Mount St Helens is a North American stratovolcano. It was named after the British diplomat Lord St Helens, a friend of the traveler and explorer George Vancouver, who in 1772 conducted a topographic survey of the area here.
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| Mount St Helens |
The Mount St Helens is located in the Cascade Mountains, a large mountain range in the west of North America, in the southeastern part of the state of Washington, 154 km south of the city of Seattle. The nearest large settlements are the cities of Portland and Vancouver, separated by the Colorado River, 85 km to the south.
St Helens is one of 160 active volcanoes in the Pacific Ring of Fire. The grandiose chain of active volcanoes in the Pacific Ocean, where most of the volcanic eruptions and earthquakes on Earth occur, is shaped like a horseshoe and stretches from New Zealand through the Solomon Islands and New Guinea, passes through Indonesia, the Philippines and Japan, the Kuril Islands, Kamchatka, the Aleutian Islands, then it goes along the coast of North and South America to Tierra del Fuego, breaking off with volcanoes of northeast Antarctica. The total length of the "Ring of Fire" is almost 40 thousand kilometers, it passes through the territory of more than 30 countries of the world.
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| Mount St Helens |
Studying the layers of volcanic ash, American scientists found that the age of the volcano is about 300 thousand years. The modern period, which began 3900 years ago with an eruption four times stronger than the one that occurred in 1980, continues to our time.
During this time there were 6 periods of activity, in our era - in 1479-1720 and 1800-1857. The Klikitat Indians, who have long lived in the vicinity of the volcano, gave it the name Luvala-Klu - “Smoking (or Fiery) Mountain”.
Volcanologists explored these places, listened to the stories of the Indians about the eruptions, but did not attach much importance to them. For 123 years, from 1857 to 1980, St Helens remained a very quiet volcano in every respect.
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| Mount St Helens |
The picturesque slopes of the mountain have always attracted tourists and climbers. The first ascent of the mountain was made in 1853. And the famous traveler William Clark saw St Helens for the first time in 1805 and left an entry in the expedition log: "Undoubtedly, Mount St Helens is the most beautiful peak in America."
There are many stories in Native American folklore about the rise of Mount Saint Helena and other volcanoes in the Cascades. The legend of the "Bridge of the Gods" of the Klikitat people is very curious: The chief of all gods and his two sons, Pahto and Wu'ist, traveled down the Columbia River from the regions of the Far North in search of suitable land. They came to what is now called The Dalles and thought they had never seen a more beautiful place. The sons quarreled over land, and to settle their dispute, the father fired two arrows from his mighty bow. Pahto followed the arrow north and settled there, while Wu'ist went and settled in the south. The chief of all gods built a heavenly bridge so that his family could meet. When both of his sons fell in love with the beautiful Luvit, she could not choose between them. Two young heroes fought for her, devastating the land that shook so hard that a huge bridge fell into the river, creating a cascade of mountains in the Columbia River Gorge. To punish the lovers, the Chief of all gods turned them into big mountains. Wu'ist, with his head held high, became Hood Volcano. Pahto bowed his head to his beloved - he was turned into Mount Adame, Beautiful Luvit became Mount St Helens. Among the Klikitat people she is called Luwala-Klu, which means "smoking or fiery mountain", and among the Sahaptin people she is called by the female name Luvit.
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| Mount St Helens |
Volcanoes are always unpredictable in terms of the scale of the devastating consequences of eruptions, and the fact that it is not yet possible to predict them with accuracy causes fear and generates rumors. One of these modern myths is that on May 18, 1980, the 57 victims of the “directed explosion” of Mount St Helens could have been avoided if Washington State Governor Ray Dixie Lee had not refused to evacuate. In fact, volcanologists foresaw the course of events and the warning administration took appropriate measures: on March 20, an earthquake with a power of 4.1 points on the Richter scale occurred, on March 27 a three-meter fountain of ash rose from the crater and 47 tremors with a force of up to 3 points followed, and on April 3 from the volcano began to fly out ash, stones, blocks of ice - and the governor declared a state of emergency, urging people to leave the danger zone. This allowed the National Guard to be brought in to help local patrols and police. Actually, their joint efforts were carried out evacuation from the "red zone", which saved the lives of 5 to 30 thousand potential victims. It was also lucky that the explosion occurred on Sunday and there were no lumberjacks working in the area. Alas, it was the volcanologists, who came from all over the country in anticipation of the event, who became the main victims of the disaster.
So, at 8:32 am on May 18, an earthquake of 5.1 magnitude occurred and the volcano erupted: in a few seconds, a giant landslide of about 3 km3 formed, rushing down the northern slope at a speed of 250 km/h. Lava with a temperature of 1200 ° C spread over the surface, mixing with ash and pumice, forming a layer 20 m thick. Three hours later, the ash reached the US West Coast and flights were banned in all states. The volcano calmed down, in place of the once beautiful even peak, a depression appeared, similar to a broken tooth.