‘Nick From Home’ Livestream #45 - Mt St Helens 40th Anniversary

well good morning everybody welcome to Ellensburg Washington USA the local time is about 848 a.m. here Pacific time zone and we'll begin our program on Mount st. Helens forty years ago at the top of the hour at nine o'clock thank you for joining us this morning are we all doing good morning United Kingdom Finland good morning Belgium New York City Great Falls Montana mossy Rock close to the Beast another Belgium the steady Belgians high Tumwater the Carlson family Silicon Valley good morning another Finland South Dakota dick from the Netherlands what a pleasure to have you all here this morning whoa there's a bunch of you already isn't there interesting makes sense this is a special morning Wausau Wisconsin on Wisconsin there Vicki New Zealand good morning yes we're in the front porch as predicted it's a it's a wet morning here in Ellensburg the chalkboards getting kind of moist out there in the backyard but I've got all sorts of stuff there on the table that we're going to be using this morning and yeah we'll talk about our plan once we get up there so good morning Ryan and Jack but we're starting early as we normally do to make sure that we're functional it seems like we always have some of the comments about I'm out of sync and I'm too fuzzy and I've realized that's that's mostly folks having some issues on their end but I think we're doing okay but can I confirm with you please Jason thank you the light and the sound look good Thank You Johnny yeah wind chime but I don't think it's gonna be making any noise this morning 5x5 many of you are regulars and you know who we are and what we do but I suppose we'll have some new folks so I might say a couple of extra special things this morning I think yeah I think that'll work let's look at the schedule for next week should we do it in dramatic fashion so I've been doing the five of these a week and I take Monday and Friday off so I won't see you again until Tuesday night at 6:00 p.m. we're going to talk about something called slow earthquakes Tuesday night at 6 p.m. Pacific time otherwise known as ETS events episodic tremor and slip Wednesday night lahars in Washington so we'll be coming right back to this topic of cascade volcanoes on Wednesday night Thursday we'll go specifically to a valley that is between the Yakima Washington and White Pass Saturday morning hotspot volcanism Sunday morning Bing Crosby geology that sounds weird weirds okay weird is good Italy good morning ah AG wind quit main I tried math is weird good to know Spain good morning Spokane Portland you're new to the channel thank you for joining us then things there seemed a little off kilter here I don't know what do I need good morning New York City it went too quick Ogunquit Evelyn Isaac good morning got somebody to thank personal delivery yesterday about noon Thank You Julie thanks to all of you for all of the generosity what's on your mind this morning I have a plan I have a loose plan think it'll work do we have some other locations I'm just curious how wide-ranging we are this morning and if this is a noticeably different crowd than we've had before probably about the same scene we're up to almost 600 it looks like Heidelberg Germany good morning New Jersey some County in Pennsylvania Leavenworth Portland Maine Kathy from Australia is here same suspect in Japan Pullman Tennessee this is such a treat as always to be live with you and we will do a fair amount and other Netherlands good morning UK it's a reasonable hour there Holly Clearwater Florida Virginia Eric you've been a regular Sudbury and Terra Melissa you've been a regular plenty of regulars I don't know what is this episode number in the 40s right so many of you are are just so so steady here terrific to see no muffler boys yet Charleston South Carolina visited for my first time Liz and I last spring a year ago that was fun Portugal I wish Winnipeg Manitoba the former Lake Agassiz excellent well if you are new to us and you're like why is this why isn't this guy starting we'll start in 3 minutes top of the hour people are just kind of showing up at various times and I start ahead of time just to kind of test things out and make sure we're all feeling like we're hello Dartmouth England how was the gin oh boy lots of emails about how I'm an alcoholic and I'm a terrible role model for children I thought it was obvious I was drinking water but I guess it wasn't obvious I guess I'm a good actor so no I think I'm a decent role model but apparently not okay I got two minutes I think I'm a stroll around the kitchen here for a second mutter to myself and I will be I'll be back to start the program at nine o'clock thank you for joining us here's to you that was an early toast to you for joining us this morning well good morning everybody welcome thank you for joining me here at our home in Ellensburg Washington my name is Nick I'm a geology teacher at the college here Central Washington University Ellensburg Washington USA we've been doing these live streams from home here since st. Patrick's Day I think this is number 45 we've been doing five of these a week and this morning is a special episode looking back 40 years ago this weekend to a volcano in our state that erupted and everyone knows Mount st. Helens because of that even though it was 40 years ago actually my students 19-year olds are a little fuzzy on what mount st. Helens is or was as time marches on we lose the specific memories but many of you have a very vivid memory that memory is seared into your brain about where you were at 8:32 in the morning Sunday morning May 18th 1980 that is our topic this morning and technically we're a day off it's May 17th but we'll refer to 40 years ago this morning and you'll you'll know what I mean right because we don't live stream on Mondays so I don't know if you've been online or if you've been watching television or other forms of media but there's there's plenty of looking back of course 40 years this is done every year and then a special set of programs etc every 10 years to look back I suppose there'll be another 150 years 50 years ago you know there were 10 years from now so um what can I offer you this morning that is different than everybody else I think the usual is if you're at a news channel a TV station a local TV station you kind of run some of your old clips and if you're a newspaper you kind of have some old you know final photos etc I do have something that I think is unique and I'm excited to share it with you and I'll give you the plan for the loose plan I have for our session this morning but in general I want to tell you a quick little story I think it was 2 weeks ago I got an email from Jane in Seattle Jane said yeah I've been enjoying those live streams from your house it's nice to see you're busy during this pandemic and I've emailed a little bit back and forth with Jane a few years ago before that because I did a program on Mount Rainier osceola mud flow and I heard from Jane back then couple years ago and she said really enjoyed that program and I want to thank you for showcasing some of the work of my dad so James dad was Dwight rocky Crandall that was his nickname rocky rocky was the nickname given to him by a professor at Yale back in the 1950s or 40s I guess post-world War - Rocky was a World War two vet from Illinois originally but rocky was a geologist for the USGS and Jane his daughter was the one contacted me a couple weeks ago and she said you know seeing those live streams reminds me that I got a bunch of papers of my dad's that I'm I think I need to deal with somehow and I'm wondering if you'd be interested in taking a look this is two weeks ago and I said oh yeah Jane that sounds good when this all kind of settles down you know maybe I'll come over and visit and you can show me some of that stuff or maybe you you and Dave want to come over here and have a break I'll take you down to the tab we'll have a super mother and then we can look at those papers and then the last Sunday after I was done with you last Sunday's livestream I started thinking seriously about what I was going to do with you now today and I email Jay and last Sunday and I said hey I I think I'm gonna change my answer I think I want my hands on those papers now is that possible and she said what Monday's your off day of your live stream I'll meet you at the pass in other words we'll drive halfway Jane from Seattle me from Ellensburg I'll meet you Travelers Rest parking lot I'll give you those papers so that's what happened six days ago and I had these three boxes of rocky krandalls papers notebooks photos letters sitting in those three boxes until yesterday when I finally done with the Milankovitch cycle thing which took me a while to figure out how do I wanted to present that and so I sat down last night going through those three boxes and there's an amazing amount that's there so I would like to this morning look back 40 years ago to Mount st. Helens and the events leading up to the eruption and the eruption itself and the aftermath through the eyes of rocky Crandall and rocky is not just a minor character he's the man he's he's the geologist that's that's meeting with Jimmy Carter a few days after the eruption and and there's major national news coverage he's the geologist who's trying to decide how to evacuate people safely before the May 18th event rocky Crandall you should know about him if you don't already and so that