How come the earthquakes from St. Helens didn't rupture other volcanoes near it, like mount rainier or mount adams?

rocky John

Dear John,

Sorry for the delay in answering your question.

Earthquakes are waves of energy. As the wave travels through the ground it loses energy due to friction. The earthquakes from St. Helens are fairly small to start with. By the time the waves arrive at adjacent volcanoes they have very little energy, too little energy to actually break rocks or trigger eruptions.

Steve Mattox, University of North Dakota 

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