Mount St. Helens, 35 years ago

From USGS Volcanoes:

Mount St. Helens, 35 years ago, Apr 14, 1980. This is the fourth week of activity at the volcano. The newspaper chides Mount St. Helens for putting on a half-hearted show with just minor steam emissions and a little ash. Sheriff’s deputies and US Forest Service personnel are out looking for a group of hikers who climbed Mount St. Helens, in violation of regulations that closed off access to the volcano. Anyone caught above tree line is subject to up to six months in jail and a $500 fine, but enforcement is difficult. Two Seattle television stations set helicopters down on the summit and walk to within four feet of the crater. The summit is technically owned by Burlington Northern Railroad and private property. Television crews claim immunity to prosecution because they landed on property that was outside of the closure enforced by the Forest Service. Burlington Northern later asks the Forest Service to administer the crater as closed.

The continuously recording tiltmeter at the Timberline parking lot measures small but consistent changes in ground tilt—a puzzling combination of both uplifts and subsidences. Two additional tiltmeters are installed at nearby locations to monitor the phenomenon more closely.

Image is of the Timberline parking area (lower right corner). A portion of the bulge is visible in the upper left corner under the ash-darkened snow. USGS image taken April 15, 1980.

[Material from USGS–CVO archives; In the Path of Destruction by Richard Waitt (available athttp://wsupress.wsu.edu/new-titles.html); The Oregonian newspaper (Portland, OR).]

More on Mount St. Helens at
http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/volcanoes/st_helens/; images at http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/volcanoes/st_helens/st_helens_multimedia_gallery.html.

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