Mount St Helens Volcano Update; The Magma Chamber is Recharging, Increased Earthquakes
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- čas přidán 27. 06. 2024
- The Mount Saint Helens Volcano in Washington state is showing signs of unrest, as magma was confirmed to be moving underneath its edifice. This has generated an elevated rate of earthquakes for the past three weeks, seemingly resuming an uptick witnessed during the summer of 2023. So, is an eruption likely? What is the context of these earthquakes? This video will answer these two questions and discuss what might happen next at this volcano.
Thumbnail Photo Credit: U.S. Geological Survey, Public Domain, www.usgs.gov/media/images/mou.... This image was mirrored vertically (left became right and right became left), overlaid with text, and then overlaid with GeologyHub made graphics (the image border & the GeologyHub logo).
A special thanks to Keaton Terry for granting me permission to use his photos and videos of Mount Saint Helens.
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Sources/Citations:
[1] U.S. Geological Survey
[2] Pacific Northwest Seismic Network
[3] Cascade Volcano Observatory
[4] Dzurisin Daniel, Mount St. Helens Retrospective: Lessons Learned Since 1980 and Remaining Challenges, Frontiers in Earth Science, Volume 6, 2018, www.frontiersin.org/articles/..., DOI: 10.3389/feart.2018.00142, ISSN: 2296-6463. CC BY 4.0
0:00 Mount Saint Helens earthquakes
0:45 Similar Earthquake Swarms
1:14 Analysis
3:35 Alert Level & Opinion
I saw a Mount Saint Helen's eruption from the Emmons glacier on Ranier about 20 years ago. Plinian eruptions are the best to watch and listen to from a distance,
Yes, that keyword is distance!
How visible was it from Rainier, that must have been one HECK of a view.
Someday I wish to watch a nice plinian eruption from some high up vantage point. The pictures of watching Saint Helens blow from the peak of Mt Adams are otherworldly!
I really appreciate your no nonsense reporting on geological matters!
Always happy to see updates on St. Helens!
CZcams: "IT'S GONNA BLOW!!" Science: "Some more dome building is likely in the next few decades, as usual."
When she erupts again, I’m taking a vacation and visiting to get pictures. Photographing a West Coast eruption is my holy grail of volcano shots.
Geology Professor Nick Zentner is planning a Cascades volcanoes geology series starting the fall of 2024. It will stream on CZcams.
Good luck with scheduling that 😅
The sound of the 1980 eruption woke me up in West Vancouver, BC
We lived in Hermiston at the time of the 1980 eruption. We watched from our front yard. Bright, sunny day overhead. To the north though, black roiling clouds of ash raced eastward and punctuated with frequent lightning. Amazing sight!
That would have been incredible to witness!
Thank you for the thorough update!
I live in Central WA and love reading everyone's stories from the 1980 eruption! 😊
I remember watching the eruption on TV as a child. It started my love of volcanoes
Visiting it in 1993 started my love of geology. The sheer power was mind blowing.
Yeah same here. I remember seeing the high plume of ash from Southern California.
We were riding our motorcycles down I- 5 from Canada that fateful Sunday morning. We had to turn back.
Damn, what a reason to have to turn around.
Why did you have to turn back? The ash all went to the East, it didn't affect the I-5 corridor at all that day.
I survived Mt. St. Helen's 1980!
Where were you when it blew
Samesies!
@@nicoferguson1215 he was in the crater :P
So did I, I was in Meridian Idaho.
My mom had to draw kitty whiskers on my mask to get me to wear it!
Love seeing updates on Mount Sang Helens!! Climbed it multiple times…
Mount St. Helens is a beautiful volcano
Sure was!
It was beautiful, til it blew
Thanks as always, Geology Hub!
Since our narrator never seems to say it: "Don't forget to like and subscribe!"
The way you describe the magma chamber, you make me wonder something: are these chambers actually giant hollow spaces inside the earth? If so, given the pressure at such depths, how do they remain open such that they can refill? And if they are not hollow spaces, how do they "refill" without necessarily forcing lava up and out of the volcano? Maybe this is something you could address in a future video.
