Rice Scientist Part Of Study To Map Mount St. Helens' Depths

A Rice University professor is among a group of scientists who will blow up a part of Mount St. Helens this week as part of a ground-breaking experiment that equates to conducting a massive ultrasound and CAT scan on the volcano. About 75 geophysicists are making preparations for unprecedented research to map the interior caverns and pipes that make up the plumbing system of the volcano behind the United States' deadliest eruption. Unlike the seismic sensors that will monitor the waves of the man-made explosions over a short period of time, Levander said these passive seismographers will monitor the waves of natural earthquakes over a two-year period. Gregory Waite, an associate professor at MIT who helped map 8 kilometers beneath the volcano, said this kind of research could be a boon into what scientists know about volcanoes. A third component of the research on Mount St.