MOUNT ST. HELENS NATIONAL MONUMENT, Wash., Oct. 3 -- A reawakening volcano sparked a makeshift festival here Sunday, as thousands of people staged parties at every wide spot in the two-lane road to the mountain.
Geologic spectators set up lawn chairs in the beds of pickup trucks and fired up barbecues from the park entrance to the Coldwater Ridge Visitor Center at Milepost 43, where the road is closed 8 1/2 miles from the simmering volcano. Impromptu entrepreneurs hawked hot dogs and coffee.
Mount St. Helens Q&A
From
Associated Press
at 1:49 PM
Mount St. Helens is poised for its biggest eruption since it blew its top in 1980, killing 57 people. Here are some common questions and answers about the volcano located about 100 miles south of Seattle.
Q: Why is the volcano active now?
A: An active volcano like Mount St. Helens always experiences minor rumblings. Now, hot magma is rising higher inside the mountain and filling its interior chamber. This triggers swarms of earthquakes. The gases dissolved in the magma build up pressure and are very explosive.
Q: What will happen when the volcano erupts?
A: Scientists aren't sure. So far, it has emitted steam and a little ash. A large eruption throws rocks and vents off poisonous gases. Lava flows downhill and melts anything in its path.
In extreme cases, mudslides called lahars roar down mountainsides at 100 mph, filling valleys and covering entire communities. A pyroclastic flow of superheated rocks and ash can shatter and burn anything in its path.
Mostly, people near the volcano must contend with large clouds of gritty ash that spew 60,000 feet high, threatening aircraft.
Q:Is the ash fallout similar to that from a forest fire?
A: No. Wood ash is fluffy. Volcanic ash is a gritty mixture of pulverized rock and natural glass. It can scratch and ruin the painted finish of cars and homes. It clogs engines, machinery, irrigation and ventilation systems. It can kill plants by coating their leaves and preventing photosynthesis. People should wear masks and not breathe in the ash.
Q: How can scientists predict eruptions?
A: Scientists don't know exactly what will happen or when, but they look for clues in the changes registered by seismic and other monitoring devices. Mount St. Helens is one of the world's most heavily instrumented mountains, and researchers are reconnecting instruments that were initially knocked out by tremors. Plus, federal agencies have dispatched airplanes to make air sampling flights. GPS satellites measure bulges and other changes to the mountain's lava dome and steep flanks that signal an impending eruption. Weather stations forecast wind conditions that steer ash clouds.
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At the futuristic visitor center, with a view straight into the crater, the wraparound veranda was jammed with people in lawn chairs -- most of them with cameras.
"It's beyond amazing," said Steven Uhl, 31, of Everett, who has tried to visit every year since 1982. "I've been a volcano nut since 1980. . . . Just to be here is almost a religious experience."
Thermal images of the volcano, along with the detection of potentially explosive gases and continued tremors early Sunday morning, indicated that new magma is still moving upward into the volcano, said scientists awaiting the next eruption.
U.S. Geological Survey scientists said they are seeing hot spots and emissions of hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide typically associated with a magma move in a volcano.
A harmonic tremor -- a sustained, deep movement of the earth within the volcano -- was detected about 6 a.m. Eastern time. Scientists said it is further evidence of how active the volcano might be.
Looking at the Volcanic Explosivity Index, which measures the power behind an eruption, scientists predicted a 50 percent chance of a new eruption reaching Level 2 on the scale from 1 to 10, and a 30 percent chance of a Level 3, according to a preliminary estimate from Thomas Pierson, a USGS hydrologist. By comparison, Friday's combined steam and ash cloud measured less than 1 on the index, while the 1980 eruption measured 5.
Spectators were prepared to capture the moment. Chris Sawyer, 40, of Dundee, Ore., had a large camera with a zoom lens set up on a tripod in what he hoped was a good spot.
"I hope to see something," he said. "It'd be neat if it spews something over and out."
Nearby, an artist known as "O" from Santa Monica, Calif., was working on a 4-by-5-foot painting of the mountain, using three dozen cans of bargain house paint in various tones, mostly grays, blues and olives.
Officials believed people were "out of harm's way" at Coldwater Ridge, said Peter Frenzen, monument scientist for the U.S. Forest Service, which oversees the mountain and surrounding Gifford Pinchot National Forest.
