Helens Ash Research Articles

Effects of fresh and aged vehicular exhaust emissions on breathing pattern and cellular responses – pilot single vehicle study

The study presented here is a laboratory pilot study using diluted car exhaust from a single vehicle to assess differences in toxicological response between primary emissions and secondary products resulting from atmospheric photochemical reactions of gas phase compounds with O3, OH and other radicals. Sprague Dawley rats were exposed for 5 h to either filtered room air (sham) or one of two different atmospheres: (i) diluted car exhaust (P)+Mt. Saint Helens Ash (MSHA); (ii) P+MSHA+secondary organic aerosol (SOA, formed during simulated photochemical aging of diluted exhaust). Primary and secondary gases were removed using a nonselective diffusion denuder. Continuous respiratory data was collected during the exposure, and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) and complete blood counts (CBC) were performed 24 h after exposure. ANOVA models were used to assess the exposure effect and to compare those effects across different exposure types. Total average exposures were 363 ± 66 μg/m3 P+MSHA and 212 ± 95 µg/m3 P+MSHA+SOA. For both exposures, we observed decreases in breathing rate, tidal and minute volumes (TV, MV) and peak and median flows (PIF, PEF and EF50) along with increases in breathing cycle times (Ti, Te) compared to sham. These results indicate that the animals are changing their breathing pattern with these test atmospheres. Exposure to P+MSHA+SOA produced significant increases in total cells, macrophages and neutrophils in the BAL and in vivo chemiluminescence of the lung. There were no significant differences in CBC parameters. Our data suggest that simulated atmospheric photochemistry, producing SOA in the P+MSHA+SOA exposures, enhanced the toxicity of vehicular emissions.

Nitric Oxide Scavenging by Environmental Particles and Engineered Nanoparticles: Size and Composition Dependency

Inhaled particulate matter (PM) elicits systemic biological responses such as impaired arteriolar dilation and increased venular leukocyte adhesion. One mechanism that may contribute to such effects is NO scavenging by pulmonary translocated particles. The purpose of this study was to determine if PM scavenges NO in vitro, and also determine if PM size or composition influences any such activity. PM was classified as combustion source particles, engineered nanoparticles or nuisance dusts. NO solutions were generated by SNAP and were measured with a NO sensor. A concentration of 1–2.5 μg/ml was used for each particle, and responses were normalized to a bolus SNAP dose, [NO]=841 nm. Among fly ashes, residual oil fly ash was the most potent scavenger, decreasing the signal by 67%. Coal fly ash from Western Kentucky and Montana, as well as Mt. St. Helens ash did not significantly alter NO levels. Diesel exhaust particles attenuated the NO signal by 19%. Among nanoparticles, TiO2 decreased the NO signal by 39%. Single and multi‐walled carbon nanotubes did not produce an effect. These findings suggest that air particulate pollution as well as some engineered nanoparticles have the potential to scavenge NO, and this ability is heavily dependent upon particle size, composition and/or surface properties.Support: HEI #4730 and NIH RO1 ES015022 to TRN(This abstract does not necessarily reflect EPA policy)

Owning a Private Piece of the Public Disney Rock: Consumer Response and the Main Street Electrical Parade Light Bulb

