Stirring giant.

After a quiet slumber, Mount Saint Helens--one of Washington State's volcanoes--has sputtered awake. The volcano last oozed lava (erupted molten rock) in the 1980s. Last month, it erupted again--shooting gases and ash (sand-size rock particles) into the air.

The volcano gave warnings that it would soon pop: Small earthquakes shuddered beneath its surface on September 23. And the number of quakes increased daily--a sign that underground magma (mixture of molten rock and dissolved gases) was pushing its way up toward Earth's surface.

About two weeks after the first tremors shook, the volcano popped. Small explosions occurred over the following weeks and hot lava eventually appeared at the surface.

While this activity might seem sudden, it's been brewing for a while. It is related to a devastating eruption that occurred on May 18, 1980, when the volcano's side collapsed. A blast shot down the mountain, killing 57 people. Since then, Mount Saint Helens has been in what scientists call an active stage, or a long period of time during which a volcano sporadically erupts.

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There's no evidence that an eruption as large as the 1980 blast will happen again soon. Instead, scientists say that the volcano could leak lava over the next few weeks or months. Robert Ridky, a geologist at the U.S. Geological Survey, says, "After the 1980 event, we always said that this story isn't over yet."--B.W.