This report is crossposted here.

News reports indicate that Mt. Saint Helens has started to erupt. I have been posting about this for days, not really believing it would happen. Well, I was wrong! My previous post has been updated daily and is located here. For your convenience, I have reposted it in the extended entry below. Thanks for Digger for notifying me. He's also on the case. UPDATES BELOW

Whoa!! Check out that pic above from Fox News. Awesome! And by awesome I mean I am truly awestruck by the pics, not Spicolli awesome. The pic below is from the Seattle Post Inetlligencer via M.H. King. It's from earlier and only shows the steam

Click here for live video provided by KGW-TV/DT Portland & KING-TV/DT Seattle. You'll have to sit through a commercial before the video starts, but give it a second (link also via M.H. King).

Duane the Forester is pretty close to the volcano and he's liveblogging it. If you can't wait, he reports "At 40 miles away I didn't feel anything rumbling, sorry but this is one of those cases where MSM has an advantage. The ash is headed my way, however so if we get ashfall here I'll photoblog the event."

KGW-TV/DT Portland reports that there were three large bursts, than the eruuption tapered off. No lava in site. Ash and steam from the eruption have caused several flights to be cancelled out of Portland and Seattle.

UPDATE 4:30 EDT: Watching USGS press conference. Eruption at 12:03 PST--lasted 24 minutes, plume went to 10,000 ft. They report no lava flow. Some glacier melt being detected and elevated waterflow. No mudslides detected. The USGS guy says that there have been half a dozen of these types of eruptions since the last big one. The difference between this eruption and those other small eruptions is that the seismic activity was way larger this time. In fact, the seismic action (those are earthquakes folks) this time is GREATER than the big blow. However, experts still don't expect as large an eruption this time. Yeah, this is the inner geek coming out in me.

New favorite quote from Duane who is liveblogging this thing from ground zero: "John Kerry calls it the "wrong eruption at the wrong place at the wrong time"

One expert is now claiming that he is noticing mud flow coming down the mountain.

Mount St. Helens Live Webcam Here. Very Cool. (site down due to volume)

10/02 UPDATE: Some experts saying they expect another eruption shortly.

John Little is also covering this and has some good resources linked in this post which he has been updating. Rob at Say Anything also covering with some cool pics. Daily Recycler has some online news footage, but the link to the live feed above is to a Portland station live covering it and they have some excellent close-up footage. Crazy Gator also has some wicked cool pics. Brian B. is blogging from Eugene and says he might get some of the ash. James Joyner finds an updated story on my earlier report of the morons flocking to Mount St. Helens as tourists.

"We have had small swarm of earthquakes that begun last Thursday and are worried that a small explosion may occur without warning," said Peter Frenzen, a scientist from Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument.

"The earthquake activity is occurring below the dome -- all this could increase the likelihood of small rock slides from the lava dome," he said, adding that the mountain had not been hit by waves of quakes since 2001.

Trails up the mountain were closed to climbers and hikers after quakes measuring between two and to 2.8 on the Richter Scale shook the area amid fears of mud and rock slides over an eight kilometer (five mile) area around the peak.

The area north of the peak was hard hit in the 1980 eruption of Mount St Helens that left 57 people dead, devastating hundreds of square kilometers (miles) and spewing ash over much of the Pacific Northwest region.

The mountain's top lies around 88 kilometers (55 miles) northeast of the Oregon's main city of Portland, which was also covered in a thick layer of ash in the 1980 eruption.

Posted by: Rusty at 05:03 PM | Comments (25) | Add Comment
Post contains 720 words, total size 6 kb.

1 Before she blew, St. Helens was called "The Fuji of America" because she was so perfectly symmetrical. Washington's Mt. Rainier and The Three Sisters here in Oregon have both been showing signs of awaking. If The Sisters go, I'll have an incredibly good view, but a fairly safe one. It's the people in Central Oregon who will be screwed. That's cattle country, the cost of evacuating livestock will be phenomenal. I remember it too. I was living just to the east of Washington in Idaho, and we got a light dusting. My church's camp is in Camas WA, less than 50 miles from MSH, but away from the direction of the blast. The ash there was a couple of inches think. The stuff was incredibly fine and got into EVERYTHING. It was abrasive and destroyed engines and paint jobs. Interestingly enough, if heated hot enough, it makes a beautiful glass that can be blown in artwork. It turned the skies black at noon. Yup, here in the Pacific Northwest, unless you're talking to someone VERY young, all you have to do is say May 18th, and people know what you mean.

Posted by: Brian B at September 27, 2004 05:53 PM (OnnW3)

2 One other thing: When you view the eruption, bear in mind that that is a CUBIC FREAKING MILE of mountain being turned into powder!