is the plan let's look at the plan specifically then for this morning so here's what I have in mind we'll see if I stick to the plan but we're going to kind of go through the the context of leading up to the event the May 18th eruption and a little bit of the aftermath all through the eyes of rocky Crandall music a bunch of his actual papers over here and then we'll go in the cozy fort and if you're new to us the cozy fort is where we actually look in a few little video clips and anybody can do this but I found some stuff on YouTube that I think is particularly good and I want to share it with you and at least give you a tip on how to look into this a little bit more and then I know that you'll have questions as we always do but I also know that you're a human being and you'll want to share your memories I mean that's a common thing I've heard my fair share of stories of where you were on that morning and I think I'll share some of those live with you I'll just kind of read some of your stories to everybody so this is probably nearly a long one and in case you're curious in May of 1980 I was not in Washington I was in Wisconsin just about to graduate from high school so I have no personal memories of being here in Washington but many of you do and because I don't have those personal memories and because I'm not a research scientist I feel like sharing Rocky's details is a good way to go about things this morning so hopefully you're okay with that Dwight rocky Crandall he worked for the USGS a long time and his collaborator Donald Mullen oh those two guys rocky and Don created a lot of publications over the years decade's worth of research with all the cascade volcanoes not just Mount st. Helens not just Mount Rainier in the 1950s and 60s let me show you a few first of all do you need a visual right away here's rocky Crandall this is an I think an unpublished autobiography maybe written from family and friends so there's a lot of stuff I'll go quickly through this and I'm going to purposely avoid talking about mud flows today because Wednesday this coming Wednesday will devote a whole program to lahars and that's really I think rocky krandalls most impressive contribution to the geology community as a whole lahar hazards and so let's save that even though there was dramatic lahar events down the Toutle River with Mount st. Helens let's kind of put some of that on hold until Wednesday but here's an example of Rocky's notebook here he's working at Mount Rainier Osceola lowland back in the 1950s handwritten notes fields geologists out there everyday he had plenty of opportunities to join universities and become a professor he wasn't interested he just wanted to do his own thing follow his own interests and do research and so as early as 1962 Crandall and Milano are publishing on Mount st. Helens now keep track of the dates we're talking we're looking back to the eruption of 1980 but this is almost 20 years earlier and they are doing a lot of work with the volcanic deposits on and surrounding st. Helens presumably these are all available online somehow for you this is GSA America GSA bullets in volume 73 blah blah blah okay no time to go through all those and then as we march a little bit closer to 1980 there's more from Crandall and Molineux I'm just grabbing the st. Helens stuff they've got publications like this those guys work so hard and they were so prolific and what they were putting out as publications I'm just I just grabbed a few of the st. Helens publications leading up to 1980 but Crandall rocky and Don were at Hood and Baker and Shasta etc lassen they're publishing on all these cones and using these kind of state-of-the-art techniques at the time to try to get started on working out an inventory as we've been talking about in past live streams working out an inventory of past events you know it's not particularly sexy visuals you know it's the 1970s but here's a an old shot from Delano Delano photograph photographic mapping out of Portland so here's what mouth st. Helens you know I'm sure you've seen plenty of photos of Mount st. Helens and how beautifully symmetrical and perfect it was before 1980 I'll show you one more is this still rocky and Don yes it is of course it is so this is the most famous of the publications involving Mount st. Helens research prior to 1980 and this was published in 1978 and it presumably written in 1977 and why is this so famous I think I've shared this in a past life frame actually this is famous because of the last couple of paragraphs where after now we're talking about got more than two decades worth of careful research at st. Helens predicting the next eruption this is rocky writing in 1978 this volcano's behavior patterns suggest that the current quiet interval more than a hundred years will not last as long as a thousand years instead an eruption is more likely to occur within the next hundred years and perhaps even before the end of this century and he'd erupted it less than two years later okay so that's the bet that's the back story that gives you the sense that you know this is not an unstudied mountain and unstudied volcano and that all these geologists are just starting to you know drop out of the sky two months before the eruption at least Crandall and Molineux had been carefully working on st. Helens among other volcanoes for a long time now this is also an original from Rocky's collection and here's the cover of that art of that publication that I just shared with you but it includes the signatures of all the geologists who were working on that team at the time including Dave Johnston but we'll talk more about Dave in a bit but it was a small group of working geologists who had kind of devoted a full-court press to this mountain in the years and then especially months leading up to the event okay so now we're up to the spring of 1980 and for those around the world or those young viewers who are not even sure what the topic is this morning we're eventually getting to this so this is the Sunday morning May 18 1980 when this volcano goes and now this part of the story is Crandall and Molineux are publishing that we got to be very serious about this mountain based on the work we've done so far and this thing might erupt before the end of the century meaning it might be RuPt before the year 2000 or more likely within the next century but again May of 1980 all right next little batch of stuff so here's a diary that rocky kept every little day in 1980 a couple of little little items my dad used to do that as well I've got all those old badger books here is Rocky's a collection of his field notes when he actually started showing up at st. Helens starting in March of 1980 look at this it's a Mead spiral notebook that you can buy at Safeway somewhere maybe in Colorado for a dollar 89 he's a regular guy he's a gifted hard-working geologist but I love the kind of common touch with a lot of this he's taking very careful important notes in a mid spiral footnote book this isn't you know algebra 2 as a freshman in high school so I marked I mean I just went nuts reading this last night at midnight but anyway I'll just grab a little bit for you so here's rocky Crandall April 19th which was a Saturday now st. Helens had started to become active puffs of steam bulge on the North Face etc and here's rocky keeping track of his activities I'll just give you a little taste of this couldn't see above dog's head yesterday mmm survey to get started on Monday Flagstaff group will do photogrammetry use ground material from previous mapping Dave Dave Johnston should prepare a statement what is known and who is doing what present the facts to the press who can prepare a call for pollution statements or standards EPA Dave should arrive tomorrow so Dave Johnston and I if you're unfamiliar this is one of the saddest stories of this whole saga he was a 30 year old geologist who perished on the morning of May 18th so Dave shows up from somewhere and reports to st. Helens about a month before so his last month on on earth so here we are Monday or Sunday morning April 20th and the meeting is between Andrey yeah andrey Rick Dave Johnston Chris rocky Arnold and Ken do we have a radio man regarding ape cave let's talk to Jim Neyland about that Muddy Creek very muddy yesterday also North Fork talking about seismicity Johnston needs to do water and ash work can analyze for sulfate sulfide and something else fluoride very low so I mean this is the this gives you a little window in how these guys are trying to kind of get together by this there is no cascade volcano observatory at this time if you're unaware of that you've heard that Vancouver Washington is right across the river from Portland Oregon and and van coup of the Cascades Volcano Observatory is now a fully staffed operation but back then these are USGS people from across the country who are kind of flying in and starting to work in groups to try to deal with this let me give you from Rocky's autobiography are you enjoying this I hope you are you know we'll eventually get to I guess what you want to talk about with the live Q&A but this is how I am to in choosing to to kind of bring in a rather specific flair to this discussion so here's from Rocky's autobiography what did I want to read to you here sure why not I was in my Denver USGS office this is rocky writing now Thursday afternoon March 27th when Don called from Vancouver with the news that a small steam explosion had occurred at the