1st times of 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption, 42 many years back right now.
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To start with times of 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption, 42 years in the past now.
40 replies on “To start with times of 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption, 42 years in the past now.”
This gif is made from the famous photos taken by Gary Rosenquist, who was located at Bear Meadow, about 11 miles (17km) northeast of the mountain.
I sourced the images from USGS professional paper 1250, “The 1980 eruptions of Mount St. Helens, Washington” pp. 72-76 (1981).
https://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/pp1250
Edit: To be clear, this is sped way up for dramatic effect. In real time it takes 24 seconds to go through the sequence. https://gfycat.com/uncommonheavenlyichidna
RIP Harry Truman, the guy who refused to believe the science and was the first to die.
Does the right side of the mountain collapse inward first? What makes/made that happen?
I remember getting Time magazine with this in it. Then NatGeo did a whole spread.
I remember getting up that Sunday morning and wondering why the sky to the west was so dark and stormy looking, couple hours later ash was raining down and it seems like night had fallen at 10am. I’m on the east side of the state too.
This is the first major news event I remember. I was 10 years old, and they interrupted The Price is Right on news of the eruption. I was pretty scared thinking volcanoes could start popping up everywhere and exploding 🙁
“1980 can’t be 42 years ago, I’m only… oh shit!”
`”Hey Jeff… change of plans, your high school graduation ceremony is going to be held indoors”`
So much mass just moving almost like it’s nothing. The amount of energy to simply move that much mass off a mountain (This is obviously a volcano) would take us at least a couple decades of quarrying nonstop to achieve.
I hiked from the observatory across the flats to the crater waterfall (think it’s called the Loowit Falls trail) a few years ago and it’s a surreal and unique experience, especially if you go through the exhibits in the observatory first and hear the accounts of the people who survived, and the last words of those that didn’t.
Hearing, seeing and feeling the still live volcano around when you’re at the crater really makes you appreciate the sheer power of the Earth around you. And it’s pretty cool seeing how life is still taking a renewed foothold in the area. Highly recommend it, about 15 mile round trip. Just don’t do it in 32 deg C heat like we did…
Edit: temp is in Celsius
Someone posted earlier that Shrek released 21 years ago (they claimed 21 years ago today, but apparently it was released at the end of June), but that’s HALF the time since this eruption. That’s fucking mental to me!
We went camping in Ontario, north of Lake Superior, a week after the eruption. The sunsets were unbelievable.
mt st helens
mount st helens
mt saint helens
mount saint helens
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they all feel wrong
And then their piece of shit governor spread the lie that all of the victims were there illegally when literally all but one had permission to be where they were.
Even the GIF explodes a bit because of the impact.
I have a couple small bottles of pure volcanic ash from this eruption and was just yesterday thinking maybe I should do a painting of the explosion using the ash as a pigment.
OK what would happen if someone was standing on the side of the mountain that didn’t explode? Die soon later? Totally fine?
Why does the mountain collapse in first? What created the void for the mountain to fall Into?
Man I tell you hwat, these pictures are amazing but nothing really prepares you for the scale of that explosion as witnessed from the rim of the thing. It’s a day hike to get up there but it makes you feel really really small.
There’s a few pieces of video that are burned in my brain forever. One of them is the Iran hostages with the bags on their heads. I was a little kid then. The hostages are the first news stories I remember. Then this clip of Mount St. Helens. Next would be the world trade centers falling is one of those “burned-in” memories too.
u/redditspeedbot .2x
F You Reddit app. Play the damn video.
I was eight when it happened, but I still remember it vividly because volcanoes are like porn to eight year olds.
I have a Gerber baby jar full of ash from the 80 eruption. My father got it sometime in the 80’s and is just passed around to various siblings.
A reminder of [this fantastic](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E1rfDvdX0AEJYE9?format=jpg&name=900×900) report of the eruption from the point of view of an astronomer. “It’s the end of the world and they’re playing ‘cha-cha’ music!”
Mount St. Helens is about to blow up
This video shows this same perspective but is smoothed out: https://youtu.be/UK–hvgP2uY
Skip to 1:15ish to see the mountain start moving.
If you ever find yourself in Western Washington, do make the trek to Mt St Helen’s National Volcanic Monument. SOOOO WORTH IT.
Crazy to think some dude and his cats are inside of that
There’s an amazing doc about this on Disney Plus it explains the story of how scientists warned for a month that it was going to blow, so much so that people thought they were wrong because nothing was happening and stayed in their homes, it also has interviews from the survivors that got caught in the landslides. Really interesting documentary, I had never even heard of it before I watched.
42 years 🙁 I feel old
Hard if not impossible to imagine the sheer force involved, to move an entire side of a mountain. Shew!
I was just there on Monday. I didn’t realize the anniversary was coming up.
The thing that got me was a sign at a bridge that said “You are now at the edge of the blast zone”. Then I still had to drive for another hour to get to the mountain.
nuts. was there in early 2000s. crazy how all the trees lay in one direction stripped of their bark for like, a gazillion miles…. slight exaggeration.
R.I.P. Mr Truman!!!
Just chillin one day and boom. Shit erupts. Earth is crazy
[The soundtrack](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elizAugXVcI)
I still have ash. I lived in Washington and I was almost 13 when that happened. I will never forget it.
My brother is an “ash baby” – born 9 months after the eruption. Lots of people were stuck inside, including my parents.
The craziest thing for me is I found out all the trees that were blown off the mountain and into the nearby lake, are still floating there in the lake today. It’s almost bare floating logs as far as the eye can see covering the water’s surface.
I remember that day.
The bulging side of the mountain was attracting all kinds of thrill-seekers.
Police were putting up tape and warnings.
People were sidestepping the cops to get to the “bulge”
Helicopters kept circling it.
I was on the other side of the country and was nervous for them.
I remember when it blew, the view reminded me of the films of the Yucca Flat nuclear test explosions..
Pretty sure the guy who took those pictures died. Maybe I am remembering wrong, but that is what I recall hearing from visiting the site when I was a kid.