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Mount St. Helens in 1980

@mountsthelens1980.bsky.social

6.8K followers 950 following 3.3K posts

Hi there, I’m Chris. Just a guy who is endlessly fascinated by the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens (Lawilátɬa/Loowit). #MSH45 About Me: https://bsky.app/profile/mountsthelens1980.bsky.social/post/3lohgbvt4ab2d Links: https://linktr.ee/sthelensin1980

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Mount St. Helens in 1980 @mountsthelens1980.bsky.social · 4h

Tomorrow, we will talk about this photo.

A red Ford Pinto hatchback angles across a narrow gravel forest service road, a blue enduro motorcycle on a rear hitch carrier. Tall firs frame the view. Beyond them, a towering ash cloud from a pyroclastic density flow billows skyward. Photo by Richard Kent Lasher, May 18, 1980.

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Mount St. Helens in 1980 @mountsthelens1980.bsky.social · 5h

I did that a bit during the three months leading up to March 20 —synthesizing the news events regarding St. Helens by era, then by decade in the 20th C.

Not that there was a lot. Most pre-1980 news was plane crashes and mountaineering accidents.

Mount St. Helens in 1980 @mountsthelens1980.bsky.social · 5h

It is, but I'm also going to include more items from 81-86, along with clippings and news segments from that time.

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Mount St. Helens in 1980 @mountsthelens1980.bsky.social · 6h

We'll part on the 31st this year as I stay behind, but enjoy the ride.

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Mount St. Helens in 1980 @mountsthelens1980.bsky.social · 6h

Other important 1980 news.

1980/1985 News @40yearsago.bsky.social · 6h

[July 29th, 1980] Daryl Hall and John Oates release their ninth studio album "Voices"

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Pacific Northwest Seismic Network @pnsn1.bsky.social · 5d

Happy #FieldworkFriday! In case you missed these stunning views of the BURLY install from a few weeks ago, take a look at a few more of the photos taken by UW Photographer Mark Stone. Check out the whole collection here: uwphotos.smugmug.com/UPhoto-Job-A...

The sun is low on the horizon, shining over a mountain ridge where a few field technicians work on a seismic station. In the distance are further criss-crossing ridges.

Field engineers working on silver swing set seismic power box.

Field engineers attaching cable to silver seismic sensor.

Field engineer working on front of solar panels and one field engineer on ladder behind it. Forest in background.

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Washington Emergency Management Division @emd.wa.gov · 1d

Ever had a question about earthquakes, tsunamis, or preparedness that you just wish you had experts handy to answer?

Here's your chance! This Thursday, 10/9 from 11-1, join experts from our team, @pnsn1.bsky.social, and @wadnr.bsky.social for an "Ask-me-Anything" on Reddit!

Link coming soon!

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Kiely for Oregon @kielyfororegon.bsky.social · 12h

When I used to guide the Crater Hike.
My favorite spot on the mountain, overlooking the Crater Glacier, the only living glacier on the mountain, and probably the youngest in North America.

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BirdDroneOne @birddroneone.bsky.social · 13h

From the rim. Warning: it is one hell of a hike. Final miles are in sandlike shifting pumice.

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Mount St. Helens in 1980 @mountsthelens1980.bsky.social · 13h

Our climbing party of two—one of us on the shorter side of height—had to tap out after scaling Monitor Ridge.

We didn't even get to the scree.

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Mount St. Helens in 1980 @mountsthelens1980.bsky.social · 13h

What can I say?

Newspapers.com is a constant friend.

Mount St. Helens in 1980 @mountsthelens1980.bsky.social · 15h

I shared this earlier this year, but this story and photos of tubing at Timberline ran in The Columbian in January 1980.

The photographer was Reid Blackburn, who'd lose his life because of the mountain a few months later.

January 9, 1980 — The Columbian feature titled “Slick Tricks” shows families and children sledding and tubing in snow near Mount St. Helens, months before the eruption. The accompanying article highlights winter recreation around Spirit Lake and the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, recommending areas like Wind River and noting that heavy snowmobile use required caution on the mountain’s slopes. Staff photos by Heidi Blackburn.

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Mount St. Helens in 1980 @mountsthelens1980.bsky.social · 15h

Volcanoes.

Mount St. Helens in 1980 @mountsthelens1980.bsky.social · 15h

But it's the thought that counts?

I don't know.

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Mount St. Helens in 1980 @mountsthelens1980.bsky.social · 15h

I see you and love you and love this, Portland. Hope to get back there sooner than later.

