February 12, 2021 ▸ Disaster, History, Places

Episode 557: Mount St. Helens: Horror in the Northwest

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On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we take a look at the largest volcanic eruption in the modern history of the United States, the eruption of Mount St. Helens. This volcano started grumbling and causing a superstring of earthquakes in March of 1980, but on May 18, the volcano erupted. Two hundred and thirty square miles of forest were destroyed instantly as the equivalent of 1500 Hiroshima level nuclear bombs went off. Even though it was being watch closely by volcanologists, photographers, and the world, it’s violent explosion surprised almost everyone.

Luckily a scientist who died in the eruption convinced the government to keep people away; this action is thought to have saved as many as a thousand lives. The destruction was inconceivable, but it may be in forms you weren’t expecting.

For example, much of it was a tsunami like flow of water as called a Lahar that turned 46 billion gallons of glacial melt into several rivers of cement. The ash plume circled the globe and erased all geological features. People in the Pacific Northwest remember this very vividly. After all, Mount St. Helens was completely transformed by the explosion, and dozens died in this cataclysm.

Visit Our Sources:

https://www.usgs.gov/volcanoes/mount-st-helens/1980-cataclysmic-eruption?qt-science_support_page_related_con=2#qt-science_support_page_related_con

https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/18/us/mount-st-helens-facts-eruption-trnd/index.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_eruption_of_Mount_St._Helens

https://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/103/

https://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/hazard/stratoguide/helenfact.html

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/624139/mount-st-helens-facts