A series of earthquakes have rocked Mount St Helens in the US state of Washington, leaving residents as far away as Portland, Oregon, and Seattle fearing it might erupt.
The last time the earthquake erupted was in 1980 when it killed 57 people.
However, experts have reassured locals that the ongoing quakes are not believed to be connected to magma in the volcano and instead are ‘pretty normal’ shifting of the fault lines close to the mountain.
The Pacific Northwest Seismic Network said a magnitude 3.9 quake hit in the early hours of Wednesday.
It was followed minutes later by a smaller tremor and dozens of smaller aftershocks, but experts said that, despite a 3.9 quake being ‘somewhat unusual, small earthquakes happen almost continuously across the unseen faults throughout western Washington and Oregon.
