Beelzebub just keeps turning the old crank under the Cascades . . .
Don’t miss the near-realtime VolcanoCam image!
From Longview (WA) Daily News Online:
Visitors to the Johnston Ridge Observatory Friday should have a “spectacular” view of the latest lava growth in the Mount St. Helens’ crater, a geologist said.
A large “slab” or “fin” of molten rock is growing within the crater, pushing itself up and over previous lava dome growth, said Dan Dzurisin, a geologist with the U.S. Geologic Survey in Vancouver.
The section with the fin has been growing since November, but it changed shape as it encountered other growth within the crater. It’s moving steadily toward the west, pushing other rock and debris out of its way as it goes.
The fin grows about four to five feet a day but loses some of that growth from rockfalls off its tip, Dzurisin said. The fin is about 300 feet tall from its base, reaching to 7,700 feet above sea level. That puts it about 70 feet below Shoestring Notch, the lowest point of the mountain’s horseshoe-shaped crater.
Photo: A helicopter inspects the outcropping (AP)The feature is in full view from the Johnston Ridge Observatory, which opens after its winter shutdown on Friday. Clear skies are forecast.
Update From JRO:
The Johnston Ridge Observatory (JRO), home of the VolcanoCam, opens today and begins another visitor season.
The visitor center will be open from 10:00 am until 6:00pm, daily, throughout the summer. If views of Mount St. Helens via the VolcanoCam whet your appetite, standing just five miles from the only active volcano in the Lower 48 States is a five-course meal. Come up and get a first-hand look of the ongoing volcanic activity, including that 300 foot high “volcanic fin” jutting out from the new dome. It is only a matter of time before gravity collapses that fin.