Will the Mt St Helen's site explode again, and did the explosion of 1980 have the effect of increasing the likelihood of neighboring volcanoes, such as Mt Ranier and Mt Hood, of exploding just as violently sometime in the future?
Yes, it is extremely likely that Mt. St.
Helens will erupt again. The average eruption recurrence i
nterval is every 100-300 years.
No, this eruption will have little or no
effect on the likelihood of an eruption of the nearby volcanoes,
which have not erupted in historic times. However, both
volcanoes have a history of explosive eruptions.
Dr. Mike Garcia, Professor
Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology
University of Hawaii, Honolulu HI 96822
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