30 years after Mount St. Helens blew, the volcano reveals its secrets
By Joe Rojas-Burke, The Oregonian
May 14, 2010, 4:42PM
Hundreds of people crowded the Coldwater Ridge Visitor Center on a Sunday afternoon in early May, 2010. Emily Dehne of Portland and her friend Casey Levin of St. Louis played a card game while waiting for an eruption of Mount St. Helens. Levin was in Portland to visit Dehne, when the two decided to drive up to the visitor center.A sudden series of earthquakes at Mount St. Helens caught scientists by surprise in March 1980. Less than a week after the quakes began, a blast of steam and ash opened a small crater at the summit of the reawakening volcano.Geologists didn't know enough to give public safety officials a clear picture of the danger.
"They wanted us to tell them what the earthquakes meant, and I had no idea," says Steve Malone, the University of Washington professor who led the seismic monitoring. "All I could tell them was there's a lot of earthquakes, and something's coming."
Photos: Mount St. Helens
Photos from the Oregonian archive
Mount St. Helens 2010