Mt. Fitzherbert

Aerial views taken on 2005-Jun-09

Potential ash hazards: Wind forecasts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), coupled with eruption models, show that any ash clouds that rise above the crater rim today would drift east-northeastward to northeastward.

Recent observations: Today's surprisingly good weather should allow a variety of field activities. Thermal-imaging observations are currently underway. Work will continue on installation of several broad-band seismometers; part of a large array that will operate through the summer and provide information about the character of the volcano's deep magmatic system. Several photographic missions are planned along with some close aerial examination of the internal structure of the new lava dome, which has been revealed by crumbling of its west margin. Last evening's M=7.2 earthquake off the northern California coast shows up well on most of the St. Helens' webicorder plots, but it is barely visible on station SEP (Old Dome). That is because the type of seismometer at SEP doesn't respond well to the low-frequency seismic waves from distant earthquakes. This large earthquake does not appear to have triggered seismicity at any Cascade volcano.