1980 Eruption facts
While investigating facts about 1980 Eruption, I found out little known, but curios details like:
About Robert Landsberg, a photographer who upon realisation that he is going to die in the Mount St. Helens eruption of 1980 lied down on top of his equipment to preserve the photographs he had taken of the event.
Robert Landsberg, a photographer who died documenting the massive 1980 eruption of Mt St Helens. Realizing he was too close to get away safely, he continued to shoot footage until he was killed. His body was found buried beneath ash, protecting his camera film.
In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across. Here are 33 of the best facts about 1980 Eruption I managed to collect.
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Robert Landsburg, while filming Mount St. Helens volcano eruption in 1980 realized he could not survive it, so he rewound the film back into its case, put his camera in his backpack, and then lay himself on top of the backpack to protect the film for future researchers.
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Even though the 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helens is considered a medium sized eruption relative to other volcanic eruptions, the landslide that happened less than a second before was the largest landslide in recorded history
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Harry Glicken's was devastated when his mentor David Johnson died during the eruption of Mt St Helens in 1980. Glicken met the same fate 11 year's later during the eruption of Mt Unzen in Japan. Glicken and Johnson are the only American volcanologists to have died in volcanic eruptions.
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Mt. St Helens erupted while the Grateful Dead were performing 'Fire on the Mountain' in Portland, OR on June 12, 1980.
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An American photographer who knew he couldn't escape the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption due to being too close to the summit, photographed it & used his body to shield the photographs from damage. His body was discovered several days later, and those pictures proved groundbreaking for geology.
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Mount St. Helens continued to erupt several times in 1980, and although not as explosive as the first, these eruptions sent ash flying to communities in the region.
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When Mount Saint Helens erupted in 1980 in Washington State, 57 people were killed. The ash fell onto 11 states. The violent eruption destroyed about 230 square miles of forest. It blew a total of 1300 feet off the top of the volcano.
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[t]he 1980 [volcanic] eruption of Mount St. Helens wiped out a small resident population of about 15 mountain goats [Oreamnos americanus], but in the years since the eruption, mountain goats have been moving back on their own accord." They "have been spotted inside the crater with regularity."
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The Toba eruption 75,000 years ago plunged Earth into a 6 to 10 year volcanic winter reducing the world's human population to 10,000 or a mere 1,000 breeding pairs. Studies suggest the eruption was an estimated 5,000 times more powerful than Mount St. Helens's 1980 blast.
1980 Eruption data charts
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What is true about 1980 eruption?
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On May 18th, 1980 at 8:32 a.m. Mount St. Helens erupted. The eruption followed a 5.1 magnitude earthquake.
Between 1980 and 1986 lava eruptions filled the crater.
57 people were killed in the 1980 Mt. St Helens Eruption with temperatures reaching 680°F - source
Harry R. Truman, a Washington resident who lived on Mount St. Helens came to be a folk hero in the months preceding the volcano’s 1980 eruption after he stubbornly refused to leave his home. Truman expectedly died by the pyroclastic flow that buried the site under 150 feet of volcanic debris.
If the Yellowstone Supervolcano were to erupt it is estimated that it would be more than 1000 times as powerful as the eruption of Mount St Helens in 1980.
When Mount St. Helens erupted on 18 May 1980 the volcano's lateral blast blew down "4 billion board feet of timber (enough to build about 300,000 two-bedroom homes)." Mount St. Helens, located in Washington, United States of America, "is the most active volcano in the Cascade Range."
Mount St. Helens is located in Washington. In 1980 it erupted and blew apart a major portion of the top of the volcano.
The sound of Mount St. Helens erupting in 1980, could be heard from 140 miles away, and someone caught a recording.
The May 18th, 1980 eruption killed 57 people. It destroyed 250 homes, 185 miles of highway, 15 miles of railway, and 47 bridges.
Crater Glacier in Mount St. Helens is North America's youngest, and fastest growing glacier, mostly because the crater it is in (from the 1980 eruption) is northfacing
Mount St. Helens is only the 52nd highest peak in Washington state at 8,365 ft. Prior to its eruption on May 18, 1980, it had been the fifth highest peak in the state at 9,677 ft.
