Scientists say magma is developing beneath Mount St. Helens, but there is no evidence to suggest the volcano will erupt any time soon.
According to NBC News, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said the southwestern Washington state volcano has a magma stream about four to six miles underneath it. The volcano last erupted in a slow steam from 2004 to 2008.
"The magma reservoir beneath Mount St. Helens has been slowly re-pressurizing since 2008," the USGS said in a statement obtained by Reuters on Wednesday. "It is likely that re-pressurization is caused by (the) arrival of a small amount of additional magma 4 to 8 km (2.5 to 5 miles) beneath the surface."
Carolyn Driedger, spokeswoman for the USGS Cascades Volcano Observatory in Vancouver, said magma beneath the volcano has been slowly re-pressurizing since the four-year eruption.
"The magma could be at current levels for another 100 years before any eruption," Driedger told NBC News.
The 8,363-foot mountain erupted in the 1980s, starting in May 1980 and ending in 1986. The eruptive period killed 57 people and leveled 230 square miles of forest.
"The May 18, 1980, eruption and subsequent smaller eruptions of Mount St. Helens are reminders that Washington state has five active volcanoes within its borders and is vulnerable to the multiple hazards associated with volcanic eruptions," John Ewert, Scientist-in-Charge of the USGS Cascades Volcano Observatory in Vancouver, said in a news release. "We are striving to improve our monitoring and forecasting capabilities at other hazardous Cascade volcanoes."
The 1980 eruption also caused the largest landslide in the history of the Earth and gave Mount St. Helens' distinctive crater and shaped the surrounding landscape. Driedger said the magma uplift over the past 50 years is no larger than an inch and stressed that it is not a dangerous indication.
