Mount St. Helens takes its English name from the British diplomat Lord St Helens, a friend of explorer George Vancouver who made a survey of the area in the late 18th century.
Imagine that, there's an active volcano in the lower 48 that also... regrettably has a body count associated with it. The 1980 eruption took 57 lives.
Nothing like the Hawaiian volcanoes, this eruption was more akin to the eruption of Vesuvius. While there was some warning for St. Helens, it basically just popped one day.
"Popped" If you mean to say 23 megatons, the second largest explosion to occur on the surface of the earth in modern times, taking off the top 1,300 feet and the entire North face of the volcano; the cloud rose to 80,000 feet into the stratosphere; reduced Spokane to complete darkness 250 miles away, noticeable ash fell as far away as Minnesota and circled the Earth detectably three times; and the landslides were the largest ever recorded... reaching as far as 50 miles away.
Indeed. Always happy to share.
I strongly recommend checking out any of the documentaries about Mount St. Helens... absolutely fascinating. Chilling too, when you see the footage of the literal fallout from Spokane and other similarly distanced places. It is daytime, the sun should be out and it is blacker than night with sharply reduced visibility due to the gently, but very thick ash falling from the sky.
Top tip, should you ever be faced with an eruption: wrap the air filter of your car in panty hose. Volcanic ash particulate is too small to be caught by an automotive filter, but I've heard that pantyhose can.
Not the best solution, but good enough for say evacuating.
Nothing like the Hawaiian volcanoes, this eruption was more akin to the eruption of Vesuvius. While there was some warning for St. Helens, it basically just popped one day.
"Popped" If you mean to say 23 megatons, the second largest explosion to occur on the surface of the earth in modern times, taking off the top 1,300 feet and the entire North face of the volcano; the cloud rose to 80,000 feet into the stratosphere; reduced Spokane to complete darkness 250 miles away, noticeable ash fell as far away as Minnesota and circled the Earth detectably three times; and the landslides were the largest ever recorded... reaching as far as 50 miles away.
https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/volcanoes/st_helens/st_helens_geo_hist_99.html
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_eruption_of_Mount_St._Helens
http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/103/
Made an entire forest look like matchsticks
One of the more poignant times where Mother Nature writ large:
Do. Not. Fuck. With. Me.
I strongly recommend checking out any of the documentaries about Mount St. Helens... absolutely fascinating. Chilling too, when you see the footage of the literal fallout from Spokane and other similarly distanced places. It is daytime, the sun should be out and it is blacker than night with sharply reduced visibility due to the gently, but very thick ash falling from the sky.
Top tip, should you ever be faced with an eruption: wrap the air filter of your car in panty hose. Volcanic ash particulate is too small to be caught by an automotive filter, but I've heard that pantyhose can.
Not the best solution, but good enough for say evacuating.