Mt. St. Helen's

Well, if you haven't heard, Mt. St. Helen's had an explosion today. There was no lava flow but a lot o steam and some ash. It's been rumbling for the last several days with as many as 5 earthquakes per minute. Then today, just after 12 noon, it went. It was pretty exciting to see. We had a crew there watching it sending live video back to the station. We also had a helicopter feed from KOIN, from Portland, and a few other camera views. You can check out the University of Washington Seismology site for earthquake specifics. Check out KOMO-TV for the latest news stories on the mountain. It was nothing like the blast in 1980 that leveled trees in a 17 mile path away from the mountain. The blast was heard in Seattle and 6 inches of ash blanketed much of Eastern Washington. Here is a good summary of the May 18, 1980 blast. 1980 blast pictures. Pre and post eruption pictures. Pictures of before and after todays blast. Check out the USGS webicorder that show the seismology activity.