summit of the volcano at 12:27 his time as Dan Don and I talked on Molineux as Don and I talked we were both greatly excited and elated that our volcano was coming to life just as we had anticipated but our elation was tempered by concern that the small eruption would quickly progress into something major like some eruptions in the past I agreed to come to Vancouver Washington on Saturday to help with hazard assessment I arrived mid-afternoon so this is March 28th I arrived mid-afternoon at the u.s. Forest Service headquarters and walked into a bedlam of ringing telephones Don knew that I was not yet involved and asked me to prepare a new map that showed hazard zones for eruptions of three different magnitudes by 5:00 a.m. the next morning I had worked out a suitable approach and had made a rough draft of the hazard map later that day US FS state graphs Minh made ten copies which were used at innumerable meetings and conferences from then on I was in the midst of a hurricane this is late March this is almost two months before the main event I was designated this is rocky writing now I was designated as the person in charge of hazard assessments Bob Christiansen came from our Menlo Park California office to supervise monitoring the volcano and Don Molineux was the usgs spokesman and an overall charge of the surveys activities at least one of us senior scientists quote unquote was supposed to be available in vancouver at all times we as well as other geologists who came to Vancouver from various usgs offices responded to all telephone calls for information about what the volcano was doing and how we viewed the potential danger no email now everything's by phone in spite of the people set to help us we were badly understaffed and quickly became overworked my diary notes my diary notes how many hours I worked during the first week I was there March thirtieth twenty two hours March 31st twenty hours April 1st through 5th 17 hours each day because of the stress and loss of sleep my health rapidly went downhill and I found it hard to even think coherently I finally took a day off on April 9th again we're more than five weeks away from the event this goes on of course I'm not going to read you the whole thing but there was another segment that caught my eye where was it hmm nope moving on oh one more thing from this preamble before the main event were almost there to the big event this is written so now raakhi has has is under so much stress and he was at st. Helens for so many weeks straight not taking a day off hardly at all that this is written on May 17th the day before the main event from Denver so he was you know somebody else was in charge for a while he was going home to just kind of de-stress possibly here's this letter to somebody I'm temporarily back in Denver this is May 17th for a short period of rest and relaxation but we'll be back to our volcano by next Friday if not sooner I learned last night that the eruptive activity had again temporarily quieted down though the earthquake continued at a same rate and the volcano continues to bulge there is little question that molten rock has moved into the volcano but there's still some uncertainty about when or if it will come to the surface in a full-fledged eruption calmer and penny wondered why my name has not been in the news about Mount st. Helens in the first place I have avoided publicity as much as possible in order to a my main purpose of being out there my job is hazards coordinator and I spend much of my time talking to public officials as well as people who live in the area second I avoided all press conferences and left them to my friend and colleague Don Mullen Oh Don is the scientist in charge of the whole USGS operation at st. Helens a job he very reluctantly took on against his better judgment Bob Christiansen from our California office is the coordinator for geologic studies and monitoring activities the three of us are more or less on alternating with each other so that one of us is on hand out there in Vancouver all the time my private concern which I don't intend to include in a press release is that the continuing strong earthquake activity indicates that a large volume of molten rock is continuing to move into a reservoir beneath the volcano the more molten rock and the reservoir the larger will be the eventual eruption demands from the news media have been quite a shock to all of the geologists on the project just answering the questions that come in from all over the country nearly every day could be a full-time job for two geologists and so far we have not had even one geologist to spare for this so we all try to field the questions as best we can most of us have been on local TV several times and a few hadn't even agreed to go on national TV well that was the other thing I wanted to read quickly I can't find it now you know People magazine is wanting him to do a photo spread he's turning down all these kind of media requests to just try to do his job because he feels like everything is so understaffed and they're doing the best that they can hey the sun's out all right let's keep going I've got a couple more of movements in this little act and then we'll go to the cosy for it and actually time travel back to some of those events so it's common for many of us to have mount st. helens ash this is the ash some of the ash that fell in Ephrata Washington from the main event I don't need to go through the basics of that that's been covered over and over and over again of course there are plenty of books there's volcano Cowboys and rocky is featured in this book Rocky was not particularly pleased with the tenor of the book he felt it was a little bit over the top that's my understanding I guess it's not appropriate for me to say that this is a blow-by-blow account from Richard wait that I enjoy reading but I never can quite make progress I haven't gotten more than a third of it a third of the way into it Kevin Scott was so there's there's so much out there Steve Olsen has written a book that you may have seen and from a teaching point of view many of us in the 1980s would use this slide set that was put together for teachers we're all using slide projectors you know you drop the slides into the little slide carousel and so you know this was the way for us to to show a bunch of the details again I'm choosing not to kind of go through the what I consider the very obvious and very well covered segments of the story this is my attempt to do something slightly different than than everyone else as usual well that's all leading up so we just heard from Rocky who was in Denver in May 17th the day before the main event and then Sunday morning I think the best way to convey to you what happened in those dramatic moments and precious hours with life-saving events are a few things we'll do in the cozy fort so I'll let that speak for itself but since I've got you here before we crawl into the cozy fort let's do a little bit more with Rocky so a few days after the event Rocky is still dealing with the press kind of reluctantly and Jimmy Carter the President of the United States at the time has shown up so here's rocky and here's President Carter a lot of coverage obviously another photo of our man rocky Crandall and Jimmy Carter little note of things from the White House a few days later plenty of work between rocky and the Washington State governor at the time Dixie Lee ray there was some story I don't think I can find it easily that Dixie Lee kept saying that I'm not going to make any decisions until I talked to Rocky Crandall he's my main go-to man and he's like well you know we talked a few times but I don't know if she I'll finish the Rakhi portion of this using these personal things loan to me from his daughter Jane Thank You Jane for your trust here that I'm using these appropriately this is the last thing I'll share with you again there's three boxes worth December 19th so now we're half a year after May 18th and Rakhi is writing to Bob Yates at Oregon State University and and I like this paragraph or I think this paragraph is interesting Rakhi is thanking Bob for writing something in the media about the USGS action trying to save some lives before May 18th and rocky is telling Bob I agree with your opinion that the access restrictions in effect on May 18th around Mount st. Helens saved many of the lives nevertheless I am scientifically and personally distressed that we did not accurately foresee the scale of the events of May 18th in retrospect I attribute this failure to our inexperience in making day-to-day an hour-to-hour hazard assessments at an active volcano and to the crisis environment in which we were working with little time available to isolate ourselves reflect and discuss the implications of all the monitoring data obviously we should have taken this time in spite of the continuing pressures to become involved with the issues unrelated to hazard assessments we have learned many lessons from Mount st. Helens experience and surely we'll be better prepared to cope with the next volcano that resumes active that resumes activity thanks again for your support Sincerely Yours Dwight R Crandall geologist engineering geology Branch and to lighten the mood just slightly because I deal with a fair amount of folks with a bunch of interesting ideas Jane included this in the box much of this I'm returning to Jane by the way she's just loaned this to me this is a letter from Missouri - rocky Crandall