breaking on drudge

I think all those tourists need to get out of the general area.

These fucking idiots cant make up their mind. EVERY day they change their mind from "it wont blow" to "its going to be a huge eruption" and everywhere in between. They have ZERO clue.

Papa Smurf!!! Papa Smurf!!! The village is on fire!!!

wrgis.wr.usgs.gov/fact-sheet/fs036-00/

from the article

Within 15 to 20 seconds of a magnitude 5.1 earthquake at 8:32 a.m., the volcano's bulge and summit slid away in a huge landslide - the largest on Earth in recorded history. The landslide depressurized the volcano's  magma system, triggering powerful explosions that ripped through the sliding debris. Rocks, ash, volcanic gas, and steam were blasted upward and outward to the north. This lateral blast of hot material accelerated to at least 300 miles per hour, then slowed as the rocks and ash fell to the ground and spread away from the volcano; several people escaping the blast on its western edge were able to keep ahead of the advancing cloud by driving 65 to 100 miles an hour! The blast cloud traveled as far as 17 miles northward from the volcano and the landslide traveled about 14 miles west down the North Fork Toutle River.

The lateral blast produced a column of ash and gas (eruption column) that rose more than 15 miles into the atmosphere in only 15 minutes. Less than an hour later, a second eruption column formed as magma erupted explosively from the new crater. Then, beginning just after noon, swift avalanches of hot ash, pumice, and gas (pyroclastic flows) poured out of the crater at 50 to 80 miles per hour and spread as far as 5 miles to the north. Based on the eruption rate of these pyroclastic flows, scientists estimate that the eruption reached its peak between 3:00 and 5:00 p.m. Over the course of the day, prevailing winds blew 520 million tons of ash eastward across the United States and caused complete darkness in Spokane, Washington, 250 miles from the volcano.

During the first few minutes of this eruption, parts of the blast cloud surged over the newly formed crater rim and down the west, south, and east sides of the volcano. The hot rocks and gas quickly melted some of the snow and ice capping the volcano, creating surges of water that eroded and mixed with loose rock debris to form volcanic mudflows (lahars). Several lahars poured down the volcano into river valleys, ripping  trees from their roots and destroying roads and bridges.

The largest and most destructive lahar was formed by water seeping from inside the huge landslide deposit through most of the day. This sustained flow of water eroded material from both the landslide deposit and channel of the North Fork Toutle River. The lahar increased in size as it traveled downstream, destroying bridges and homes and eventually flowing into the Cowlitz River. It reached its maximum size at about midnight in the Cowlitz River about 50 miles downstream from the volcano.



Volcano  
Elevation of summit 9,677 feet before;  8,363 feet after;  1,314 feet removed  
Volume removed*  0.67 cubic miles (3.7 billion cubic yards)  
Crater dimensions  1.2 miles (east-west);  1.8 miles (north-south);  2,084 feet deep  
Crater floor elevation 6,279 feet  
Landslide  
Area and volume* 23 square miles;  0.67 cubic miles (3.7 billion cubic yards)  
Depth of deposit  Buried 14 miles of North Fork Toutle River Valley to an average depth of 150 feet (max. depth 600 feet)  
Velocity  70 to 150 miles per hour  
Lateral Blast  
Area covered 230 square miles;  reached 17 miles northwest of the crater  
Volume of deposit* 0.046 cubic miles (250 million cubic yards)  
Depth of deposit  From about 3 feet at volcano to less than 1 inch at blast edge  
Velocity  At least 300 miles per hour  
Temperature  As high as 660° F (350° C)  
Energy released  24 megatons thermal energy (7 by blast, rest through release of heat)  
Trees blown down  4 billion board feet of timber (enough to build about 300,000 two-bedroom homes)  
Lahars  
Velocity  About 10 to 25 miles per hour (over 50 miles per hour on steep flanks of volcano)  
Damaged  27 bridges, nearly 200 homes  
Effects on Cowlitz River Reduced carrying capacity at flood stage at Castle Rock from 76,000 cfs (cubic feet per second) to less than 15,000 cfs  
Effects on Columbia River Reduced channel depth from 40 to 14 feet;  stranded 31 ships in upstream ports  
Eruption Column and Cloud  
Height  Reached about 80,000 feet in less than 15 minutes  
Downwind extent  Spread across US in 3 days; circled Earth in 15 days  
Volume of ash*  0.26 cubic miles (1.4 billion cubic yards)  
Ash fall area  Detectable amounts of ash covered 22,000 square miles  
Ash fall depth  10 inches at 10 miles downwind (ash and pumice); 1 inch at 60 miles downwind; ½ inch at 300 miles downwind  
Pyroclastic Flows  
Area covered  6 square miles; reached as far as 5 miles north of crater  
Volume & depth*  0.029 cubic miles (155 million cubic yards); multiple flows 3 to 30 feet thick; cumulative depth of deposits reached 120 feet in places  
Velocity Estimated at 50 to 80 miles per hour  
Temperature  At least 1,300° F (700° C)  
Fatalities  
Human  57  
Wildlife  Countless non-burrowing wildlife in blast area, including about 7,000 big game animals; about 12 million salmon fingerlings in hatcheries

