Instrumentation in remote and dangerous settings; examples using data from GPS “spider” deployments during the 2004-2005 eruption of Mount St. Helens, Washington
Self-contained, single-frequency GPS instruments fitted on lightweight stations suitable for helicopter-sling payloads became a critical part of volcano monitoring during the September 2004 unrest and subsequent eruption of Mount St. Helens. Known as “spiders” because of their spindly frames, the stations were slung into the crater 29 times from September 2004 to December 2005 when conditions at the volcano were too dangerous for crews to install conventional equipment. Data were transmitted in near-real time to the Cascades Volcano Observatory in Vancouver, Washington. Each fully equipped unit cost about $2,500 in materials and, if not destroyed by natural events, was retrieved and redeployed as needed. The GPS spiders have been used to track the growth and decay of extruding dacite lava (meters per day), thickening and accelerated flow of Crater Glacier (meters per month), and movement of the 1980-86 dome from pressure and relaxation of the newly extruding lava dome (centimeters per day).