on May 22nd four days after the eruption mr. Crandall I have been following the news on TV radio and newspapers about the Mount st. Helens eruptions at Vancouver Washington down in this part of the country Missouri we have water well drillers that advertise a well in a day using a rotor bit they can drill 500 or more feet per day now my idea would be to drill a hole maybe using an oil drilling rig before that eruption and put in a Popoff plug similar to the Popoff plug you know bathroom hot water heater or pressure cooker only a larger scale and then when you know the eruption is about to take place someone could remove the Popoff plug or the hot air or steam could blow out of it and then all that lava would just stay in that mountain or come out the drilled hold and not blow the whole top off and do all that damage and ruin a lot of property may I hear from you and what you think of this idea and why it would not work I am 69 years old this idea first come to me and I really would like an answer one way or the other mr. Brown in Missouri and rocky replied by mail dear mr. Brown thank you for your interesting suggestion regarding the control of Mount st. Helens unfortunately it is not in our power to control the immense forces involved for example it has been estimated that the volcanic explosion on May 18th had the force of a 10 Megaton hydrogen bomb a Popoff valve such as the one you suggest could hardly restrain such a force in it definitely and it might also be difficult to find a volunteer to remove the valve so that the steam could come out as you suggest Sincerely Yours to white our Crandall geologist so using the power of audiovisuals shall we go instead of reading through this Bible shall we actually go to some amazing video clips mostly from local television channels I find that to be effective and quite impressive in cases and we'll deal with a few of the human interest stories that many of you remember often with tragic results I'll just do a little bit of this but I'll give you a taste of a few places to go in case you want to watch full programs on this in case you haven't known that those were available for you to watch and then we'll go to your live QA and the sun's out and I think I'll just go ahead and say it you remember we took a walk up on top of Craig's Hill and we walked all the way to the point where we could actually see a little layer of Mount st. Helens ash from 1980 that was a couple weeks ago I was surprised at how many of you enjoyed that little walk and that little thin layer of ash well we've already done it with one of the live streams but I think I've got my gizmo powered up and you know you're not required to stick around but I think we'll take a little walk when we're done with your live Q&A slash memories of May 18th okay yeah we got a thousand people man let's keep it going so it's time for the cosy for trademark Steve sedro woolley and Liz is in the kitchen having a few things I got to move you now hang on done this earlier many of you want to meet my wife and she's like I kind of like my privacy understand so give me a second talk amongst yourselves what kind of role model are you drinking on that gin I was just absolutely embarrassed you are not professional okay so it's hard to convey it's hard to convey quiet it's hard to convey what life was like to younger people where we're all watching local news I remember even as a college kid I tuned in to watch the local news and the national news and in addition to the newspapers that's how you got information and so I find these clips from local broadcasts especially while this eruption like the day May 18th basically 40 years ago this weekend I find it particularly powerful and maybe you will too so this is KGW in Portland I've just grabbed a few little portions of these clips and I totally I don't even remember what we're looking at here but I hope it'll it'll it'll be self explanatory let's go in fact it was only seven weeks ago can you believe it the st. Helens was a quiet it's no White Mountain John Tuttle shows us that old familiar sight and how it changed it was Monday March 24th when officials in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest started taking st. Helens seriously the earthquakes on the mountain had started four days earlier by that Monday were coming at a rate of 40 an hour people were warned to stay off the mountain and the US Geological Survey moved in with monitoring devices to listen to the tremors at that time st. Helens a gun 123 years without erupting the most recent eruption of any volcano in the 48 states was California's Mount lassen in 1915 the mountain itself spring vacation is coming on and you know the nice weather and the mountain climbers and cross-country skiers mainly because the Avalanche hazard warning is at the high stage because of the earthquakes Tuesday March 25th the mountain shuddered with a quake that registered five on the Richter scale crevasses began to appear on the Forsyth glacier and the Forest Service began organizing emergency plans to evacuate lowland areas of Southwest Washington road blocks went up on highway 504 and the Rangers were evacuated from Spirit Lake that was the day northwestern ears were introduced to Harry Truman the man who said he wouldn't leave his home at Spirit Lake I'm not gonna leave here because I'm the only one up here there's nobody else lives up here in the winter town so she's connector and zoomed off this way and I'm not gonna go on Wednesday scientists were saying mud flows on st. Helens were possible and they described a lava eruption as a remote possibility Thursday March 27th shortly after 1:00 in the afternoon KGW use cameras flew over st. Helens and got the first pictures of steam rising from the summit and the big black hole in the top of the mountain through the day that hole widened and there were signs the North slopes of the mountain were actually shifting still the big concern was the potential of mud flows loosened by heat not lava but the scientists were beginning to admit that the mountain was in the classic early stages of a volcanic eruption Friday Pacific Power in life all right I guess anticipating as much as 100,000 acre feet of mud that could hit in the event of a mud flow here it's way to within a thousand feet of the summer the earthquakes were stronger and the plume of ash was rising to 16,000 feet and the winds were carrying it towards Portland there are reports the mountain itself was swelling and actually tilting the south shore of Spirit Lake and Wednesday geologists reported the volcano was shooting out disc sized blocks of metal watch to the lower right hand side of your screen you'll see what I know and scientific instruments were now recording harmonic tremors Riggi vibrations that indicated molten rock was moving inside Mount st. Helens another indication of a possible eruption of lava Thursday the geologists who'd been conservative in their predictions at every stage had turned around we're not gonna have a lot of warning if a final big eruption starts I think probably a day is the outside and minutes on the inside and minutes or it might happen without really telling us what's going to happen it might just go that interview is more than a month old for a month we waited wondering what was next from st. Helens in fact the clues to what was actually happening inside the pump it may have been there in late March or early April but chokes me up every time dave was from Illinois rocky was from Illinois Rocky beat him up beat himself up over that loss all right they really did the best they could do another clip it's a frightening tale of survival in a nightmare bill Van Amburg reports now this is after the event [Laughter] it started in total but when threats from the rising River got too bad the massive air rescue efforts moved to Kelso all day and into the evening searching through almost impossible situations to find almost impossible survivors people who had made it through dust Nash and devastated force struggling to survive in a wilderness gone hellishly mad these two young campers and their dog had been staying along the Green River more than 15 miles from the mountain when suddenly the forest was flattened yeah what was it like I mean how long were you in there there had been six in there party two others were injured but got out these people had had to hike well over 14 miles as did this man whose family was worried he was dead one hand burned hands up there got here like al-qaeda wanted to be a driven his truck and tell it just playing quit he couldn't shake any more ash out of the air cleaner walking in a dusty gray rain until choppered out unfortunately his family is safe as well unfortunately it's a hit and miss situation for rescuers you had to have an aircraft with you to get ours in and out well you know it's easy to be cavalier I can see some of your comments now it's easy to be distant and removed from these situations but can you put yourself there for a second this is amazing stuff I think this is the guy that that they visited with if maybe months or years after that we just saw who was completely shell-shocked with his girlfriend in his dark but this gets into a little bit more footage of high-stakes drama in those hours for the people trying to survive this event in the shadow of the Mount st. Helens volcano on that Sunday morning in May 10 years ago they had come to play and to work to study and to watch one of the Watchers