Even though volcanologists tend to draw cartoons with "red balloons" beneath volcanoes, that's not really what they look like. Magma chambers are complex mixtures of magma, some exsolved gases, and solids (crystals). There aren't any massive hollow spaces, although there might be some open space in the form of cracks, depending on their orientations. The magma chambers can pressurize by receiving new magma from below, or by releasing gases (a process called second boiling). In order to erupt, you need enough pressure to overcome the strength of the host rock. In this sense, a balloon is perhaps not a bad analogy -- you can put a lot of air into a balloon, but it doesn't pop until the pressure inside exceeds the strength of the balloon material.
@@michaelpoland529 Thank you for the great explanation!
Hollow spaces don't exist at depth due to the high overburden pressures. For many volcanoes the magma "chamber" often consists of a sill complex rather than the classic stick and balloon model as Mike Poland points out below. How do the "chambers" fill without an eruption? Magma forms sills by being intruded along bedding planes, fractures and other preexisting weak zones within the crust. This is what causes the earthquakes and often surface uplift.
Awesome video! I’ve seen all the Earthquakes at Mount Saint Helens that I’m getting a bit nervous
Thanks for all the hard work on these videos
I was living in the Kent valley in 1980. I watched it with my neighbors from our little dead end street with a clear view looking south. Most bizarre thing I've ever seen until it erupted again in August. I watched with my coworkers from Boeing's Kent Space Center that time.
That must have been mind blowing to see.
Geologically, is the USGS or Canadian GSC tracking oceanic volcano actions? I ask because the seismic tracking of the Juan De Fuca plate is showing more stressors lately, a possible rise sufficient to create both volcanic pressure and an earthquake. The plates haven't slid, reducing pressure for quite a while from public information available. I'm not a geologist, volcanologist.
Should I cancel my trip to the San Juan Islands? 🤔🙂🖖💕
No, but look for the evacuation routes and high ground.
Tsunami waves over 30 feet high if we get the "big one".
Find photos of the Alaska earthquake to see how much damage can happen.
These aren't going to be just "some shaking" like in California.
Every man and his dog is watching Cascadia and Juan de Fuca Ridge area.
I'm always a little jumpy about local volcanoes, thank you for dispelling my slightly irrational fear so quickly into the video.
GeologyHub, Could you please make a video on the Campi Flegrei volcano similar to this Mount St. Helen's video? Seems to be a lot of hype on a major eruption occurring in Campi Flegrei volcano due to it's recent seismic activity. Thanks and keep up the great work!
"US" Geological Survey.
Looks like he just uploaded a video on Campi Flegrei.
I was in an aeroplane shortly after the big bang eruption approaching Seattle airport. Was an incredible scenery and sight!
Oh shit, you just jinxed it. 😬 That drone footage was pretty cool..
Why is the Tardis on the Mt St Helens resurgent dome? Dr Who always getting in trouble...
It is hard to believe it is 44 years since it blew its top!!!
Thanks for sharing! 😊
My $ has always been on St Helens being the next volcano to erupt in lower 48 states.. I would bet 10,000$ on it. My close second has to be one of cones or Marrs around coso volcanic field. (Those Ridgecrest earthquakes have me wondering) but St Helens will most likely erupt within the next 10 yrs. But nobody really knows.
Yikes I’m not that far from those Coso volcanoes. I always wondered about them. The amount of lava there is impressive!
You're spot on -- St. Helens erupts about as frequently as all of the other volcanoes in the Cascades combined! It's by far the most active volcano in the range. Not much to worry about at Coso, though. Eruptions there are extremely infrequent, and the Ridgecrest quakes were tectonic (which are pretty common given that environment). There is a far better chance of eruption in some of the volcanic fields you find in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah -- for example, the San Francisco Volcanic Field (AZ), Zuni-Bandera Volcanic Field (NM), and Black Rock Desert (UT). The average recurrence interval of an eruption in the southwest USA is around 1000-2000 years. It would not be terrific shock if another cinder cone popped up somewhere down there in the next few decades, but fortunately the locations are pretty remote. The biggest hazards would be gas impacts downwind, possibly some ash issues for aviation, and maybe a lava flow impacting some infrastructure (a highway, for example).
very interesting, thank you for talking us through your analysis. great content as always
I remember Mt. St. Helen. USAF SERE School Spokane Washington. You can still.....dig down and find that layer...and there still was volcanic ash in the deserts in the south east if the State. For years....
nice video
I remember when Mt St Helen’s erupted back in 1980,I was a small kid watching it on tv in Pennsylvania,it’s always fascinated me since.Vancouver Vancouver this is it still hits me.
