David Ramsey, BGSU geology alumnus, monitors Mount St. Helens' seismic activity Oct. 17 at the Cascades Volcano Observatory. Ramsey writes, "I was watching seismicity on a station that was lowered from a helicopter onto the new dome on the monitor on the left, watching plots of cumulative seismic activity on the screen on the right, and monitoring other seismic and microphone stations on the drums behind me. On the laptop, I was looking at alerts from the acoustic flow monitor network on the streams near the volcano, as we had had some really heavy rainfall and some small debris flows reported by the station just at the outlet from the crater."

BGSU-trained geologist monitors Mount St. Helens

When Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980, 57 people were killed, homes and recreational areas were destroyed or abandoned and the surrounding landscape was changed for years to come.

Now the volcano, which had abruptly stopped its dome-building activity in 1986, has come to life once more, and geologists are intensively monitoring the situation. One of those scientists is David Ramsey, who received his master’s degree from BGSU in 1997.

As a graduate student working with Charlie Onasch, geology chair, as his thesis adviser, Ramsey learned how to use geographic information systems (GIS) technology, which involves computer mapmaking. Now, as a geologist and GIS specialist with the United States Geological Survey, he is using his skills to track and map changes in the volcano.

“GIS is used to visualize and analyze volcanoes,” he said. “We’re also working to refine the seismic network around the volcano so we can determine if and where we need to move or add seismometers.”

Normally stationed in Menlo Park, Calif., Ramsey recently spent an exhausting two weeks in Vancouver, Wash., with the Cascades Volcano Observatory, where he was called in to assist with GIS efforts following the Oct. 1 explosion of Mount St. Helens. The steam and ash eruptions since then have led to the formation of a new lava dome about 650 by 650 meters across and about 100 meters tall, he said.

Local officials, the U.S. Forest Service and media representatives from around the country all needed immediate information, and Ramsey was part of a team assigned to provide it.

While the eruption of a volcano can be disastrous, for geologists it is an exciting event, Ramsey said. He recalled going on helicopter observation flights over the mouth of the crater and opening the windows to see if the team could smell sulfur, whose presence would indicate volcanic gasses. “We flew right through the steam cloud coming off the new dome, but the steam was very pure, very white, with no hint of sulfur,” he said somewhat disappointedly.

Ramsey (left) prepares to board an observation flight over Mount St. Helens.

In addition to the observation flights, Ramsey spent long hours in the operations room at the observatory monitoring the seismicity of the volcano as information was coming in from the 20-30 seismometers placed around it. The instruments help measure the vibrations from the many small earthquakes taking place deep within the volcano and the resulting movement of magma as it races up to the surface, Ramsey said. “We’re trying to determine if there’s pressure that could lead to another eruption like the steam and ash eruption that happened earlier this month,” he said. The information is relayed to the helicopter flight teams to insure their safety, he noted.

Also while at the observatory, he spent time in the field studying and collecting ash from the volcano to send to the U.S. Geological Survey’s Denver laboratory. “USGS will analyze it chemically to see what kind of magma it’s from,” he said. “Is it volatile, gas-filled magma that could explosively erupt, for example?”

He also visited the “Pumice Plain,” the area devastated by the 1980 earthquake, where the ground is covered with downed trees and a thick coating of pumice from the spewed volcanic ash. Now, nearly 25 years later, he said he was amazed at the color sprouting on this once-desolate area, with small shoots of green grass and purple wildflowers poking up from the gray surface. “We startled a herd of elk feeding on the young grass and when they ran away, they left a cloud of pumice,” he recalled.

Following the 1980 eruption, Mount St. Helens was named a Volcanic National Monument and the surrounding area was cleared of homes. Thus, tourist traffic in the potentially dangerous area can be controlled fairly easily, Ramsey said. The environment is perfect for geologists and other scientists to study the events unfolding now.

“It’s a natural laboratory and we want to study it as thoroughly as possible,” he said. “There are a lot of people coming back who were here in 1980, and it’s a great opportunity for people my age to learn from people with such a wealth of experience. It’s been a really interesting learning experience.”

The lava dome in the crater at Mount St. Helens, photographed by David Ramsey for the U.S. Geological Survey during an Oct. 14 observation flight.