an amateur radio operator named Jerry Martin was one of the first to see the mountain erupt his last words were captured on tape by a ham radio operator Reed Apgar in Olympia Washington [Music] 64 year old Gerald Otis Martin volunteered to watch the volcano as part of a group called races radio amateurs who were an official part of Washington State's emergency plan for monitoring the mountain on that morning Martin sat in his camper on a ridge nine miles from the volcano outside the restricted zone at the same time warehouser employee Edie Hinkle at his vacation home near Silver Lake west of the mountain experimented with a video camera that the company wanted him to learn how to run Hinkle's unique videotape shows what happened that Sunday morning as Jerry Martin describes the scene with his last words was simply the straw that broke the camel's back dr. Don Swanson came to Oregon just days after Mount Saint Helens came back to life in March since then he and other scientists had been watching an area on the north side of the volcano called Goat rocks which had been bulging outward we think that the earthquake was triggered by some movement within the boughs and that that was enough to kind of shake the whole thing just like a bowl of jelly as as people who flying overhead at the time [Music] and there was a tremendous steam explosion a lateral blast has all of the hot gases and and water trapped in beneath the mountain slopes flash to steam and that propelled the Avalanche material and the outer flanks of the mountain northward at three and six hundred miles an hour five miles north of the volcano on a ridge sat US Geological Survey scientist dr. David Johnston who had set up his camp to give him a good view of the volcano Johnston knew the mountain might explode how soon do you think that might have heard well if it occurs it would probably be no more than a few months on the outside but it could be as soon as a few hours on Sunday morning May 18th Johnston was awake and watching his last words by radio Vancouver Vancouver this is it searchers never found the body of David Johnston Terry Martin sat on the next Ridge back from the mountain so Mother Nature gave him a few more moments to live than Johnston Martin's last words seemed to indicate that he saw the blast cloud that killed David Johnston the forest north of mount st. helens provided work for hundreds of loggers on that Sunday morning a crew of four men woke up and three of them went to work at their job of thinning a couple other quick things and then we'll go to you you know some of you wanted to know that that that was this is a particularly good program can you read it can I read it Northwest reports Mount st. Helens KPTV 1990 so this was for the net the 10th anniversary Portland footage I got one more clip that's from CBS News dan Rather sitting in for Walter Cronkite and they go to Ritz Ville grooving without anybody I think their danger at the moment last Sunday when it blew two other geologists were flying directly above what is now the crater and saw it all teeth and Dorothy stood I don't know the Stoffels and Dorothy stomping on top the north side just began to ripple and kind of churn up and everything was north of that just slid away just completely split away and within seconds after that a huge blast occurred the clouds as as they rose what happened they were billowing up almost like in big pillow sort of structures and at that point of course that we were tape I was terrified personally and we weren't sure that we were going to make it out of that situation at all to the east in Yakima Washington residents weren't sure until today how they were going to get out of their situation volcanic ash everywhere but tonight the mountain is just spewing steam the worst of the ash problem may at last be over Terry Drinkwater CBS News Portland the Agriculture Department says it's too early to tell about the damage Mount st. Helens will do two crops and livestock but just about any place in the area life has changed dramatically since Sunday for example look at Ritz Bill Washington with Harold ow words just can't describe Ritz bill Washington three days after Mount Saint Helens blew her top smothering this Central Washington community under five inches of volcanic ash it looks like the aftermath of a brutal winter storm but it's mid-may and the dust is much harder to remove than snow graters snow plows were all pressed into service despite their unusual dilemma residents manning shovels and brooms seemed to be in good spirits haven't seen anything like it ever the volcanic dust storm hit suddenly last Sunday afternoon one minute it was sunny and bright the next minute it looked like night ash falling everywhere well the community did a great job we had about 2,000 people stranded they took them in their home their churches the schools full we fed him good no problem with food and medicine and some of those who were stranded here feel the same way they couldn't wait to leave I incredible I couldn't believe it it was scary you know you couldn't see in front of you started breeding the staff in the course had no idea whether or not it was poison and farm in this convoy are some of the 2,000 people who have been stranded here since Sunday law enforcement officials have decided it is safe for groups of travelers to go everyone is leaving Ritz Ville in a cloud of dust harold owl CBS News Ritz Ville Washington okay well that's my best effort to bring that day and week to life for you [Music] muffler boy so if you give me a moment here oh I'll be ready to read some of your comments so if you're new to us would love to answer some of your questions the best that I can what we do is use uppercase or caps lock so that I can easily see your question kids voice happy to try to answer your questions and for this morning as a kind of an addition and I think I see already many of you are sharing your personal memories of where you were etc but maybe I'll try to repeat a few of those for those that can't see that live comments my feet are cold hang on perfect I got my bunny slippers on I'm ready to work with you here and I'm not sure if Jane the daughter of Rocky is with us or not this morning she thought maybe she would and if I happen to see Jane here I'll try to incorporate her somehow in this okay I'm scrolling back to some upper case and I'll try to keep this going for I don't know 10 15 minutes something like that and then if you want to take a walk we'll take a walk as well down in Salem Oregon we had to wear masks and change our air cleaners on cars every week Michael says the ash on my Portland roof tore the gutters off my house Paul did Mount Rainier do a similar thing or will it yes Paul there's evidence for pyroclastic flows ash fall volcanic mudflows with Mount Rainier dozens of times and there's a very real concern for something similar or dare I say it worse with Rainier in the future but we don't have the ability to forecast eruptions yet where was I I was back in Wisconsin about to graduate from high school had no interest in anything besides sports and girls why didn't more ash fall on craters of the moon got it what about Mount st. Helens got you interested in studying geology there's an article in the Yakama paper this morning that talks about our live streams by the way but also has a photo of me when I visited Mount st. Helens in 1983 and that was really an important afternoon for me to become interested in geology I just couldn't believe the devastation like everybody else that was my reaction and I went back to school I had taken a semester off of school I went back to the University of Wisconsin and took a geology 101 class specifically because of that experience I had three years after the fact obviously I wasn't in any harm but visiting that mountain in in the weeks and months and years after the event that also leaves a mark in your memory and for me I became very curious about Natural Science because of that afternoon and by the way in case you're unaware enrollments in geology departments across the country maybe around the world but especially in the u.s. the number of geology majors went way up in the 1980s because of Mount st. Helens and suddenly there's all these geologists and geology discussions in newspapers on TV and it became kind of a a galvanizing force so I guess I'm part of the group that became a geology major directly because of Mount st. Helens I took structural geology with 75 students and it's normally a class that has like less than 20 why wasn't there any lava Thank You Saab these cone volcanoes typically explode in Ashley deposits and pyroclastic flows and the lava is too sticky to flow away now that said there are stratovolcanoes and even st. Helens has had some lavas but not the typical orange Hawaiian like lavas that's that's mixing volcanic styles you're not alone to ask that question what did the explosion sound like I don't know Lorraine maybe somebody can comment on that here in the live stream I found other kind of footage of a videographer from Seattle who was trapped and was trying to escape and this guy was dark and he was still talking I almost included that but I thought it was a bit too intense for our young people but he heard you could hear this kind of thunderous kind of roar but I don't know anything beyond that muscle 7 8 3 says yes I'm here does that mean no if that's Jane you let us know what evidence did rocky used to predict the eruption