I was a few days away from graduating from Sunnyside High School when Mt. St. Helens made an ash out of herself.
Nice to see my backyard on your channel again! Indeed, risk is currently very low.
I'm hiking there on Saturday!
You have to love how the news media took these quakes and ran wild with them. Here I am, looking for and finding the actual scientific facts.
Good context yeah it is probably not erupting anytime soon. That said Mt. St. Helens is an interesting volcano given the diversity of magma types it produces indicating at least 2 possibly 3 compositionally distinct source melts this means that it is hard to say much with any certainty. It is also linked with the Indian heaven volcanic field and Mt Adams and falls along a lineament through the cascades which has become increasingly active over the last 5 million years with the appearance a distinct magmatic signature contribution matching that of the Yellowstone hotspot plume and EPR ridge system which has been at least partly linked to thinning of the underlying subducting slab. This seems to fit neatly with the Snake river plain suggesting we might be seeing the early stages of a split in the Cascadia subduction zone separating the southern Cascades off onto the Pacific side of the EPR boundary. I can't help but note that the transform offset ridge discontinuities beneath the Cascades perfectly fit NA's direction of motion with the Gouda ridge continuation of the Juan de Fuca ridge somewhat mirroring this shift southward possibly suggesting we might be seeing the deep ridge line discontinuity reestablishing its original path after the North American plate dragged the boundary in the mantle with it likely via the Cascadia slab. I wonder what the small scale vertical structure of the offset region looks like if it is inclined that would probably be pretty strong evidence that this kind of shift has happened potentially seeing these upwelling sections slow down over geological time. Though Slab pull seems nigh impossible to stop so if this happens it would probably continue eventually pulling down the old Pacific slab from the East leading to the old Pacific plate starting to Subduct from all sides even as the ocean ultimately grows to the east through what was formerly western North America.
I would love to see a diagram of what you wrote ... the effects that subducting plates have fascinates me.
So you are telling me there's a chance.....
" I'd say more like one out of a million."
You say Mt. St. Helens, I click play. (I was here for the 2004/2008 eruptions and saw them myself from where I lived)
I saw a report about this on another channel. I was waiting to see a report here so that I would know it was real.😊
Thanks.
How do these magma chambers form? Are they hollow voids created by magma pushing material away? The voids cannot be just there before so what happens to the displaced material?
Melt happens, the incoming magma is melting its way through rock making magma tunnels and pushing its way up through fractures in the rock it causes. When it finds a way up closer to the surface it pools making a chamber and causes uplift.
Awesome! 💪😎✌️
Farming in Sk Cdn. Turned.from hot.and dry early spring. Some early crops had been already tilled under. I seeded some slring wheat super deep with an air seeded. My dad was surprised it came up. It was so deep to get moisture. It rained it was a good crop. I was waiting for rain. Kept seeding some. Small seed canola into pure dust. Was trying to furrow the soil out. And put water in the row as seeding too. Started raining when VA arrived. Didnt stop raining. Finished seeding canola. Only few lbs to acre so used aircraft to fly it in to mud. It grew. Lol. Not a good yr. 22 % interest was over extended as a young farmer. Lost a share of grandfathers farm. Later lost marriage. Others shot or hung themselves. Not a good time in Ag biz. Learnt and study how vilcanoes affect weather. Huricained too 2/ 3 est are in ocean. Surface temp need 40 C for huricaine conditions. MSM is NOT telling us. Floods etc do to VA. Opposite side like northern Cdn can be dried out ( magnify glass found at fire sites) But we are told what. Climate crisis lol. Yup have had major changes before in history warch the volcanoes. 1 403 830 4124
Your next video I think should be about your equipment and how it works so you can make those graphics on where the magma chamber are located and how deep they are.
