Mount St Helens

• A highlight of my trip to Portland was visiting Mount St Helens in southern Washington State. It was an incredible experience; very moving and actually kind of scary since the volcano is still active, with smoke wafting out of the gaping crater and grit carried by the wind that felt like sandpaper on my skin and in my eyes.

• We drove to the Johnston Ridge Observatory which is within five miles of the still-steaming lava dome. The Ridge and Observatory are named to honour David Johnston, a young volcanologist who had joined the Mt St Helens monitoring team stationed at Vancouver, Washington State, when the mountain came to life in March 1980.

• Although the prevailing scientific opinion was that Mt St Helens would erupt in an upward column, Johnston correctly predicted that the blast would instead be lateral and originate from a bulge developing on the north side of the mountain.

• Johnston wasn’t supposed to be on the ridge on May 18^th 1980 but he had volunteered to replace a colleague who needed time off to go for a job interview.
  

• At 8:32 a.m. on that fateful morning, a rumbling 5.1 magnitude earthquake triggered the massive eruption that, within seconds, reduced Mt St Helens from 9,677 feet to 8,365 feet and replaced the mountain’s near-symmetrical snow-capped summit with a mile-wide horseshoe-shaped crater.

• The roar of the blast was heard up to 200 miles away and David Johnston's excited voice crackled over the radio link from his observation post – “Vancouver! Vancouver! This is it!”

• In a continuous thunderous sweep, the shockwave from the blast traveled horizontally at speeds above 670 mph. A hurricane wave of scalding gases and fire-hot debris reaching up to 800 degrees, raced down the mountain at speeds up to 200 mph. Everything in the direct blast zone -- natural or manmade, and including David Johnston -- was obliterated within seconds.

• Fortunately, the monitoring team had persuaded authorities to limit access to the area around the volcano and evacuate surrounding towns, thereby holding the May 18 death toll to 57 instead of thousands.

• I can’t recall how many days it took for the awesome grey blanket of smoke and ash to reach Winnipeg, some 1700 miles to the northeast but I do remember riding my bicycle to work at the university wondering what was causing the early morning fog-like haze.

• As I stood on Johnston Ridge contemplating the events of 1980, I couldn't help but wonder why they let people get so close to a volcano that has the capacity to, within seconds, incinerate the very spot upon which I was standing. I felt I just had to trust that volcanic science has greatly improved during the intervening years.
  

• My inquiring mind wanted to know what became of the colleague who David Johnston had replaced at the observation post. His name was Harry Glicken. Eleven years later he was killed in a volcanic eruption in Japan.