Mount St. Helens erupted moderately Monday, sending clouds of steam and ash above the crater rim and drifting downwind. Scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey said the eruption has followed a swarm of small earthquakes and indications are additional eruptions are possible — though on a small scale. “There is pretty good evidence that we’ve got something hot coming to the surface,” USGS scientist Willie Scott told reporters near the site in southern Washington state. The subsurface activity, he said, could result either in the building of a hard lava dome in the center of the volcano’s crater, or another period of “explosive activity.” He cautioned, however, that the expected event would not be nearly on the scale of the major eruption of May 1980. The 1980 eruption lifted nearly a quarter-mile off the top of Mount St. Helens, flattened large trees miles away from the blast site, deposited ash over hundreds of square miles and killed 57 people. © Copyright 2004 by United Press International

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