Hi All,

I just read an article on King-5 TV which said they finally flew the Silver Fox yesterday over the dome of the volcano and took readings, but they did not reveal what the data revealed. Maybe that will come up in the next day or so. They are hopeful the new gas readings they took will tell them if the magma which is coming to the surface is left over from 1980 or if this new magma. If it is new they said the mountain could have a more explosive eruption.

They also said in the past few days some new patterns are being recorded on the seismographs. They are different from previous patterns, but they don't seem to know what they mean. There was no mention of hamonic tremors. It seems to be an on again off again routine.

I just had a look at the webicorders and they were kind of interesting. The first on the list had what I think may be been rock falls recorded, then a more robust seismicity pattern and it has now returned to normal. #2 stopped working hours ago and #3 looked rather placid except for the last few minutes recorded. If its not a computer glitch, they may have had a near 4 or + 4 considering they have got them tight as can be.

And last, but not least I wanted to mention something I saw yesterday morning. I put my browser on the MSH videocam every morning while I'm getting ready for work and yesterday about 6:30 in the morning, before daylight I saw a bright yellow glow coming from the mountain and I knew right away it was not coming from center or dome area. So I waited a little bit and as the picture became more clear due to daylight the yellow glow became an orange plume with steam coming from the top. The area where this was located was to the right front of the dome along the still flat area. Not where there is any ledge elevation.

I asked Adventure Woman about this last night and she said she had seen the same thing when she was up there and was glad someone else had seen it as well.

So Mt St Helens remains a mystery to us lay-folks for now. Maybe to the scientists as well. It's just a matter of time as whether it will fall to the same background levels it had previously, or go for the big popper.

Petra