Mount St. Helens (or what is left of it)
My photo of the cone, from 45 miles away at the Larch Mountain viewpoint on the Oregon side of the Columbia River.
It's crazy to think that before 1980, Saint Helens had a proper mountain shape, similar to its neighbour to the east, Mt. Adams. Tragically, fifty-seven people died in the eruption and landslide that changed the skyline and the landscape and devastated the surrounded area (the below picture shows what happened to Spirit Lake). The destruction is unimaginable - these natural disasters so rarely happen in my part of the world that it's a shock to know that they can. For comparison, the last significant volcanic event in Canada was 300 years ago.
Img src: USGS, found on PBS
I would love to hear stories from anyone who was in the area around the time of the eruption, or has heard a firsthand account from others who were.
What was the feeling in the days leading up to the eruption? I hear that there was a significant bulge in the mountain, prior to the earthquake that triggered the blow, but it seems that things happened more quickly and with greater devastation than anyone predicted. :(
I visited Mt Rainer National Park in August 1980, with my family only a few months after the eruption. Even though I was only 13 at the time I clearly remember seeing the grey conical top of Mt St Helens on the horizon as well as everything being coated with several inches of volcanic ash. The other memorable thing was sunset at Mt Rainier which was amazingly red at the time.
A couple of years later, when I came back to visit in the US, I spoke with a local who was driving back to Seattle at the time of the big eruption, but was unaware the eruption was happening. He thought he was driving through a large thunderstorm, but then started to realize it wasn't rain falling but volcanic ash!
I still have an informational booklet on the Mt St Helens eruption that was published at the time.
Thanks for sharing that! I'm glad you were able to see what it was like with your own eyes, and wow, that would be such a surreal thing, to suddenly realize that you were driving through volcanic fallout...
Wow. That's an amazing photo. Had the opportunity to spend about three month helping out at a visitor center about 30 miles down the road from Johnston Ridge. It was a lot of fun.
One thing that made the eruption more devastating was that lateral blast. Most folks were anticipating a typical vertical eruption, and that's what caught people off guard.
The thing I find most amazing though at Mt. St. Helens, is how quickly life is returning the valley. So much so that, in some places, you'd think nothing ever happened. But then you just have to look up and see the mountain. :)
Thanks for your reply! That's cool that you worked there at a visitor's center. It's true, there's a lot of life that has sprung up there, and as someone who never saw it in the years following the eruption, it's hard to know what was old and what is new - maybe because so much of the devastation wasn't just from lava, which just covers the soil in a layer of rock, but from the landslide of mud and detritus that knocked out so many of the trees but didn't discourage new growth. It has a totally different feel to a place like Iceland, where eruptions from a hundred years ago look like they could have happened yesterday.
Absolutly stunning photo!!!thanks for sharing it:)
Well thanks for commenting! :)
Amazing colors man, epic shot!
Thank you! :)
Great capture Derek! The color of the sky is just mesmerizing.
Thanks! :D
Wowweee. I have seen much worse photos in my day. I daresay, that's even an amazing photo!
Heck, I've even taken some worse ones myself! ;)
Beautiful photo. It's amazing that huge natural events happen like this in our modern world. I know that sounds stupid and obvious but that's the point. We are still little creatures on an ever changing world and all our advancements won't stop Yellowstone when it decides to lose its crown.
True. But maybe we'll stand a chance of predicting it if something major happens in that area.
As humans we are not good at evaluating low probability long range high consequence risks. Love that area. Beautiful photo.
Very true... we tend to ignore anything non-imminent, because it's annoying to have to change our ways based on probabilities, and anyway, we probably won't be alive when anything serious happens.
We tend to do exactly the opposite for positive low probability events like lottery or Steemit taking over the world of social media .
Hahahaha! HEY, lets be more positive about Steemit, haha!
What a beautiful shot! So majestic :)
Thank you!
Resteemed!
CAWCAW
Truly amazing shot !
Loving the pictures from the past to go along with your image, a real nice touch! I'm planning on doing a weekly or fortnightly interview/chat with fellow photographers on my page. I was wondering if you'd be interested, obviously splitting the SBD 50-50 trying to go the community even more. Let me know what you think :)
Hey, thank you for asking, @cam.mcfarlane! I'd be happy to do that! If you want to contact me on Discord to discuss it, I'm derekkind#5452. :)
Epic! Thank you! You'll be hearing from me shortly
Im having troubles adding you?
Hmmm... I'm definitely DerekKind#5452.
Perfect, that one worked!
These are beautiful! I haven't explored this area much even with it so close, one day!
Thank you! It's worth checking out, even just to appreciate the historical aspect. :)
What a stunning shot! I remember driving through there with my parents in 88. The devastation that went on for miles and miles was just surreal. Even at the tender age of 8 I was able to appreciate natures destructive force.
Its very timely that you posted this, I just read an article on PetaPixel about a photographer that was taking photos of Mt St Helens as it erupted and knew he would never make it out so instead kept shooting, then quickly wound up the film, took it out of the camera , put it in a case, then his bag then lay on top of the bag to protect the film. Let me see if I can find the link .. here it is:
https://petapixel.com/2011/09/07/photographer-died-protecting-his-film-during-the-1980-mt-st-helens-eruption/
Brave soul..
Oh...wow....that's an amazing story. I think most of us wouldn't have the presence of mind to accept our demise under those circumstances and still keep shooting to preserve the moment.
Absolutely.. I wouldn't have! That takes a level of dedication and courage beyond that of the average person!
I was not in this place. But I visited the city of Pompeii in Greece. A terrible eruption of the volcano Vesuvius killed many people. Today in Pompeii Museum, very terrible events ...
Yes, I think that was the first catastrophic volcanic event that we can really pin down, historically.
Really cool! Thanks for sharing! Was there in the early 2000's cool seeing all the trees knocked down in the blast during the eruption.
Beautiful photo... thank you!