Is there lava in Mt. St. Helens?
Kendra Arnold
Hi Kendra,
There is lots of lava at Mt. St. Helens. The most spectacular lava is the
big lava dome sitting in the collapse scar left from the 1980 eruption.
It is the most recent in a number of domes that have formed and then been
blown away by explosions. The lava that makes up these domes is really
really viscous so you can't sit and watch it flow. However, it is
flowing, as measured by very delicate measuring instruments used by the
U.S. Geological Survey.
Additonally, the whole mountain is made up of layers and layers of old solid
lava, with layers of ash mixed in as well. Some of this old lava was in
the form of domes like the present dome, and some was in the form of more
fluid flows like you may be more familliar with. It is all solidified
now, and many of the lava layers are exposed in the walls of the big 1980
collapse scar.
There are photos of these features in the Mt. St. Helens section of
VolcanoWorld (in the Volcano parks and monuments section).
Sincerely,
Scott Rowland
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