In the 1980s, a new American cultural phenomenon erupted right alongside Mt. St. Helens: the desire for Mt. St. Helens's ash. Americans bought everything-from ash-filled clocks, hourglasses, and ballpoint pens to ash-filled pendants, broaches, and gumball containers. Artists used ash in paint, pottery, and glass. Smokers even bought ashtrays made of ash. And, for purists, ash available in a plastic bag.1 Mt. St. Helens's ash, in its various consumable forms, is an example of what the cultural critic Beverly Gordan calls a of the rock souvenir. of the rock souvenir is often an actual from a public space, brought home for private consumption.2 In 1996, the Disney company took its own turn with the of the rock tradition, honoring a twenty-four-year-old Disneyland event.3 Disney released light bulbs, similar to the ones used to decorate Christmas trees but without electrical wirings. What could possess Americans to purchase disconnected light bulbs at $10 apiece? tiny objects once helped to light the Main Street Electrical Parade, a Disneyland interactive event from 1972 to 1996. Three years later, the Main Street Electrical Parade light bulb continues to serve no particular, utilitarian purpose. Instead, each disconnected bulb attains its significance as a small piece, plucked off a greater, public whole. As I see it, each consumer who received a light bulb actually received a tangible form of his or her parade experiences. Each bulb acts as a cultural artifact, reflecting the bulb owner's private connection to this very public event. In The Significance of an Artifact, Yi-Fu Tuan explains that it is an essential characteristic of being human that we feel the urge to reify experience, to give those fleeting moments of pleasure and pain a narrative outline or visual (462). As advertisements once warned, the Main Street Parade is now glowing, gone from Disneyland. But each light bulb continues to offer its consumer a tangible, visual shape of his or her fleeting parade experiences. Students of American culture may better recognize the private side of this public event by asking what exactly light bulb consumers wished to give shape to. I asked a small group of potential consumers for their ideal pictures of the Main Street Electrical Parade light bulb.4 How did these consumers hope the bulbs would look when delivered to their homes? packaging, shape, and color were unknown. This opened an opportunity for subjects to create their own texts for interpretation. Each subject created a visual text, representing his or her ideal bulb and bulb packaging. subject's picture then used as a springboard for discussion about the private significances he or she attached to the Main Street Electrical Parade. Christina Guerrero, 18, describes her interest in the bulb as follows. That's the thing that lights, she says, That's the thing that gave me all those feelings. A T shirt or mug is not the same thing for me. For her, the bulb is not just a picture of the parade on a T shirt or mug. Instead, the light bulb is a piece of the parade itself, her piece. From my perspective, the light bulb and various other of the rock souvenirs may typify the private side of public American culture. A parade or other public event is taken in by a viewer, and a piece of that event, the viewer's subjective experience, is taken home. Viewed from the contextual homes of my sample subjects, the private side of the Main Street Electrical Parade combines personal experiences with Disney and other public ideologies. Discussing these ideologies may make them easier to recognize in sample consumer texts. cultural critic Richard V. Francaviglia explains that in the 1950s Disneyland was envisioned and designed as an international ambassador of Yankee ingenuity, national nostalgia, and collective visions of the future (152). …

Wind-driven dispersal of volcanic ash plumes and its control on the thermal structure of the plume-top

The dispersal of an ash plume as it propagates downwind with the ash settling under gravity is presented. It is shown that wind shear, the initial plume height and the plume grain size distribution have an important role in the dispersal of the ash, in particular in determining the evolution of the upper surface and the leading edge of the ash cloud. Once the ash has thermally equilibrated with the atmosphere, the temperature of the upper surface of the ash plume is directly related to its altitude. As a result we can use the model to interpret satellite images of the temperature of the upper surface of ash plumes. These calculations are compared with new analyses of satellite data from the 18 May 1980 eruptions of Mount St Helens in which both thermal infra-red and visible GOES satellite data were examined. In accord with the data, the model is able to predict the rate at which the Mount St Helens ash plume propagated downwind through a combination of the wind shear and gravitational settling of different size particles. The model is also able to explain the observed thermal structure of the upper surface of the ash plume, in which the temperature initially decreases, but then increases with downwind distance as the ash falls through the tropopause.