Posted by: Brian B at September 27, 2004 05:56 PM (OnnW3)

3 Does this effect me at all?

Posted by: Professor Peter Von Nostrand at September 27, 2004 08:02 PM (62QDG)

4 You said "mount."

Posted by: Leopold Stotch at September 27, 2004 09:28 PM (r3Q/X)

5 no professor, but it may affect you.

Posted by: jack at September 27, 2004 11:01 PM (AaBEz)

6 And you just know that Bush won't even bother to apologize when it does blow. Just like he never apologized for all the hurricanes. Sheesh.

Posted by: Sobek at September 28, 2004 12:26 AM (XwlU1)

7 Bush is not responsible for the hurricanes, so why should be apologize? They've found that Mt St Helens has been having unstable reactions such as earthquakes and such - and since this is NATURE, how can Bush be responsible for it's going off like it did the first time? Of course it's going to interrupt the environment and the world's atmosphere, just like anything that is done to anywhere affects our atmosphere. But how in hell does that make it Bush's fault? Nature is Nature. Italy has lava constantly flowing and somewhere in Hawaii, there's another that continues to have lava flowing and all this is Bush's fault? HOW???? Kentucky had a small earthquake last week and is that his fault, too? Sobek, where is your sense of reality??? ~C

Posted by: firstbrokenangel at September 28, 2004 09:47 PM (D39Vm)

8 There's been approximately 1000 small earthquakes there recently. Chad Evans of CNN explains that after the earthquake in between San Francisco and Los Angeles yesterday with 190 aftershocks, due to the FULL MOON, it is possible that Mt St Helens will burst within the week. That is the word today... Wednesday Sept 29th. ~C

Posted by: firstbrokenangel at September 29, 2004 05:45 AM (D39Vm)

9 Oi firstbrokenangel, I think that sobek was having a joke. Try and stay off the caffeine my man.

Posted by: Fez at September 30, 2004 04:12 PM (MR4Gz)

10 Nice blog!

Posted by: Tom at October 04, 2004 05:30 AM (gRuaq)

11 Fez, I'm not a man and I never drink caffeine. ~C

Posted by: firstbrokenangel at October 05, 2004 07:51 AM (D39Vm)

12 rauchen fügt ihnen und den menschen in ihrer umgebung erheblichen schaden zu

Posted by: Routenplaner at October 13, 2004 10:01 AM (YnrYz)

13 Rauchen in der schwangerschaft schadet ihrem kind edustartpage

Posted by: Rezepte at October 15, 2004 10:25 PM (YnrYz)

14 dgsgffffffffdsgfsdg

Posted by: Tiana at December 12, 2004 10:45 AM (siFAl)

15 the pictures are great and the information is interesting. !!!!!!!!

Posted by: me at January 20, 2005 06:56 PM (GS5Qr)

16 I think These Pics are fab!!!!!!! I needed these for my project and it really helped! Thanx!!! But...... i thought you could give me more....... well next time PLEASE give me more because i just love them! All thanks from Sophia

Posted by: Sophia Kang at February 21, 2005 12:16 AM (az4Ic)

17 hi I'm doing a project on Mount saint Helens could you please help me you seem like someone who knows somthing abou mount saint helens could you please answer these questions for me - how did mount saint helens recover ( like what help did they receive in 1980 ) -what were the effects of mount saint helens how did it impact when the side blew away in 1980 - what was the responce how many countries helped out and if they did who were they - why would/wouldn;t you live in the town sourrinding mount saint helens ? see you may know the answers please e mail me back before thursday thank you in annticipation Jellybean

Posted by: Jellybean at February 21, 2005 07:27 PM (Lf1kY)

18 woah!! man that thing is AMAZING i've never seen a volcano in my time but now im alittle worried if the volcano blows or not???? but still great pics

Posted by: kaitlyn at February 27, 2005 10:35 PM (6krEN)

19 i think that Mt. St. Helens is a beautiful volcanos but i would like to know when was the last time she erupt so i can put the last few finishing touches on my project about Helens.

Posted by: Janelle Pittard at March 01, 2005 09:17 AM (JMOQW)

20 u do no tht St helens erupted yesterday 9th of march dont u???

Posted by: bill at March 10, 2005 05:13 AM (X12Qi)

21 What good cause effects has Mount St. Helens left for it's environment and sorroundings? Thank You!

Posted by: Jooly at March 20, 2005 07:27 PM (rM2KD)

22 well this site wasn't very helpfull we need updates on the environmental effects and how they are growing back!!! cOME ON!

Posted by: Sally Mally at April 21, 2005 07:09 PM (zF6/b)

23 hey i am ere is any one else

Posted by: bbbbb at May 18, 2005 11:45 AM (F1nba)

24 hey i am really impressed wid dis web notttttttt

Posted by: beeble at May 18, 2005 11:46 AM (F1nba)

25 goodbye

Posted by: beeble at May 18, 2005 11:47 AM (F1nba)

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