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Possible 'Hazardous Event' At Mount St. Helens
babynerd writes "Seismologists believe there's an increased likelihood of a hazardous event at Mount St. Helens due to recent changes in the mountain's seismic activity. That increased activity on Sunday prompted the U.S. Geological Survey
and the University of Washington to release a "notice of volcanic unrest.""
People who live new the mountain shouldn't panic at all, because whatever the mountain does is unlikely to be very big.
One interesting thing (of many, really), however, is that St. Helens is one of the few fairly low latitude mountains in the Western hemisphere with a low-elevation glacier acumulating ice. The glacier is accumulating at only between about 6500 or 7000 feet.
That ice, however, if it were heated suddenly, could be one of the more notable volcanic hazards on the mountain. My instinct tells me it probably couldn't cause much damage because it would have to flow a long ways before reaching anything too critical, and over that distance the flood wave would be much attenuated, and there's really not much redevelopment (there wasn't too much development before the initial eruption either) downstream of the crater.
In the near vicinity of the crater rock fragments, ash, and small landslides might be possible, but only researchers are allowed in that area anyway, so these represent little threat to the general public.
Personally, I think it would be kind of neat to see some activity out of this volcano. It's pretty been quite for several years now. A rumble from St. Helens would certainly be better than an eruption from most other other Cascade volcanoes -- a sizeable eruption from Hood or Ranier could be very dangerous.