Mt St. Helens Research Paper

Volcanic activity happens across the surface of the globe therefore bringing hazards to every affected area. A hazard is any source of potential damage, harm or adverse health effects. A volcanic hazard is any threat to life and infrastructure due to volcanic activity and related situations such as a landslide near the volcano. Volcanoes can be very dangerous and therefore present many hazards towards both people and land. They have the ability to kill and destroy, ruining livelihoods and destroying large land masses. The extent of the hazard can differ depending on how prepared an area is for an eruption and how much planning has gone behind

Let’s begin with Mount St. Helens which is located in the pacific northwest of the United States. To be more specific it is located in Washington State and is a part of the Cascade mountain range that spans from California to Canada. It is a composite volcano, which has steep sides that are formed by alternating layers of lava

Stratovolcano and Shield volcanos are naturally occurring ruptures in the earth’s crust. They have been a part of our history for nearly 6,000 years and some say that they have been around longer than dinosaurs. While these events are rather cool to watch, they are known to be some of the most devastating natural disasters known to man. Volcanic hazards and eruptions continue to happen throughout the entire world and crisis aversion is something that is becoming more and more important.

A volcano is an earth hazard that occurs on faults between tectonic plates on a destructive boundary and an eruption is a natural disaster. A primary impact happens immediately after the disaster and before any response like death or collapsing or destruction of buildings. A secondary impact occurs later after the disaster, such less farm produce or a reduction in tourism. The severity of these impacts will differ considerably in a MEDC and LEDC where volcanic eruptions have taken place. These may be seen in the Mount St. Helen volcano eruption as well as in the Iceland volcanic eruption. They may also

A hazard is a situation that poses a level of threat tolife, health, property or environment. The level of hazard posed by different volcanoes can very greatly, from a weak eruption with minimal impact that causes little damage, to a voilent and life threatening explosion. Most of the sixty-plus volcanoes that erupt each year are low risk, however a combination of factors can cause a volcano to be a serious hazard. The factors causing these variations will be explained in this essay.

Volcanoes can be found throughout the entire world and are formed when there is a rupture in the mantle of the Earth's crust. This effect allows the output of volcanic lava, ash, and various types of gases. These tectonic plate breaks are normal, the planet Earth is divided into 17 tectonic plates and consistently move against each other forming shifts from low to high intensity. It can cause displacement of earth or water.

Volcanoes are one of the most destructive, yet, most beautiful things on Earth. They can make a famous city choke in its own ashes in one day, like Pompeii. Or they can turn a once damaging mountain into a graceful and peaceful home for new life, like Mount St. Helen’s. All volcanoes are unique, and no two are the same. Some erupt differently than others, some look different than others, and all are located in different spots all over the world. I learned this while completing the project and the five volcanoes I researched are examples of my discoveries. The five volcanoes I researched were Mount Hood, Mount Mageik, Long Island, Mount Muria, and Las Pilas.

Another physical factor is snow; if a volcano is snow capped, like Eyjafjallajokull, then the lahars and flash floods become a greater hazard. The flooding in Iceland in 2010 caused 700 people to be evacuated. Without the snow then lahars and floods may not be a problem at all.

Imagine a single event that can kill 57 people and 7000 deer and elk. Snap trees like a toothpick, and turn the sky grey for 15 days. Now, stop imagining, Mount St. Helens, in the Cascade Range of southwestern Washington State, erupted. On May 18th,1980. According to (Campbell 371), “At least $1 billion in economic damage was reported”. The eruption of Mount St. Helens took many lives, and devastated America. Mount St. Helens destroyed more than 230 square miles of ancient forest.

It goes on to explain some of the Europeans to first record the sighting of the mountain which happened May nineteenth seventeen ninety-two during the surveying of the northern Pacific Ocean. It was named by Vancouver for a British diplomat, "1st Baron St. Helens," on October twentieth seventeen ninety-two, but before this local Indians had already named it louwala-clough or smoky mountain. In eighteen twenty-nine Hall J. Kelley led a campaign and planned to rename this mountain and all others after one of the United States president, he had tried to rename Mt. St. Helen to Mount Washington. As horrible as the explosion in May og nineteen eighty claimed lives the paper says if the explosion had waited just one day later on Monday rather Sunday when all the people were at work such as loggers they believe the death poll would have been much more higher. A second eruption was noted to had occurred on may twenty-fifth, noone was thankfully hurt and a rather popular film was then created named The Eruption of Mount St. Helen. After all that occurred with the volcano and all it put everyone through president Ronald Reagan in nineteen eighty-two established the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument, which still to this day remains a famous natural laboratory for the study of earth processes,nature, and catastrophes. The volcano and the area surrounding still have a long way to go before it recovers and has all the things it had

