Picture taken from here
Picture taken from here
May 18, 1980 eruption photo by Austin Post
On May 18th, 1980, at 8:32 a.m., the ground shook beneath Mount St. Helens in Washington state as a magnitude 5.1 earthquake struck, setting off one of the largest landslides in recorded history - the entire north slope of the volcano slid away. As the land moved, it exposed the superheated core of the volcano setting off gigantic explosions and eruptions of steam, ash and rock debris. The blast was heard hundreds of miles away, the pressure wave flattened entire forests, the heat melted glaciers and set off destructive mudflows, and 57 people lost their lives. The erupting ash column shot up 80,000 feet into the atmosphere for over 10 hours, depositing ash across Eastern Washington and 10 other states.
Info taken from here
I was 3 1/2 years old at this time. All I really remember about the eruption of Mt. St. Helens was being in the car with my parents as we were driving to church and feeling like something big was going on. Apparently on this drive to church, is when my parents realized the volcano had erupted. My dad says he remembers people were standing outside on the street looking out into the sky.
I remember thinking that all that ash in the sky looked like a very large piece of cauliflower.
Living in Vancouver, we weren't too affected by the blast. My parents had some ash on their car, but nothing too bad. The blast really went the other direction.
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Here we are visiting the visitor center at Mt. St. Helens. This was our educational part of the trip!
Austin in his boots.
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What a tragedy this was. The pictures I have seen of this area before the eruption are amazing and soooo beautiful. It is really quite amazing how something so beautiful can wiped out in one day . . . never to be the same again.
Picture taken from here
Here is a view of Mt. St. Helens inside the theater. They show you a movie about the eruption, and then lift the curtain to show you this incredible view.
