Mount St. Helens began belching a huge column of white steam Friday after days of rumblings and earthquakes that suggested the volcano that erupted with cataclysmic force in 1980 was about to blow its top again. It was not immediately known if this was the eruption that scientists have been warning of for days. For the past week, scientists have detected thousands of earthquakes of increasing strength — as high as magnitude 3.3 — at a mountain best known for its devastating eruption in 1980. The eruption killed 57 people and coated towns 250 miles away with ash.
