PDA

View Full Version : 30th Anniversary of Mount St. Helens Eruption



Ah Well
18-05-2010, 06:40 PM
Seeing as Volcanoes are very much on topic these days, it's 30 years to the day since Mount St. Helens erupted in the US.

It erupted on May 18, 1980, at 8:32 am PDT and was the deadliest and most economically destructive volcanic event in the history of the United States. Fifty-seven people were killed; 250 homes, 47 bridges, 15 miles of railways, and 185 miles of highway were destroyed. The eruption caused a massive debris avalanche, reducing the elevation of the mountain's summit from 9,677 ft to 8,365 ft and replaced it with a 1 mile wide horseshoe-shaped crater.

What occurred seems to make the activity from our friend in Iceland look like a picnic to date

Mount St. Helens before the eruption ....

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8c/Sthelens1.jpg/300px-Sthelens1.jpg

And as it looked some time after ...

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/dc/MSH82_st_helens_plume_from_harrys_ridge_05-19-82.jpg/280px-MSH82_st_helens_plume_from_harrys_ridge_05-19-82.jpg

Some amazing live footage was captured by one appropriately named Dave Crockett who lived to tell the tale ... one hell of a story for sure

YouTube- Dave Crockett: Escaping from the 1980 St. Helens Eruption