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Published: July 19th 2005
PAT: We're actually back from our trip now but I'm determined to finish this. I thought Katie would write more than she has but she seems to have lost interest. If you want to hear more from her, email her and tell her how much you've enjoyed her posts and that you hope she writes more.
Today we went to Mount St. Helens. While I wanted to go there, I was not prepared for what I saw. You can't begin to comprehend the massive scale of devastation until you see it first hand. Even 25 years after the blast, the massive destruction is very evident. Ragged tree stumps, blown down logs, and barren mud field below the summit still stand as testament to earth's awesome power.
Out to about 8 miles, the blast travels at 670 mph, with temps up to 800F. Everything in its path is obliterated in seconds.
Out to about 17 miles, the blast flattens the trees, knocking down about 4 billion board feet of lumber.
Out 19 miles the heat is still strong enough to singe the trees. Trees are left standing, but are killed.
The elevation of the summit was reduced
by 1314 feet.
A rubble field stretched for 17 miles, averaging 150 feet deep.
The ash column reached 12 miles high, spewing 540 million tons of ash over a 22,000 square mile area.
Nearby Spirit Lake was displaced by landslide debris and waves 600 feet high were sent crashing along the north bank.
57 people are known to have died from the blast.
Pictures cannot capture this. If you get a chance, go see it first hand.
Just a couple days before we were there, part of the most recent lava dome collapsed after a mild earthquake (2.9 I think it was). Since the mountain was shrouded in clouds at the time, the park staff had to wait until the next day to see what had happened.
We were lucky to be there on a clear, warm day. After we had been there for an hour or so, a plume of smoke started coming out of the right side of the lava dome, where it had collapsed just days earlier.
On our way out, we passed though the small town of Toutle. Cheryl had to stop for a potty break and when
Mount St. Helens
This image shows the smoke coming out of the lava dome. The smoke is the white stream coming from within the crater. The large shite stream that goes behind the crater is a jet contrail.she got back to the truck, I asked her if she enjoyed stopping at the "Toutle Loo". Somehow she didn't enjoy my humour as much as I did. Days later I was still laughing about that and she was still shaking her head.
After we got back to town we hooked up with my bro-in-law, Dan, and neice for a fantastic dinner at a Greek restaraunt in Portland called Dimitri's. Dan talked me into getting a lamb steak, even though I thought I hated lamb, and it turned out to be one of the best steaks I've ever had in my life. We finished up with bakalava and ouzo and strolled along the river front to see a little bit of Portland.
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