A reappraisal of Mount St. Helens' ash clusters - depositional model from experimental observation

Ash clusters depositing the distal ash of the May 18, 1980, eruption of Mount St. Helens are supposed to be generated due to electrostatic forces within the eruption cloud. Therefore, an experimental attempt was made to test electrostatic ash clustering which produced fallout with artificial ash clusters in the laboratory. Its grain-size characteristics were similar to the Mount St. Helens ash: proximal fallout was coarse-grained but showed a fine tail on the distribution curve; medial ash was bimodal with the distribution minimum at 45–63 μm; distal ash was fine-grained < 125–180 μm. Characterization of the ash clustering based on the strength of the electrostatic forces showed that volcanic ash can be subdivided into cluster-forming ash <4563 μm and cluster-modifying ash 63 μm.Clustering and subsequent deposition of two different typs of ash aggregates explain the grain-size characteristics of the Mount St. Helens and the experimental fallout ash: proximal fallout was deposited as single-grain clusters composed of a large particle >63 μm with adhering fines, settling at the grain-specific rates of the largest particle. Distal fallout settled as fine-ash clusters made up of ash, >90 wt.% of which were <45 μm, and a few large grains up to 180 μm settling at the aggregate-specific rates. Medial ash exhibiting a distinct distribution minimum is a composite deposit of both types of ash clusters depositing at the same site. Grain-size distribution in medial deposits are probably distinctive of ash cluster deposits in general while single-particle deposition gives rise to unimodal distributions.

Deposition of Volcanic Materials in the Hot Sections of Two Gas Turbine Engines

This paper reports the results of a series of tests designed to determine the melting and subsequent deposition behavior of volcanic ash cloud materials in modern gas turbine engine combustors and high-pressure turbine vanes. The specific materials tested were Mt. St. Helens ash and a soil blend containing volcanic ash (black scoria) from Twin Mountain, NM. Hot section test systems were built using actual engine combustors, fuel nozzles, ignitors, and high-pressure turbine vanes from an Allison T56 engine can-type combustor and a more modern Pratt and Whitney F-100 engine annular-type combustor. A rather large turbine inlet temperature range can be achieved using these two combustors. The deposition behavior of volcanic materials as well as some of the parameters that govern whether or not these volcanic ash materials melt and are subsequently deposited are discussed.

Rapid Dissolution of Avian Eggshells Buried by Mount St. Helens Ash

Eggshells of ring-billed gulls buried by Mount St. Helens ash at an eastern Washington colony were excavated one and seven years following the ashfall. Physical dissolution of the eggshell had already begun during the first year of burial. Physical dissolution was attributable to weak acids leaching through the ash

Fingerprinting geological materials using SSMS

Spark-source mass spectrometry (SSMS) was used to investigate a wide range of geological materials using a semiquantitative method. The uncertainties in the method were assessed using U.S.G.S. standards, and in a study of Mount St. Helens (Yakima) ash, in which SSMS data were compared to those from other techniques. In the method described here the uncertainties for most minor- and trace-element concentrations are considered to reflect their natural distributions in geological materials. The principal advantages of SSMS are the simplicity of sample preparation, a minimum sample size of 0.1 g and the capacity to survey simultaneously a wide range of elements (50–60) down to ng g −1 levels.

Sediment transport on the Washington continental shelf: Estimates of dispersal rates from Mount St. Helens ash

Following the 18 May, 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, samples from 10 stations on the Washington continental shelf were collected during cruises in October 1980, January 1981, October 1981, and January 1982, in an attempt to trace the movement of ash which was introduced to the Pacific Ocean by the Columbia River. Prior to October 1980, marine ash dispersal was restricted to points west and southwest of the Columbia River mouth due to summer circulation patterns. Five winter storms were probably responsible for most of the north-northwesterly transport of ash from October 1980 to October 1981. The size of this ash ranged from 7 to 22 μm (equivalent spherical diameter; reference density = 2.65 Mg m −3) at distances as far as 84 km from the river mouth. Only fine ash (7–12 μm) was recovered 84–125 km from the river mouth. The calculated suspensate transport rate for 16–22 μm ash is 80 km y −1 (16 km storm −1). Finer ash (7–12 μm) was transported at estimated rates of 73–190 km y −1 (14–38 km storm −1). These calculated transport rates are similar to rates previously estimated by Smith and Hopkins (1972 ; 80 km y −1) and Sternberg and McManus (1972 ; 220 km y −1), but are less than those predicted by Kachel (1980 ; 25–330 km storm −1), even though the ash was finer than the average sediment upon which these previous estimates were based.

