ST Helens smoke and steam off the south side. Gray ash already climbing

[junker]

out of the crater. Can see the plumes from my 60x spotting scope. Lots of steam. So far no lahars. On the look out for mud now. Earthquakes continue. Up at top of trees easily felt. Say about 3 of the 2+ felt level quakes in last hour.

No bus-sized boulders or anything yet.

Looking for some of the deep quakes that shake the whole western WA state. If we get those, then watch out Portland as the ash will really go that way.

Well, back out to climb up to the observation platform....

[fairfaxvadem]

1. Do they think you'll get the lahars? Or just belching?

Sorry, this is so damn cool, even though it's not for the locals. I loved geology.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. I just hope this is not as bad as the last

blow out, though it may cool the planet slightly

[Parche]

3. ash

Looks like the ash is going to the Northwest, not
near us in Portland yet

[junker]

4. Can see the glacier back of the dome cracking and heaving on the sourth si

side of the dome. Looks like expansion causing the cracking. Many river sized melt streams now headed down the mountainside. Also all the steam and the little bits of ash came up from the south side of the crater, not the dome. So to us here on ground does not look like a dome building eruption, rather looks like this time the south side will go.

Came in cause it is all winding down, wind has cleared the air over it.

Streams still going strong, lots of melt. Also melt on the far edge of the glacier on the back side of dome. That edge is way up the crater and is visible from here. Melt on the outer edge. Heat ripples rising all over the crater, not just the dome.


So probably the magma flow to the dome is blocked and we will get a bigish quake to either shake loose the bouchon or create new tube. If the latter, then likely on the south, east side of the crater with another real explosive event.

So if there is a big quake, then look to the volcano to go again.