After watching hurricanes devastate the Florida coast for weeks, national focus turned to Washington, where Mount St. Helens once again coughed to life.
Since Friday, only earthquakes shook the mountain, punctuated by ash and steam explosions, but, according to one ASU geologist, "the big question is whether magma is coming to the surface."
No magma was seen as of Monday, but it could be coming. A 50-minute, low frequency tremor on Saturday afternoon prompted scientists at the Cascades Volcano Observatory, a branch of the U.S. Geologic Survey, to raise the threat level on Mount St. Helens to 3 -- the highest level.
"High frequency signals are rocks fracturing," said Amanda Clarke, a volcanologist with the ASU Geology Department. "A low frequency would be fluids moving within cracks."
The recent activity on Mount St. Helens came as a surprise to some ASU students from the area.
"It's not something that you talk about very much," said psychology senior Jamie Knapp, a native of Portland, Ore., which is 50 miles from the volcano. "They also said it was dormant after the last time."
Mount St. Helens last erupted in May 1980, when it blew out the northern rim of its crater, causing devastating landslides that killed 57 people and coated the Pacific Northwest in ash. Activity since then has been on a smaller scale.
"I knew [Mount St. Helens] wasn't completely dead," said mass communications senior Jeff Stensland, from Redmond, Wash., about 100 miles from Mount St. Helens.
Mass communications senior Matt Cahill, who is from the Spokane area across the state from the mountain, agreed but said he and his family weren't worried.
"Actually, I think it's kind of exciting, to see what happens," he said.
The first eruptive activity -- a plume of steam and ash -- exploded Friday around noon. Three more have followed, and earthquakes and sustained tremors have continued.
Clarke said she doesn't expect an explosion to rival the 1980 blast. She said she believes the volcano to act more like it did in the early 1980s, while it was building the current volcanic dome that sits inside the old crater.
"You get periodic explosions," she said.
Although Stensland said he thought people in his area were well informed, he called the recent activity a "wake-up call."
"Even though the volcano's just erupted [in 1980], it's still an active volcano range," he said. "Nothing's ever certain over there."
Reach the reporter at kjk176@asu.edu.