Rates of Chemical Weathering of Rocks and Minerals. 1986

S.M. Colman and D.P. Dethier, An Overview of Rates of Chemical Weathering. Kinetics and Mechanisms of Weathering Reactions: R.A. Eggleton, The Relations between Crystal Structure and Silicate Weathering Rates. D.E. Grandstaff, The Dissolution Rate of Forsteritic Olivine from Hawaiian Beach Sand. G.R. Holdren, Jr., and P.M. Speyer, Stoichiometry of Alkali Feldspar Dissolution at Room Temperature and Various pH Values. J.B. Laronne, Rate Limitation and Dissolution of Highly Soluble Minerals. Rates of Mineral Alteration in Soil Environments: R.D. Hall and R.E. Martin, The Etching of Hornblende Grains in the Matrix of Alpine Tills and Periglacial Deposits. W.W. Locke, Rates of Hornblende Etching in Soils on Glacial Deposits, Baffin Island, Canada. W.C. Mahaney and D.L. Halvorson, Rates of Mineral Weathering in the Wind River Mountains, Western Wyoming. D.B. Nahon, Evolution of Iron Crusts in Tropical Landscapes. F.C. Ugolini, Processes and Rates of Weathering in Cold and Polar Desert Environments. Weathering of Volcanic Ashes and Deposits: R.H. King, Weathering of Holocene Airfall Tephras in the Southern Canadian Rockies. D.J. Lowe, Controls on the Rates of Weathering and Clay Mineral Genesis in Airfall Tephras: A Review and New Zealand Case Study. V.E. Neall and I.K. Paintin, Rates of Weathering of 14C-Dated Late Quaternary Volcaniclastic Deposits in the Western United States. A.F. White, L.V. Benson, and A. Yee, Chemical Weathering of the May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens Ash Fall and the Effect on the Iron Creek Watershed, Washington. Rates of Formation of Rock-Weathering Features: S.M. Colman, Levels of Time Information in Weathering Measurements, with Examples from Weathering Rinds on Volcanic Clasts in the Western United States. R. Crook, Jr., and A.R. Gillespie, Weathering Rates in Granitic Boulders Measured by P-Wave Speeds. I.E. Whitehouse, M.J. McSaveney, P.L.K. Knuepfer, and T.J.H. Chinn, Growth of Weathering Rinds on Torlesse Sandstone, Southern Alps, New Zealand. Hydrochemical Studies of Rates of Weathering: M.A. Velbel, The Mathematical Basis for Determining Rates of Geochemical and Geomorphic Processes in Small Forested Watersheds by Mass Balance: Examples and Implications. J.L. Clayton, An Estimate of Plagioclase Weathering Rate in the Idaho Batholith Based upon Geochemical Transport Rates. J. Creasey, A.C. Edwards, J.M. Reid, D.A. MacLeod, and M.S. Cresser, The Use of Catchment Studies for Assessing Chemical Weathering Rates in Two Contrasting Upland Areas in Northeast Scotland. D.P. Dethier, Weathering Rates and the Chemical Flux from Catchments in the Pacific Northwest, U.S.A.. T. Pa*afces, Rates of Weathering and Erosion Derived from Mass Balance in Small Drainage Basins. M.J. Pavich, Processes and Rates of Saprolite Production and Erosion on a Foliated Granitic Rock of the Virginia Piedmont. Each chapter includes references. Index.