There are telltale signs in volcanic activity. It can guide us in how to respond to imminent volcanic eruptions. Iceland is a case in point in a good predictability on the short term. Long term predictions though, depend on the understanding of what happens underground. You have predicted eruptions and non eruptions often. Ground deformation and uplift, earthquakes, prior volcanic activity, lava type, presence of water and other factors should be viewed to make a solid estimation on eventual activity. Unknown factors always remain and can cloud the predictability. Thanks for another good video.
That’s good, I’m going fishing at the base of St. Helen’s tomorrow.
At Mt. St. Helen's current rate of activity since its last major eruption, how long do you suppose it'll take to rebuild the height the mountain lost in 1980?
Also, would it be possible to talk about Mt. Hood? Last time it erupted it was only around 100 years ago or so.
Mount Hood's last magmatic eruption was in the late 1700s. The effects of the eruption were documented by the Lewis and Clark expedition, because the Sandy River was still quite a mess from all the debris that came down that drainage. Before that, Hood erupted about 1500 years ago. Those are the only two eruptions of that volcano in the past 10,000 years.
Seriously I need to know about this event that's building. Need to know keep track on these eruptions ?
This could take a lot of years for the magma chamber to refill and for the eruption to happen. I know that the last time that Mount Saint. Helens last erupted in 2004-2008.
I have a question. I'm just seeing reports from Naples Italy that they're considering evacuating upwards of 50 to 100,000 people because of volcanic activity. Is that correct or am I just getting bad information?
It’s not correct
To my knowledge the city administration is currently developing resp. actualizing evacuation strategies and planning a kind of "rehearsal" in a couple of days
I was 5 months old when mt went off in 1980 we got a little ash in the Willamette Valley Oregon
Coastal tremor has been elevated lately. Your comment on the activity feeding the magma chambers of the Cascade Range?
The seismicity on the subduction interface is not directly related to melt generation, and feeding that melt to the volcanoes. The melt forms directly beneath the volcanoes at great depth and appears to rise without earthquakes for much of it's ascent, probably because the subsurface is too warm to support earthquakes -- it flows rather than breaks. Volcanoes are obviously a consequence of subduction, but there is no direct connection between small earthquakes and tremor that happen due to stress on he plate boundary, and melt feeding into the volcanoes.
Cool, been since the early 2000s since I got to see it.
Could you expand your analysis and comment on Juan de Fuca and San Andreas fault lines which also show increased seimic activity and media outlets runging alarm bells.
🌋 In my spirit, I heard “Mt. Vesuvius” twice, then I heard “Mt. St. Helen’s will blow, just like Mt. Vesuvius” @ 0335 on December 31, 2023.
When it is said that a magma chamber is emptied, does it literally mean that there is a huge cavern with a liquid rock lake surface, and gas/air between the surface and the cavern ceiling? Or does it mean that it is full to the ceiling with magma but there is no pressure on it from deep below to push the lake magma up into higher channels? Or something else?
Climbed up to the dome last November. Melted a good pair of boot soles. Felt several quakes. Felt like theEarth was alive. I will go back
I had a dream about 7 months ago about a volcano erupting and I saw the mountain with snow and the lava coming down and people running in hysteria packing the train to get out of there. Everybody was thirsty and screaming while there was ash falling all over. After this dream the Iceland volcano erupted but I couldn't see a train in that area. This is the only time this is clicking for me. Anybody in the area please stay alert.
I wonder how Mt. Rainier(sp) in WashingtonState is fairing these days?
❤
It hasn't recharged enough, look at what it was originally, this is nothing like what is was. Mt St. Helen's is just an interesting beast!
What about the glacier that is growing in the cone of the volcano? How much of a problem is that going to be?
Depends, if it starts erupting again it may cause some phreatic explosions, but that should probably not be a threat unless somebody is very close to the crater. If it has another eruption episode it will likely be more dome growth unless the dome collapses, but USGS would probably create an exclusion zone keeping people away from any area at threat from any small to moderate explosions in case the dome collapses.
