September 30, 2004

Mount St. Helens is restless and has become an item of regional interest: Scientists warn that a small or moderate blast could spew ash and rock as far as three miles from the crater around Mount St. Helens in the next few days. Keep tabs on the mountain with the USFS webcam. Pick Wikipedia for an encapsulation or fatten up with 488 Slashdot comments.
posted by rolypolyman 20 years ago
  • I hope she blows big. 'twil get me out of work. Pacific northwest monkeys, unite for something cool to happen today.
  • Oh man, I remember the St. Helen's eruption vividly. I was living about 4 - 4.5 hours away. When it blew, it sounded like our own roof was blown off. Remember, we were about 240 miles away. That's how loud and powerful the repurcussion was. It was truly scary. That entire day, it was so eerily silent. Almost as if the mountain had literally sucked the sound from the air. I guess that the ash was absorbing a lot of sound. The birds didn't make a single noise. We noticed that first, we lived in the woods and it felt so strange outside. My mom and I were gardening and all of a sudden we both stood up and looked at each other and without a word went back into the house. I guess the ash was really started to hit us. What a god-awful mess that was. posted by Darshon at 10:13PM UTC on August 24 As long as I don't have to deal with the ash again.
  • My grandfather lived in Richland, WA, near the Hanford Reservation. I collected a jar full of ash from his front yard in July 1980. I can't imagine how long it took to clean up but I remember how it still coated the flowers in my grandfather's yard, months after the eruption.
  • I remember the eruption from 1980 as well - hope it isn't as bad. The ash was awful to deal with.
  • I'm keeping my eye on the horizon, waiting for the giant plume of ash.
  • The PI?! Ack!
  • Huh, looks like she's been putting off massive amounts of steam all afternoon. It's getting bigger too. And don't forget the giant bug attacks that will come as well.
  • I heard about this yesterday. How exciting! Maybe if it blows big enough we'll get a day off. My religion teacher was talking about how last time it exploded, there was so much ash even here in Portland all the teachers and students wore masks to school.
  • Well, jeeze. If you want a day off, just hope that no one gets killed to give it to you. You might be better served if you just called in a bomb threat.
  • Heard a volcanologist at the St. Helens observatory interviewed last night. He mentioned that they haven't measured any increase in magma flow into the volcano, so whatever's going to happen, they aren't expecting a really big deal.
  • Just checked the webcam noted above. It appears that an alien spacecraft has landed.
  • /me waves to Fabala. When's a Portland meetup going to happen? Well, jeeze. If you want a day off, just hope that no one gets killed to give it to you. You might be better served if you just called in a bomb threat. Er, yeah, of-freaking-course. . However, this has been built up enough around here that noone is on the mountain anymore (it's on type III alert), we've known about this for some time, and the largest they're expecting the blast radius to be is something like 3 miles. The closest observation station is 5 miles. Any civilization is a hell of a lot farther away than that. But I take it that you made that statement not reading much about the facts surrounding the impending explosion, only based on mine and Fabala's giddy statements about the utter coolness of having a (small, steaming, far away) volcano in our (sort of) backyard.
  • (School marm voice) But if it turns out to be bigger than they're projecting, wouldn't those of you who wished for a day off feel really bsd?
  • Heh. Yeah. It would also suck if Yellowstone blew anytime soon (:
  • Ian would say: So, if we PNW monkeys would all jump up and down today, say at 2:00pm, do you think it might help?
  • Let's burp the volcano!
  • On another note, can we find some activity for which "burping the volcano" can be a euphemism?
  • monkeyfilter:we burp volcanoes
  • Mt Saint Helens had a second eruption today, small earthquakes continue, indicvating passage of Something down there is ongoing. New bulletins from Reuters indicate a Level 3 Alert now.
  • Ian, how does Tuesday sound?
  • /snorts beer out nose at image of monkeys jumping up and down to burp the volcano.
  • Well, it's getting a little more exciting. They are actually starting evacuations, with warnings that something a bit more serious is on the way. And they're having tailgate party's wherever there is a good view!
  • OK you guys, stop jumping. I think that's enough. Maybe we better quit now. Unh, we could get in trouble for this. Com'on you guys, cut it out.
  • BlueHorse, isn't it like....the ass-crack of dawn for you? What the hell are you so early for? By my clock it's, what, 4:30 am-ish? As for me, it's now 3:30 am-ish and I think I will send my tired ass to bed. /off-topic
  • .....up so early......sheesh, I am tired.
  • Arrrrgh! Darshon's outted me. Yes, I'm a closet vampire and I do (most) of my evil surfing at night. The rest I do during the day. Look who's talking about being up late, Dar.
  • Well, if it was still 'night' for you, then it's okay. I thought maybe you were just getting up. As for me, well, to stay up that late is fine, to get up that early.....is not. ;)
  • Restless, make that any day other than monday or tuesday...and i can probably make it also.