How Well do You Remember the Mount St. Helens Eruption?

[Plutonic Panda]

I thought this would be an interesting discussion seeing as I wasn't even alive when she blew her top, but still have studied it a bit.

Found this interesting article from The Earth Story on Facebook.

Blast from the past

You can only imagine that what this climber saw at 8.32 a.m. on May 18th 1980 literally knocked her off her feet. The huge bulge that had been growing on the northern flank of Mount Saint Helens with approximately 2m a day collapsed into one of the biggest debris avalanches recorded in human history. John V. Christensen took this image of the lateral blast of the volcano from another volcano, Mount Adams, about 50km away.

The bulge on the northflank of St Helens, at the time growing outwards 140m, actually had a cryptodome under it where magma had been accumulating for months. A 5.1. magnitude earthquake (which could have caused the climber to get knocked off her feet) occurred under the volcano and set loose the bulge, the cryptodome and hot water into one of the a debris avalanche accompanied by a lateral blast. This lateral blast moved at a speed of 480km/h. During this, the upper 400m of St Helens top was blasted off and the avalanche managed to reach at least 23km land inwards. Since Mount Adams was only 53km from Mt St Helens, the debris avalanche flow actually got pretty close to the climber on the picture and, as you might except, there is no way to outrun it.

Finally, St Helens was rid of its bulge and able to release pressure by sending an eruption cloud more than 24km into the air. At noon, multiple pyroclastic flows had come down the new horseshoe shaped crater and the melting ice had caused lahars (surges of water mixed with debris) of which the largest managed to get 80km away from the volcano.

Sadly, 57 people died during Mt St Helens 1980 eruption.



- https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...4775258&type=1

[rezman]

I was in high school at the time and lived over by 32nd & Ann Arbor. When I came out to drive to school in the morning, there was a fine layer of greyish white dust that had carried down from Washington state over night and settled on my car, as well as everyone elses car on my street that sat out.

[Plutonic Panda]

Wow, never knew ash and dust from the Volcano made it all the way here.

[shawnw]

This is something I've been trying to reconcile historically for a long time. When I was in 3rd grade living in Barstow, California, we (the students) thought it was snowing outside, but the teacher said it was ash from a volcano, which didn't make sense to me at the time, and I never followed up with it by watching the news because, well, I was in 3rd grade and didn't care about such things. Anyway, the timing lines up as I was in 3rd grade in 1980, which is when the eruption was. BUT, it happened on 18 May, which was a Sunday, so I wouldn't have been in school. Also, none of the ash fall maps I've seen from the eruption includes any part of California... can anyone help me reconcile this issue? Were there any other burps of ash that year? Such a strange event...

[Dustin]

Wow, never knew ash and dust from the Volcano made it all the way here.

[silvergrove]

Goes to show this state gets everything. Tornadoes, earthquakes, random tropical storms restrengthening over us, blizzards, and volcanic fallout.

[Dustin]

Goes to show this state gets everything. Tornadoes, earthquakes, random tropical storms restrengthening over us, blizzards, and volcanic fallout.

We're god's toilet.

[MustangGT]

Watched it blow its top more or less on live TV. Interesting natural occurrence.

[jmpokc1957]

Living in Oregon I remember Mt. St. Helens well. I think it was a Sunday as I had come home for the weekend from Oregon State University in Corvallis, Or. I don't remember how I heard that it had erupted, but I was soon watching the news. Portland was not directly affected, but we did get ash from the ash falls that occurred in the years following the eruption. What a mess! Clouds of ash on the street, on the roof, in the gutters, yuck! Everyone was sick of that stuff!

I do remember that one of the summers following the eruption we had our all time high temperatures, three days of 107 deg. We also had ash around and it was just awful with that ash swirling around. The city would drop off fire hoses and wrenches at fire hydrants and we would have a block party hosing down the streets! No lack of water in western Oregon!

The relatives back east all called wanting us to send them cans of ash. When we cleaned out mom's old house we found some cans of ash back in the corners of the garage.

The devastation is beyond belief. Remember, it blew off the top 1200 feet of the mountain!
When I was doing a lot of flying I would fly around it weekly. I would leave Hillsboro, Or and fly directly across Portland direct to the mountain( Portland approach control was always very accommodating).
I would fly to the mountain and circle to the left. They had procedures in place due to the high volume of planes wanting to take a look. Airliners descending into Portland would even have a circle of the mountain. Anyways, I would circle it once or twice and then follow the route of the mud/debris flow westward down the Toutle river to the Columbia and return home. It was amazing.

The ash and debris is still being dealt with in some areas all these years later.

[jmpokc1957]

This is something I've been trying to reconcile historically for a long time. When I was in 3rd grade living in Barstow, California, we (the students) thought it was snowing outside, but the teacher said it was ash from a volcano, which didn't make sense to me at the time, and I never followed up with it by watching the news because, well, I was in 3rd grade and didn't care about such things. Anyway, the timing lines up as I was in 3rd grade in 1980, which is when the eruption was. BUT, it happened on 18 May, which was a Sunday, so I wouldn't have been in school. Also, none of the ash fall maps I've seen from the eruption includes any part of California... can anyone help me reconcile this issue? Were there any other burps of ash that year? Such a strange event...

