Vancouver, Vancouver! This is it! --David Johnstone
That's right. Thirty-one years ago today, at 8:32 AM, Mt. St. Helens erupted. We weren't living in Washington then...actually, I wasn't even born at that point (neither were the sisters). But I'll always remember the audio recording of Johnstone calling the Cascade Volcano Observatory in Vancouver, WA...just like I'll always remember watching the video Dave Crockett took as he hiked away from the erupting St. Helens. We studied the eruption in fourth grade at Elmhurst Elementary. Loved it then, love it now.
St. Helens through the fog
Hummocks
Flora and fauna
For more information on the eruption and its aftermath, here's a USGS video: Mt. St. Helens: May 18, 1980. I assure you, there are many beards. Wait. For even more beards, go here: World Beard and Moustache Championships. Believe me, you won't regret it.
It's funny how often I actually think about Harry Truman, who wouldn't leave his home on the mountain by Spirit Lake, I think that it was so strange to me as a child that someone would just willingly face down a volcanic death. I would say he remained unmoved in principal but the mudslide totally removed his body.
ReplyDeleteI totally get Harry Truman--he was hermitting it up on Spirit Lake. But we all know I'm partial to hermits and dying in a volanic event. Not a sheild volcano, mind you, like the ones in Hawaii. But a stratovolcano (aka: composite volcano), like St. Helens and Rainier. I want lahars and pyroclastic flows, not necessarily lava. (Although, it should be noted that lava does appear during Plinean eruptions {like Mt. St. Helens}, but it's not red-hot flowing lava but rather blocky, crumbly lava {felsic in compostion vs. mafic}. Uh-oh nerd alert.
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