New Lava Dome Outgrows Old Formation On Mt. St. Helens - OPB

[hatrack]

EDIT

U.S. Geologist Willie Scott says this is the break in the weather his associates were waiting for.

Willie Scott: We're going to take a series of controlled vertical aerial photographs from which we'll eventually get a digital elevation model. That might take several weeks before we have that, and from that we'll be able to get an idea of the volume of the dome and so forth. But our suspicion is that it passed the volume of the old dome sometime in December.

Scott says growth rate of the new dome is striking. He says it's a much faster pace than the old one.

Willie Scott: Whereas the last dome took six years to grow in spurts this one's been growing continuously for about 14 or 15 months and is, we think, about equal that volume.

Several feet of snow have piled up on the mountain since it last peaked out of the clouds. Scott says he's noticed some dark streaks of ash on the flanks of the crater. That indicates a series of relatively small rock falls has been continuing behind the clouds as the dome pushed upward.

EDIT

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/opb/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=870052

[benburch]

1. web cam here

http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/volcanocams/msh/