Earthquake activity at Mount St. Helens dropped

Government scientists said that volcanic activity on Washington state's &to= english.pravda.ru/world/20/91/368/14346_.html ' target=_blank>Mount St. Helens had started to taper off and downgraded their safety warning on Wednesday, following nearly two weeks of &to= english.pravda.ru/printed.html?news_id=12245 ' target=_blank>seismic activity and steam eruptions. "Evidently we've gone through a major change here," said Willie Scott, a seismologist with the U.S. Geological Survey or USGS, "We no longer think that an eruption is imminent in minutes or hours." Decreased &to= english.pravda.ru/main/2000/11/22/1071.html ' target=_blank>earthquake activity, lower rockfall and mild steaming all led to the decision to lower the agency's warning level to the second highest level of "increased activity," Scott told reporters at task force headquarters in Vancouver, Washington. Mount St. Helens, which erupted in 1980 and killed 57 people, woke from its slumber on Sept. 24 with a series of small earthquakes that intensified and accelerated daily. Steam and ash eruptions began last Friday, peaking with a large emission on Tuesday morning that sent a column of ash up 15,000 feet that fell on some communities to the northeast of Mount St. Helens, informs Reuters. Magma moving into the volcano lifted the lava dome in the crater by about 150 feet and heated rock has melted part of a glacier nestled next to the dome, creating a bubbling lake, geologists said. According to WorldNow, things are starting to calm down at Mount St. Helens. Government scientists announced today that they've lowered the volcano's alert level because they no longer think an eruption is imminent. They say earthquake activity at Mount St. Helens dropped off after yesterday's steam burst and has remained relatively low today. Still they caution that one could be days, weeks or even months away. Willie Scott, U.S. Geological Survey seismologist said, "We lowered the alert level to alert level 2 volcanic advisory, which in the aviation color code alert level is condition orange. We did this because the conditions for level red are no longer... Excuse me for the volcanic alert... Are no longer, we no longer think that an eruption is imminent in the sense of minutes or hours of an event that would endanger life and property." On Wednesday morning, the &to= english.pravda.ru/economics/2003/03/17/44515.html ' target=_blank>U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) lowered the alert level for Mount St. Helens in Washington from a Level 3 Volcano Alert to a Level 2 Volcano Advisory, in response to lowered seismicity since Tuesday morning's steam-and-ash eruption. Geologist Willie Scott said the scientists no longer believe that an eruption is imminent. A Volcano Advisory indicates that "processes are underway that have significant likelihood of culminating in hazardous volcanic activity" but the evidence does not indicate that a "life- or property-threatening event is imminent." According to USGS, seismic activity Tuesday and Wednesday has been at "very low levels," with individual earthquakes being "rare." Scientists observed weakened steam emissions from the crater, and suggested that a lack of rockfall and earthquake signals indicate that deformation of the uplift area has slowed. The area had uplifted more than 100 feet since activity began last week, reports the Geotimes.

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