Mt St Helens Essay

It was May 18th, 1980. The eruption of Mount St. Helens occurred in Washington,United States. The exact time it had happened is at 8:32:17. The eruption happened 96 miles out South of Seattle, Washington and 50 miles northeast of Portland,Oregon. Many people died during this time. About 50 people had died. 250 homes were destroyed. Along with 47 bridges, 15 miles of railways, 185 miles of highway was also destroyed. Many tiny earthquakes had happened a couple days before the eruption had happened.

May 18, 1980 was a day that dawned sunny and beautiful. Mt. St. Helens stood out beautifully against the blue sky. The mountain had been rumbling quite a bit the past few days, and geologists were watching it carefully and monitoring vibrations. There had been a series of earthquakes from around March 12, up until present day. Over 170 earthquakes hit that were higher that 2.5 on the Richter scale in that short period of time. The earth shook with an earthquake that hit 5.0 on the Richter scale, at around 8:32 in the morning. That did it. Mount St. Helens blew apart with the force of over 500 times more powerful than the atomic bomb. The lateral blast traveled at over 300 miles an hour, and destroyed 230 square miles of forest in just 3 minutes.

The damage of this explosion was deadly. The eruption cased over 57 deaths. Every single tree in the forest and on the mountain fell down and burned. Ash blew everywhere. Cars on the road got stuck in ash and people could not get out. They suffered and died. During the explosion the top blew off, witched caused 1,300 feet difference.

After more then 40,000 years of activity, one would expect that people would no longer live in the surrounding shadow of Mt. St. Helens. But regardless, many towns and cities sit inside of a zone that would face destruction if a large eruption took place. In 1980 Mt. St. Helens erupted and caused the loss of many lives and the destruction of thousands of miles of land and property. Following the eruption, the volcano has stayed extremely active. In 2004 it erupted again, building a new lava dome and sending ash and steam into the atmosphere. Since then, seismologists and volcanologists have recently discovered pockets of magma rising and that another eruption may occur soon. Even though the people of Washington know that an eruption could cause widespread devastation they continue with their lives, doing little to prepare for the potential disaster.

Around 8:30pm the volcano hit. ​Sizzling lava and blazing rocks came ​crashing from the sky and start to demolish ​the houses.

The May 18th, 1980 eruption was quite interesting. The eruption killed a total of 57 people. Everyone that was killed was between the ages of 9 and 83. Most of the people that died inhaled ash, and the ash got into their lungs, which is probably not good. There was a lot of ash that came out of MSH that day. Central and Eastern Washington was covered in 3 to 5 inches of gritty fine ash. Not including the estimated 540 million tons of ash that came out of MSH in the form of a mushroom cloud that reached 12+ miles (≈14 km) into the air. The ash also circled the Earth for 15 days after the

Ask anyone in the Pacific Northwest to name a volcano in the area and you will most likely get the response of “Mount St. Helens”. There is good reason for this particular volcano to have gained such a great reputation for itself, and that is the eruption which occurred in 1980. Beginning in March, new systems of seismographs were being implemented to track the size of earthquakes that were happening in the St. Helens area. Earthquakes were recorded up to three times a day almost daily and on March 27th, an official warning was sent out as one of the quakes caused a stream of ash over 6,000 feet into the air. On the morning of May 18th, 8:32am, an earthquake measuring in at a magnitude of 5.1 on the seismograph signaled the beginning of the eruption.

On the morning of May 18, 1980, the United States of America experienced its deadliest and most destructive volcanic eruption in history. Briefly succeeding a magnitude 5.1 earthquake, an enormous slab of Mount St. Helens northern flank collapsed in a massive debris avalanche. This landslide was the largest to transpire on Earth in recorded history and caused the volcanoes magma system to depressurize. With the cap of the mountain removed, superheated gases and rock fragments blasted through the side of the mountain (USDA, 2005). The lateral blast accelerated at speeds of 480 km per hour and reached temperatures of 350 °C, creating an immense area of leveled and scorched forestry. Surges of water from melting snow and glaciers capping

The advent of the eruption of Mount Tambora in April , 1851 was probably the most destructive eruption ever recorded in the history. Tambora’s catastrophic eruption has effected the surrounding area, the local people and their life styles enormously. It emptied about 50-150 cubic km of magma and measured 7 on the VEI Scale, it also ejected large amount of ash and aerosols into the stratosphere.

