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Is Mount St Helens Ready to Blow?

2,028 views · Published 9 November 2015 · 3:08 · Indexed 8 November 2026

Channel: Real Thing TV · 2015 · News & Politics

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FEARS monster volcano could be set to blow again after huge magma chamber found underneath

A SUPER VOLCANO that wreaked havoc after erupting 35 years ago could unleash a second explosive eruption sparking a nuclear winter-like effect, scientists have warned.


Geologists have identified a huge second magma chamber 25-miles down in the Earth's crust, beneath Mount St Helens in Washington, USA. 

The new research has found evidence that the 2,459-metre high peak could unleash another devastating lava flow at any time, because they believe the second chamber is currently filling the smaller first one, which is just two to eight miles below the peak.

The new magma chamber is bigger and further below, and also feeds, the original one.

Scientists believe earthquakes which have occurred near the volcanic peak, which produced the USA's worst ever eruption in 1980, happen when magma flows from the bigger lower reservoir to the higher original one, which is directly below the mountain.

More alarmingly, they said the frequency of such earthquakes could warn of an impending eruption

Geologists who studied what lies beneath Mount St Helens also think the deep chamber feeds nearby Mount Adams, which has its own chamber underneath it.

The eruption of Mount St Helens on May 18 1980 killed 57 people, but did not involve enough lava to billow ash high enough to block out sunlight, but the amount of lava now known to be beneath the volcano means the potential could be there.

The researchers claim they have been able to worked out a formula how to accurately predict the eruption dates of such "supervolcanoes" that can cover much of the globe in giant ash clouds triggering, blocking out sunlight like a nuclear mushroom cloud, and reducing global temperatures.

Eric Kiser, from Rice University, Houston, Texas, told the journal Science: "We can only now understand that those earthquakes are connecting those magma reservoirs.

"They could be an indication that you have migration of fluid between the two bodies."
http://www.express.co.uk/news/science/618111/FEARS-Mount-St-Helens-set-blow-huge-magma-chamber-underneath-Volcanoe

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