That Glacier will very quickly become a lahar
@@BlackCeII that’s what happened the last time it erupted…. Looks like it’s going to repeat itself, when it does erupt. I heard that glacier is already at 50% of what it was. And growing rapidly every year
That glacier is moving rapidly -- it was mostly in the back of the crater (between the south part of the 198-1986 lava dome and the crater wall), but the 2004-2008 eruption "pushed" the glacier from the back of the crater to the front, and the two lobes have now merged on the north side of the 19801-986 dome. An eruption like the 2004-2008 one, which formed a lava dome with only minor and rare small explosions, wouldn't do much to the glacier. The 2004-2008 eruption didn't cause a lot of melting.
I was wondering, can you (or anyone else here) maybe recommend some good books regarding volcanoes? I only have some old children books about them, but I am searching for some kind of more professional encyclopedia, dealing with all kind of volcanoes, eruption types, volcanic phenomena, observations and scientific advancements.
There is, in fact, and Encyclopedia of Volcanology! And the textbook by Peter Francis and Clive Oppenheimer is a classic.
Thank you😊🌋
Are you wanting a general overview or something on a specific area? There are tons of very good books, Amazon isn't a bad place to get them actually. Read the reviews and generally go for newer publications.
There is also tons of stuff online. The USGS has a lot of stuff that you don't have to be a geologist to understand.
For the volcanologists that set up that monitoring equipment on the lava dome…. 👍👍👍. You all have some serious sack.
Sabe better get out Early this time , go now Guys ❤
I actually do have a question. Are magma chambers like, actually hollow chambers that are filled with magma or are they more like an aquifer style or just magma squeezed into the area?
More like the aquifer style. There aren't huge hollow areas (although there may be some open cracks here and there). But like an aquifer that is getting recharged, a magma chamber that receives magma or releases gas can pressurize, and that can result in seismicity and surface deformation.
Are the magma chambers in volcanoes like Mount St Helens empty, as akin to a water heater tank, or full but with solidified magma that cracks and melts as the new magma flows into it?
The latter.
well, if mt st helens erupts again i'll get to see another one. there was one in 2004. it was small, but interesting.
Why is there a Tardis on the dome? Does someone know something the rest of us don’t?
Such a serene beauty, yet it has wreaked havoc in the past and someday, perhaps sooner than we expect, may yet again belch fiery doom 🌋👀😬
Is Three Sisters still the next likely candidate for NW volcanoes to erupt?
The mostly like volcano to erupt in the NW will always be Mount St. Helens. It erupts about as often as all the other volcanoes in the range combined! Sisters is still inflating very slightly, but that has probably been ongoing episodically for a very long time, and was only recently detected thanks to advances in monitoring capabilities. There are no real indications that the very slow uplift means an eruption is likely in that area anytime soon.
What about mt Hood?
Mount Hood remains quiet. That volcano erupts surprisingly little -- only twice in the past 1,000 years (about 1500 years ago, and again in the late 1700s).
I think it's still going through its growing phase it may be another 1 to 3 to maybe 5 even 800 years before it Erupts again but if the magma goes through some change I believe that without water there's no way it could do a proper eruption 🌋 chances are this will be another dry eruption building like before but I speak only to be corrected.
OK what percent of the chamber is full ??
That's a great question. @geologyhub, do you have any idea?
@@EatsLikeADuck No, that's why I'm asking. I've seen other videos talking about Yellowstone which say at least 50 % full,
@@tml721 Yellowstone is more like 20-25% melt (the rest of solid), and that's really just in the upper part of the agma reservoir. For St. Helens, it's very hard to tell -- it could be a low amount of melt across a broad region, or a higher amount of melt in a more focused region. But there is clearly some melt beneath the volcano.
@@michaelpoland529 The last report I heard said 30%
Mount St Helens is scary volcano
that is every volcano.
The volcano demands respect, and we shall give it.
@@Techno_Idioto why
@@zoomcenter Because I sure as hell ain't getting roasted by ignoring the obvious signs of the volcano preparing to put on an encore of 1980.
@@Techno_Idioto it is not going to erupt soon
How many quakes and swarms proceeded the 2004 eruption?
There was an incredible intense increase in seismicity -- basically continuous earthquakes -- that occurred in the week prior to the first steam explosion on October 1, 2024. That seismicity was all very shallow -- less than 2 km beneath the surface. It was pretty clear that magma was ascending and an eruption of some sort was likely.
