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Mount St. Helens Lets Off Some Steam
jdray writes "The cube farm is all a twitter right now, as Mt. St. Helens is spewing out a steam plume, and you can see if from our building. The cam for the volcano seems to be down, but we just saw a news helicopter from KATU, one of our local news stations, headed that direction. They should have some content up shortly." Other readers suggest: KOIN, KOIN webcams, Kiro TV, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, or CNN.
It just looked like it needed to sneeze....I mean if you had that much dirt building up in your crater you'd have to as well...
Be polite and say "God Bless you" and move on....nothing to see here...
...in bed
There was supposed to be an earth-shattering kaboom!
A fine is a tax you pay for doing wrong and a tax is a fine you pay for doing all right.
watched it out my window here at work and it was nothing. my folks are 25mi from it and got no ash. still more to come.
.-=Wit is educated insolence=-. -Aristotle
My mountain asplode!
Fellowship 9/11
The volcano cam is not down perse, but it's been hit and miss all day. I'm currently looking at an image from 13:24:01 PDT this afternoon.
/. I wouldn't expect to have much luck for a while ;)
Now that the link is front and center on
No Comment.
It sure looks like a cloud was framed strategically behind the moutain to make the "steam" look like more than it was. I see some dark wisps, and then a big white plume that seems to start right at the top of the crater as if it were actually behind it.
Here is some cool video (Windows media, but VLC played it fine):
Any news yet on possible terrorist involvement?
"It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once." -David Hume
Mexico's 'Fire Volcano' Erupts, No Evacuations Yet
KABLOOEY!
no
President Bush vows to find the terrorists responsible for blowing up Mt. St. Helen
This big buildup to a little eruption reminds of me of how I feel when I eat something that might disagree with me more than it actually did.
...fart rather loudly a few times and drop a turd the size of a peanut into the commode.
You go out to lunch, come back, and go to a meeting. During the whole meeting, your stomach is growling in such a horrible way as to sound like you've shit your britches. People look at you, and boss asks, embarrassingly, if you have to leave the meeting. You say, redfaced, "I'm OK, and plod through the rest of the meeting while your co-workers roll their chairs a little farther away from you."
At the end of the meeting, you rush to the bathroom, which everyone giggles about as they see you make the mad dash, lock the door, drop your trousers, and sit down for what you think will be mother of all bowel movements. And then you...
All that buildup and embarrassment for...a single tiny turd.
Looks like the other mountains in the area laughed at Mt. St. Helen's before she popped her piddly piddle today.
IronChefMorimoto
With the wind blowing the ash to the W/SW I'm sure you're right. Longview or Portland might get a little dusting though.
They've had their helicopter over the mountain for about 40 minutes now with a live feed, and have had some good shots of inside the volcano crater, looking at the hole that was created from the blast.
When the last one hit, things like pantyhose were used to keep ash from destroying their engines.
I live a couple hours south of Portland and we got only a light dusting after the first eruption. My wife lived further north and was cleaning ash off of cars for days.
Supposedly this one may throw rock and ash up to 3 miles away. The Forest Service camera is 5 miles off, and the 1980 explosion threw ask over 250 miles.
I haven't been up there but did hike up Lassen Peak in 2000. Much of that area is still bare from the eruptions that occurred around 1915.
The clearance system sounds logical. It is not. It is completely arbitrary. -- John Bolton
Ok fine then "Gesundheit", no wait that's German, nobody understands it and I'm an insensitive clod...ummm....so what do I say when someone sneezes??? May the non-denominational powers that guide this universe be well in your favor???
...in bed
You're right, I wouldn't steal a car. But if it were possible, I sure as hell would download one!
Sorry to get all your panties in a bunch...
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
"Here, have a tissue."
Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
You forgot Poland. I fear it is just the beginning.
