I am a student at Sir Sandford Fleming College, in
Lindsay, Ontario, Canada. I am doing a short presentation on Volcanoes
for my Technical Communications class. I am most familiar with the May
18, 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helens. I was wondering
if studies there have concluded if there will be another eruption within
my lifetime? I will graduate in April with my diploma as an Integrated
Resource Management Technician and I am thinking about going to university
to take geology and/or physical geography. Volcanoes and earthquakes
fascinate me. Please let me know if volcanologists think that Mt. St.
Helens will erupt again soon.
Kym
Butcher
Hi Kym,
It is likely that Mt. St. Helens will have one or more small eruptions
during your lifetime, but probably unlikely that it will have another big one.
Since the famous 1980 eruption there has been a lava dome growing within the
caldera, and every once in a while part of the dome either collapses or is
blasted away by either gas or steam explosions. These eruptions seem to be
getting less and less frequent but have probably not stopped.
There is a Mt. St. Helens section in the VolcanoWorld home page. I am
not really familiar with it but there may be more details on these most recent
eruptions and their frequency there.
Good luck on your resources management career!
Sincerely,
Scott Rowland, University of Hawaii
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