Mount St. Helens! Do we Really Learn From History?
Volcanoes have been around since the beginning
of time. We watch and fear their destructive capabilities,
yet it would seem that we do not respect these magnificent and deadly creations.
We tempt fate time and again by rebuilding cities, towns and recreational
areas around them. It would seem that we do not learn anything at
all from the past. In 1902 Mont Pele'e erupted on the Island of Martinique
in Central America killing about 25,000 people and in 1985 the Nevado del
Ruiz Volcano in Columbia killed about 25,000 people. Despite these
disastrous eruptions and the threat of future eruptions people have rebuilt
the towns and suburbs that were sometimes more than once destroyed by the
volcanoes. It seems that we are headed in the same direction with
Mount St. Helens. Mount St. Helens erupted on May 18, 1980.
The strength of the blast could be compared to an atom bomb five hundred
times the size of those dropped on Japan during W.W.II.[4]
Mount St. Helens is located near Portland,
Oregon. It is part of the Cascade Range of subduction volcanoes running
across the Western United States, and is the youngest of 15 active volcanoes
scattered across the range. The 1980 eruption killed only 57 people,
a relatively small number compared to other historic volcanic eruptions.
The slow moving collision of the continental rock of North America and
the Oceanic Rock of the Juan de Fuca tectonic plate, which is slowly moving
beneath the Pacific Northwest, is, however, slowly refuelling Mount St.
Helens for another blast. Scientists estimate that there is a large
reservoir of magma that currently lies four miles beneath the crater.
No one knows enough about the volcano to predict when it will erupt again
or what kind of volcanic activity the next eruption might bring.
The elevation of Mount St. Helens after the eruption was 8,363 feet, a
reduction of about 1,300 feet. This tells us that the blast was relatively
significant. The volcano created a landslide, the largest in recent
history. It displaced 3.3 billion cubic yards of debris and created
a mudslide that rushed 22 miles at speeds estimated to be as high as 160
miles per hour.[4]
Hotels, lodges, and many other amenities
have been built around the volcano so that tourists can experience
the volcano first hand. The area is being developed even though the
threat of another eruption seems eminent. Do we want to repeat history
or learn from it? Over the last 2,000 years, millions of people have
been killed by volcanic eruptions. Humans are either really slow
learners or they do not learn anything at all from history. If the
historical record is any indication, we are destined to repeat past blunders
with Mount St. Helens.
These are pictures taken after the May 1980
eruption of Mount St. Helens. More than 200 homes and almost 200
miles of roads were destroyed. Some of these pictures were taken
as far as ten miles away from the volcano.
NEXT PAGE