- (SEATTLE) -- Restive US volcano Mount St. Helens has
erupted, sending a plume of smoke and ash nearly 11,000m [36,000 ft] into
the air, officials said.
-
- But the eruption of the volcano, which killed 57 people
when it erupted dramatically almost 25 years ago, did not appear to pose
an immediate danger to people as the area is sparsely inhabited, they
said.
-
- "There was an eruption at 5:30 pm local time (1230
AEDT today) and the cloud of ash is estimated at 36,000 feet
(10,800m),"
Rob Harper of the Washington State Emergency Management service told AFP.
"We are monitoring the situation."
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- KOMO television in the Oregon city of Portland showed
the giant plume hanging over the crater of the volcano which rumbled back
to life last October after years of silence.
-
- The plume prompted the Federal Aviation Administration
to order air traffic to avoid the area.
-
- "Air traffic control will not allow any aircraft
in the area of the plume," Mike Fergus of the FAA told AFP, adding
that the column of smoke and ash topped out at 40,000 feet.
-
- "All the airlines and the airports know what's
happening
but it's the companies who will make the decision to cancel or delay any
flights."
-
- It was unclear whether the volcano had spewed any lava,
with officials confirming only that the mountain had belched smoke and
ash over a largely uninhabited area of the states of Oregon and
Washington.
-
- The eruption came five months after the most active
volcano
in North America began belching smoke and ash, as pressure grew under its
cone.
-
- The latest eruption just ahead of the 25th anniversary
of the deadly May 18, 1980, eruption that came after weeks of quakes,
slides
and tremors, of belching smoke, steam and ash.
-
- The 1980 eruption blew off the upper third of the
mountain,
leaving a gaping crater 400m deep, 2.7km) long and 2km) wide, and left
57 dead.
-
- The explosions shaved off 400m of the mountain's top,
reducing it from 2950m to 2549m.
-
- The blast sent clouds of volcanic ash high into the
atmosphere,
where jet streams carried it as far as the US eastern seaboard 34,800km
away.
-
- Towns and cities throughout the Pacific Northwest were
buried in grey ash.
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- The flash snow melt on the mountain triggered floods
and mudslides, sending streams and rivers over their banks and destroying
infrastructure for hundreds of miles around.
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- The Columbia River, the main inland shipping channel
from the Pacific Ocean, was clogged with volcanic sediment and eventually
had to be dredged.
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- Molten lava flows devastated forests and mountain
meadows,
creating a vast wasteland of mud, magma and ash.
-
- Mount St. Helens erupted again in 1986, but with nowhere
near the same intensity.
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- © The Australian
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- http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au
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