Mount St. Helens

In all 57 people were killed by the eruption and many of these were outside the danger zone outlined by the experts. The mountain itself was damaged by the blast, before the blast Mt. St. Helens was 9677 feet high, after the eruption it was only 8,363 feet in height-a crater 1.5 km wide is now found on the north side of the mountain. The surrounding landscape was scarred beyond recognition. What was once a rich forest became a grey, lifeless plain.

On March 20th, 1980 Mt. St. Helens showed the first signs of an eruption when an earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale shook the mountain. Steam started venting on March 27th and a bulge had started to be formed on the north side of the mountain by the end of April. The experts drew a danger zone around the Mountain and monitored its progress.

On May the 18th at 8:32am an earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale triggered the collapse of the North side of the mountain. The blast that swept out of the north side of the Mountain knocked down ant stripped trees of bark as far away as 17 miles from the crater formed by the blast. As well as the blast itself a massive ash cloud rose from the mountain and by noon it had reached Idaho, within 3 days it had reached the coast and although it thinned out finer ash circled the earth in 15 days.

The most devastating feature of the eruption was the Lahars, the snow on Mt. St. Helens summit that was not instantly turned to steam melted and along with ash and rock sped down the mountainside at speeds of 70 to 150 miles per hour and buried the North Fork of the Toutle River under an average of 150 feet of debris. The mudflows buried or destroyed 27 bridges, 200 homes, 185 miles of roadway, and 15 miles of railway. Flooding was common in all the rivers close to the mountain.

A logging camp and a salmon farm were destroyed by the volcano and more than 7,000 big game animals and 12 million Chinook and Coho salmon were killed as well as and millions of birds and small mammals. The cost of the Mt. St. Helens eruption was more than just lives. It was estimated that it came to $1.1 billion for timber, civil works and agricultural losses. This did not include money for personal property losses, the cost of the ash clean up, or the loss of tourism in the area immediately after the eruption.

The main difference between a normal volcano and Mt. St. Helens was the eruption coming out of the north side and not the top. Instead of the damage being spread evenly around the mountain devastating damage was done to almost everything north of the volcano for distances reaching up to17 miles! The volcano is now beginning to bulge again and another eruption possibly more devastating that that in 1980 may be expected any day soon. However this time the scientists will be ready and they have been monitoring the bulge since it first appeared.