On May 18,
1980, Mt. St. Helens erupted. Located in South-Western Washington State, St. Helens had been seen as one
of the most beautiful and peaceful sights in the Pacific Northwest. The
mountain is one of several large volcanic peaks that make up the Cascade Range.
Other prominent peaks include Mt. Rainier near Seattle, Mt. Hood near Portland, Oregon, and
Mt. Shasta in Northern California. At its base was a picturesque lake where
visitors camped and fished. The mountain was taken for granted, a landmark for
people seeking escape from the constant buzz of city-life. It took but a moment
for this vision of splendor to erupt in ash and magma.
For two
months, geologists had known something was coming. Small earthquakes, a visible
bulge on the surface of the mountain, and other anomalies hinted at the power
stirring beneath the earth. Yet the fury of the final eruption astonished
everyone.
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| The picture of Mt. St. Helens Eruption I remember from my parents coffee table book. |
Throughout
the spring as the mountain had been rumbling, the snow that clung to its sides
had been slowly melting, continuing a cycle as old as Creation. The melting
snow seeped into the earth. On May 18, as the pressure of the white-hot magma
bulged upward an earthquake suddenly occurred and the spring-soft face of the
mountain gave way. One of history’s largest landslides released two hundred
years’ worth of volcanic pressure and sent a molten cloud of steam, ash, and magma rocketing across the countryside at nearly the speed of sound. It leveled everything in its path and radically changed the landscape. What had once been a peaceful recreational area at the base of a beautiful peak became a post-apocalyptic wasteland in minutes. Trees were leveled for miles, then stripped of all foliage even further away. Pieces of heavy machinery were tossed into the air like children’s toys. The beauty, stability, and majesty of the mountain was destroyed.
