Phelps attends GeoGirls program

LIND - A local girl spent a five days learning about volcanoes and Mount St. Helens earlier this month.

Makayla Phelps, 13, of Lind, attended the GeoGirls program near Mount St. Helens from Aug. 12-16.

"I thought it was really cool," Phelps said of the program. "It was super fun."

This year, 20 middle school students - including Phelps, a Lind-Ritzville eighth-grader - and four high school students participated in the outdoor program offered through the U.S. Geological Survey's Cascades Volcano Observatory and the Mount St. Helens Institute. Five girls came from Eastern Washington, including Phelps and one each from LaCrosse, Pullman, Richland and Waterville.

A Pullman middle school teacher was also present.

During the program, the girls explored the Mount St. Helens area, hiking on volcanic lands and visiting Ape Cave, a lava tunnel on the south side of the mountain near the town of Cougar.

The highlight of the program, Phelps said, was visiting the Johnson Ridge Observatory and seeing Mount St. Helens.

"Volcanoes are her passion," Phelps' mother Randalyn Phelps said.

But the participants did more than just visit the observatory - they conducted geologic experiments, learning how to document their findings.

Experiments included using a balloon and camera to gather images that a computer use to make a map, a process called photogrammetry. The girls also collected samples of volcanic sediments from the Toutle River, modeling how the sediments were moved downriver. They also set up GPS sensors to track ground surface changes and learned about Mount St. Helens' magma reservoir and volcanic eruptions.

To demonstrate geologic models, the girls used M&Ms in one experiment and corn syrup in another.

"We did a project using corn syrup representing viscosity of lava," she said, noting participants heated, cooled and diluted the syrup to learn how lava would similarly act.

"The frozen corn syrup had a higher viscosity, so it was thicker and sticky," Phelps said.

The girls also blew bubbles into the samples to study how volcanic gases would have effected lava, she said.

As for Ape Cave - a popular tourist destination for underground hiking - Phelps said it was cold at wet.

The participants traversed about half the main cave, she said.

"We sang to the meatball," she said, referring to a large bolder lodged in the cave that forces spelunkers to climb around to continue.

During the program, Phelps said she interacted with female scientists, educators and older students, learning about volcanoes, natural hazards and modern scientific monitoring technologies.