William E Scott

We analyzed hundreds of interferograms of Mount St. Helens produced from radar images acquired by the ERS-1/2, ENVISAT, and RADARSAT satellites during the 1992-2004 preeruptive and 2004-2005 coeruptive periods for signs of deformation associated with magmatic activity at depth. Individual interferograms were often contaminated by atmospheric delay anomalies; therefore, we employed...

A helicopter-mounted thermal imaging radiometer documented the explosive vent-clearing and effusive phases of the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 2004. A gyrostabilized gimbal controlled by a crew member housed the radiometer and an optical video camera attached to the nose of the helicopter. Since October 1, 2004, the system has provided thermal and video observations of dome growth...

The 2004-5 eruption of Mount St. Helens, still ongoing as of this writing (September 2006), has comprised chiefly lava dome extrusion that produced a series of solid, faultgouge-mantled dacite spines. Vertical aerial photographs taken every 2 to 4 weeks, visual observations, and oblique photographs taken from aircraft and nearby observation points provide the basis for two types of

An unusual feature of the 2004-6 eruptive activity of Mount St. Helens has been the continuous growth of successive spines that are mantled by thick fault gouge. Fault gouge formation requires, first, solidification of ascending magma within the conduit, then brittle fragmentation and cataclastic flow. We document these processes through field relations, hand samples, and thin-section

Textural, compositional, and mineralogical data are reported and interpreted for a large population of clinoamphibole phenocrysts in 22 samples from the seven successive dacite spines erupted at Mount St. Helens between October 2004 and January 2006. Despite the uniformity in bulk composition of magma erupted since 2004, there is striking textural and compositional diversity among...

Major element, trace element, and volatile concentrations in 187 glassy melt inclusions and 25 groundmass glasses from the 1980-86 eruption of Mount St. Helens are presented, together with 103 analyses of touching FE-Ti oxide pairs from the same samples. These data are used to evaluate the temporal evolution of the magmatic plumbing system beneath the volcano during 1980-86 and so...

Frictional properties of gouge bounding the solid dacite plug that extruded at Mount St. Helens during 2004 and 2005 may have caused stick-slip upward motion of the plug and associated seismicity. Laboratory experiments were performed with a ring-shear device to test the dependence of the peak and steady-state frictional strength of the gouge on shearing rate and hold time. A remolded...

The 2004-6 eruption of Mount St. Helens produced dacite that contains 40-50 volume percent phenocrysts of plagioclase, amphibole, low-Ca pyroxene, magnetite, and ilmenite in a groundmass that is nearly totally crystallized. Phenocrysts of amphibole and pyroxene range from 3 to 5 mm long and are cyclically zoned, with one to three alternations of Fe- and Al-rich to Mg- and Si-rich layers

Beginning in October 2004, a new lava dome grew on the glacier-covered crater floor of Mount St. Helens, Washington, immediately south of the 1980s lava dome. Seventeen digital elevation models (DEMs) constructed from vertical aerial photographs have provided quantitative estimates of extruded lava volumes and total volume change. To extract volumetric changes and calculate volumetric

The instruments in place at the start of volcanic unrest at Mount St. Helens in 2004 were inadequate to record the large earthquakes and monitor the explosions that occurred as the eruption developed. To remedy this, new instruments were deployed and the short-period seismic network was modified. A new method of establishing near-field seismic monitoring was developed, using remote

Six explosions occurred during 2004-5 in association with renewed eruptive activity at Mount St. Helens, Washington. Of four explosions in October 2004, none had precursory seismicity and two had explosion-related seismic tremor that marked the end of the explosion. However, seismicity levels dropped following each of the October explosions, providing the primary instrumental means for

Eighteen years after dome-forming eruptions ended in 1986, and with little warning, Mount St. Helens began to erupt again in October 2004. During the ensuing two years, the volcano extruded more than 80×106 m3 of gas-poor, crystal-rich dacite lava. The 2004-6 dacite is remarkably uniform in bulk-rock composition and, at 65 percent SiO2 , among the richest in silica and most depleted in