In 2014, scientists set off 23 blasts to uncover magma hidden beneath Mount St Helens

Representative Image (AI-generated) Mount St. Helens is one of the most closely studied volcanoes in the United States, but scientists still cannot directly see the complex system of magma and rock hidden beneath it. In 2014, researchers launched an ambitious experiment to change that. According to the Imaging Magma Under St. Helens (iMUSH) project, a field team used 23 controlled explosions and a remarkably dense network of seismic instruments to send waves through the ground and map what lay beneath the volcano. The results, combined with later seismic studies, helped identify an upper-crustal magma-storage zone roughly 4 to 15 kilometres beneath the volcano.An experiment beneath a volcanoThe 2014 project was part of iMUSH, an interdisciplinary effort designed to investigate the magmatic plumbing system beneath Mount St. Helens. Rather than waiting for natural earthquakes to provide the necessary seismic signals, researchers deliberately generated their own waves. In late July and early August 2014, a field crew of about 70 people conducted the active-source seismic experiment. They created 23 controlled explosions at different distances from the volcano and recorded the resultin...