that's a good question how can I paraphrase all of his work it was so remarkably symmetrical the mountain st. Helens cone that it looked fresh there hadn't been lots of erosive canyons cut into the flanks of the mountain indicating that this is a mountain that is particularly active and continues to rebuild those slopes on a regular basis what else in years before st. Helens that he used to predict its activity that's a very good question they didn't have the pretend they didn't have the precision to get repetitive dates and know that you know in the cycle we were close so I guess just the young look of the mountain that's a kind of a crappy answer it's a good question in the crappy answer a Jane that is you muscled seven eight three if that truly is you if you have questions for Jane please ask her specifically and I will try to I don't know I will try to figure out how to maybe I'll repeat a few of the questions for Jane and then keep my eye and see if Jane has a reply and so that's kind of fun how far did the ash travel as compared to Yellowstone supervolcano the astronaut st. Helens George did travel across the country of course the the ash got finer and finer and the ash layer-- got thinner and thinner but you can find st. Helens ash as far east as the Mississippi River drainage basically but compared to Yellowstone we had a supervolcano live stream or if you want to watch a lecture that I did in part of the downtown lecture series called super volcanoes and the Pacific Northwest I did my best to quantify how the amount of ash with this event although deadly was one one thousandth of the ash that's that's conservative by the way there were thousands of times the amount of ash from as yellowstone event so they're really not even in the same ballpark did many people suffer respiratory issues as a result of the eruption unaware of that Theresa maybe somebody can answer for you who remembers the specifics or maybe a health person or a nurse can type chime in do I have a quick explanation of how the eruption happened scientifically I really don't Andrew there are so many basic questions we have about magma systems and that was what the geologists were trying to do as you heard from Rocky's description there were there were understaffed they didn't have time to even reflect on all this data coming in and so to understand the crucial this leads to this leads to this leads to this we're still struggling with basic things and I'm saying we as geologists as a group you know that I don't do the research I'm not a volcano expert but those former students of mine that now are working at the Cascade volcano observatory they all have their specialization but we're still in the dark ages I don't think it's inappropriate to say that we're still in the dark ages as far as understanding volcanic systems and earthquakes and maybe that will upset some some scientists who've been devoting their life to it but we know a fraction of what we might eventually understand about volcanoes and earthquakes I have to show the slippers no I don't how far did the ash travel as compared you repeated your question I think I answered it now well people want to know about lava there's there's some sticky high silica lava that has grown in the crater since 1980 there were other big mushroom you like Ash events by the way all through the summer of 1980 into 1981 and that's kind of an afterthought to our discussion but and the lava dome building started up again 2004 to 2008 so if you're getting he's like I thought it wasn't that long ago I remember Mount st. Helens was doing some stuff yeah that was 2004 to 2008 Matt says my house in Southeast Portland had lots of ash on the roof and in the street thank you which is currently the most active volcano in Washington I guess st. Helens but I think what you're really saying is kind of which cone is most likely to erupt next and no way to answer that with any sort of data I'll try a few more here is the crater glacier still growing a new ice age seems interesting I knew the ice story seems interesting Carlson family yes we did a program on PBS a little feast a little five-minute short things called Nick on the rocks and the last one we did maybe the last one will ever do I don't know where we're not doing any of this year because of obvious reasons Chris smart front that I did the V AG refer Chris smart from central hooked up with a former student Angie Dieffenbach and they and Ben POC and they flew in on a beautiful Bluebird day in August I guess it was I was back in Wisconsin for personal reasons and Chris got some amazing hang on hang on this is worth it wait do I have it let me see if I have it first Chris smart from central yeah I do have it I'm not going to bother with the cozy for but let me give you some unedited raw footage I've got three clips we're just a few months ago Chris and Angie and Ben flew in Angie and Ben worked for the USGS they were installing some and monitoring some equipment but Chris was hanging out the side of the helicopter with his video with his video camera and here's a rare opportunity to fly into the crater of mount st. helens I'll show you three of these the last one has the crater glacier which is thriving and growing and that glacier is obviously brand new there was there was no crater before 1980 so there was no crater glacier before 1980 and of course people who are not believing in well let's not do that this is fun I hope you enjoy this [Music] and flying inside of the crater of mount st. helens looking inside of the mountain that was not exposed until 1980 I think it's fun to include that sound that's obviously the helicopter blades here's another one with some of the USGS folks working with their GPS receivers that are mounted inside of the crater on the lava dome [Music] that's lava that was active between 2004 and 2008 that's lava in the foreground not the orange stuff you're thinking of but it pushed up like toothpaste and then the last little rock lip that got me thinking about this was the right the Carlson family asking about the crater glacier I find this I did had no idea there was that much ice in it looks this beautiful inside [Laughter] all right well let me try to get back to the questions and we've got Jane's so maybe Jane is replying to you all or maybe I can help get a commitment it's a treat to have Rocky's daughter with us isn't it I say isn't it I don't know if I've scrolled back far enough but here we go how has the post eruption research improved our ability to predict eruptions thank you Tom former geology student at Central we're making progress you know what I mean by we I would say most of the progress has been on the technology side developing monitoring equipment that can gather a bunch more data than we had I said this in the akima paper this morning and it's just relaying from a couple of interviews I did long ago for television with a couple of the USGS guys if we had the technology back in 1980 that we do now David Johnson would not have had to be sitting there in that folding chair he was doing measurements between his chair and the face of the North Face of st. Helens and taking repeating his measurements to try to monitor how much the Bulge was moving and it was moving multiple feet per day by the way so it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out something major was about to happen but David and many of the other geologists don't have to be there now we have technology but as far as improving our ability to predict eruptions I don't see an improvement at all to be honest but I may be not reading the right stuff or listening to the right people my wife and I heard the boom while living in the tri-cities says Doug heard a loud thunder and Oregon coast says Stephen where dave says he worked for the city of Quincy we used rubber bits on our snow plows to move the ash off the streets that's interesting Collett Eames asked was there more than one kind of ash from Mount st. Helens well more than one kind of ash collect it's a good question if you are downwind from Mount st. Helens in other words to the east of Mount st. Helens you can find many layers of ash from different explosions of Mount st. Helens over the last few thousand and even million years and each layer of ash might look a little bit different or might be a little bit different in thickness but you can get chemical fingerprints from each volcanic ash layer and tie it to a particular mountain chemistry-wise but also where you are in the layering Colet but with the actual event of 1980 that main event made may 18th which we are remembering this morning 40 years ago this weekend I don't think the ash changed dramatically although now that I say that I think the ash initially was black and it became lighter gray as the day went on I think that's what I saw in one of those little Clips maybe somebody can can change me or so I'm trying to read it at the same time it may be somebody can correct me we got ash in southern Iowa says sue it was horrible says Tim you can see it hear it then feel it there were many booms James says you're welcome this has been awesome so Jane is I think maybe she is communicating I don't have the time to read each of these comments Crandall predicted Helens would erupt by the end of the 20th century that's correct maybe you joined us late we went through some of that ken remembers Jane's father rocky this is fun Slick Rick reports that his grandma lived in Walla Walla and sent me