Loading ...Madam Pele gave birth to several new fissures on the eastern end of the eruptive zone. Fissures #16,17, and this morning #18. The eruptions passed the geothermal plant by about a mile and broke out again further east. This is near the zone of the 1955 lava flow.
So the geothermal plant has been ‘bracketed’ by fissures to the west and now to the east. Perhaps Pele will spare the power plant. At peak capacity it can supply 38 MegaWatts, or 20% of our island power. For now, it is shut down. The ‘doom porn’ news is still saying there are 50,000 gallons of volatile Pentane at the plant, “just waiting to blow”. This is NOT TRUE. The pentane was moved out several days ago, so there is no explosion threat from the geothermal plant.
News feeds are also excited about the possible summit explosions. They make it sound like Mount St. Helens is about to destroy the island any minute now. It’s really not much of a big deal for us locally. We just keep away from the crater. While there is the possibility of a 1924 style steam explosion, things may be a little less explosive this time. The lava vent pipe is much larger now than it was in 1924, so it would be harder for a rockfall of the sidewalls to seal the vent and turn it into a ‘spud cannon’. The crater is actively steaming now… a lot… but it’s a large, open hole at this point and it would take a massive clog to make it explosive.
Biggest human threat right now is the volume of SO2 gas being emitted by the fresh lava fissures. People in the immediate area really need to have the Sulfur Dioxide masks as the wind wafts this stuff around. I got a strong dose at home, five miles downwind, when the wind came my way. But it’s very intermittent as it wafts around in the wind, so you need to keep aware of the wind direction. We just closed up the house and stayed indoors for an hour and it was gone later.