******* NEWS FLASH *******

08 OCT 04 -- WASHINGTON, DC

THE NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUN
DATION HAS RELEASE A NEW R
EPORT THAT GEOLOGISTS, ME
TEOROLOGISTS, AND SEISMOL
OGISTS CAN'T PREDICT SHIT.
THIS REPORT HAS BEEN THE RE
SULT OF 30 YEARS OF RESEARC
H AT A COST OF 300 BILLION T
AXPAYER DOLLARS.  CITIZENS
ARE HEREBY INSTRUCTED TO I
GNORE THESE SCIENTISTS IN
THE FUTURE.

I remember watching the clouds of ash coming from the west on May 18th.
I was in awe of the whole thing...it was very impressive to a 10 year old.


I hope it happens again.

Quoted: i that a bad thing? I was nly 1 year old at the time......

SHUT UP Child!

Quoted: Trees blown down  4 billion board feet of timber (enough to build about 300,000 two-bedroom homes)

Too bad we didn't clear cut those before the volcano...

Quoted: Quoted: Trees blown down  4 billion board feet of timber (enough to build about 300,000 two-bedroom homes)   Too bad we didn't clear cut those before the volcano...

[troymcclure] What a horrible waste! [/troymcclure]

Quoted: These fucking idiots cant make up their mind. EVERY day they change their mind from "it wont blow" to "its going to be a huge eruption" and everywhere in between. They have ZERO clue.

There are some brilliant people working in the field using the most powerful computers in the world.  Volcano predictions are incredibly complicated, and useful data is hard or impossible to obtain.  They are doing alot with very,very little.

Don't worry, lots of the timber was salvaged.

Guys, you gotta understand, volcano predicting is a cross between voodoo and roulette.

Quoted: Quoted: i that a bad thing? I was nly 1 year old at the time...... SHUT UP Child!

I wasn't even born yet, but the 1980 eruption was on my moms birthday, so it makes it easy to remeber the day of the eruption, or maybe easier to remeber my moms birthday...

Brian

Quoted: Quoted: Don't worry, lots of the timber was salvaged. Guys, you gotta understand, volcano predicting is a cross between voodoo and roulette. So why invest so much money into then?

Into what, monitoring the mountain? They are hoping to learn more. We knew next to nothing about volcanism prior to the original Mt. St. Helens eruption. Then what was learned there they took to Pinatubo. Those two volcanoes are our primary sources of data.

Yeah, they know a little more now, than in the past, but in 2000 they thought it was gonna blow again too. It didn't. they are still working on it.

Watch it Live!  Well almost....

Mt. St. Helens Volcano Cam

edit
It is cloudy a lot though

Quoted: Seeing how I live about 25 miles from the mountain, I wish it would just go dormant again. It was a huge mess, not really interested in going though it again.

Me too.  It was cool as hell as a 16 yr old but now?  Who needs that shit?! lol

Damn volcanos lol

I was 8 the first time.
I thought it was snowing.




Yes, 8 year olds are dumb.

It won't be the same unless half the mountain and the lava dome slide down the side of the mountain and then the eruption blasts out sideways.

That's what happened for the first eruption. The initial blast went sideways and that's why all the trees were knocked down.

They "expect" that this eruption will go straight up with less blast damage and less property damage (if it happens at all).

Oh shit. its about to hit the fan.  Now saying may be much larger than '80.  Possibly having lava explosions even miles away from volcano

Don't worry about it.  John Kerry has a plan.

Wonder if we all pitch in if we can get sKerry a front row seat.

While we are at it I can think of a few others also.

I am sure that it will be Dubya's fault for not regulating the volcano. He must be doing it to get the timber!