Marguerite53
Premium Level User
Greetings from the Northwest. Looks like Mt. St. Helens is starting to strut her stuff again. Scientists have raised the alert to a 2. The highest (it is erupting!) is a 3.
It doesn't sound like the kind of event that occurred in 1980 at all. However, if there are ash plumes, volcanic ash can blow into an area and can bring things like airplanes and normal machinery to a grinding halt. The magma is moving, they say. They think that signals an imminent eruption, though that might not occur for several weeks. Or more.
If it has a violent eruption, they are predicting that 1 inch sized rocks could be scattered for a 3 mile radius. Nothing metropolitan in size is close, of course, so the danger to large groups of people seems minimal.
It seems that the ash plume is the greatest concern. The airport will close, planes will be diverted. Rescue vehicles will have their engines ground up, etc. It depends on how much, of course. We in Portland didn't get but a dusting in the 80's. East of the mountain, Yakima and elsewhere, they were buried in many inches of the stuff. Very hazardous.
I'm very sentimental about the volcano. My husband and I had been dating coincidental with her early rumblings. After a year or so we decided to take a "break" for awhile. Our parting words were, "well, call me if the mountain blows." Well. May 18 was a gorgeous sunny day, with an east wind. My phone rang about 20 minutes after they announced the eruption on sunday morning. (people were out in the streets in all the neighborhoods, it was fun for us because we were not in any danger). We bought a bottle of wine and filled up a picnic basket and headed out to a little Oregon town we knew had a great vantage point. We sat there all day watching the ash churn toward the sky. It was an amazing day. We've been together ever since!
Here's a pretty good idea of what one of those plumes can look like.....
Marguerite
It doesn't sound like the kind of event that occurred in 1980 at all. However, if there are ash plumes, volcanic ash can blow into an area and can bring things like airplanes and normal machinery to a grinding halt. The magma is moving, they say. They think that signals an imminent eruption, though that might not occur for several weeks. Or more.
If it has a violent eruption, they are predicting that 1 inch sized rocks could be scattered for a 3 mile radius. Nothing metropolitan in size is close, of course, so the danger to large groups of people seems minimal.
It seems that the ash plume is the greatest concern. The airport will close, planes will be diverted. Rescue vehicles will have their engines ground up, etc. It depends on how much, of course. We in Portland didn't get but a dusting in the 80's. East of the mountain, Yakima and elsewhere, they were buried in many inches of the stuff. Very hazardous.
I'm very sentimental about the volcano. My husband and I had been dating coincidental with her early rumblings. After a year or so we decided to take a "break" for awhile. Our parting words were, "well, call me if the mountain blows." Well. May 18 was a gorgeous sunny day, with an east wind. My phone rang about 20 minutes after they announced the eruption on sunday morning. (people were out in the streets in all the neighborhoods, it was fun for us because we were not in any danger). We bought a bottle of wine and filled up a picnic basket and headed out to a little Oregon town we knew had a great vantage point. We sat there all day watching the ash churn toward the sky. It was an amazing day. We've been together ever since!
Here's a pretty good idea of what one of those plumes can look like.....
Marguerite
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