Tilling (1997) reported that earthquakes began on March 16th, including one that was 4.2 (Richter Scale) on March 20th. Earthquake activity increased after this and following an explosion around 12:36 p.m. PST on March 27th, Mount St. Helens began to eject ash and steam. The crown of the ash column ascended to about 1800 metres above the volcano. Mount St. Helens spewed ash and steam in bursts ranging from a few seconds to several minutes until April 21st. Intense earthquake activity persisted

At 8:32am on May 18th, 1980, a massive earthquake that registered a 5.1 on the Richter scale violently shook the mountain. Within 15 seconds of the quake, the entire north face of Mount Saint Helens began to shift and then slide down the mountain, creating the largest landslide in recorded history. The landslide swept down the mountain at speeds between 70 and 150 miles per hour, and consisted of about 23 square miles of material from the mountain (Smith 2006).

Some of the history comes from the destructive volcanoes, Mount Vesuvius and Mount St. Helens. First, in 1978 volcanologists, warned that Mount St. Helens, in Washington State, USA , would erupt before the end of the century. On May 18, 1980, there prediction became true with horrifying consequences. The disaster began with a large earthquake at 8:32 that morning with a Richter Scale of 5.1, and triggering a series of explosions that increased in frequency and intensity. The eruption reached its peak with a violent explosion at 3:50 in the afternoon, causing the largest debris avalanche ever to be recorded to power 14 miles west! On top of this a large cloud of ash rose up to 15 miles into the atmosphere. The combined results of the seismic activity rose throughout the day causing the devastation of the landscape. The environmental cost was one thing, but the human cost was to be even more significant. Moments after the main avalanche, an explosive blast ripped through the area destroying everything in its path, killing 57 people. Another historic event of the volcanoes, is Mount Vesuvius in Naples, Italy and it remains one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world, exacerbated by the fact a population of 3,000,000 live in close proximity. The deadly power of Vesuvius was dramatically demonstrated in AD 79, when a monumental eruption wiped out the Roman cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii. Vesuvius has been showing sign of activity for several years before the great eruption, the most dramatic of which was a powerful and destructive earthquake 17 years previously. Earthquakes and volcanoes commonly occur in tandem, and this phenomenon would not have been lost on the Roman population. On August 24, in AD 79, Vesuvius erupted, spewing a column of ash and pumice high into the atmosphere around the volcano. The column rose more than 15 miles, and carried the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum by strong easterly

According to Zeilinga de Boer & Sanders (2002) the north side of the volcano slid down in 3 blocks. The blocks then broke up and formed into an avalanche that raced down the volcano at more than 200 km/h. The avalanche of rock, glacial ice, snow and debris relieved pressure on the

The mountain is a stratovolcano and is a symmetrical cone shape with steep sides . Mount Saint Helens consists predominantly of ash and the hardened lava that has come from the volcano in previous eruptions2. As Boron also mentions, the volcano’s shape is defined as a stratovolcano due to its ability to have the explosive eruptions that are forced out of its openings, and the pyroclastic flow that comes out of such a huge and forceful explosion. The visible landform that is most famous and clearly recognized to belong to Mount Saint Helens is the expansive and deep crater that is gashed in the top of the mountain1. This infamous crater is a result of the phenomenal explosion that Mount St. Helens had in 1980. A portion of the Mount St. Helens volcano was built upon deeply eroded, folded and altered volcanic rocks1. Along with the warped rocks Mt. St. Helens calls its base, it also sits upon

With more than 13,000 feet high ash poured down the mountains flanks and the volcano erupted 60 cubic kilometers of magma which burned surrounding grasslands