Thirty-five years ago, mini-me watched in awe as Mount St. Helens blew up on our television. A short time later, our neighbors came back with samples of ash and awed stories of the disaster zone. Vulcanologists had gotten an unprecedented opportunity to study a volcano’s eruption cycle from awakening to paroxysmal eruption, but lost some of their own in the process. Many people perished in the eruption, but without dedicated geologists informing everyone of the hazards and insisting on exclusion zones, it could have been so many more. And the many survivors’ tales are utterly gripping.
For thirty-five years, we’ve used Mount St. Helens as a laboratory. It’s taught us endless lessons on how volcanoes erupt, what those eruptions do to the countryside, and how the environment recovers afterward. We’ve learned a lot about the warning signs of impending eruptions. We’ve learned how to recognize debris avalanche and lateral blast deposits. And we’ve marveled at the beauty of a wounded young mountain building itself back up from the inside.
On this day, remember the geologists who gave their lives while studying this volcano.
On this day, remember those who didn’t make it back home from the mountain.
And on this day, thank scientists for effective volcano monitoring.
For those who want to read further about Mount St. Helens and her cataclysmic eruption, you can follow my series here. We begin with the geologists who warned of her dangers while she was still a serene, snow-capped cone reflected in the deep blue waters of Spirit Lake. We follow her awakening, the growing bulge on her flank, and the eruption that blew her apart. We’re up to the effects on the trees, and will soon be moving on to the rockier aspects of the explosion.
For those who’d like to visit, I’ve written a super-awesome field guide for ye.
George Wiman has an utterly neato 3D print of our favorite volcano.
Alas, I wasn’t able to get a recent portrait of Mount St. Helens for this anniversary. But I can show you some of the difference 35 years makes. This photo shows the debris avalanche just after the May 18, 1980 eruption:
And this is the debris avalanche today:
How amazing is it that we get to watch this volcanic landscape go from barren debris to verdant wilderness within our lifetimes?
I was just thinking about this while working on my TTD* list this morning. We were in Wenatchee on a weekend trip across the North Cascades Highway, down 97 to Wenatchee, then down Blewett pass to I-90 and back to Tacoma to celebrate a birthday. We had the tape player on and didn’t know about the eruption until we made a pit stop on top of Snoqualmie pass. We had attributed the dust in the air near Cle Elum to farming activity, and the black cloud to a thunderstorm.
*Things To Do
“It’s going to get me, too.” Can’t get that out of my head, every time I think about this.
Hey, you know what would be awesome for the… *counts off on her fingers* 50th anniversary? A book, by you!!! (I figure 15 years is a good amount of time to keep any major pressure off.)
In the meantime, looking forward very much to your next posts on MSH.
Also, I want to share this: you can see Jesus. I’m not sure what that means. Jesus loves MSH?
Hey, Rachel Maddow is leading with Mt St. Helens tonight! As an analogy for foreign policy, but still, a good overview. Show will repeat at 10 Mountain time, 9 Pacific.
Her emphasis and specificity makes me wonder if she (or her minions) read your blog.
The Mt St Helens coverage is the first 7 minutes of the Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC. It can be downloaded for free for about the next 15 hours (until Tuesday’s show airs). One place to get it is from the iTunes Podcast “Store”.
The full segment is 23 minutes long, because she uses the MSH coverage as an intro to the “Iraq war lies ignored in Republican campaign coverage” story, including an interview of Dan Rather. She’s making the point that MSH was a massive disaster, but at least they are able to sell some of the dredged ash and sediment as a landfill material that is desirable in certain specialized situations. She then makes an analogy to the current coverage of the Iraq war, to say that that was also a disaster, but people are saying that at least they got rid of Saddam. In both cases, she is saying that the main point must not be overlooked, that the key event was indeed a massive disaster, and this should not be forgotten, no matter how nice might be any silver linings.
Be aware that Tuesday night when they put up the next show, it will no longer be possible to download this.
I think this show would be worthy of additional analysis on this blog. Thanks.
Another place to stream this segment on MSH is on the Rachel Maddow blog. That page is at:
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/iraq-war-lies-missed-in-gop-campaign-coverage-447403075698
It might also be possible for certain cable subscribers to stream or download this content if their cable company has given them a password for internet access to cable programming.
All right, all right, Maddow fans! Calm yourselves! I watched the segment. I wrote down my thoughts. I will compose them into a lovely blog post for you, complete with the embedded segment for those who missed it. That segment was really very amazingly good, and thank you all for making me break my no-talk-shows rule. :-) Rachel Maddow absolutely rules, always has.
I can say one thing right now: she didn’t get her facts from my posts. If she had, she would’ve gotten the exact time of the eruption right! If anyone knows her, feel free to tell her my services as a Mount St. Helens consultant are available and very reasonably priced.
To those in the audience who are salivating for a book, let me state, once more for the record:
THEE SHALL HAVE YOUR MOUNT ST. HELENS BOOK. I WILL HAVE IT WRITTEN FOR YOU WITHIN THE NEXT FEW YEARS. I PROMISE.
Barring unforeseen circumstances, like Lincoln drivers who can’t drive…
I’m actually hoping to have it done sooner, but you know how these things are. Anyway, I am, as we speak, working on a Mount St. Helens guidebook for the west side approach. I hope to have it available by the end of summer, and in the shops on the mountain by next spring.
And I will be restarting the Cataclysm as soon as I’ve finished with Large Igneous Provinces and stuff.
You, my darlings, are uniformly awesome, and I thank you for pushing me to do these things. Also, thank you for sharing awesome NASA photos and sharing your MSH stories! Massive hugs to all who wants ’em.
Toutles! Ah-ha-ha see what I did thar?
Thankyou.
Thankyou Dana Hunter for this and your book(s).
Looks more like the Virgin Mary, to me!
I remember standing in the backyard of our house in south Pierce County, staring southwards with my Mom and the two of us looking at one another and saying, “What the hell?” simultaneously. We ran in and turned on the news, positive something horrible had happened at Ft. Lewis and found that it was Mother Nature having her little joke.
Awesome retrospective, Dana! Thanks for linking to your field guide (a tour I’ll have to try out in the future). This season, though, I’m cycling past Mount St Helens on the east side. Do you have any tips or must-see points of geologic interest for those of us approaching through the Windy Ridge entrance?
I don’t know the east side at all, unfortunately. Remind me, and I’ll find and post links to the field guides I use. They’re technical, but they’re free!
I envy you so hard right now, btw.