• Please use real names.

    Greetings to all who have registered to OPF and those guests taking a look around. Please use real names. Registrations with fictitious names will not be processed. REAL NAMES ONLY will be processed

    Firstname Lastname

    Register

    We are a courteous and supportive community. No need to hide behind an alia. If you have a genuine need for privacy/secrecy then let me know!
  • Welcome to the new site. Here's a thread about the update where you can post your feedback, ask questions or spot those nasty bugs!

Mt St Helens Anniversary

Robert Mielke

New member
I was present today atop Mt St Helens to help celebrate the 28th anniversary of the eruption that was heard around the world. It didn't hurt that it was simply a beautiful day at 84 degrees and really, really sunny.

297500411_f48W3-L.jpg
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Bob,

Do you realize, that many of the photographers here have no idea about any Mount St Helens eruption! To know about that major event, people would be what, about 10 years old at that time? That would make these folk at least 38!

Do people learn about this in school?

Asher
 
What a wonderful spot to be at Robert! Amazing.

I normally don't do those things, but I could not resist and was very curious to see how it looks at the bottom of the mountain, ahem, hope you don't mind.

1b8bd7f77e14a11f49cb216df65516206g.jpg
 

Robert Mielke

New member
I don't mind the editing my photos at all. Having just returned from this trip I haven't taken the time yet to fine tune each photo. I took 18 "keepers" so it will take a few hours to get them up to my own standards. I'm new to Photoshop Elements so I've only recently learned the magic of masking. Thanks for your help.
 

Clayton Lofgren

New member
I was flying from Vancouver to San Diego at the time. The detour we made was enough that I missed my conection in San Diego. It was impresive.
 

Dan Leithauser

New member
Mt. St. Helens from the air

If travel between Seattle and Portland on Alaska Air, it can be fun to get a seat on the "right" side of the plane to get pictures of Rainier and Mt. St. Helens.
Sometimes you get lucky with:
1. a clear day,
2. a clean and relatively new window,
3. a seat far enough forward or back that you miss the wing and propeller.

I took some pictures a couple of years ago with a Canon 10D. The best one, after cleaning it up is here...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lighthousephotoart/96417207/in/set-72057594060321176/
 

charlie chipman

New member
I was 2 years old when St Helens blew, having lived in Seattle for a majority of my life I've heard all about it. heres some quick facts copy and paste style

May 18th, 1980, 8:32 am (PDT). Eruption was triggered by a 5.1 earthquake centered beneath the mountain.

MSH was 9,677 feet before the eruption and 8,363 feet after. 1,314 feet was removed by the May 18th eruption.

The largest landslide in recorded history swept down the mountain at speeds of 70 to 150 miles per hour and buried the North Fork of the Toutle River under an average of 150 feet of debris. Some areas are covered by as much as 600 feet. In all, approximately 23 square miles of material was removed from the mountain.

The lateral blast swept out of the north side of MSH at 300 miles per hour creating a 230 square mile fan shaped area of devastation reaching a distance of 17 miles from the crater. With temperatures as high as 660 degrees F and the power of 24 megatons of thermal energy, it snapped 100 year old trees like toothpicks and stripped them of their bark.

The snow on MSH that was not instantly flashed to steam by the heat, melted and formed large mudflows that destroyed 27 bridges, 200 homes, 185 miles of roadway, and 15 miles of railway.

The massive ash cloud grew to 80,000 feet (18 kilometers) in 15 minutes and reached the east coast in 3 days. Although most of the ash fell within 300 miles of the mountain, finer ash circled the earth in 15 days and may continue to stay in the atmosphere for many years.

57 people were killed as a result of the eruption. Of these, 21 bodies were never recovered from the blast zone.

7,000 big game animals, 12 million Chinook and Coho salmon, and millions of birds and small mammals are believed to have died in the eruption.

The list goes on.....


Dan you are correct I have taken a quite a few flights on alaska air right over St helens and Mt Rainer which is considered to be the most dangerous volcano in the country.

Mt Rainer from alaska airlines window seat one morning
178559726_ca960ad739_o.jpg
 

Arya Wiese

New member
Beautiful image of a mountin so close to home.

Just wanted to say in regards to Asher's comment - I learned about it in school and since Mt. St. Helens has been acting up a bit it's been on the news alot, so even if you weren't around when it happened or remember it happening (like me) you know about it now because of all the local news coverage.
 

Mike Shimwell

New member
I was perhaps 14 at the time of the eruption. I recall seeing fottage of people who steadfastly refused to leave their homes in the lead up, when there was tremendous seismological activity, and who were subsequently lost in the blast. After the event there was a vewi that there had been a measurable effect on the world's weather for a period of some years.

Interestingly (to me at least:)) recently I saw a documentary about a 17th centery eruption in Iceland that decimated the Icelandic population as a result of the slow poisonong and startvation of their cattle as well as the people, but which also killed a significant number of young men in the UK as the poisonous cloud that drifted across europe during the summer became very toxic to the men working hard in the fields all day. There are contemporary reports (from people who did not know about the volcano) that describbe thesummer as unlike any before it.

Mike
 
Top