Institute for Crisis, Disaster, and Risk Management

Crisis and Emergency Management

Newsletter Website
return to mainpage

November 2004                                                                            Volume 7 - Number 2

Vulcano Update...

<> Mount St Helens

by Cristina Quiroz

The morning of May 18^th 1980 at 8:32am a 5.1 earthquake triggered a massive eruption of Mt St. Helens in Washington State, USA. The eruption killed 57 people 21 bodies where never found. National Wild Life preserves estimate the lost of 6,000 large game animals, 12,000,000 salmon, and millions of small mammals. Mt St. Helens’s 9,677 peak was reduced 1,300 feet, with an ash cloud that grew to 80,000 feet in 15 minutes the cloud reached the east coast in three days.

The blast blew rock fragments or hundreds of miles in any direction. The Temperature of the blast was 660F degree with enough force to snap 100 year old trees and blow the bark of the base. The snow that lined Mt St. Helens was melted and produced large mudslides destroying hundreds of homes and miles of roads.

After the earthquake, blast, ash clouds, and the mudslides there was the lava that flowed for hours after the eruption and was registered at 1,300F degrees. The volcano did over 1 billion dollars in damage and completely ended the local economy. With current technique we are able to estimate if the Volcano is going to erupt, but the systems are not entirely accurate.

On the 20^th of September 2004 the US Geological Survey (USGS) estimated that Mt St. Helens had a 70 percent chance of erupting with in 72hrs. At that time parks and residents where put on the second highest alert, evacuation soon started.

The FAA was alerted and prepared to divert any air traffic do to any ash clouds from an eruption. The FAA is mainly worried because it ash gets into the engine of an aircraft it is likely that aircraft will stall without possibility of recovery. Roads going into the area of Mt St. Helens like Route 5 where closed for almost two weeks as a precaution. Geologists have every inch of that mountain monitoring any seismic changes.

As of 18^th of October 2004 Route 5 was opened to the public even thou the Mountain is still able to erupt at anytime. After the 1980’s eruption the local economy never fully recovered the authorities worry about hikers and tourist that risk going to the mountain and being trapped.

The most important thing is that the state of Washington and the federal government have previsions for when Mt St. Helens does erupt. In conclusion science has not yet found a way to predict the time of and eruption, but at this time we are able to see the activity that is going on inside the mountain. Until we are able to know with 100 percent certainty the government will not be able to give the right type of add.