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Roll and Read (Yellow)
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Many small
earthquakes shook
the volcano.
The force from that
pressure created a
bulge in the volcano.
The pressure also
caused the volcano to
tremble.
Lava inside the
volcano built up
pressure.
The pressure could
cause such a bulge.
The pressure and the
bulge it made scared the
scientists more than any
other warning sign.
The rock and ash
from the eruption
rained like fireworks
The volcano continued
to tremble and erupt
for weeks after the
first eruption.
The eruptions also
made a crater, or
shallow hole.
More than twentyfive years have
passed since the
eruption of 1980.
Winds carried ash
It took many weeks
from the eruption
to clean up all the ash
many miles to the
that fell on the city.
east.
Some of the plants
The mountain smoked
and trees are growing
like a chimney.
more slowly than
others.
Scientists estimate it will After nine hours, the
take more than two
eruption finally
hundred years for the
ended.
When it erupted,
Harry and his house
were buried under
tons of mud.
It taught scientists
many things about
volcanoes.
plant life of Mount St.
Helens to completely
grow back.
Since there are more
plants and trees now,
there is more for the
animals to eat.
They also monitored
the steam and gas that
rose from the
mountain.
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The scientists spent
a lot of time watching
the bulge.
People had to wear
masks to help them
breathe.
Trees and plants
were buried beneath
ash and rock.
Scientists monitored
the mountain
carefully.
Mount St. Helens is a
volcano. It is located
in Washington State.
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Roll and Read (Green)
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Do animals have a
special sense? They
might also sense
changes in the air.
Does this sense help
them know when
earthquakes and
volcanoes will happen?
More than two
thousand years ago, a
story goes, snakes and
rats left a city in
Greece.
Just days later, an
earthquake shook the
city!
An earthquake is a
sudden movement of
Earth’s crust.
There is no way to
know when or where
an earthquake will
happen.
Did the animals guess
that an earthquake
was coming?
Animals may be able
to feel the ground
tremble before
humans do.
There is a story that
dogs once dug
beneath the ground
near a volcano.
Scientists want to
know how to predict
them. They study a
volcano’s past.
In 1975, Chinese
leaders noticed that
many animals were
acting strangely.
They did this for
days before the
volcano erupted.
They told people to
leave the city of
Haicheng.
A few days later a
huge earthquake
came.
At that same time,
hundreds of small
earthquakes were
rumbling.
Earthquakes and
volcanoes can be very
dangerous.
Maybe the dogs felt
them when people
could not!
Volcanoes can
destroy people and
animals.
Many barnyard animals
Magma, or hot,
were behaving
melted rock, builds up
in a volcano’s chimney. differently just before
the earthquake.
Scientists also look
at how rocks inside
the volcano change
over time.
Dogs have been
known to howl before
an earthquake.
Birds in cages have
had trouble perching.
Volcanoes have been
called “nature’s
fireworks.”
Cats have hidden.
Chickens have
stopped laying eggs.
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Predicting weather is
not easy. After all
nobody can really tell
the future.
They are built on
things we have learned
and on our knowledge
about how things work.
Monitor, means to keep a
record, like a journal, of
all the changes that go on
around a volcano day
after day, year after
year.
A volcano may erupt
and then sit quietly
for hundreds or
thousands of years.
When they erupt, some
volcanoes create
enormous amounts of
noise and can damage
everything around them.
They have learned
that before an
eruption, three
things usually happen.
By monitoring these
events, scientists
hope to predict when
a volcano eruption is
coming.
We just answered
question number one,
and it only took us a
few minutes!
It is common for
small earthquakes to
occur beneath active
volcanoes.
Some volcanoes send
out weak vibrations
all the time.
While scientists are working
on top of a volcano, they are
exposed to many dangers,
including poisonous fumes
and the risk of a sudden
eruption.
Maggie crossed her
arms and smiled when I
finally caught up and
finished filling in the
answers.
Maggie and I decided
right then to be
partners.
He, too, was the
president, and helped
write the Declaration
of Independence.
As with volcanic
eruptions, scientists know
a lot about where
earthquakes are likely to
happen.
Volcanologists sometimes
set up a network of
seismometers around a
volcano.
But earthquakes are not
like volcanoes. They do
not seem to give off
warning signals.
Earthquakes seem to
be even more difficult
to predict than volcanic
eruptions.
A tiltmeter is an
instrument that measures
tiny changes in the slant
of the ground.
When hot magma rises up
inside a volcano, the sides
of the volcano may bulge,
tilt, or crack.
The ride to Philadelphia
didn’t take long and
soon we were standing
outside the mint.
The world has about
eighteen major
earthquakes each
year.
These plates are not like
the ones you eat dinner
from! Instead, they
contain mile after mile of
solid rock.
There are now five
volcano observations
in the United States.
Scientists are not
able to predict the
exact time and place
of an eruption.
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