http://dsc.discovery.com/news/afp/20040927/helens.html
Sept. 30, 2004 — U.S. geologists warned Wednesday that a surge in seismic activity at Mount St. Helens in the state of Washington could spark a volcano eruption.
The U.S. Geological Survey has raised its alert level to the second of three levels as small earthquakes have shaken the volcano.
"Overnight, seismic activity at Mount St. Helens has accelerated significantly, which increases our level of concern that current unrest could culminate in an eruption," the USGS said in an advisory released early Wednesday.
"We have quakes that are occurring at about four per minute," Stephanie Hanna, a spokeswoman for the USGS Western Region, told AFP. "The activity has significantly increased."
The strongest quake had a magnitude of 2.5.
Earthquake activity started last Thursday, quickening to around 100 small quakes on Monday. Trails up the mountain were closed to climbers and hikers after quakes measuring between 2 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.
Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980, killing 57 people, 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.
Mount St. Helens is part of the Cascade Mountains chain, which cross a large swath of land across the northwestern United States. The chain includes the Mount Adams and Mount Rainier volcanoes.
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Old news I know, but perhaps someone here didn't know about it.
And for anyone interested, here is a link to Mt. St. Helens on Volcano World:
http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/msh/
-Travis
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