Mount St. Helens Location: Washington, United States Latitude: 46.20 N Longitude: 122.18 W height: 2,549 meters or 8,364 feet - 9,677 feet before May 18, 1980 Type: Stratovolcano Number of eruptions in past 200 years: 2-3 Latest Eruptions: Between 1660-1700, around 1800-1802, 1831, 1835, 1842-1844, 1847-1854, 1857, 1980-? Present thermal activity: strong steaming Nickname: Mount Fuji of the West Remarks: continuous intermittent activity since 1980 with occasional eruptions of steam and ash; occasional pyroclastic flows; intermittent dome forming. MSH is considered a young volcano that developed over the last 40,000 years and is one of the most active volcanoes in the Cascade Range. Geologists predicted that the

Many people underestimate the power of volcanoes and the amount of damage they can do to a country, state, city, or town. A volcano is a mountain that extends down to a caldera which is a pool like are of magma in between the mantle and the crust in the Earth. It in a sense is a massive hole in the middle of the crust and mantle of the Earth where magma can erupt from and eventually make its way to the Earth’s surface. Volcanoes are estimated to kill almost 1,000 people per year and caused $99,000,000 worth of economic damages from 1980 to 2008. When an active volcano erupts its “danger zone” is about a 20 mile radius around the volcano itself, which ends up killing people, destroying houses, land, etc.

A major eruption melting the ice and snow could send debris flows, pyroclastic flows, and lahars towards Puget Sound and the Seattle/Tacoma metropolitan area. Volcanic hazard mapping has identified areas in the park that could be affected in the future by debris flows, lahars, pyroclastic flows and surges, lava flows, volcanic projectiles, tephra falls, and lateral blasts. Longmire Village and the Cougar Rock, Ohanapecosh, White River, Ipsut Creek, and Sunshine Point campgrounds are all vulnerable to these hazards. Monitoring of volcanic activity is on-going. There is a need for an emergency response plan to address these hazards. The reaction between groundwater and rising gas and steam from the underlying magmatic system creates zones of hydrothermally altered rock. Fumeroles at the summit of the volcano are one result of this reaction. Another result is the largest volcanic ice-cave system in the world at the summit of Mount Rainier. Earthquakes are also geologic hazards associated with Mount Rainier. Earthquakes precede a volcanic eruption although not every earthquake means an eruption is imminent. Other than Mt. St. Helens, Mount Rainier is the mos (Graham)t seismically active volcano in the Cascades. The destruction of cryptobiotic soils and general soil erosion by human impacts are important issues. A

Ash plumes and steam rose into the bright blue sky as the underground earthquake shook the land and rattled windows all across the eighteen mile town. As the jet circled the island, in view of lovely beaches and emerald water, looming over this lush paradise was the screaming volcano. Volcanos erupt when the pressure inside of them becomes so great that the magma surges up and forces its way out. An exploding volcano can rip apart a mountain in just seconds, when the eruption is over, a landscape is changed forever. The united states is home to more volcanos than any other country except Indonesia, and Japan. The majority of these volcanoes are in Alaska. Until recently, there was no way to predict when a volcano would blow, although volcanoes give off many warning signs before they erupt. Including smaller earthquakes beneath the volcano, slight inflation, or swelling. The rising magma eventually causes the solid rock to break, sending earthquake signals. Most volcanoes give warning signs beginning weeks or months before they blow (Lindop).

Volcanoes and Earthquakes are two of the most intriguing natural disasters that can occur on earth. Unlike hurricanes and tornadoes, they can awaken at almost any point in time throughout the year. These two natural disasters are also different from others because they occur on the layers of the earth itself. Volcanoes, while large to us, are actually small, conical patches of earth that spurt and ooze hot molten lava from the core, and can destroy areas of land triple their size. Earthquakes, on the other hand, are severe jolts felt on land due to the movement of earths tectonic plates. Some may describe earthquakes as being similar to riding a bike down a flight of stairs. The impact of an earthquakes can take down even the largest buildings and strongest structures. All natural disasters can have damaging effects on land, some more than others, and all can be measured or predicted in different ways. Although earthquakes and volcanoes are similar to each other, the two are still very comparable. A few of these similarities and differences include the cause of their occurrence, and how their occurrence impacts the environment.