by docdoom » Sat May 18, 2019 10:40 pm
On May 18, 1980, an earthquake struck below the north face of Mount St. Helens in Washington state, triggering the largest landslide in recorded history and a major volcanic eruption that scattered ash across a dozen states. The sudden lateral blast—heard hundreds of miles away—removed 1,300 feet off the top of the volcano, sending shockwaves and pyroclastic flows across the surrounding landscape, flattening forests, melting snow and ice, and generating massive mudflows. A total of 57 people lost their lives in the disaster. This anniversary always hits home for me. I remember that date well. had 1st hand view seeing the mountain blow her top that day. we also had family finds that lost every thing to the mud flows that day. my grandparents and friends had a small place on the s fork of the Toutle River that we would go up on the weekends and camp as kids. there spot was up on a hill above the river and down below they had a small garden they used to work. the one thing that stood out after the floods went through was they had these old fashion hand pump that was built 6 feet up in the air that had feeders running off it that they would pump to get water down to the crops they were growing. well after the flows we had to dig 4 feet down to find the top off it. then there was the what we used to call volcanic sticks. they were small sticks maybe . 6 or 8 inch big but some were much larger, and hard as rocks,they were ground down to sharp points on either end from the grinding action from all that ash and crap that was running down the river.
Last edited by
docdoom on Sun May 19, 2019 11:10 am, edited 1 time in total.