Our news partners at the Columbian recently got in touch with scientists who study, in part, the volcano and the land beneath it. To them, these quakes are a window into what’s going on underground, and can be helpful for directing further research.
There’s nothing particularly alarming about this series of earthquakes, though, and it doesn’t help much to indicate when the next eruption will be. Read more about the recent swarm and what scientists have to say here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=xP2dreOI8gI
On March 16, 1980, the first sign of activity at Mount St. Helens occurred as a series of small earthquakes. On March 27, after hundreds of additional earthquakes, the volcano produced its first eruption in over 100 years. Steam explosions blasted a 60- to 75-m (200- to 250-ft) wide crater through the volcano’s summit ice cap and covered the snow-clad southeast sector with dark ash.
https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/volcanoes/st_helens/st_helens_geo_hist_99.html
