Mt St Helens Eruption 40th Anniversary

[Viva]

One of my ex-GFs from PDX was on the summit of Mt. Hood that day and made this image.

[glademaster]

One of my ex-GFs from PDX was on the summit of Mt. Hood that day and made this image.

That is an absolutely incredible shot. Woah. That's truly a treasure you have there. It's a shame you didn't get the negative from her too. Wonder where it is.

[Viva]

She showed me an old print of this (among other k00l pictures) and I assume that she still has the negative. She posted this on Douche Book today, and has posted it there in the past on this anniversary.

[Norseman]

That is an absolutely incredible shot. Woah. That's truly a treasure you have there. It's a shame you didn't get the negative from her too. Wonder where it is.

Yes, that is outstanding.

[Norseman]

.

[iceman]

That is an absolutely incredible shot. Woah. That's truly a treasure you have there. It's a shame you didn't get the negative from her too. Wonder where it is.

x2.

I think part of the impact is the pic is strongly sexual.

[Norseman]

The crater rim is a damn cool place to visit.

[jono]

1319 miles. Wow. Had no idea it traveled that far.

I was wondering, in areas where there was a lot of ash on cropland, what did it do? I know it killed a lot of shit short term but long term, was there any noticeable impact? Could it have been positive (nutrients etc.) or was it even noticeable?

The ash cloud made it around the world and dropped more dust on the second time past. Not sure how much of the second lap it managed, though.

There was a town near Ritzville (Kalotus?) that was still trying to attract travelers 20 years later with a sign that said "Drop in, Mt St Helens did!" I think they had a combine demolition derby, too. So the soil must have been ok, at least.

[MultiVerse]

[splat]

1319 miles. Wow. Had no idea it traveled that far.

I was wondering, in areas where there was a lot of ash on cropland, what did it do? I know it killed a lot of shit short term but long term, was there any noticeable impact? Could it have been positive (nutrients etc.) or was it even noticeable?

Sheeeeeat. The last time the caldera at Mammoth blew, they found rocks from what is now the Sierra in Missouri.

The crater rim is a damn cool place to visit.

I flew a Cessna 210 right up through the cone (the dome was steaming) and over the ridge basically right where this shot was taken from about 50 feet above the edge. Coolest part was looking down on the south slope to see it had been all kinds of skied.

[altasnob]

On my last trip down to the visitor center I learned the eruption cut off the outlet to Spirit Lake. Rather than let the lake rise and naturally cut a new outlet, a 1.6-mile-long outlet tunnel was built draining the lake into a basin it naturally would not drain into. Today, the tunnel is filling with sediment and needs to be replaced. If it were to collapse catastrophically (say, an earthquake) the town of Longview and I-5 would be completely buried in debris. Pretty amazing how geologically unstable that area still is today.

https://crosscut.com/2020/05/manmade...ount-st-helens

[altasnob]

The crater also contains the youngest and fastest growing glacier in the US

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/4...be-short-lived

[Norseman]

That chart highlights one of my favorite geologic factoids. [edit, altasnob beat me to it while I fucked with pictures, shrug]

The top 1200ft or so was blown off the mountain, which removed the accumulation zones for the active glaciers on St.H's flanks. The lower reaches of those glaciers still remain, but only as semi-permanent snowfields which no longer flow. The exception is within the crater, where the North-facing steep shady walls created a new accumulation zone for the Crater glacier. It flows out the Breach, splitting around the growing lava dome. In 2008 the lobes rejoined on the north side, and it continues to advance. It is the youngest and fastest growing glacier on North America.

Sheeeeeat. The last time the caldera at Mammoth blew, they found rocks from what is now the Sierra in Missouri.

I flew a Cessna 210 right up through the cone (the dome was steaming) and over the ridge basically right where this shot was taken from about 50 feet above the edge. Coolest part was looking down on the south slope to see it had been all kinds of skied.

It gets skied quite a bit when the weather is good in the spring, and sleds are allowed on the SE flank. I've skied it several times. On a good snow year, you can glide from the summit right to the car at the Marble Mountain Sno-Park, 5700ft vert. The lava flows make cool swoopy terrain. In the summer it's a shit heap of ash and sand.

my wife:






lookin down the barrel of a huDge cannon:




South side:





Mt Adams / Pahto from St. Helens. THAT's a good ski hill:

[Norseman]

remember this big ol cock o rock that emerged and quickly crumbled in 2005?

[Angle Parking]

Quality stuff. Thx

[Kopi_Red]

The ash cloud made it around the world and dropped more dust on the second time past. Not sure how much of the second lap it managed, though.

There was a town near Ritzville (Kalotus?) that was still trying to attract travelers 20 years later with a sign that said "Drop in, Mt St Helens did!" I think they had a combine demolition derby, too. So the soil must have been ok, at least.

Lind, WA is the town with the combine demo derby. So that's the town you're probably thinking of.

[Norseman]

I was a student in Ellensburg. Also the nighttime DJ on the local townie radio station. It was Sunday morning, so I was off work, but my room mate - a weekender - was on the air at the time and called me when the news of the eruption came over the teletype.

I went out on my west facing front porch and saw a line, from north to south as far as I could see, of blackness in the sky. It took a couple of hours to arrive overhead, and when it did it was dark as night and I could hear the ash fall hissing on the leaves in the yard. It snowed thick silica dust for many hours and the sky was still dark the next morning as the cloud worked its way east.

For several weeks we went on double shifts on the radio as we became virtually the only means of communication for many people, and broadcast news and outreach 24 hours a day. Phone lines had ceased to function and public services were terribly strained. Townfolk would come by the station, the little cinderblock box on the hill just south of town, ask us to put the word out for various people they'd not been able to contact. They also fed us with homemade food and cookies.

We were told the ash would destroy our car engines so few people drove. My dog wasn't allowed outside and we wore masks. Once the skies cleared there was a layer of ash everywhere that lasted for years. Some of it was scooped up by graders and left in a high pile outside of town. I suspect it's still there. All the freshly leafed-out plants became denuded from the ash and that spring and summer there was little, if any, greenery for miles around.

I'll never forget those times, and being at the hub of community outreach. T'was quite a time.

Thanks for the story.

[The AD]

South side:

Looks a lot like Bachelor from that view.

[Norseman]

https://www.oregonlive.com/projects/mount-st-helens/

a few from that collection:











etc

[jono]

Lind, WA is the town with the combine demo derby. So that's the town you're probably thinking of.

Thank you! That was going to bug me all week. Haven't seen the "drop in" sign for years now, but Lind seems most likely.

[NW_SKIER]

Thank you! That was going to bug me all week. Haven't seen the "drop in" sign for years now, but Lind seems most likely.

100%

[Norseman]

Shattered timber still floats on Spirit Lake

[The AD]

"An animated series of images showing the May 18, 1980, eruption of Mt. St. Helens. Clearly visible in the first few images is the largest recorded landslide in history—the entire north face of the volcano sliding away following a shallow earthquake. The newly-exposed core of the volcano then erupted"

don't know if the gif works here, but its from a set of photos The Atlantic put out 2015

https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/20...n-1980/393557/

I read that the guy who took these shots only survived because the blast was deflected by the ridge between him and the mountain.

Can you imagine seeing this in person? That must have taken some serious wherewithal to keep clicking the camera shutter while this was happening.

[Game Over]

I think that guy died in his truck fleeing but the images survived.

[The AD]

I'm having a hard time determining who took that sequence. There were two photographers who got shots of the mountain erupting from close range. Two guys who were camping together made it out, the other guy did not and his camera was discovered later.