44 Years Ago

[General Woundwort]

44 years ago on May 18, 1980, the continental United States was reminded that there are active and dangerously explosive volcanoes within its borders. Mt. St. Helens, the most active volcano in the continental USA and the scene of several phreatic (steam) explosions since March of 1980, produced a massive directed blast that took the lives of 57 persons and forever changed the science of vulcanology. If the eruption had waited just two hours - 10:30 AM Pacific instead of 8:32 - there would have been upwards of 100 more victims. One of the twists of fate that happened that unforgettable day was the salvation (as temporary as it turned out to be***) of Harry Glicken, and the condemnation of David Johnston of the USGS. Glicken left the Coldwater camp at 9PM on the 17th, leaving Johnston - who was originally not scheduled to be there - at the setup come 8:32 the next morning (when Glicken was driving north to relieve Johnston; Glicken begged army helicopter crews to fly him in and search for Johnston, but all they found, or anyone would ever find, was a blasted, featureless ridge). Johnston, and the 56 others, were of course killed outright, or mortally burned or injured.

St. Helens last erupted in 2008.

***Glicken himself would die in a pyroclastic flow at Japan's Unzen volcano in 1991. He was 33 years of age.

(Photos from the USGS website, and the much more recent photo is my own).

[Duncan Edwards]

Father of the girl I was dating at the time was from the area. He related how they all knew it would erupt someday but was still surprised. The eruption confirmed his love for Tennessee where the last volcano preceded the dinosaurs.

[General Woundwort]

Father of the girl I was dating at the time was from the area. He related how they all knew it would erupt someday but was still surprised. The eruption confirmed his love for Tennessee where the last volcano preceded the dinosaurs.

Having seen the gargantuan mudflow on the Plains of Abraham and the remnants around Toutle, Washington, visible to this day, I cannot say I blame him.

[Fred588]

Volcanos are cool, but (well, ok they are also very hot) they are entirely unpredictable. Twenty-five years ago I was doing research, measuring temperatures inside eight caves inside the caldera of Kilauea, all of which were created in 1919. In 2008, Kilauea erupted and all or most of those caves are no longer extant.