Warning Volcano The Story Of Mt St Helens

Details the story of Mount St. Helens and its eruption in 1980.

Details the story of Mount St. Helens and its eruption in 1980.

Serendipity placed David Johnston on Mount St. Helens when the volcano rumbled to life in March 1980. Throughout that ominous spring, Johnston was part of a team that conducted scientific research that underpinned warnings about the mountain. Those warnings saved thousands of lives when the most devastating volcanic eruption in U.S. history blew apart Mount St. Helens, but killed Johnston on the ridge that now bears his name. Melanie Holmes tells the story of Johnston's journey from a nature-loving Boy Scout to a committed geologist. Blending science with personal detail, Holmes follows Johnston through encounters with Aleutian volcanoes, his work helping the Portuguese government assess the geothermal power of the Azores, and his dream job as a volcanologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. Interviews and personal writings reveal what a friend called "the most unjaded person I ever met," an imperfect but kind, intelligent young scientist passionately in love with his life and work and determined to make a difference.

A riveting history of the Mount St. Helens eruption that will "long stand as a classic of descriptive narrative" (Simon Winchester). For months in early 1980, scientists, journalists, and nearby residents listened anxiously to rumblings from Mount St. Helens in southwestern Washington State. Still, no one was prepared when a cataclysmic eruption blew the top off of the mountain, laying waste to hundreds of square miles of land and killing fifty-seven people. Steve Olson interweaves vivid personal stories with the history, science, and economic forces that influenced the fates and futures of those around the volcano. Eruption delivers a spellbinding narrative of an event that changed the course of volcanic science, and an epic tale of our fraught relationship with the natural world.

This comprehensive book traces the warning, planning, and response to the eruption of Mount St. Helens in May 1980, as seen through the eyes of key actors in the emergency. Based on first-hand accounts by 130 officials of government, private industry, and volunteer organizations--individuals who played prominent roles in preparing for and dealing with the eruption--it represents a unique overview of the problems and procedures involved in learning about, planning for, and dealing with a major disaster. Ironically, the first official warning had come as early as two years previously. More warnings came several months before the explosion. Yet many persons involved either ignored them or remained unaware that they could be affected. The book shows how this happened, suggesting steps that can be taken to insure future preparedness for large-scale emergencies.

As plants, animals, and people have reclaimed Mount St. Helens over the last 20 years, the mountain remains a looming reminder of an event that forever changed the face of the Northwest. Essays and photos document the events that surrounded the eruption.

*Includes pictures *Includes eyewitness accounts of the eruption *Includes a bibliography for further reading "One big 'Aha!' for geologists was that an entire mountain could collapse." - Peter Frenzen "Mount St. Helens certainly reminds us of the power of nature, and we can certainly see that in the evidence of the 1980 eruption that's all around us. And here we just have an opportunity to see sort of another chapter in its history and to understand the forces that lie beneath our feet." - Peter Frenzen In 1980, the United States suffered the deadliest and most destructive volcanic eruption in its history when Mount St. Helens literally blew its lid off, the result of seismic activity during the eruption. What made the eruption all the more remarkable is that a fair amount of preparations had gone into anticipating it after an earthquake in the area a few months earlier alerted federal geologists to the possibility of activity there. In fact, Mount St. Helens had been the cause of the earthquake itself, the result of its own lava flows under the surface. Despite the warning signs, the volcanic eruption wound up being so powerful that it devastated hundreds of square miles around it, along with spewing volcanic ash in a giant plume that managed to scatter and deposit ash across 11 different states. Furthermore, another earthquake on May 18 managed to make the north face of the mountain collapse, shocking observers and scientists as it created the largest landslide ever recorded. Taken together, Mount St. Helens ultimately inflicted over $1 billion in damage and killed 57 people, including U.S. scientists studying the volcano on the day it exploded. When President Carter saw the area, he remarked, "Someone said this area looked like a moonscape. But the moon looks more like a golf course compared to what's up there." The 1980 eruption is why so many Americans are familiar with Mount St. Helens today, but it remains an active volcano and was known for volcanic activity back when the Native Americans lived around it. In fact, Native Americans had oral legends to explain the origins of Mount St. Helens, and European explorers and settlers also observed its eruptions in the 19th century. As scientist Peter Frenzen noted, "There's absolutely no question that Mount St. Helens will erupt again. The question is when." The Eruption of Mount St. Helens chronicles the history of America's most famous volcano and the destruction it wreaked in 1980. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about the volcano like never before, in no time at all.

The mountain exploded with the power of ten million tons of dynamite... Eleven-year-old Jessie Marlowe has grown up with the beautiful Mount St. Helens always in the background. She's hiked its winding trails, dived into its cold lakes, and fished for trout in its streams. Just looking at Mount St. Helens out her window made Jess feel calm, like it was watching over her somehow. Of course, she knew the mountain was a volcano...but not the active kind, not a volcano that could destroy and kill!Then Mount St. Helens explodes with unimaginable fury. Jess suddenly finds herself in the middle of the deadliest and most destructive volcanic event in U.S. history. Ash and rock are spewing everywhere. Can Jess escape in time?The newest book in the I Survived series will take readers into one of the most environmentally devastating events in recent U.S. history.