Well, let me take that back.
This shouldn't be cool because there's the chance of loss of life and property damage.
SEATTLE (Reuters) - New tremors detected overnight at Mount St. Helens increased the likelihood that the Washington state volcano would erupt again, scientists tracking renewed earthquake activity at the mountain said on Sunday. Willie Scott, a U.S. Geological Survey geologist, said that tremors were detected in the crater of Mount St. Helens at 3 a.m. (1000 GMT) that indicated that a second eruption could be in store after Friday's minor explosion that sent up a plume of steam and ash. The U.S. Geological Survey kept its warning level at a Level 3-Volcano Alert and kept off-limits a visitor center at the Johnston Ridge Observatory about five miles from the volcano's crater as a safety precaution. Gases were also detected for the second day, Scott said, suggesting that magma may be building up underneath the crater's lava dome created after a 1980 eruption which killed 57 people, destroyed more than 200 homes, devastated hundreds of square miles, and sent ash drifting across North America as far east as Oklahoma. Scientists do not expect any eruption to cause damage to surrounding areas on the same scale. A Level 3 warning means that there is a potential hazard to life and property in the area, the Geological Survey said.But it is cool. Concerns and qualifications notwithstanding. When Mount St. Helens blew in May of 1980, I was just finishing up third grade and I was concerned with other things. I was still reliving the glory of being chosen to crown a statue of the Virgin Mary on May Day at an all school assembly. My brother, David, was graduating high school. If I'm remembering correctly, I think my other brother, Tim, along with my sister Susie, following the example of most college students, were moving to a new apartment in Lincoln and we had to help them cart their shit from one squalid apartment in Nebraska's capitol city to another. That happened a lot so I could easily be confusing things, but I'm pretty sure we were dragged down to Lincoln that spring when UNL let out to help move boxes. I am sure, however, that school was to get out that week and summer vacation was about to begin. (Catholic schools in Omaha still get out weeks ahead of the public schools. The nuns set that precedent: they'd had it with us by that point in time and the lay teachers saw no reason to abandon that particular philosophy. They still get out weeks earlier than the public schools.)
Anyway, I think you get the point. Stuff was happening
in my busy nine-year-old life and all of the Mount St. Helens activity
was background noise. Hence, I missed it when she blew her top.
Yes, we talked about it in science class, but with it being the end of
the school year, it wasn't an in-depth discussion. This being the day
and age before VCRs in the classroom (hell, we didn't even have
televisions)it didn't have the chance to sear itself into our brains
via repition. Of course I saw the National Geographic
when it came out, but that was months later. As a result, though, I've
always felt somewhat cheated. I never saw it when it happened. I missed
the big show. So, while it's not really a great thing that she's going
to blow again,
I'm feeling as though I've got a second chance to make sure I don't
miss it this time around. Friday's eruption, while thrilling, was kind
of a letdown. I wanted a little more. Not much, mind you, just a little
more. A bigger plume of ash would have satisfied. A completely darkened
sky. I wanted what happened in 1980. I wanted what I missed the first
time round. While I'm wracked with guilt over this, because I know it's a bad thing to want more, I still do want more. And it looks as if the mountain is going to oblige me.
"Cool", says she, whilst feeling like a criminal in the meantime.
Posted by Kathy at October 1, 2004 02:37 PM | TrackBack