I for one welcome the impending arrival of our underworld dwelling overlords.... (someone had to say it)
BREAKING NEWS: With the eruption of Mt. St. Helens, US President George W. Bush accused God of attacking the United States with multiple WMDs over the course of the summer. Bush counted several hurricanes, numerous tornadoes and thunderstorms, floods, and the recent earthquake in southern California as examples of God's terrorist activity. Bush said that the threats of detonating Mt. St. Helens in Washington and another volcano in Hawaii signalled great threats to national security. Bush said that his administration would immediately begin searching for God's forces "on the ground" so that the US might be able to fight back. A spokesman for the Vatican said that the Pope was preparing a statement in response to Bush's grevious threats. When asked what she thought of Bush's reponse to the eruption, a spokeswoman for the USGS simply shook her head, blushed, and asked for the next question. Bush tried to use the simultaneous eruption of a Mexican volcano to garner Mexican support for the War on Terror. The Mexican ambassador to the US said "Bush is loco. Muy, muy loco." No members of Bush's inner circle could be reached for comment.
The cam for the volcano seems to be down
/. front page we can bring it back up.
So clearly by putting a link to it on the
I stole this Sig
I was fortunate to be within sixty miles of this explosion today, and I can say that it looked incredible in person.
gesundheit means good health
:o)
Really? And here I was all along thinking it meant the opposite of "comes out loose".
? Iludium Pu-36 Space Modulator Missing at Line 335
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Mt. Hood poses a much larger danger to the Portland area. It's bigger than St. Helens, closer to Portland, and has a number of ski resorts and other people-attracting landmarks. Portland also has a volcano, presumably extinct, within the densely populated city limits - Mt. Tabor.
The last big blast cleared about a cubic mile of rock out of the way. Pressures this time won't build as high as a result.
The clearance system sounds logical. It is not. It is completely arbitrary. -- John Bolton
The past may have had extreme natural events similarly, but were they so "focused" like in the last 3 months?
Maybe the earth had to reboot itself due to some Y2K issue?
http://www.king5.com is currently offering a live helicopter stream of the scene, along with misc. USGS commentary.
Ring of fire activity is up all around the ring. From Japan to Mexico to California, there is a lot of seismic and volcanic activity still going on. St. Helens is just a symptom of something else. I am betting something big happens in the next 3 months. Either an inactive volcano blows, or there's a big EQ in the ring, but something is going to happen. 6.2 in Mexico, 6.0 in California, 7.2 in Japan, St. Helens burps, small quake activity in Alaska and the cascades is up, and Hawaii is looking at Mauna Loa going very active. All of this within the last month, and all of it unusial. I doubt this burp from St' Helens is going to be the total end result.
"Curiosity killed the cat, but for a while I was a suspect."- Steven Wright
So when do we start throwing the virgins in? ... I think some Slashdotters better watch out o_O.
So close and yet so far from the world's perfect ID number
No that's goesintight. ...the "German virgin"
What?? Peter Jackson followed them in? Horrors! I guess he wanted to get some good shots before they got toasted... Talk about some hazard pay for the actors.
And the swing states continue to get hit by natural disasters, proving...what, exactly? While you ponder this question, you can read the shocking(ly boring) truth about who this St. Helens actually was here.
Actually, LA and san fran, and if both go, it will clean up the a lot of the mess today. (riaa, mpaa, holywood, and just plain scummy cities)
The rest of cali is worlds better.
The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive
If people in the Ring of Fire areas get as much lead time as people in Florida do about hurricanes, there should be no reason for a large amount of fatalities due to predictable volcanic activity... except maybe that Tacoma doesn't have an evacuation plan in case Mt. Ranier goes. I'm not sure what the probability is of unpredictable, sudden, catatsrophic volcanic activity, though.
-Rob
Marriage doesn't have to suck!
Mt. St. Helen is nowhere close to a densely populated area in the United States.
First, it is a few hours drive from a major city (Seattle), and even then population density in the Seattle area is well below that of any place south of San Francisco on the California coast or north of Arlington, on the Eastern seaboard, all the way to Boston or so.
...and neither is Mt. St. Helens.
Mt. Hood and Mt. Rainier are, however.
And then there is the area around Yellowstone Park.
