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Tuesday, May 18, 2010

5-18-2010 (Tuesday)

Hello, hello ladies and gentlemen. I hope this Tuesday finds you well. Today marks the 30th anniversary of the eruption of Mount St. Helens.

" At 8:32 Sunday morning, May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted.

Shaken by an earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale, the north face of this tall symmetrical mountain collapsed in a massive rock debris avalanche. In a few moments this slab of rock and ice slammed into Spirit Lake, crossed a ridge 1,300 feet high, and roared 14 miles down the Toutle River.

The avalanche rapidly released pressurized gases within the volcano. A tremendous lateral explosion ripped through the avalanche and developed into a turbulent, stone-filled wind that swept over ridges and toppled trees. Nearly 150 square miles of forest was blown over or left dead and standing.

At the same time a mushroom-shaped column of ash rose thousands of feet skyward and drifted downwind, turning day into night as dark, gray ash fell over eastern Washington and beyond. Wet, cement-like slurries of rock and mud scoured all sides of the volcano. Searing flows of pumice poured from the crater. The eruption lasted 9 hours, but Mount St. Helens and the surrounding landscape were dramatically changed within moments.

A vast, gray landscape lay where once the forested slopes of Mount St. Helens grew. In 1982 the President and Congress created the 110,000-acre National Volcanic Monument for research, recreation, and education. Inside the Monument, the environment is left to respond naturally to the disturbance"

So I was wondering those of you who are from the northwest or really anywhere. Where were you when the mt blew? I was in grade school and I remember being pretty aware of it but I do not think I really realized the enormity of the damage it caused. I still haven't been up to the viewing center despite having driven past the area numerous times.

What are your thoughts and memories about the event readers?

4 comments:

JoelAT said...

I was getting ready to go to church and I heard/felt it. We had no idea what had happened, you could see the eruption from our house in Salem, well the ash cloud anyway, we did get a light dusting here. My roommate in college lived in eastern Washington and he had to shovel almost a foot of ash from their driveway so they could get out, it apparently covered everything. God's way of adding new topsoil!

Steve said...

I was heading back from oystering in the sound with my family. As we came through Castle Rock it looked like a huge black thunderstorm filling the sky, and none of us realized that it was the mountain until we saw the Toutle River. As we crossed the I5 bridge over the Toutle huge logs and a slurry of wet ash bounced it around hard, and, as it turned out, we were the last vehicle the WSP let over before they closed the bridge.

Unknown said...

My parents must have heard on the news it was coming or happening, because I remember the whole family going outside to look north at the smoke plume. (This was in Salem) And then later the ash over everything, and wearing face masks (if I'm not inventing that memory). And I think maybe we missed a day or two of school. I'm sure we saw a lot of news coverage (my Dad's always been a news junkie) but the story that sticks out most in my mind is that of Harry Truman (name right?) the man who refused to be evacuated.

Larry was living in Bozeman at the time but he also has vivid memories of the event, as I believe they got a lot more ash dumped on them than we did here in Salem.

I never visited the volcano until several years ago. Crazy to live so close and not visit, isn't it? I'd highly recommend it. A great visitor center and some good hiking trails. It called up a lot of old memories and clarified stuff I was too young too absorb back then.

Christopher Taylor said...

I can't believe I forgot this anniversary, I had a post all planned out and totally spaced the date :( great work Lance