| Mt St Helens, in the state of
Washington was dormant until it woke up on May 18, 1980. This volcano
blew its top and the once calm and beautiful mountain became a
catastrophe. The rocks that caps the caldera, were turned into ash by
the force of the volcanic explosion. Ash blew into the atmosphere that
was carried for thousands of miles. The ash mixed with the melting
snow and caused walls of muds to flows down the mountainside. Burying
trees, houses, and animals in a wall of fast moving wall of mud.
Lava has slowly built the mountain again, but
the lava was much thicker than the Hawaiian volcanoes. Layers of ash,
lava, mud, and other volcanic rocks produce what is called a composite
volcano. Sixty-four people lost their lives in this eruption,
including a scientist who studied the volcano (vulcanologist). He was
incinerated by a pulse of hot, dry gas.
|
Before the eruption
During the eruption, May, 1980
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