Mount St. Helens

More news today. From KIRO TV: bq. 'Volcano Advisory' Issued for Mount Saint Helens Geologists have raised the alert level at Mount Saint Helens to a "volcano advisory," the second highest warning of a possible eruption. bq. Geologists said activity at Mount Saint Helens is "ramping up" and they are more convinced now that magma is moving under the volcano. They expected an eruption would be limited to within three miles of the volcano. From Yahoo/AP bq. The lava dome in Mount St. Helens' crater apparently is growing, possibly a new sign of an impending eruption, but a major explosion doesn't seem likely, a top volcano scientist said Wednesday. bq. "There seems to be some movement in the lava dome," said Jeff Wynn, chief scientist at the U.S. Geological Survey (news - web sites)'s Cascade Volcano Observatory in Vancouver, Wash., about 50 miles south of the mountain. bq. The pressure could come either from a buildup of gases within the 8,364-foot volcano, which erupted with devastating force in 1980, or from molten rock moving into the dome, Wynn said. The volcano began stirring again last week. And more: bq. Scientists are trying to determine if the quakes are caused by steam from water seeping into the dome or by magma moving beneath the crater. bq. Early tests of gas samples collected above the volcano by helicopter Monday did not show unusually high levels of carbon dioxide or sulfur, which could indicate the movement of magma. And don't forget the VolcanoCam - the weather up there is pretty crappy now - clouds - so visibility is limited. And for the Earthquake activity in Central California, here is the link to real-time quake data. Most of these are very low intensity -- the Richter Scale is logarithmic so a Magnitude 3 quake is ten times more powerful than a Mag 2 and 100 times more powerful than a Mag 1. Most of these quakes will only be 'felt' by the instrumentation.