Yes, there were periodic ash falls in the years following. It just depended on which way the upper level winds were blowing.
I remember looking at the horizon and you could see a column of ash rising straight up from the mountain and then see the upper level winds start to move it off.

[shawnw]

Yes, there were periodic ash falls in the years following. It just depended on which way the upper level winds were blowing.
I remember looking at the horizon and you could see a column of ash rising straight up from the mountain and then see the upper level winds start to move it off.

I need to research more... Barstow is down there and in the middle of the desert...

[Jeepnokc]

I was living at Ft Lewis (Back when it was separate from McChord) and was around 13. The ground shook a little and we heard the explosion. We could also see the cloud in the very distant sky. We got an ash dusting all over everything but wasn't deep as the cloud went more east and we were north.

My dad at the time was either heading up a maintenance battalion or was the Inspector General but I remember he had to go down to the area to make sure the helicopters and other equipment was being maintained correctly as they were worried about all the ash. Somewhere in storage, I have the Tacoma News Tribune with the front page picture and several other issues in the days that followed.

I remember this old man that wouldn't leave his mountain or Spirit Lake. Harry Truman. He died on the mountain. Harry Randall Truman - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[OKCRT]

Wow, never knew ash and dust from the Volcano made it all the way here.

Yes there was plenty of ash here in the city area. It was heavy enough to block out the sun and looked like a foggy day would look.

[Snowman]

How Well do You Remember the Mount St. Helens Eruption?

My memory of it was not great, being around six months from being born at the time.

[mugofbeer]

I remember playing softball in OKC with the hazy yellow sky from the ash. I definitely dont recall ash coating anything tho

[RadicalModerate]

Does the apparent [popularity] of this thread topic have something to do with the recent spate of local earthquakes (only three or four of which I have personally felt) on top of memories of fairly recent tornadoes?

Can you imagine how scary it would be if Giant Saber Toothed Tigers, Mastodons and no running water were added to the mix? =)

In all honesty, all jesting aside, my personal reaction to "Mount St. Helens" was . . .
Wow. The one immediate casualty to the event was a stubborn dumbass for not moving.
Gee. Looks like the Kind Folk in Portland (and Seattle) are being a bit inconvenienced.

The next time Mount St. Helen's erupts . . .
(perhaps . . . Godzilla? Maybe . . . Mothra?)

[Zuplar]

We need it to erupt again. Help stop global warming. Maybe if we start fracking near it that will help.

[Plutonic Panda]

My memory of it was not great, being around six months from being born at the time.

hey, you're doing better than me. I was born in 1993 so I wasn't even made yet

[hoya]

I was about to turn 2 years old, so my memory of it is hazy.

However, growing up it was in the news quite a bit. I remember seeing tons of pictures of the place before and after the eruption. It was a very recent event, and the biggest natural disaster of the day, so a lot of books were written about it and we covered it in school. I remember it as if I had been familiar with the mountain before the eruption.

[RadicalModerate]

Okay . . . So I was sort of "grown up" when the geological event under discussion actually occurred . . .
(cut me a little slack fer cryin' out loud . . .)

How about . . .

If You Think Mount St. Helen's was A Thrill . . .
Move to Yellowstone!

or mebbe

It Isn't The Fault of New Madras
That It Coincides With The Asteroid!
(that will unleash Godzilla to battle with Batman, etc.)

[Plutonic Panda]

I always wonder if Yellowstone will blow in 'our time'. It might become known as Redstone or Lavastone

[RadicalModerate]

So how in the heck did the ash cloud avoid the panhandles of both Oklahoma and Oklahoma del Sur?
(don't look "scientific" t' me . . . =)

[Plutonic Panda]

So how in the heck did the ash cloud avoid the panhandles of both Oklahoma and Oklahoma del Sur?
(don't look "scientific" t' me . . . =)

That's simple. The ash cloud heard about Oklahoma having Blizzards, earthquakes, tornados, dust storms, tropical storms that have strengthened when over us, massive flash floods, but no ash from volcanic eruptions and thought to itself 'not on my watch' and decided to send one of it's 'guys' to show us some luv.

[RadicalModerate]

I always wonder if Yellowstone will blow in 'our time'. It might become known as Redstone or Lavastone

When I was a bit younger than you, I wondered the same thing about Nikita K and His Chinese Henchmen.
(thankfully, the killers of "democracy" couldn't control volcanoes and earthquakes . . .
except in James Bond novels printed on tree by-products.)

[RadicalModerate]

That's simple. The ash cloud heard about Oklahoma having Blizzards, earthquakes, tornados, dust storms, tropical storms that have strengthened when over us, massive flash floods, but no ash from volcanic eruptions and thought to itself 'not on my watch' and decided to send one of it's 'guys' to show us some luv.

I don't think it was documented on videotape, yet there is a rumor that all the throwback NIMBYs got together and [shared good thoughts] that all that [stuff] would land elsewhere. Yet they are a primitive people . . . in need of water and better internet connections.