PST on Tuesday, January 25, 2005

From KING Staff and Wire Reports

USGS

The U.S. Geological Survey released new photos of Mount St. Helens and its growth since its 1980 eruption.

VANCOUVER, Wash. - Scientists say the eruption at Mount St. Helens appears to be slowing after four months of magma pushing up into the volcano and spilling into a lava dome on the crater floor.

In an update today from the Cascades Volcano Observatory in Vancouver the U.S. Geological Survey said the activity is slower than when it began in late September.

They released pictures of a digital elevation model that shows the volcano in 1980, the dome changes in 2001, and then the dramatic change in October 2004 when the volcanic unrest began again.

Scientists say this activity could continue for weeks or months with periods of steam bursts and ash emissions.

The new lava dome—called a whale back because of its shape—is about half the size of the lava dome that formed after a similar period of activity in the 1980’s.

The lava dome continues to grow, accompanied by low rates of seismicity and low emissions of steam and volcanic gases.

The new lava dome plus the area of deformation is 134 times the size of the Rose Garden arena in Portland.