Fire and ice: Mount St Helens is proud mum of world’s newest glacier

A topographic map of Mount St. Helens made by scientists from the US Geological Survey (USGS) and NASA using Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) technology. LIDAR maps topography by bouncing a laser pulse from an airplane to the ground tens of thousands of times each second. The technique results in topographical maps that are vertically accurate to within 10cm. Image: NASA

Steamy wonderland

Schilling and Sherrod use aerial photography and LIDAR surveys to track the glacier’s movement, but they also walk its surface and directly measure the downhill progress. “It’s pretty exciting,” says Sherrod. “You can have rocks the size of a Volkswagen being hurled down at you.”