And here's a link to an actual news article from back in the day. The mountain, which once towered at just under 10,000 feet (9,677), now stood at 8,363 feet losing 1,314 feet in a split second. Terrifying, right?As the summit and north slope slid off the volcano that morning, pressure was released inside the volcano - where super hot liquid water immediately flashed to steam. The northward-directed steam explosion released energy equivalent to 20 million tons of TNT, which toppled 150 square miles of forest in six minutes. In Spirit lake, north of the volcano, an enormous water wave, initiated by one-eighth cubic mile of rockslide debris, stripped trees from slopes as high as 850 feet above the pre-eruption water level. The total energy output, on May 18, was equivalent to 400 million tons of TNT - approximately 20,000 Hiroshima-size atomic bombs.
Within 8 miles of the blast everything was wiped out. For 19 more miles shock waves leveled centuries old forests. Over 235 square miles was devastated by the blast force alone. |
A large herd of elk off in the distance. |
Huge canyons being cut into the ash left over from the 1980 blast. |
Labels: Mount St. Helens, Washington