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[vatstep]

On May 18th, 1980, thirty years ago today, at 8:32 a.m., the ground shook beneath Mount St. Helens in Washington state as a magnitude 5.1 earthquake struck, setting off one of the largest landslides in recorded history - the entire north slope of the volcano slid away. As the land moved, it exposed the superheated core of the volcano setting off gigantic explosions and eruptions of steam, ash and rock debris. The blast was heard hundreds of miles away, the pressure wave flattened entire forests, the heat melted glaciers and set off destructive mudflows, and 57 people lost their lives. The erupting ash column shot up 80,000 feet into the atmosphere for over 10 hours, depositing ash across Eastern Washington and 10 other states. Collected here are photos of the volcano and its fateful 1980 eruption.

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/05/mount_st_helens_30_years_ago.html

I won't post pictures in the thread since they're pretty large, but they're worth seeing.

 

[Stumpokapow]

the big picture is the best blog on the internet.

 

[Kurtofan]

That first picture screams Mount Doom.

 

[totowhoa]

Those are awesome

 

[xelios]

Wonderful photos. Thanks for sharing.

 

[SmokyDave]

the big picture is the best blog on the internet.

Absolutely agreed. Once again, great pictures.

 

[Dead Man]

I could see that from where I lived, I was 4, I think. I had no idea what was happening, just that my mum and dad were so worried, we ended up going down to the cost to stay there for a couple weeks.

Amazing pictures. Thanks for the link.

 

[Leunam]

the big picture is the best blog on the internet.

Absolutely.

 

[verbum]

Apparently, this particular volcano has a cycle of approximately 150 years between eruptions.

And its most recent history was a violent one: for the last 4,000 years the mountain had erupted every 150 years or so to create and destroy itself time and again.

 

[Cornballer]

The shots of the flattened trees are stunning.

 

[D23]

amaaazing

 

[Count Dookkake]

Pretty certain this is my earliest memory of news.

 

[siddx]

Very cool, the recent article about Mount St. Helens in National Geographic was fascinating and had some great pictures too. Reading about how the environment cleaned itself up after being completely obliterated reinforced my belief that "saving the planet" isn't about saving anything other than ourselves. The planet will be fine, we won't.

 

[Tashi]

Wow awesome. The ash cloud over the airport picture is fucking scary. Holy shit.

 

[ToxicAdam]

Pretty certain this is my earliest memory of news.

Yea, I'm about the same age you are. Looking at all the pictures of flattened, ash-coated trees that looked like little toothpicks was such a scary sight when I was 5 or 6.

 

[Stinkles]

Nearby Mt. Ranier. When this bad boy blows (and it will) Tacoma gets WRECKED bt Seattle should be safe from everything except ash.

Mt. Ranier also has the distinction of looking like a ludicrously overwrought sci-fi matte painting.

SUCK IT TACOMA.

 

[PjotrStroganov]

Anyone seen the docu about the Iceland volcano on National Geographic? The crew were already there before the huge eruption. Some of the shots were made pretty close to the volcano and looked beautiful in HD.



Beautiful photos btw. The scale of the event is unreal.

 

[siddx]

Nearby Mt. Ranier. When this bad boy blows (and it will) Tacoma gets WRECKED bt Seattle should be safe from everything except ash.

Mt. Ranier also has the distinction of looking like a ludicrously overwrought sci-fi matte painting.

SUCK IT TACOMA.

Being covered in ash and debris will actually improve the shithole that is tacoma.

 

[Winterblink]

Fucking awesome set of images. The final one looks like it's from another planet.

 

[EvilMario]

Seeing photos of St Helens always reminds me of the ol' man that refused to leave.

"If the mountain goes, I'm going with it."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Randall_Truman

 

[noisome07]

damn, boston does it again.

 

[Clydefrog]

The forest... it's... flattened. :O

 

[Zenith]

the big picture is the best blog on the internet.

I'm sickened by the comments on the Vietnam war post. It's like stepping back in time 40 years. Apparently we lost the war because of protesting cowards who only came along for the parties and drugs.

 

[Pappasman]

Being covered in ash and debris will actually improve the shithole that is tacoma.

I second this. No one cared about Tacoma anyway.

 

[theusedversion]

Wonderful photos. Thanks for sharing.

This. Seriously, thanks for sharing. Photos are amazing.