Some people on campus weren’t entirely sure what was going on when Mount St. Helens erupted Tuesday.

Within a few minutes after the eruption, the dome that was building over the last few months cracked open and spewed out steam and ash, which soared 6.8 miles into the sky. The mountain erupted for an hour and a half and could be seen by people from all over the Northwest. In Gresham, cars were stopping and people could be seen standing on every corner trying to get a better look at the giant plume rising over the northern horizon.

“It sounded like they were joking,” said Valarie Valdez, cashier at the Mount St. Helens Deli as she and patrons listened to radio reports of the eruption. But then they looked outside and “Sure enough, it was a big ice-cream-looking cloud,” she said. “We all got excited.”

According to the United States Geological Survey, “The main eruption pulse lasted about 10 minutes, but lower levels of activity persisted for at least another 15 to 45 minutes. Within minutes of the onset of this event, we lost communication with seven monitoring stations in the crater but not with any stations outside the crater. The event followed a few hours of slightly increased seismicity that was noted but not interpreted as precursory activity.”

“We have had a noticeable amount of earthquake activity in the past few weeks, and this is the exact kind of situation we had been expecting,” said Jon Major, hydrologist for the USGS. “We lost some of our equipment when she blew, knocking it into the crater, which we will need to retrieve,” said Major. “However, we will lower ropes and grappling hooks from helicopters. We won’t be putting any people on the ground, for safety sake.”

According to the USGS, “Growth of the new lava dome inside the crater of Mount St. Helens continues, accompanied by low rates of seismicity, low emissions of steam and volcanic gases, and minor production of ash. During such eruptions, episodic changes in the level of activity can occur over days to months. The eruption could also intensify suddenly or with little warning and produce explosions that cause hazardous conditions within several miles of the crater and farther downwind. Peter Frenzen of the US Forestry Service said, “It’s really no big deal. She’s been building for awhile and simply passed some gas.”