On the Road-Mount St. Helens

Sunday August 16th



MOUNT ST. HELEN



These national and state parks for St. Helens are isolated and take a long time to get to because they sit in the middle of miles of Weyerhauser owned forests. . I had thought that I learned all about volcanoes in Hawaii but it turns out that Hawaii has shield volcanoes and Mt. St. Helens has a different kind of volcano. Mt. St. Helens carries a rock lava and all the lava rocks contain explosive gases that explode after the rock s are released when the volcano erupts.

The forerunners of these volcanoes are increasingly large numbers of nearby earthquakes. These thousands of earthquakes are set off by the lava percolating around inside the mountain. Another indication for this one was that the top of the mountain began to grow and develop a big bump on one side. They were expecting it to blow but they had no idea that it would be so devastating.

One of the earthquakes I believe triggered perhaps the biggest landslide ever. Then the volcano erupted and all the gases began exploding. Trees were uprooted and became part of the landslide. All the water from Spirit Lake was blown up a hill and came back twice the width of the lake that it was before. The ash from the volcano spread eastward for many miles. Uprooted trees were strewn all down the mountain and some are still there. Trees that were too far away to be totally uprooted were singed leaving a dead forest of standing trees.

The ground was covered with ash and people were trapped (even tho they could have evacuated) Rescue helicopters bravely went up and saved a hundred and some but 53 were killed or lost.

The volcano erupted on May 18, 1980 and the land is coming back to the point where it can support life. Weyerhauser has groves of trees labeled wit hthe date at which they were replanted. Vegetation is returning to the pumice. And the best sign of life is the Elk who have returned to this formerly lifeless area. You can see the Elk grazing(if you have binoculars or better eyes than I have).