PEACE

The Eruption of Mount Saint Helens (Photo of the Day)

On May 18, 1980, Mount Saint Helens, a peak in the Cascade Range of Washington state, erupted with a fury that killed 57 people and thousands of animals. In an instant, the explosion changed the surrounding landscape forever. The region has since proven to be a useful case study for the succession of plant and animal communities after a cataclysm. Britannica describes the disaster:

Eruption of Mount St. Helens on May 18, 1980. U.S. Geological Survey

An explosive steam eruption on March 27, 1980, was followed by alternating periods of quiescence and minor eruption. Pressure from rising magma within the volcano caused extensive fissures and the growth of a bulge on the north flank of the peak. On the morning of May 18, an earthquake with a magnitude of 5.1 on the Richter scale triggered a gigantic landslide on the mountain’s north face. The north slope fell away in an avalanche that was followed and overtaken by a lateral air blast, which carried a high-velocity cloud of superheated ash and stone outward some 15 miles (25 km) from the volcano’s summit; the blast reached temperatures of 660 °F (350 °C) and speeds of at least 300 miles (500 km) per hour. The avalanche and lateral blast were followed by mudflows, pyroclastic flows, and floods that buried the river valleys around Mount St. Helens in deep layers of mud and debris as far as 17 miles (27 km) away. Meanwhile, simultaneously with the blast, a vertical eruption of gas and ash formed a column some 16 miles (26 km) high that produced ash falls as far east as central Montana. Complete darkness occurred in Spokane, Washington, about 250 miles (400 km) northeast of the volcano.