"Chances are, unlikely things will happen."
taken! (by Davidleeroth) Thanks Bingo Foo!
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
There are many of us here in OR state (Thats OR-IH-GUN for those of you elsewhere) that are NOT sick and tired of hearing about Mt. Saint Helens!
No one is panicking, it is just kinda cool. Of course I also think it is neat when it rains, and I like lightning storms and even forest fires... Even the recent hurricaines I found fascinating. If you don't like it, don't read!
I'd go for the snowboot and shovel markets if I was there, I think. That and selling the ash to those living too far away to be blessed by it's falling in their yard.
As for me, I thought it was so cool that I had a small bag of Mt St Helens ash I purchased with a photo of the eruption. I'm not sure if I've ever shared that little nugget of info with her.
(with due acknowledgement to the late R. Zelazny)
Have you never watched Seinfeld?
The appropriate non-demoninational response to a sneeze is "You're SOOO good looking."
Mount St. Helens, you're sooo good looking.
"There is no time, sir, at which ties do not matter," Jeeves, (Jeeves and the Impending Doom)
Its Friday. Be nice. ;)
A man flying in a hot air balloon realizes that he is lost, so he reduces his altitude and spots a man on the ground down below. Lowering the balloon a little further, the balloonist shouts "Excuse me Sir! But can you help me? I promised my friend that I would meet him half an hour ago, but I don't know where I am!" The man on the ground replies, "Yes. You are in a hot air balloon, hovering at approximately 30 feet. You are between 40 and 41 degrees north latitude, and between 58 and 59 degrees west longitude." "You must be a geologist," says the balloonist. "Why, yes I am," replies the man on the ground. "How on earth did you know?" "Well", says the balloonist, "Everything you have told me is well described. It is also technically and geographically accurate. However, I have no idea what to make of your information, and the fact of the matter is I have spent much valuable time conversing with you and I am still lost. Furthermore, I will not be able to make my appointment now." The geologist below nods his head and says, "You must be a manager in an oil company." "Why, yes I am," replies the balloonist, "But how did you guess that?" "Well," says the geologist, "You have no idea where you are or where you are going. Also, you have made a promise which you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve your problem for you. The real fact of the matter is that you are in exactly the same position now as what you were in before we met, yet now your predicament has somehow become my fault."
One more:
Here in California, when a bridge falls down, we know it must be San Andreas' Fault!
Hahahaha!! Sheer comic genius!
I probably would have never known about this if I hadn't read about it here on Slashdot. I need to look outside more often since Mount St. Helens is in viewable range of my window.
Mount Hood is awfully big. Obviously, it'd depend on the size of the explosion, but the potential exists for something that would make Mount St. Helen's 1980 event look like something mild.
Despite comments by other posters on this, before, I can't help but feel that the Cascades affect each other. Even if there is no direct connection, the mere proximity means that the internal structure of each volcano may be affected by earthquakes caused by the others.
Mount Hood hasn't (so far) had a major increase in pressure build-up. However, isn't it within the realms of possibility that the Mount St. Helens quakes may block vents, compress the magma, etc? Sure, the shock waves haven't been big (so far), but that's relative. It might not take a whole lot to set Mount Hood off.
The Cascades are part of the so-called "Ring of Fire", which is a massive chain of volcanos. KATU talked about it having 3/4s of all the volcanos on Earth. That's a lot. I don't know if this Mexican volcano that's also gone off is also part of the Ring, but if it is, I (for one) would be very much in favour of increased monitoring over the whole of the Ring. Things seem a little too active, right now, and it probably isn't sensible to just sit back and wait.
Even if the probability of any further eruptions in the near future are extremely low, and even if the probability of either of these events triggering further volcanic activity elsewhere is minimal, it might be prudent to make sure of that.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
I for one welcome our Volcanic OverLords, as a matter of fact I am rounding up virgins for the volcano right now. Any interested parties should meet me tonight at the base of St. Helens were we can discuss further details concerning your last swan dive.
If we don't make light of everything, we are just stumbling in the dark - Blank