# There she blows! Mt. St. Helens erupting! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 1, 2004, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-she-blows-mt-st-helens-erupting/267081 "2004-10-01T19:11:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2004, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-she-blows-mt-st-helens-erupting/267081/1 "2004-10-01T19:11:55Z")
Possible eruption going on? It’s not steam anymore…there’s black smoke coming out. No one lives on that mountain anymore, do they? ---
**Author:** ![Kid\_A\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Kid\_A\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kid_A_1)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2004, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-she-blows-mt-st-helens-erupting/267081/2 "2004-10-01T19:16:13Z")
Any links? I’d like to see a picture. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2004, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-she-blows-mt-st-helens-erupting/267081/3 "2004-10-01T19:16:22Z")
They’re calling it a “steam eruption.” I can’t find any news links yet. ---
**Author:** ![Kid\_A\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Kid\_A\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kid_A_1)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2004, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-she-blows-mt-st-helens-erupting/267081/4 "2004-10-01T19:19:01Z")
[A Little Story](http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=624&ncid=753&e=1&u=/ap/20041001/ap_on_sc/st__helens_quakes) It’s not much but it’s a start. ---
**Author:** ![Jenaroph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2004, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-she-blows-mt-st-helens-erupting/267081/5 "2004-10-01T19:20:14Z")
Whoa. And dammit…I’ve had the [Mt St. Helens webcam](http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/volcanocams/msh/) up all day. And haven’t looked at it in a while. And missed it. And now the picture’s unavailable. ---
**Author:** ![Jenaroph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2004, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-she-blows-mt-st-helens-erupting/267081/6 "2004-10-01T19:29:32Z")
Ah…now it’s back. Wow. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2004, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-she-blows-mt-st-helens-erupting/267081/7 "2004-10-01T19:34:24Z")
It started at 12:01 PST Channel 5 had a guy there, so they/we were watching. Airhead, Joyce said “what’s that white thing?” & and damn! It was it. ---
**Author:** ![umop\_ap\_sdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/dbc845/32.png) [@umop\_ap\_sdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/umop_ap_sdn)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2004, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-she-blows-mt-st-helens-erupting/267081/8 "2004-10-01T19:40:05Z")
I recorded a [WAV file](http://www.eknent.com/etc/Mt_St_Helens_20041001.wav) to see if I could pick up any seismic activity from this far away (Portland area). It’s sped up 10 times and filtered. Throughout the recording are deep rumbles centered around 100Hz (so the original vibration was ~10Hz); I wonder if they’re earthquakes. The whine towards the end is from a motor vehicle. ---
**Author:** ![Greathouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greathouse/32/2992_2.png) [@Greathouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greathouse)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2004, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-she-blows-mt-st-helens-erupting/267081/9 "2004-10-01T19:45:35Z")
> [@cityboy916](#): > > I recorded a [WAV file](http://www.eknent.com/etc/Mt_St_Helens_20041001.wav) to see if I could pick up any seismic activity from this far away (Portland area). It’s sped up 10 times and filtered. Throughout the recording are deep rumbles centered around 100Hz (so the original vibration was ~10Hz); I wonder if they’re earthquakes. The whine towards the end is from a motor vehicle. The link didn’t work for me. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Kid\_A\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Kid\_A\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kid_A_1)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2004, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-she-blows-mt-st-helens-erupting/267081/10 "2004-10-01T19:51:37Z")
Worked for me. It ran in quicktime. ---
**Author:** ![Greathouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greathouse/32/2992_2.png) [@Greathouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greathouse)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2004, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-she-blows-mt-st-helens-erupting/267081/11 "2004-10-01T19:54:43Z")
> [@Kid\_A](#): > > Worked for me. It ran in quicktime. Oh well. It must just be my system then. Thanks for the quick reply. ---
**Author:** ![Vlad\_Igor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/7feea3/32.png) [@Vlad\_Igor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vlad_Igor)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2004, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-she-blows-mt-st-helens-erupting/267081/12 "2004-10-02T01:46:16Z")
> [@cityboy916](#): > > I recorded a [WAV file](http://www.eknent.com/etc/Mt_St_Helens_20041001.wav) to see if I could pick up any seismic activity from this far away (Portland area). Out of curiosity, how did you make this recording? What were you recording? Vlad/Igor ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2004, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-she-blows-mt-st-helens-erupting/267081/13 "2004-10-02T01:55:10Z")
It was the big story on all the news channels (CNN, MSNBC, etc) this morning, along with the Bush/Kerry debates. ---
**Author:** ![umop\_ap\_sdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/dbc845/32.png) [@umop\_ap\_sdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/umop_ap_sdn)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2004, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-she-blows-mt-st-helens-erupting/267081/14 "2004-10-02T02:26:18Z")
> [@Greathouse](#): > > The link didn’t work for me. 😕 Have you tried saving it to your hard disk? > [@Vlad/Igor](#): > > Out of curiosity, how did you make this recording? What were you recording? Using a regular microphone - the kind that’s designed to clip on to the front of a person’s shirt, using an ordianry sound card with a 20db microphone boost. The mic was just laying around picking up ambient noises. I let it run for just over 20 minutes then sped it up and filtered it. I’ve picked up other interesting noises using this method before, although it does seem surprising that such a small element could pick up these low frequencies. ---
**Author:** ![Vlad\_Igor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/7feea3/32.png) [@Vlad\_Igor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vlad_Igor)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2004, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-she-blows-mt-st-helens-erupting/267081/15 "2004-10-02T13:11:48Z")
> [@cityboy916](#): > > Using a regular microphone - the kind that’s designed to clip on to the front of a person’s shirt, using an ordianry sound card with a 20db microphone boost. I see. You must live in a fairly quiet place, or else you filtered out a lot of other noise. I live within a mile of an expressway, so the background noise here is constant. In an old Radio Shack electronics book I used to have, it talked about making a pseudo- directional boom mic by taping several straws together of different lengths. I don’t know that it would work for a clip on mic, though. I thought maybe you had buried the mic underground, or something like that. Vlad/Igor