God must be pissed at Bush. Mt. St Helens let out a wee burp.

xpanda · Mar 9, 2005

Mount St. Helens emits cloud of ash
2.0-magnitude quake precedes volcano’s emission

Mount St. Helens released a towering plume of ash on Tuesday, as seen by a research camera positioned 1.5 miles from the volcano's vent.

MOUNT ST. HELENS, Wash. - Mount St. Helens made its most significant emission in months, sending a gritty ash cloud drifting slowly to the northeast.

The National Weather Service issued an ashfall advisory Tuesday evening after pilots reported spotting ash higher than 30,000 feet, said National Weather Service meteorologist Danny Mercer. The advisory was cancelled early Wednesday.

A fine dusting of ash was reported 125 miles to the east-northeast in southern Grant County late Tuesday night, the National Weather Service reported.

The 30-minute outpouring began at 5:25 p.m. Tuesday, about an hour after a 2.0 magnitude quake rumbled on the east side of the 8,364-foot volcano, said Bill Steele, coordinator of the Pacific Northwest Seismograph Network at the University of Washington.

Steele said he did not believe the explosion had increased the risk of a significant eruption and noted that recent flights over the volcano’s crater did not reveal high levels of gases.

The volcano has vented ash and steam since last fall, when thousands of small earthquakes marked a seismic reawakening of the 8,364-foot mountain.

Steele said the latest ash burst may have been triggered by partial collapse of a lava dome in the crater, which has been growing steadily over the last several months.

Peggy Johnson, a university seismologist, said there had been no increase in quake activity before the explosion.

'Big adrenaline rush'
College roommates Scott Miller and William Nicole, both 19, were visiting Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument when the eruption happened. Miller snapped pictures before the two leaped into their car and drove west, yelling at other motorists to turn back until they had gone about a mile and felt safe again.

“It was a pretty big adrenaline rush,” Nicole said.

On May 18, 1980, the volcano 100 miles south of Seattle blew its top, killing 57 people and covering the region with gritty ash.

Mount St. Helens rumbled back to life Sept. 23, with shuddering seismic activity that peaked above magnitude 3 as hot magma broke through rocks in its path. Molten rock reached the surface Oct. 11, marking resumption of dome-building activity that had stopped in 1986.

Scientists have said a more explosive eruption, possibly dropping ash within a 10-mile radius of the crater, is possible at any time.

© 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. oops!

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Payback for all those Ramadan festivals at the White House?

truthteller · Mar 9, 2005

I thought you didn't in God.

xpanda · Mar 9, 2005

I don't. Tongue-and-cheek, and poking fun at Doc.

Woody0 · Mar 9, 2005

Are you sure that it is not Saint Helen herself? From the Catholic Encyclopaedia:

St. Helen of Sköfde
Martyr in the first half of the twelfth century. Her feast is celebrated 31 July. Her life (Acta SS., July, VII, 340) is ascribed to St. Brynolph, Bishop of Skara, in Sweden (d. 1317). She was of noble family and is generally believed to have been the daughter of the Jarl Guthorm. When her husband died she remained a widow and spent her life in works of charity and piety; the gates of her home were ever open to the needy and the church of Sköfde was almost entirely built at her expense. Her daughter's husband was a very cruel man, and was in consequence killed by his own servants. His relatives, wishing to avenge his death, examined the servants. These admitted the crime, but falsely asserted that they acted on the instigation of Helen. She had then gone on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, but on her return she was killed in 1160 (?) at Gothene by her husband's relatives. Her body was brought to Sköfde for burial, and many wonderful cures were wrought at her intercession. The report of these miracles was sent to Rome by Stephen, the Archbishop of Upsala, and he, by order of Pope Alexander III, in 1164 inscribed her name in the list of canonized saints (Benedict XIV, "De canonizatione sanctorum", I, 85). Great was the veneration shown her relics even after the Reformation had spread in Sweden. Near her church was a holy well, known to this day as St. Lene Kild. At various times the Lutheran authorities inveighed against this remnant of what they called popish and anti-Christian superstition. Especially zealous in this regard was Archbishop Abraham, who had all the springs, mineral or pure water, filled up with stones and rubbish (Baring-Gould, "Lives of the Saints", July, II, 698). St. Helen's tomb and well (St. Elin's) were also honoured at Tiisvilde in the parish of Tibirke in the island of Zealand. Pilgrimages were made every summer, cripples amd sick came in numbers; they would remain all night at the grave, take away with them little bags of earth from under the tombstone, and frequently would leave their crutches or make votive offerings in token of gratitude. Such was the report sent in 1658 from Copenhagen to the Bollandists by the Jesuit Lindanus. A similar statement is made by Werlaiff, in 1858, in his "Hist. Antegnelser". The legend says that St. Helen's body floated to Tiisvilde in a stone coffin, and that a spring broke forth where the coffin touched land. The Bollandists (loc. cit.) give as a possible reason for her veneration at Tiisvilde that perhaps St. Helen had visited the place, or some of her relics had been brought there.