Mount St. Helens Research Paper

Mount St. Helens, located in Skamania County Washington State, had an eruption which caused the death of fifty-seven people on May 18, 1980. A cloud full of ash rose into the sky, turned everything dark, and made any given time of day appear as black as midnight across many of the north-western states. It was recommended that people not leave their homes and they were told to wear gauze masks to keep the ash from entering their lungs. The eruption also caused about one thousand miles of roads to close (including state highways), trains to be stopped, and it forced aircraft to land. The repairs for the roads alone cost hundreds of millions of dollars. The eruption was then followed by an earthquake reaching a 5.2 on the Richter scale as well as an avalanche on the north side of the mountain. …show more content…
Prior to this eruption, on March 27 of the same year “a steam explosion and crater opening occurred at the mountain’s peak.” For a few weeks, this steam continued to come out of the crater that was growing on the mountain as well as ash. Then, towards the end of April, people began noticing a bulge on the north side of the mountain that continuously grew larger. By the time the volcano erupted, the “north side of Mount St. Helens bulged out 300 feet and increase[ed] at a rate of five or six feet a day. This was caused by magma rising inside the mountain” which led to Mount St. Helens erupting. Before this, Mount St. Helens had not exploded or showed signs of volcanic activity in 123