some ash in Mississippi lots of people thanking Jane for sharing her father's journals Nancy and John were in Troy they heard a sound it was a boom and our dog Troy Oregon sorry Troy Idaho excuse me I don't really know where Troy Idaho is it was a boom and our dogs responded prior to the sound thanks Jane for sharing materials with us living in the shadow of Mount Rainier says bird the tree how has monitoring and detection improved I don't have specifics or the time to get into the specifics even if I had them but new gizmos new technology new monitoring system new ways to collect information is coming from all angles lots of love here for Jane that's wonderful dargor DT says back in 1980 it wasn't possible to really predict when a volcano would blow the actual moment I mean has that changed in a good way how good other predictions if you hear somebody predicting an earthquake or a volcanic eruption down to a day you're not listening to a science person that's it we're way away from that we maybe never will get there so there's an edge right now because there are people who are quote unquote predicting events let's not go there couple more and then we'll take a walk how about it's still sunny outside Daniel do you think when Mount Rainier erupts it will or will not be as bad as Mount st. Helens we don't know that Daniel the geologists are very concerned about Mount Rainier they're concerned about each of the volcanoes Daniel and I don't know where you live and I don't want to upset you but there are smart people who are working as hard as they can to keep track of what's going on with these mountains and it's not a guarantee but the annual it's quite common for these mountains to have small events leading up towards a big event and the small events are not harmful that's what we were just discussing with Rocky's activities he was here working around the clock yeah weeks before the main event and so if you're worried about your mountain first of all do you know that the mountain is a volcano if it is and you can see the volcano from your house then it's smart for you and your family to learn as much as you can about what geologists know about the mountain but I want you to know that we don't know everything but we're working as hard as we can to keep everybody safe Joanie says we're at respiratory issues in those exploring the lake area later Erika in Yakima we ended up with an ash pile from our driveway that was approximately six feet tall by 15 feet long Wow has it Chesterfield Park that has how much ash beneath those soccer fields they created a city park in Yakima basically after dumping all the N and the ash doesn't melt you got to put it somewhere so Yakima decided by 40th there to just dump it all in one spot as I understand it and make a park where our kids used to play soccer most of you asking about monitoring and I've given you the best I can add answer they're three Warren were done komo-tv in Seattle has footage of a cameraman trying to get away from the eruption he made it out luckily thank you Bruce yeah I I chose not to show that one I'm you know I'm not a role model or anything but I thought that would be too much for the kids but it's there I simply just went in YouTube I just simply searched 1980 mount st. Helens news casts or news reports or something and there's tons of stuff and I saw some of you are talking about Jeff Renner who used to work for King 5 and Renner has a little interview with Dave Johnston and I think it's a brand new thing they posted just yesterday with Jeff Renner remembering his experiences and they had a hella nice helicopter come down on a a car that they found in the blast zone and the driver was still in the driver's seat again my choice is not to include those Evelynn 87 what did the CW geologists do before or during the eruption this is before I was working here Evelyn Don ring told the story that he was doing a field camp down in eastern California so many of the geology students here at my school were actually in California and Don who was a former neighbor he passed away a couple of years ago remembers kind of talking to his family on the phone it's like boy how are we gonna get home and there his his memory was more like I wonder how much jeopardy my family's in and one of those clips was kind of reminding us of that that people the uncertainty of it and not knowing how much risk you were dealing with let's say the next day or the the next week you know we can relate to that right now how much danger my really in how carefully am i listening to all these suggestions why do I get conflicting information about what they should be doing weird parallels to right now isn't there Oscar asks how much ash did Ellensburg get well let me show you let me show you how scre so I got to get out of my bunny slippers if you let me do a formal goodbye to everybody in case you want to take off I'm done with what I had to share with you although I want to show you in case you're interested in coming back since we had a big number today I will see you next with a live stream Tuesday night Pacific time 6 p.m. talking about these things called slow earthquakes also known as episodic tremor and events they're fascinating and I hope that you'll enjoy that program we'll come back to the Cascades and do more with Jane's father and his papers and go to other volcanoes besides Mount st. Helens on Wednesday night Thursday night we'll go to a valley that's west of Yakima where the Titan andesite is a lava flow that came from the Cascades did float almost to the Fred Meyer in Yakima almost to that Park with all the months in Amazonas and then Saturday morning 9 a.m. hotspot volcanism and Sunday morning 9 a.m. Bing Crosby geology that sounds weird and as a special thank you to sticking around this long this little one sentence summary of what he did on May 18th 1980 May 19th 1980 talked to the President of the United States may 21st 1980 thanks for joining us a toast to you here's to you and your health especially as we think back to that terrible morning for many on May 18 1980 but also as we think about this event we're dealing with right now that will also be talked about in the history books for many decades to come here's to your health the health of your family and friends near and far and a special toast to those who continue to work with volcano research and hoping that we can continue to build on the very important work of rocky Crandall Donnell Mullen all and others goodbye from Ellensburg Washington USA thank you for joining us I love you goodbye okay you got to give me a few minutes now we're gonna walk up and try to find some mount st. helens ash but to do that I need to convert over to data I need to get the gizmo hooked up get the bluetooth synched up so I think I'm gonna freeze for a little bit in other words my my frame is going to freeze but I think I won't kill the live stream and then we'll take a little walk I'm thinking this is going to be another 15 20 minutes so it's up to you you got time I should close these windows I was told not to videotape the inside of our house too much so I do as I'm told all right I was just gonna bring an umbrella but I don't think I need to do that I'm gonna bring this little tool to get us up there maybe I should bring my Mead spiral notebook I could be like rocky Crandall 2.0 which means I'm gonna lose a wireless so you're gonna go away for just a sec up wild life you're gonna go home for justice gonna go away for just a second okay I'll be right back hopefully I would get to that hang on hang on I think I'm back I think I'm using data but I'm not sure I got the Bluetooth thing set up properly no I don't I got a I got a connect the Bluetooth thing I got to go away again hang on hey you want to go inside come on come on you go inside all right thank you for your patience daddy had a little problem mentally I couldn't remember how to get it to my apps to connect the Bluetooth with the with the gizmo but I think I got it and I'm pretty sure I'm data we're down to 800 people and I understand why so let me deal you're gonna hurl now finally okay we got 800 people we got our thing we're walking I can't believe how much the skies have cleared up it's like it was meant to be or something let's go a different way I don't we're not gonna see the stuarts anyway yeah maybe we are we'll go right up the middle of the road social distancing at all you know hey guys I think you've been on camera once before this is this is embarrassing Thanks no Mount Stewart today if you're not sure what we're doing we're walking up to the top of this little hill I call it Craig's Hill in my neighborhood in Ellensburg it'll be a nice little cherry on the top wouldn't it to see some of the fine ash that fell out of the sky on the exact morning that we've been talking about today Steve Moe doing his reading well we're gaining people I'll never understand that part I'm not arguing but I just don't get why people like why the numbers grow and then they go down another back down okay I'll just stop talking you know this live streaming is an interesting there's many things to experiment with things that I'm learning obviously the technology part of it I don't think I had my data roaming on I think my data roaming is on now we back you know when you talk live to a group if you have a lot of practice you can you can easily tell how things are going and if everybody is asleep if everybody you know if the energy is low you just