Mount St. Helen before it's eruption on Sunday,
May 18, 1980.
Mount St. Helen, located in Southwest Washington state, is an active volcano and is clearly visible from downtown Portland. The mountain erupted on May 18, 1980, at 8:23 am on a Sunday morning.
An eruption column and cloud reached 80,000 feet in less than 15 minutes
and circled the globe in 15 days.
The blast devastated 229 square miles and destroyed millions of dollars of timber.
The summit was 9,677 feet before the eruption and 8,353 feet afterward.
Thirteen hundred and fourteen feet of the mountain were removed by the blast.
The volume removed was 3.7 billion cubic yards.
Photo taken on May 19, 1982, two years after the eruption.
The blast was triggered by a magnitude 5.1 earthquake one mile
beneath the volcano.
Fifty-seven people were killed by the eruption.
Ash rain fell on Portland for days after the major eruption.
If you would like to know more about this incredible event you can find information here.
Photos from the USGS.
Amazing photos. Great post.
ReplyDeleteI was 9 years old and living in Southern California...we had ash too. Crazy.
ReplyDeleteI have great photos of the eruption. My boss at the time was flying/piloting from Denver to somewhere northwest, heard about the eruption and decided to divert and fly over restricted airspace and take photos. His pilot license was revoked and was fined lots of dollars. But in the meantime I have some great photos in my posession. I love looking at them. I also remember the ash on my car. Yes, even in Denver we felt the effects.
ReplyDeleteA few years ago when I was in Seattle I tried to get to Mt. St. Helen's but it was raining and it was active so they wouldn't let us close. I still hope to see it some day.
ReplyDeleteI have to say- I've been looking at the pictures of the eruption and it's incredibly beautiful- amazing
ReplyDeletexoxo Pattie
Timely post..Thank you.. You just refreshed my memory also..
ReplyDeleteBeautiful photos. Amazing to see the power a volcano has.
ReplyDeleteSo sad that people lost their lives...but I was blessed that day with a new life. My daughter Sarah, was born that very morning.
ReplyDeleteI remember that event and what I thought was amusing was all the Mt. St. Helena ash that was being sold in little plastic bottles! Wonder if people still have them.
ReplyDeleteMartha- I'm sure many people do still have their souvenir ash. I have a small bottle tucked away in the cupboard. I scooped up the ash off of our driveway where it was 3-4 inches thick. Cleaning it all up and disposing of it was a major problem for the city for months.
ReplyDeleteI'll never forget Mt. St. Helens and how sad I was at the loss of life and devastation of the area. The photos of Iceland and incredible! 5 tons of ash per minute? I can't even imagine.
ReplyDeleteThat is one happenstance of nature that has always fascinated me; great photos and thanks for the info.
ReplyDeleteSome of the dust from this was seen all the way to deep south Texas. Some people even got sick from the volcanic ash. Amazing!
ReplyDeleteKaren
Ladybug Creek
My parents tease me and say I graduated with a big bang!!
ReplyDeleteThe day the mountain blew was the day I graduated from college. The 8:23 am Pacific time translated to 10:23 Central time and that just happened to be the exact moment that I was crossing the stage to receive my diploma.
My parents, had flown out from Seattle to watch me graduate, and they were very saddened when they heard the St, Helens news following the ceremony. My Dad had climbed that perfect ice-cream cone topped mountain so many times. We are all originally from Portland, so that mountain was a familiar sight.
My older sister was at a church event near Bellingham WA that day and she felt the ground shake and heard the rumble all the way up by the Canadian border.
I have a framed picture of the St Helens volcano eruption. It's right here on my office wall, just to the left of my computer screen, where I see it every day and am reminded that we never know what is going to happen tomorrow, so we need to make the most of today.
Great photos of naturals amazing power.
ReplyDeleteWe were stationed in Washington state for a year because of my Navy dad. We visited Mount Saint Helens before we left to return to San Diego, months before the eruption.
ReplyDeleteRemember this well - such devastation is difficult to take in. I saw a film in IMAX avout the eruption one time when I was in Seattle...such a beautiful area.
ReplyDeleteGreat post!
That's a lot of the mountain that got blown off!
ReplyDeleteIt is fascinating to see how vegetation and wild life are returning to the area. There are two people in our community who were there at the time of the blast and they're interviewed every year on the anniversary of the eruption. Have a great day. Blessings...MAry
ReplyDeleteI remember the day of the eruption so well. It's one of those days you remember where you were when you heard the news.
ReplyDeleteHow well I remember that! Didn't they make a movie about it too?
ReplyDeleteThat second photo is amazing, isn't it? Don't think I have seen that before.
And there's not a blessed thing we can do about it...mother nature rules our lives.
I lived in NJ when this happened and even we had ash from it. That amazed me.
ReplyDeleteWow! I distinctly remember flying home from Whitehorse, after touring through the Yukon. We flew over Mt. St. Helen, just days after the eruption... it was awesome to see from the air!
ReplyDeleteMother Nature is a force to be reckoned with!
I've enjoyed reading all the comments about personal experiences when Mount St. Helen erupted. Many thanks for stopping by.
ReplyDeleteI have not had an opportunity to see Mt. St. Helen's. I hope that I have a chance this summer.
ReplyDeleteI'm watching with great interest the volcano in Iceland-we leave in a month for our 20th anniversary and have been planning this trip for 3 years. Crossing my fingers we are good to go.
ReplyDeleteI was 14 years old when Mount St. Helen's erupted-I remember the images on tv. We don't see that in MN!
I remember it, can't imagine the ash..cleaning it up, and the particles in the air!
ReplyDelete