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YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) -- A dome by any other name would
erupt so strong. But, alas, what's in a name might have tormented Shakespeare as
it has even the most savvy of scientists.
It's been called the "blister," "wart," "thing" and
"lobe" since it appeared last month in the crater of the reanimated Mount St.
Helens volcano. One researcher referred to it as "an uplift," before most
everyone in the know agreed it must be a dome.
Naming the dome -- now about the size of an aircraft
carrier -- could be another matter altogether. In one meeting, a scientist threw
out a suggestion: 21st Century Dome.
Even the scientists thought that one was awful, Jeff
Wynn of the U.S. Geological Survey said with a chuckle: "When he said that,
everybody sort of applauded _ but with sarcasm."
And some say scientists aren't creative.
In 1792, British explorer George Vancouver named the
mountain for a countryman, diplomat Baron St. Helens. American Indians in the
region referred to the mountain as Loo-Wit Lat-kla or Louwala-Clough, meaning
fire mountain or smoking mountain.
The mountain erupted violently in 1980, killing 57
people and shrouding much of the Northwest in volcanic ash. A six-year period of
small, natural dome-building eruptions followed, leaving researchers to study
the mountain and its growth.
During that time, scientists assigned hundreds of
unofficial names to geographic features on the mountain as they performed
measurements. The points were usually temporary, destroyed during the volcano's
activity.
Temporary or not, scientists clearly aimed to have
the features remembered.
People's names were used regularly, including Agnes,
Bertha and Blanche. Animals from antelope to zebra rested on the mountain in
various forms. A gigantic boulder was affectionately termed Federal Building,
with nearby points named Acid and Pot.
One researcher called a point B.O. _ after an
unsavory co-worker perhaps? And the Dumb location surely had a story behind
it.
From Bugga Bugga to Jailhouse Rock, Polly Purebred to
X-Lox, scientists have proven they have a sense of humor _ even if the public
doesn't see it, said Richard Waitt, geologist with the USGS.
They're just whimsical, he said.
"We're often accused of being unimaginative," he
said. "It's probably partly the nature of being scientists."
But scientists aren't unimaginative, just practical,
Waitt said. In the case of an emergency, the name of a geographic site should be
straight forward and simple.
That underscores the serious nature of naming
geographic points, said Grant Smith, a member of the Washington State Board on
Geographic Names. The seven-member board approves official names for lakes,
mountains, streams and other geographic features in the state.
Names provide a standardized reference point for
commerce and rescue operations, but everybody gets into the business of naming
when they get interested in something, he said.
"That's what naming does, it reflects the interest,"
he said. "The sense of community, identity, who we are, what we are."
A glacier that had been growing in the crater of
Mount St. Helens since late fall 1980 has gone without an official name for
years, although the state board recently announced four finalists.
They include Spirit Glacier; Tulutson Glacier, which
is an American Indian term submitted by the Cowlitz tribe meaning ice; and
Tamanawas Glacier, a Chinook jargon word that loosely translates to "guiding
spirit," according to the proposal.
The fourth possibility is Crater Glacier, which Waitt
submitted to the board because it's what scientists have called it all
along.
Naming the glacier may be a wasted effort if it melts
amid the recent activity under the mountain. Regardless, most of the time,
points on the mountain go without official names anyway, Waitt said.
Case in point: the old dome that arose following the
1980 eruption. Scientists still refer to it as "the Old Lava Dome."
For years, visitors to the volcano wondered at the
size of the dome during its growth. Scientists compared it to "so-many
Kingdomes," Waitt said, referring to the now-flattened Seattle stadium. "Of
course, now it's a meaningless comparison."