MOUNT ST. HELENS, Wash. (AP) – Camcorder in hand, Sheri Ray stood on Johnston Ridge – named for a man who died in the cataclysmic eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980 – and waited impatiently for the volcano to blow again.

“I thought I was going to feel earthquakes,” she said, frowning. “I’m mad.”

Even as scientists warn that Mount St. Helens may be about to blow, tourists are flocking to the peak, drawn by the intensifying rumblings from the nation’s most cantankerous mountain, but reassured by predictions that any eruption would be far smaller than the one that killed 57 people more than two decades ago.

Ray, 28, a bartender from Vancouver, Wash., and her husband, Dustin, called in sick to spend the day hoping for an eruption – just not a big one.

“If it’s anything like it was last time, I don’t want to be here,” Dustin Ray said. “It makes you wonder how safe it is to be here.”

The most recent surge in seismic activity is now a week old. Tiny quakes were occurring Thursday at the rate of three or four a minute and larger quakes of magnitude 3 to 3.3 every three or four minutes, a pace that generally continued early Friday.

Measurements showed the 975-foot lava dome in the volcano’s crater had moved 2½ inches to the north since Monday, said Jeff Wynn, chief scientist at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Cascade Volcano Observatory in Vancouver.

“Six centimeters may not sound like a lot, but imagine taking a 1,000-foot-high pile of rocks and moving it 2½ inches. That’s a lot of energy,” he said.

Wynn estimated there was a 70 percent chance the activity will result in an eruption. Scientists said a small or moderate blast could hurl ash and rock as far as three miles from the crater of the 8,364-foot peak. By contrast, the 1980 eruption blew the top off the mountain and blanketed much of the Northwest with ash.

Because of the latest danger, public and private land around the volcano was closed, including all state property within 12 miles of the peak. The land off-limts includes prime hunting grounds for grouse, deer and elk.

Hundreds of visitors came Thursday to the Johnston Ridge Observatory, the building closest to the yawning, mile-wide crater left by the 1980 blast. The observatory, about five miles from the crater, is close enough to see – but too far away to be damaged – by the kind of eruptions scientists expect.

It was near here that 30-year-old U.S. Geological Survey vulcanologist David Johnston was blown away by the furnace-hot blast. Johnston had spent long hours studying the volcano and was credited with urging officials to keep people out of the area. His body was never found.

Jean and Kerby Kee live in nearby Longview but were in Texas during the 1980 eruption. Jean recalled visiting a lake near the volcano with her young children in the 1960s and meeting Harry Truman, a lodge owner who died after refusing to leave before the eruption.

“I saw the news and I wanted to come up and see what was going on,” Jean Kee said. “There’s not much more interesting than this.”

A scrolling electronic sign in the observatory constantly warned visitors of the volcano advisory in effect.

“It’s just a dynamic area,” said Scott Hinderman, a ranger. “That’s alluring to a lot of folks. They can see the story of the 1980 eruption. It still looks like something happened here and this is rekindling that whole wonder, that whole amazement at nature.”

Visitors also could inspect graphs showing the increased seismic activity.

Meanwhile, a small helicopter circled the rim to download data from instruments on the mountain, looking for signs that it was swelling. Before the 1980 eruption, the north flank of the mountain swelled five to seven feet per day.

Hundreds of visitors went in and out of the visitor’s center, including groups of schoolchildren. Some schools canceled their trips.

A group of 120 seventh- and eighth-graders came from Salmon Bay Middle School in Seattle. Chaperone Jay Craver said a few nervous parents kept their children home but most were persuaded by official assurances that the kids would be safe.

“I think it would be cool to see some ash or steam come up as long as no one got hurt,” said Charlotte Newman, 12.

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On the Net:

Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument: http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/mshnvm/

AP-ES-10-01-04 1400EDT