Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Glacier in the Making at Mount Saint Helens

Aired July 26, 2001 - 09:26   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
STEPHEN FRAZIER, CNN ANCHOR: This morning we start across America with an apparent glacier in the making. Geologists say the crater of Mount Saint Helens, that volcano, has cooled enough in the 20 years since it erupted that a small glacier may now be forming there.

Here are details from reporter Vince Patton of CNN's Portland, Oregon affiliate, KGW-TV.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VINCE PATTON, KGW-TV REPORTER (voice-over): A couple of years after the eruption, Mount Saint Helens' crater cooled. Snow stopped melting. It piled up. Two thirds of the crater gets very little sun.

JON MAJOR, U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY: The snow pack in the rear part of the crater, in the southern part of the crater behind the dome, has reached the thickness of almost 500 feet.

PATTON: John Major at the U.S. Geological Survey credits several amateur ice cave explorers with the discovery. They brought out pictures and measurements which indicate the birth of a glacier could be in progress. In fact, there's a series of ice caves now inside the crater. But to have a glacier, you must have two things -- ice and ice in motion.

MAJOR: So as the ice moves, there are places where the ice is in compression and places where the ice is in tension. And where it's in tension it begins to pull apart and it forms these cracks.

PATTON: Those cracks are already evident, so they have motion. But it's not truly solid ice yet.

MAJOR: The very lowest layers have actually turned into true ice. But the upper part of these caves and the bulk of this body of snow is essentially very dense snow.

PATTON: There could be a dangerous impact from all of this. If there's even a mild eruption on Mount Saint Helens, it could send 100 million cubic yards of melted ice and rock rushing downhill.

MAJOR: It's probably a significant risk to the upper part of the Toutle Valley. PATTON: They say sensors should give us plenty of early warning. Meanwhile, scientists watch with fascination to see if a full glacier forms in the next decade or so.

MAJOR: I think this is pretty interesting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FRAZIER: Vince Patton reporting there from KGW-TV and that is our look across America. We'll talk about the other volcano a little bit later, Mount Etna in Sicily.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com