Mount St. Helens, WA
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a witness to a cataclysmic event? The day the meteor fell to end the age of the dinosaurs? The day that glacial floods created the Columbia Gorge? Or, the day that a giant strato-volcano decided to blow its top?
Well today we got to experience that, or at least to bear witness to the event recorded on film and to walk upon its aftermath. As the best documented and most recorded volcanic eruption on the planet unfolded in front of us at both the Silver Lake Interpretive Center and the Johnston Ridge Observatory, we marveled at its immensity. On May 18, 1980 Mount St. Helens erupted with the largest debris avalanche or landslide ever recorded, followed by a pyroclastic flow of hot gases and molten rock, and then it spewed forth an ash plume a dozen miles into the sky that eventually encircled the earth.
In fact, the earth was moving with relatively small earthquakes registering on seismographs at the Johnston Observatory during our visit. Even though it is 5 miles away from the still growing and steaming volcanic lava dome, you definitely get the sense of the immensity of the power of the volcano. On that day nearly 30 years ago, fifty-seven humans lost their lives to the eruption. It could have been much worse had it not been for the enormous involvement of the scientific community that was recording, studying and analyzing tons of data in an attempt to predict the volcano’s intentions.
And yet, when hiking around Coldwater Lake that was newly created as a result of the eruption and through a field of hummocks (rock and earthen mounds) caused by volcanic debris, we could see nature reemerging. It is amazing to see how quickly nature rebounds to re-establish its grand plan. Dozens of species of plants and animals have pioneered their way back to the scoured land to make it come alive once again. Those pioneers will eventually lay the basis for and give way to more sophisticated ecosystems as the landscape heals and recreates itself anew.