I have an old glass vitamin jar with St.Helens ash gathered in Portland from the 1980 eruption. That's all I got.
Why is St. Helens the only one that seems to be active, Rainer, Hood all these other ones are napping away, there's no magma entering any of them?
Plenty of activity (background earthquakes) in many of the Cascade Range volcanoes. The human lifespan is just a snippet of time compared to geologic time spans.
Willing to take you opinion because you supply the evidence
And if blows up in two weeks we'll have more to yap about.
I don’t think St. Helens will erupt soon, but could this activity be a sign of something else (i.e., Cascadia Subduction Zone)?
Not in this case -- these quakes are very clearly associated with the St. Helens magmatic system. There's no direct connection to the subduction interface.
I have a question, and I also may have done some poor math.
I looked up how much all glacial and antarctic ice weighs, I got a very very large number back in gigatons and translated that into metric tons, that gave me a much worse number that I simply couldn't read so I translated that number into English and got this:
Twenty-Four Quadrillion, Three Hundred Eighty Trillion metric tons.
If that's correct, and I'm far from sure that it is, its a lot. Or perhaps "one fuckton".
Anyway, here is my question, if all that ice melts and twenty four quadrillion three hundred eighty trillion tons of ice melt, what would the weight redistribution of that do to tectonic plates?
It seems to me that that's a huge amount of weight sitting for a very long (to me) time in one place, would spreading it out, and removing it from where it's been sitting for ages relieve pressure in one area and place it on top of another?
I mean obviously it would, but how significant would that be?
Volcano St Helens might be more accurate than Mt St Helens lol.
@GeologyHub can you please stop mixing your units of measurement? Moving from kilometres to miles within two sentences is quite distracting. Thank you
Make your own video and you can use whatever units you would like 😉
This channel has put out so much free knowledge and you want to pick a fit about the units? Maybe you just need to learn a little bit more math.
@@brianras8721 I think he would prefer me to continue watching while offering sincere constructive feedback.
I was in my mother’s womb when this happened.
My term feeding means the cycle of subduction.
This video sounds like its narrated by Derry Murbles.
She's just rebuilding, can't let Rainier be the most beautiful in Washington!
I think MSH erupts an average of about 200 years.
So it deserves being #3 on the danger list.
I’m glad you think we’re safe from an eruption, but 0% chance? It’s an active volcano. How can there be a 0% chance?🤗🐝❤️
Mary greeley news makes it sound like a threat to humanity.
Are magma chambers literally huge empty spaces under the ground? Why don’t they collapse?
They aren't huge open spaces. More like compressible mixtures of solids (crystals), melt, and some gases. They are mushy. And they can vary in the amount of melt and gases. It's that variation that can control pressurization. If the pressure gets high enough, it breaks the walls of the magma chamber, and the magma can begin to ascend towards the surface.
@@michaelpoland529 thanks!
Mt St Melons
Is the snow melting
Are the animals actting strange
Snow is melting, but that's because it is summer. There are no obvious changes in thermal emissions. And the animals are plentiful, but that was the case even before and during the 2004-2008 eruption. The animals did not even seem to notice that it happened.
When is it gonna Cinderella again?
Infamous? I would take the word to mean evil, disreputable, shameful. Not sure Mt. St. Helens qualifies. Dangerous, perhaps. Perhaps notorious--that is, well known for a bad (but not necessarily evil or shameful) reason. A crime, or a criminal, might be infamous, but a mountain?
How does this have 3 views 23 likes
Those are quantum state likes
the earth preliked it every hundred million years before this came out?
@@karabean Genuinely laughing out loud at this. Well-played!
I think the algorithm doesn’t count a “view” until after a certain time watching. And I know I generally hit a “like” on my favorite channels as soon as I click on them (so I don’t forget), so there can be likes that haven’t watched long enough yet to be counted as views. Also, it seems to refresh the “views” statistic at intervals, rather than continuously.
Who's voice is this even?
Would like to hear USGS point of view too !
Watch this video. That's exactly what it is.
USGSVolcanoes social media feeds have been putting out information about St. Helens -- including weekly updates that you can also get online.