Mount St. Helens Ash: Recreating Its Effects on the Steppe Environment and Ecophysiology

The 18 May 1980 ash fall from Mount St. Helens was experimentally reproduced in May 1982 by applying silt—sized ash to a stand of the Artemisia tridentata/Agropyron spicatum association in south—central Washington. Compared to the adjacent control site, ash caused an immediate increase in albedo from 13% to 28%, while other parameters of the energy budget were simultaneously lowered: net radiation by °20%, soil surface temperatures by as much as 10°C, and soil heat flux by as much as 50%. The ash's mulching action initially increased water availability and delayed leaf abscission in Artemisia tridentata (Big sagebrush) by 2 wk in summer 1982. But after summer 1982 water availability declined, while water use increased, illustrating the diverse effects of the ash. Increased reflection from the ash—covered surface increased the radiation load on plant canopies. In turn, air temperature at 0.5 m increased, latent heat flux often doubled in summer, and xylem pressure potentials decreased. Available water at the —1 m soil depth eventually decreased as much as 40%. This decrease was the result of the increase in latent heat flux and the decline in infiltration through the stratified layer created by the ash cap. The sudden alteration of the soil surface by an ash layer revealed the close coupling of the water use of A. tridentata with available soil water. In summer in both 1982 and 1983, predawn xylem pressure potential declined as soil water potentials approached —4.5 MPa on both sites. Total shrub leaf area index routinely decreased 75% as large (> 2 cm long) spring—emergent leaves were shed. Highest leaf conductance (0.3 to 0.5 s/cm) and highest transpiration occurred among the remaining smaller (<2 cm long) leaves after leaf abscission in spring. Water conservation through leaf area reduction followed by high transpiration rates apparently allows the development of inflorescences during the dry, hot summer, culminating in autumn flowering and seed maturation. Lupinus sulphureus on the ash—covered surface exhibited no difference from conspecifics on the control site in xylem pressure potentials, but did have higher leaf conductances during the 1st yr following the ash fall; no differences were observed in the 2nd yr. Lupinus sulphureus aestivated °2 wk earlier on control sites the 1st yr following ash deposition. The responses to ash that we measured were probably the maximum expressed by Big sagebrush; the thin layer of ash to the east and the coarse—textured ash to the west did not significantly alter the movement of water. Short—term increases in A. tridentata in the Pacific Northwest °6700 yr BP may have been caused by similar decreases in soil temperature and increases in aridity with the deposition of Mazama ash. In addition to allowing assessment of the effects of the 18 May 1980 ash fall on arid steppe, application of ash provided an unexpected level of precision in detecting the often subtle effects that occur when some microenvironmental parameters change while the overall macroclimate remains the same.

Green Glass Made of Mount Saint Helens Ash?

Green Glass Made of Mount Saint Helens Ash?

Inhalation studies of Mt. St. Helens volcanic ash in animals: Respiratory mechanics, airway reactivity and deposition

Effects of fine volcanic ash aerosol on pulmonary mechanical properties of awake guinea pigs were evaluated during exposure by inhalation. Ash penetration into the lung as well as tissue response to ash were determined by transmission electron microscopy. The reactivity of airway epithelial irritant receptors following ash exposure was assessed using a histamine bronchoprovocation test. Results indicated that breathing 9.4 mg/m 3 of ash for 2 hr did not cause a measurable change in pulmonary function of guinea pigs. Electron micrographs showed that ash particles in the lung below the hilus did not seem to produce any acute tissue reaction and were almost all phagocytized by macrophages. Airways of guinea pigs exposed to ash were significantly less responsive to histamine than were the airways of animals exposed only to air. It appears that even though Mt. St. Helens ash was well tolerated by the guinea pig during the exposure, its presence in the inhaled air did change the “histamine sensitivity” of airway epithelial irritant receptors.

Ferromagnetic resonance of precipitated phases in natural glasses

This paper describes the practical application of ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) in characterizing the iron-rich precipitates commonly occurring in natural glasses. Following a capsule introduction to the principles of FMR powder pattern analysis, some new results for obsidians and Mount St Helens ash are briefly presented. Attention is later drawn to the critical influences of gas-phase equilibria in determining the natures of the precipitated phases in fine particulate glasses, and it is demonstrated that synthetic “natural glass analogues” can be important aids in interpreting the FMR spectra of natural samples. An extensive discussion of the ferromagnetic phases in lunar glasses of both volcanic and micrometeoroid-impact origins is built largerly upon elements of the author's previously published and unpublished work, and suggestions are offered for future FMR studies of these materials. Finally, an appendix compares two methods of thermomagnetic analysis based on FMR and contrasts these with the results of more classical techniques.

