Mt. Fitzherbert

YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) — That whaddyacallit that's growing on Mount St. Helens — what do you call it?

It's been called the "blister," the "wart," the "thing," and the "lobe" since it first appeared last month in the crater of the reanimated volcano. One researcher referred to it as "an uplift," before most everyone agreed it must be a dome.

VANCOUVER, Wash. (AP) — If lava continues to pile up inside the blasted crater of Mount St. Helens at the current rate, the volcano could rebuild its summit in about 10 years.

Geologists say it's unlikely the current furious lava production will continue.

But it's possible the volcano will erupt sporadically over the next 20 to 50 years or more, and gradually regain its former height, said Willie Scott, a volcanologist with the U.S. Geological Survey's Cascades Volcano Observatory in Vancouver, Wash.

In 1980, many Northwesterners watched Mount St. Helens blow its top.

Now, they may have the rare opportunity to see it rebuilt during their lifetime.

If lava continues to pour out at the current rate, geologists say the new dome will be tall enough to be visible from Portland in less than two years. And in little more than a decade, the volcano would be back to the size it was before the cataclysmic blast that turned a snow-covered peak to a blackened shell and shaved 1,313 feet off its peak.