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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
No, Mount St. Helens isn’t erupting again. It’s just stirring up
leftover ash 45 years after ‘the big one’
By CNN Meteorologist Briana Waxman
Updated:
2:22 AM EDT, Wed September 17, 2025
Source: CNN
For a moment, it seemed like a blast from the past: a plume over Mount
St. Helens on Tuesday looked like the volcano might be erupting again.
But fortunately, this was not an eruption — just a wind-whipped
encore decades in the making.
According to the (USGS), strong easterly gusts swept across the crater
and nearby slopes in the southern Washington Cascades, kicking up old
deposits of ash from its historic 1980 eruption, often referred to as
the “big one,” and flinging them thousands of feet into the air.
The agency emphasized this is “not a sign of renewed volcanic
activity.” Both the volcano alert level and the aviation color code
remain at green, the lowest setting, and activity “remains at normal,
background levels.”
Images shared by the USGS and the National Weather Service in Portland
showed plumes of ash drifting downwind, fueling momentary panic for
anyone watching the skies. The ash was also visible on satellite and
the NWS said indicated ash had risen up to 10,000 feet in the air.
Resuspended volcanic ash isn’t unusual at Mount St. Helens. The
blasted a column of ash and gas more than 15 miles into the atmosphere
and triggered a devastating landslide, killing 57 people in what was
the most eruption in modern US history.
Pockets of that fine, powdery rock still linger today on the
volcano’s flanks and inside the crater. When conditions line up —
dry surfaces, no snow cover and strong winds — the deposits can be
lofted again.
That’s exactly what happened Tuesday when a stubborn ridge of high
pressure over the Pacific Northwest not only brought record September
temperatures to Washington and Oregon, where large parts are
experiencing a severe drought, but also set off dry, gusty east winds
barreling across Mount St. Helens.
The impacts of resuspended volcanic ash are often not hazardous, but
visibility can dip, air quality can suffer and aircraft engines can
ingest volcanic grit. “There have been no significant changes in
hazards at Mount St. Helens as a result of this activity,” the USGS
said. Luckily, the plume should fade once winds die down.
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