Weathering characteristics of natural glass and influences on associated water chemistry

Weathering rates and mechanisms of volcanic glasses at ambient temperature are investigated both experimentally and in the natural environment. As documented previously for man-made glasses, natural silicate glasses weather by a two step process involving surface corrosion and cation interdiffusion. Diffusion rates display a strong valence state-dependence with monovalent species less pH-dependent than bivalent species. Rates of release also decrease with increasing aqueous concentrations and glass-surface to solution-volume ratios. Numerical solutions to Ficks second law of diffusion are presented for surface-concentration dependent diffusion and diffusion coupled with surface corrosion. Calculated diffusion coefficients of 1 × 10−19 cm2 × 5−1 and activation energies of 95 kJ mol−1 are in agreement with data for man-made glasses.Geochemical data are presented for short and long term natural weathering of glassy rocks. XPS data for glass phases in the 1980 Mount St Helens ash fall indicate rapid loss of readily exchangeable surface cations followed by longer term diffusion release. Incongruent leaching of Tertiary-age vitric tuffs in Nevada is found to control associated groundwater chemistry.

Lead 210 and polonium 210 in Mount St. Helens ash

During the Mount St. Helens eruptions, lead 210 and polonium 210 were measured in volcanic ash samples. Polonium 210 was consistently higher than lead 210 in all samples, with the 210Po/210Pb ratios ranging from 2 to 12. The overequilibrium of the ratios is due to the enrichment of polonium compounds in the volcanic gases from hot magma relative to less volatile lead compounds.

Mt. St. Helens ash in lakes in the lower Grand Coulee, Washington State

Mt. St. Helens ash in lakes in the lower Grand Coulee, Washington State

Abrasive effects of Mount Saint Helens ash upon epidermis of yolk sac larvae of Pacific herring Clupea harengus pallasi

Larval Pacific herring Clupea harengus pallasi were exposed for 24 h to suspensions of estuarine sediment and volcanic ash from 0 to 8000 mg/litre. The effects of these suspensions on the epidermis of the yolk sac larvae were determined using light and scanning electron microscopy. Examination of the epidermis at specific locations on dorsal and ventral body surfaces showed that the effects were apparent with increasing concentrations of both sediment and ash. The effects of volcanic ash, however, occurred at lower concentrations and were of greater magnitude than those of sediment. Examination of the epidermis of these larvae under the scanning electron microscope revealed puncture-type damage associated with volcanic ash but not estuarine sediment. Thus, in addition to the possible effects of smothering which may occur with fine particulates, the ash particles result in direct mechanical damage to the delicate early larvae. The concentrations where effects were noted were greater than those likely to be observed in the lower Columbia River estuary where the larval herring occur. In upriver locations characterized by higher suspended particulates, delicate larvae of other species may suffer epidermal damage.

Mount St Helens ash: suitability for use as engineered fill : Shorey, E F; Roth, L H; Rieck, R W Bull Assoc Engng Geol, V20, N2, May 1983, P151–160

Mount St Helens ash: suitability for use as engineered fill : Shorey, E F; Roth, L H; Rieck, R W Bull Assoc Engng Geol, V20, N2, May 1983, P151–160

Mount St Helens ash: Suitability for use as engineered fill : Shorey, E F; Roth, L H; Rieck, R W Bull Assoc Engng Geol, V20, N2, May 1983, P151–160

Mount St Helens ash: Suitability for use as engineered fill : Shorey, E F; Roth, L H; Rieck, R W Bull Assoc Engng Geol, V20, N2, May 1983, P151–160