by Cassie Mielke
Mt. St. Helens erupted on May 18, 1980, causing mass amounts of damage to the surrounding area and effecting states across the country.
The mountain had begun showing signs of activity as early as March that same year when earthquakes started to shake the mountain base. The activity was largely ignored according to Valerie Smith of olywa.net, a website dedicated to the eruption, because the announcement to boycott the Moscow Olympics dominated the news. The first appearance of ash was seen on March 27.
According to Smith, by April the mountain had suffered 79 earthquakes and a bulge had begun to form. David Johnston, a U.S. Geological Survey vulcanologist, was the first to announce that the eruption was happening.
“Vancouver! Vancouver! This is it!” were his last words. Soon after he was struck by a wall of debris moving down the mountain at over 550 m.p.h. Unfortunately his body was never found according to Smith.
John Lienhard, an eyewitness to the blast, described the scene as “A plume of black ash immediately exploded from the mountain and went straight up into the atmosphere.”
The elevation of Mt. St. Helens started at 9,677 feet but dropped to 8,363 after the eruption. In only three minutes the blast destroyed 230 square miles of forest. Debris hurtled as fast as 670 m.p.h. down the mountain.
The effects were far reaching in human casualties and things such as wildlife death and weather. A total of 57 people were killed while an estimated 6,715 animals were killed.
The blast was heard as far away as British Columbia and California according to mt-st-helens.com. A day later the ash cloud spread as far as the central United States and in the two weeks following, particles drifted around the globe.
According to mt-st-helens.com, light ash fall was felt in most of the Rocky Mountain states, including New Mexico. During the nine hours of eruption, around 540 million tons of ash fell over an area of 22,000 square miles the site stated.
Mt. St. Helens is still an active volcano, with the most recent activity happening in 2008 according to mt-st-helens.com. Small eruptions have occurred, however none have reached the size of the 1980 eruption.
Western State Writers Spring 2009 