Massive rock falls from Mount St. Helens

[WhiteTara]

The earth is moving under our feet...
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060512/st_helens_060512/20060512?hub=SciTech
SEATTLE -- The sheer rock fin emerging in Mount St. Helens' crater lost about a third of its northern face recently, but because lava keeps pushing to the surface, the height remained the same Thursday -- around 100 metres.

A burst of seismic activity at the mountain Sunday night likely corresponded to the collapse. "Certainly a big piece fell off -- something like 65,000 cubic yards (49,696 cubic metres)," said geologist Dan Dzurisin at the Cascades Volcano Observatory in Vancouver, Wash., about 80 kilometres from the mountain and 240 kilometres south of Seattle.

Bad weather had iced over scientists' cameras on the rim of the volcano, so the rockfall wasn't recorded on film, he said.

Now the fin is about the same height as it was before, but rock that was previously in the middle is now at the top.

"At that height, it becomes unstable and ... begins to collapse under gravity," he said. Boulders and finer rubble from the crumbling top surround the base of the fin.

This is the seventh rock feature formed by lava in the crater since the 2,549-metre mountain reawakened with a drumfire of low-level seismic activity in September 2004.

too bad there are no pictures

[Trajan]

1. Aerospace industry had invented something long ago ....

Battery Powered Heaters ....

They should look them up ....

[Viva_La_Revolution]

2. link to the live cam....

at night all you can see is the outline of the crater, and the 'light spot' on the mountain. Thats where the 'fin' is. The lava gives off just enough light to make it show up. How cool! thanks for the info.

http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/volcanocams/msh/

[xxqqqzme]

3. thanx - bookmarked it his time.

[WhiteTara]

5. thanks for the live cam link!

this is very interesting. We'll be in that area in the next week or so.
:thumbsup:

[upi402]

4. kick

:toast:

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

6. She's about 40 miles from our house.

We can't see her from our house because of the trees, but she looked very peaceful, and lovely, yesterday.