Mount St. Helens

[GASoline71]

Here is a view of the Mount St. Helens Eruption that I have never seen before. It is done in time lapse, and is kinda cool. Not sure how many miles away it is but it kind of puts it into perspective of how massive that eruption was.

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It's said that everybody remembers where they were or what they were doing when President Kennedy was shot, when John Lennon was killed, or when the first Space Shuttle blew apart...

...for Washingtonians and other Pacific Northwesterners... May 18th, 1980 is one of those days...

Gary

[Rotax Robert]

Way cool Gary, does'nt seem all that long ago. That was definently a BIG bang. 1st time i've seen that one myself. :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

[sotc]

cool gary, very impressive.

[Cedarkerf]

Yea I was home sleeping just came down from the summit of Mnt Hood the day before. Would have been spectaculer to have seen it from there.

[Rotax Robert]

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3977416382972126736&q=mount+saint+helens&total=748&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

[MasterBlaster]

Remember this guy?

http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Volcanoes/MSH/May18/MSHThisWeek/32944/truman.jpg

Lordy! (http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/mountsthelens/hary11.shtml)

[GASoline71]

Yup... ol' Harry Truman...

...sat in his cabin as the Mountain slid and crushed everything in it's path. Including him and his mange ridden dog... since he refused to leave.

We used to camp there at Spirit Lake every year for the 4th of July...

I have seen a lot of St. Helens footage... but have never seen that one before...

Gary

[Rotax Robert]

I went into the blast zone a few years after. I have to say I was in awe of the power of mother nature. There were thousands of trees some 6' dbh snapped off about 5' to 10' off the ground. Very few trees that I saw were uprooted, just snapped off.

[Rotax Robert]

Not to steal this thread, but a few of my buddies logged the blast zone to reclaim a bunch of weyerhauser timber. Chainsaws and Chain were bought in by the truck loads. Saws would be junk in a few days and they never sharpened a chain (volcanic ash), just put on a new loop and go. Some guys were going thru 50 to 75 chains a day. To this day you can find them laying all over the place although a bit rusty.

[JamesTX]

Hasn't Mt. St. Helens rebuilt itself to it's original size?

[Rotax Robert]

Not yet,but she is working on it. building a new lava dome as we speak

[Rotax Robert]

here is a quick one. The mountain is still miss the top 1300 feet but is building this dome inside.

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[GASoline71]

You're not stealin' Robert... :)

I have mason jars full of that volcanic ash.

I rmember the first time we went up to Johnston's Ridge to the observatory years after the Mountain blew...

You are winding up a road that looks like any other State or National Park road in the Northwest... big trees, flora and fauna abound... then you come over a small rise in the road, and it makes a slight right hand turn...

...and you would have thought you just arrived on the moon... total devastation. What an eye opener that was...

The winds from the blast travelled up the valley walls and came over the ridge tops and snapped huge old growth trees like theye were toothpicks in the blast zone. Funny thing was... the trees on the leeward side of the ridgetop were not touched... and then about a half mile down that leeward side the winds hit and brought down more.

So there are big stands of trees at only the backside of the ridgetops in the blast zone.

If the "Sleeping Giant" (Mount Rainier) ever goes... we are in a world of hurt...

Gary

[Rotax Robert]

I know I am in a world of hurt if she goes.

I know what you are saying gary, I would almost seem like you could been standing by those trees and survived and 50' away was like the moon. Well put Gary, I know exactly where you are talking about.

[GASoline71]

I know I am in a world of hurt if she goes.


My Parents and all my relatives live in Buckley and Orting... they are toast too if Rainier goes...

They (geologists) say that the amount of mud and debris that the lahars will have in them from Rainier will hit Puget Sound and displace 1/3 of the water when it hits in Commencement bay in Tacoma.

There will be a Sunami as the water in the Sound exits towards Vancouver Island and the Straits of Juan de Fuca. The Islands like Whidbey, San Juan, Fidalgo, Blakely, Orcas, Lopez, etc. will be completely washed over as the wave goes through.

I'm really not lookin' forward to that...

Gary

[GASoline71]

I don't know if you remember when the new Middle School was being built in Orting some time back... when the engineers were diggin' to find a suitable place to put the school... they were finding (get this) tree tops of 150 foot tall trees that were covered by the last 2 Lahars that had came through the Puyallup and Carbon valley's some 1,500 years ago...

The tops were 9 feet under ground. When they found them they brought in some sort of underground RADAR/SONAR thingy that showed trees standing upright and buried in the mud. They were able to take samples from a few of them for research. They estimated the trees to be at leats 150 feet tall...

So the floor of the Puyallup valley was actually at least 150 feet lower 1,500 years ago in some places... crazy shit yo!

All the houses that are being built in Orting... the contractors are hitting huge old growth stumps that are buried in the mud from Lahars where they are diggin' the foundations...

Also... my Aunt and Uncle have a rock in their back yard that is almost the size of their house... Rumor has it that it came from the top of Rainier during the last BIG Eruption occured 1,500 years ago.

Trust me... it's a big ass rock... no other way I could figure it to be there...

Gary

[MasterBlaster]

I will never live in a coastal city.

Never.

[vharrison]

I will never live in a coastal city.

Never.

:lol: :lol: Never say never!!! :lol: :lol:

[MasterBlaster]

Just watch!

[Chisel Tooth]

The polar ice cap keeps melting you just might find your ass settin on the coast.:P

[MasterBlaster]

Oh, that'll happen for sure, but I'll be long gone.

[JamesTX]

I will never live in a coastal city.

Never.

You're only 78 feet above sea level - almost a coastal city.

[MasterBlaster]

Horseshoes and hand grenades, baby. ;)

[Al Smith]

When Mt St Helens blew it's top it affected the weather patterns for at least 5 years maybe longer.I never thought it would quit raining.I thought about that guy with a boat full of animals and maybe he had a plan.It did finally quit though.

Not to open a can of worms but these natural occuring events have more impact on global changes than anything mankind is able to do or prevent.They said the eruption of St Helens expended more energy than the entire arsenal of the US and USSR had at it's disposal of atomic bombs.Now that's power.:O

Anybody that has the assumption they can harness mother nature should rethink their thought pattern.We are but mere piss-ants compaired to that gigantic force .

[JamesTX]

Nah - it was only equivalent to a 24-30 megaton explosion - 500 times Hiroshima.

[squisher]

500 times Hiroshima.

:O Holy moly!

Al, myself and others could beg to differ as to the effects of natural events vs mankind. But in the interest of thread continuity I'm gonna just ignore your bit of bait there ;) .

[Paul B]

:O Holy moly!

Al, myself and others could beg to differ as to the effects of natural events vs mankind. But in the interest of thread continuity I'm gonna just ignore your bit of bait there ;) .

its the cow farts I tell ya. yup, bovine flatulence, check it out.

[sotc]

better run some cows out midwest so they can thaw out!