In the Company of Volcanoes

- Dr. Janine Krippner Today marks another anniversary of the deadly eruption of Mount St. Helens volcano in Washington, USA. This eruption was one of those events where most remember where they were around the world when they heard the news. It changed the lives of those around the volcano - those who lost friends or family, their homes, their view of the local landscape, and their belief that 'it won't happen to me'. Fifty-seven people were lost, including volcanologist David Johnston ( his biography is out now here ). People around the world know this volcano after this day. Mount St. Helens on May 18, 1980. Courtesy of USGS. Thirty-nine years ago the world watched as the eruption took place, so what did they see? What it was like for those who experienced the eruption firsthand? What did the rest of the country see through the experiences of reporters and those who were there? When the next continental-US volcano erupts some of us will be there. Some of us wil...

- Janine and Alison This morning I (Janine) was researching the May 18, 1980 Mount Saint Helens eruption to begin the next phase of my research. Reading through the descriptions of the start of the eruption - when massive blocks of the volcano slid to the north, I enthusiastically jumped out of my chair surprising my office mates. Marking out 1 meter with my feet I looked up at them and told them "this is one meter, now imagine 50 of these. Now imagine a massive chunk of rock moving 50 of these in one second! 50 m per second! This is nuts!" The joys of sharing an office with an over-enthusiastic volcanologist... 50 m/s is how fast the side of the mountain began to travel down and away from the volcano, taking chunks of rock the size of 30 story buildings northward. As the slide evolved into a debris avalanche, the sediment mass began flowing, the blocks reached speeds of up to 80 m/s [1]. So this got us talking about the insane speeds involved in volc...

- Dr. Janine Krippner I have been a little obsessed with Mount St Helens for the majority of my life. The volcano, the precursory activity, the eruption, the science, and the stories of the people whose lives were affected. The May 18, 1980 (and onwards) eruption is a major part of volcanology history and the 35th anniversary is a day to remember the events and the people whose lives ended or were changed that day. I have included a list of resources below that show different aspects of the eruption. I finally visited the volcano in 2013. Driving up to the Johnston Ridge Observatory I stopped to look at deposits along the way, impressed by the protruding trees that were blown down and transported by pyroclastic density currents. Trees removed during the 18 May 1980 eruption sticking out of the eruption deposits. Instead of jumping around excited like I thought I would, when I came face to face with the volcano, with her collapse scar, dome, and deposits I just sto...