kind of I don't know drink water out of a bottle of gin and everybody starts laughing and and and there are those magical moments where you're just the energy is just so perfect in the room you could just hear a pin drop basically and you know it's working quite well I say all that to say that with these live streams you're left with one you know you only have one choice you just plow ahead like you have no real idea if it's going well or not or how to pick when I should pick up the pace or slow it down or whatever and then just giving you a little insight here and then if you do try to get some feedback on how things are going and you start glancing at a few comments as you're talking of course you see stuff like you're out of focus and you know this all this stuff and as you're talking and trying to concentrate you all you can think of is just like being in a live room and people are just yelling out stuff like don't walk over there it's just super distracting is my point so malankov it's yesterday I was pleased with it mainly because it seemed rather coherent and I didn't do a terrible mistake in there and to my knowledge and this morning honestly to have no idea if people are pleased or not so you just kind of learn as you go nice to be walking with you this morning for those that have been trapped hopefully this feels in a weird way like some sort of walk in the neighborhood and this is public this is a public little spot I suppose if you want to drive over here to Ellensburg and see this st. Helens ash for yourself starting to get a few too many people dropping in at the house you know I knew it was kind of risky I guess to be sharing so much but so far nobody's really crossed the line you know in a way so I'll just hope that that doesn't become a major problem pretty obvious where I live now and that sort of thing but people have been very respectful to this point so if you took this walk with this last time and you don't recognize what's going on we're just walking up the other side because they don't think the views are as nice as they were that evening what was that couple weeks ago we did that I was really surprised at how many people were just over the moon about that middle ash that wasn't even the plan thank you know what there is a nice view of the green canyon notch okay I got a little homework for you if you haven't you might watch the Ellensburg blue agate show it's one of the first lime trees we did of course I did I still haven't learned how to zoom but you can see the green canyon knots pretty well yeah I forgot about that so do you see there that's the green canyon knotch where a river used to flow from Liberty remember Liberty Gold and Rob repens mine is on the other side of that Ridge and so there used to be a river that flowed through that notch and brought blue agates Edward I don't know how to zoom and as I mentioned before the rodeo grounds is right beneath this and the American Legion building everybody needs zoom yeah well you know what okay so here's our landmark the water tower on top of Craig's Hill we've got one lonely one lonely guy in a red truck hopefully we're not doing something completely illegal I'll get all nervous he's just remembering the good times so in case you're unaware actually reading the newspaper that's an old guy move let's see what's in the news of the world let's open the newspaper if it's unaware if you're unaware we had so much ash in the sky here in Ellensburg that by noon of that day 40 years ago it was black it was dark the street lights were on and it wasn't just Ellensburg of course it was most of the communities in Eastern Washington and so over the years I've gotten photos that people took from Craig's Hill here from this neighborhood on May 18th and how it was dark all day and then by Monday May 19th this guy's had mostly cleared and what was left was this layer of fine volcanic ash so this is a long way to answer the person's question whoever it was how much ash did we get in Ellensburg the answer is about a quarter of an inch of fine ash and the ashes is our destination here you know when I cut you off last time we were up here I was laying in the bushes and that got up you know I died I dented the live stream and boy Menashe - ridge and the yakima canyon was so perfect I was like wow why did I turn what did i end the feed it was so beautiful and the light of course is not much this morning but I'll kind of show you at least the vantage point that this is maybe as good as anything so now you're looking south oh you're looking south towards Menashe - ridge and the Yakima River can't screw it we're getting off-kilter here a little bit okay we're here we're here see if you want to come up and look for yourself you head to the water tower and then you head up a little higher yeah I'm taking you off the gizmo right now hold you steady while power the gizmo down he tells himself remember the gizmo don't forget the gizmo all right well we have different lighting conditions here tonight so maybe that's what I'll start with for those that were up here with us before this is a look off to the northwest and look at all that tan in the lower left that's all loose l OE SS loose windblown silt kitchen flour that has been deposited here in this valley for thousands of years and the shock for many of you is that there's a bunch of this tan Loess sitting on top of the 1980 on saying technology problems but I'm gonna leave it to you guys to figure that out I'm on data and I'm off the gizmo and let's head over here see if the Lighting's any better that it or any different than it was last time so here's the the old railroad right-of-way and the guy where they were the kids do their dirt biking and we're looking to the east now this is the Milwaukee Road that came from Chicago all the way to Seattle got pushed through here and here's folks out for a Sunday morning walk technically State Park land but here we go oh yeah yeah yeah yeah this is better look at that it's an incredible amount of loose one just hold hold this as steady as I can right now and now he wonders can i zoom with my fingers like I'm using my iPhone camera and the answer is yes so I go down on one knee to propose to you - steady things can you see this I should have done my homework that had that ash bit can you see that ash layer that faintly are avast there's even a little notch in the cliff that's not 1980 mount st. Helens but that is an ash bed ash fell out of the sky from a cascade volcano presumably tens of thousands of years ago but I sorry maybe we will do a little field trip here and fight if I take the time to learn what we've figured out about that but that's not why we're here we're here to go back up towards the top of this little tan cliff and I'll show you where we sampled the ash before the 1980 ash now I'm gonna give you context I'm gonna come in you can see the bush in the upper left I'm holding this as steady as I can the bush in the upper left got it and then to the lower right just past the shadow I've got it centered in your frame right now that's the 1980 - oh you can hear the dog down there in the trailer park Wow see where we're headed Nick on the loose do you sell now that was unprofessional I thought you a role model for the kids swallows have been enjoying this okay let's go over I got to push myself up st. helens ash from 1980 ash bed from tens of thousands of years ago maybe thousands of years ago all right let's go over there I don't know if I'm going to land my belly again maybe I can come in this way the lights pick better this way gizmo into the grass don't forget the gizmo I'm gonna come in this way this time this gives you a little context here's some kind of wet - it's been raining this morning we need to get that dry stuff okay he's down on his belly again folks I'm coming at it from the other angle here this morning - knees straddling the loose like a boss right between the eyes I I need a third hand here I need a third hand to kind of get in here and rub this stuff around I can't do it can't do it how close can I get as for st. Helens 1980 and I hope you can see that there's at least 12 inches of loose on top of the ash mommy what's that man doing up there on the top of the cliff is that legal Starsky and Hutch roll the shot I showed you last time was our layer of ash which you can kind of see with 12 inches of Lists sitting on top okay I think you've got it I bid you a fond farewell I bid you a fond farewell this morning from Ellensburg Washington I genuinely appreciate you joining us this morning and all these live streams I'm have you been here pretty much every time we've had one of these I'm still going week to week I don't know how much longer we'll be doing these but each weekend I say well what can I do the following week and some of you have been sending in some ideas and some of them I actually like and so we'll just continue to roll that way peace out thanks for joining us Mount Saint Helens Jane Crandall we salute all of you have a nice day we'll see you Tuesday night I love you goodbye

Channel: Nick Zentner

Views: 31,238

Keywords: Nick From Home, Nick Zentner, Mt St Helens, 1980, 40th Anniversary, David Johnston, Dwight Crandell, Rocky Crandell

Id: HADlPSzCnVc

Length: 121min 8sec (7268 seconds)

Published: Sun May 17 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/KingIbexx]

I really like his videos. : )

[u/rockenthusiast1]

I love his sense of humanity. It is great at these times