Maybe I'll return as Captain Volcano, Longview's mascot of tourism after the eruption. I will be alone and nobody will know who I am. I'll exhaust myself explaining who I am and burn myself out.

Person in a superhero costume with a "Captain Volcano" helmet stands in front of signage that reads "Longview Chamber of Commerce." September 1980. Fardell/Daily News.

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Mount St. Helens in 1980 @mountsthelens1980.bsky.social · 16h

If you ever want to feel really small, it looks like standing in the crater's a great place for that.

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Bob Morrell @wallet55.bsky.social · 18h

Here is a view looking out of the crater back to Spirit Lake and Johnston ridge. (Took the helicopter tour. Well worth the money)

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hammerlady.bsky.social @hammerlady.bsky.social · 1d

Taken today from Windy Ridge.

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Local Ghost 👻 @snackalgorithm.bsky.social · 1d

This is a video from inside the crater.

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Mount St. Helens in 1980 @mountsthelens1980.bsky.social · 1d

It’s not Dan Muse, it’s not the shutout or not collapsing in the third.

It’s because I posted the photos.

There was no doubt about it. Elvis has just left the building.

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Mount St. Helens in 1980 @mountsthelens1980.bsky.social · 1d

I'll post some more tomorrow, but here's a start into the crater.

This was once the site of the Timberline turnaround and parking lot on the NE flank, now buried under layers of successive eruption deposits.

USGS scientists visit the site just over a month after the May 18 event.

Two people stand on a ridge at the Timberline Loop site, looking toward the gray, ash-covered slopes of Mount St. Helens on June 22, 1980. The volcano’s summit is partly obscured by low clouds as the barren landscape bears fresh scars from the May eruption. Photographed by Peter W. Lipman, USGS.

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Mount St. Helens in 1980 @mountsthelens1980.bsky.social · 1d

Okay, switched to Average White Band (AKA Vulfpeck before Vulfpeck).

From the valleys to the lakes, signs poked through as early as Summer—fireweed, trillium, berries shaded by snowfall.

It would be brutal, but the process had begun.

A small cluster of fireweed and other low plants sprouting from fine gray ash on a slope near the North Fork Toutle River, showing the first signs of life returning after the Mount St. Helens eruption. Cowlitz County, Washington. 1980. USGS.

A trillium plant emerging through blast deposits at Upper Clearwater, its green leaves breaking through a layer of gray ash loosened by melting snow. Photographed by Jerry Franklin, Oregon State University, June 17, 1980 (ABB-051).

A cluster of bright red berries clings to the branch of a mountain ash shrub on the shore of Meta Lake, one of the few plants to survive beneath winter snow cover within the Mount St. Helens blast zone. Photographed by Fred Swanson, summer 1980 (ABB-061).

Two researchers stand among a dense spread of fireweed blooming across gray ash deposits and clearcut stumps in the Upper Green River or Clearwater Valley area, showing the landscape’s early recovery after the eruption. Photographed by M. Hermstrom, September 15, 1980 (ABB-067).

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Mount St. Helens in 1980 @mountsthelens1980.bsky.social · 1d

May 1980 vs. May 1981.

Life is back to normal, pretty much.

A lone dog walks across an ash-covered street in downtown Morton, Washington, in the days after the May 18, 1980, eruption of Mount St. Helens. The scene is quiet and empty, with buildings, signs, and vehicles faintly dusted in gray volcanic ash beneath a hazy sky. (Olympian photo by Brian Saunders)

Downtown Morton, Washington, one year after the eruption of Mount St. Helens. Cars and trucks, including a log truck, fill the same street once blanketed in ash, with storefronts and the Morton Hotel visible along the right. (Olympian photo by Del Ogden)

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Mount St. Helens in 1980 @mountsthelens1980.bsky.social · 1d

May 18, 1980 — 12:28 p.m., Morton, Washington.

ChatGPT said:

View of a Chevron gas station in Morton, Washington, around 12:28 p.m. on May 18, 1980, blanketed in ash from the Mount St. Helens eruption. Through the haze, a Puget Sound Bank building is visible in the distance, while tire tracks curve across the ash-covered pavement in the foreground. A passing vehicle has thrown up a plume of fine gray dust, forming a “rooster tail” across the road.
Photo by Keith Ronnholm. Uploaded by Steven Rosenow on 1980 Eruption of Mount St. Helens Facebook group.

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Mount St. Helens in 1980 @mountsthelens1980.bsky.social · 1d

From the same satellite, with a view pulled back from the Pacific Northwest to the Idaho/Wyoming border, tracking the ash cloud in the infrared band.