Harry's Ridge, Mt St Helen's, WA, USA
Mt St Helen's is another prominent volcano of our state. It is also the one that has erupted most recently: May 18, 1980. The volcano has warned about its eruption a couple of months in advance: traces of steam and ash have wafted from a vent near the summit, a series of light earthquakes shook the ground. Many volcanic researchers from around the world have flown close to observe and monitor the area. Nonetheless, the eruption has been sudden for everybody: 5.1 magnitude earthquake triggered a violent eruption, claiming lives of 57 people and devastating a territory of more than 150 000 acres.
The earthquake has caused the weakened north face of the volcano to slide away, opening up the insides of the mountain to lower pressure. An eruption column rose 80000 feet into the air (24 km), depositing ash in 11 US states. On the picture below you get a direct look at the now missing north part of the mountain:
Johnston Ridge Observatory is the closest you can get to the mountain by car. It offers interpretive displays, talking about the history of Mt St Helen's as well as amazing views at the mountain itself:
Ample warning that it's a touristy place: with paved walks and huge parking lot:
However, there are also numerous trails, departing from the Johnston Ridge observatory, that let you explore the area much closer. We have picked an easy trail, Harry's Rigde, 8 miles long with 120 feet of elevation:
On the left in this picture you can see the walk that might be challenging for those afraid of heights. But the path is pretty wide and it's not that scary once you are actually on it :)
After the volcano's eruption, the snow and actual glaciers on the mountains have melted, causing a series of largest in history land slides. The land slides destroyed vast areas of trees and all the wildlife. The owner of the private lands, Weyerhaeuser Company, has replanted the trees on the affected area. The territory of the park, however, has been left to recover naturally. The area closest to the mountain is the slowest to recover:
However, further away the grass and flowers start appearing:
It's still possible to see the downed trees along the trail:
However, the new trees are also appearing and the trail becomes noticeably greener, the farther you walk away from the mountain:
On the photo below, you can see Coldwater (closest) and Spirit Lakes. Before the 1980 eruption, Coldwater did not even exist. It was created when the blown away ancient forest damned the Coldwater creek:
Spirit Lake has also changed after the eruption as it was the prime receiver of the lateral blast from the north side of the mountain. Blown away trees, ash, rocks have caused the level of the lake to rise and its area to expand significantly after the eruption. At first, the waters of the lake were too acidic for anything to live in it. But slowly life has been returning to the lake:
1980 was not the last eruption of the mountain. In fact, 10 years ago this week, a second phase of lava building eruptions happened: steam and ash eruptions shot into the air for weeks, lava dome slowly appeared in the crater, eventually rising 1,076 feet above the crater floor. The eruptions ended only around 2008.
And now the geologists are predicting that another set of dome-building eruptions is going to occur soon. Which in their language means a couple of years or a couple decades. They expect that those dome-building eruptions are going to fill in the crater and rebuild the mountain to be of beautiful cone shape once more. So the next time you visit Mt St Helen's it might look completely different :)
The earthquake has caused the weakened north face of the volcano to slide away, opening up the insides of the mountain to lower pressure. An eruption column rose 80000 feet into the air (24 km), depositing ash in 11 US states. On the picture below you get a direct look at the now missing north part of the mountain:
Johnston Ridge Observatory is the closest you can get to the mountain by car. It offers interpretive displays, talking about the history of Mt St Helen's as well as amazing views at the mountain itself:
Ample warning that it's a touristy place: with paved walks and huge parking lot:
However, there are also numerous trails, departing from the Johnston Ridge observatory, that let you explore the area much closer. We have picked an easy trail, Harry's Rigde, 8 miles long with 120 feet of elevation:
On the left in this picture you can see the walk that might be challenging for those afraid of heights. But the path is pretty wide and it's not that scary once you are actually on it :)
After the volcano's eruption, the snow and actual glaciers on the mountains have melted, causing a series of largest in history land slides. The land slides destroyed vast areas of trees and all the wildlife. The owner of the private lands, Weyerhaeuser Company, has replanted the trees on the affected area. The territory of the park, however, has been left to recover naturally. The area closest to the mountain is the slowest to recover:
However, further away the grass and flowers start appearing:
It's still possible to see the downed trees along the trail:
However, the new trees are also appearing and the trail becomes noticeably greener, the farther you walk away from the mountain:
On the photo below, you can see Coldwater (closest) and Spirit Lakes. Before the 1980 eruption, Coldwater did not even exist. It was created when the blown away ancient forest damned the Coldwater creek:
Spirit Lake has also changed after the eruption as it was the prime receiver of the lateral blast from the north side of the mountain. Blown away trees, ash, rocks have caused the level of the lake to rise and its area to expand significantly after the eruption. At first, the waters of the lake were too acidic for anything to live in it. But slowly life has been returning to the lake:
1980 was not the last eruption of the mountain. In fact, 10 years ago this week, a second phase of lava building eruptions happened: steam and ash eruptions shot into the air for weeks, lava dome slowly appeared in the crater, eventually rising 1,076 feet above the crater floor. The eruptions ended only around 2008.
And now the geologists are predicting that another set of dome-building eruptions is going to occur soon. Which in their language means a couple of years or a couple decades. They expect that those dome-building eruptions are going to fill in the crater and rebuild the mountain to be of beautiful cone shape once more. So the next time you visit Mt St Helen's it might look completely different :)