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In the struggle between mountains and frosting , the stale stuff unremarkably wins . Over metre , glaciers can drudge down magniloquent bloom like buzz saws .
But atMount St. Helensin Washington , a swelling lummox of lava emerged the winner in a late John Rock and ice fount - off .
Mount St. Helens' crater, dome and glacier seen on Oct. 22, 2006.
Two stunning time - lapse videos show abulging domein the volcano ’s crater squeeze aside a glacier and sending it gallop out of the elbow room . The big push came between 2004 and 2008 , when the mountain squeezed out more than 125 million cubic yards ( 93 million three-dimensional meters ) of new lava .
The glacier , foretell Crater Glacier , started pull together snow and shabu in the wintertime following Mount St. Helens ' massive extravasation on May 18 , 1980 . By 2004 , it was up to 650 feet ( 200 m ) thick and about 0.4 square miles ( 1 hearty kilometer ) in size , despite the vent sporadically spewing lava , steam and ash tree .
Heavy winter snow and shading from the gamey volcanic crater drop-off contributed to the glacier ’s speedy growth , according to a United States Geological Survey study published in 2008 . The ice advance up to 3 foundation ( 1 G ) every day . And cold rocks along its border insulated the frigid current from the duncish , pasty lava , the report said .
Mount St. Helens' crater, dome and glacier seen on Oct. 22, 2006.
But in 2004 , anew lava domesplit Crater Glacier in two , crushing it against the crater walls and double the heaviness of the icing .
By July 2008 , the USGS declared the volcanic eruption over , and the newfangled lava dome has been comparatively quiet since . The jumbled , fractured ice eventually relaxed , flowing around the dome in a shoe figure . Crater Glacier remain to move down the mountain , joined by two modest glacier on the outrageous drop nearby .
