Mount St. Helens 40th Anniversary

[Music] a fateful day in just 32 minutes it will be exactly 40 years since one of the most destructive natural disasters in our state's history on this day back in 1980 at 8:30 2:00 in the morning Mount st. Helens erupted it would quickly become the deadliest volcanic eruption in US history killing 57 people and causing 1 billion dollars in damage this morning 40 years ago later we are looking at Mount st. Helens the top 1,400 feet of what was the mountain is no longer there it was completely blown off and right after that eruption 40 years ago he really wouldn't have seen much that's because ash spewed ten miles into the air and it blanketed the northwest stretching to 11 States and Canada good morning and welcome to this special edition of King five mornings Mount st. Helens 40 years later I'm Amy Jang and I'm Jake Wittenberg this morning we are going to look back at that fateful day 40 years ago this morning and right in here at the bottom of your screen we have a countdown clock to the exact moment when mount st. Helens erupted back in 1980 and we have team coverage of what happened then and the four decades sense with our rich Marriott who was just on the mountain just before the rumbling began he has a great story to tell Glenn Farley and Michael crow also rounding out our coverage this morning we'll also have a look at what the mountain looks like today and how coronavirus is impacting a key institute up at mount st. helens this morning King 5 news was extensively involved in all of the coverage leading up to the eruption and everything after our Glenn Farley takes a look back at her coverage before and after that fateful day King five journalists were deeply involved in the Mount st. Helens story from the build-up to the eruption the day of the eruption and the aftermath and it was all summed up in this definitive documentary no magma has yet come to the surface but this means that it is heating up and so magma conceivably is rising the in combination with the seismic precursors we've seen it looks like there's a very good chance that there will be interrupts [Music] but geologists knew it was coming something but no one expected what happened at 8:30 to Sunday morning May 18th 1980 the mountain blew up [Music] the scale of it all was simply a stone it was a human disaster an early count placed the dead at 25 with 40 missing far more needed evacuation rescuers quickly became heroes these were the folks that survived the blast but they weren't out of danger the mud was coming [Music] the snow and glaciers on top of the mountain melted combined with the ash to form dreaded lahars mud flows that would extend this disaster miles and miles away from the mountain itself the world turned black and white even on color film lahars would tear a few logging camps leading to flooding sweeping away homes I had made up my mind I was gonna make it with the wife and my friend wanted to give up and I couldn't turn just I don't know it's hard for me to even realize what has happened and it wasn't over the mushroom cloud of Ash and black smoke soared 10 miles above the Cascades in the city's east of the mountain the Sun was snuffed out as ash fell like snow but even as many found rescue the disaster was far from over dawn on Monday broke like the first day on a strange new planet up the Toutle River Valley the destruction was complete 40 years ago they wore masks too but for a different reason for much of the state ash was everywhere brilliant good here the ash had to be shoveled like snow it wasn't going to melt we left with the fits on her back I could get back in it was as scary as scary gets because you didn't know what was coming out of the sky you couldn't see it was hard to breathe the kids were crying saying daddy are we gonna be alright the mud now stopped set like wet concrete President Jimmy Carter came to see for himself somebody said it looked like a moonscape but the moon looks like a golf course compared to well compared to what's up there and still the mountain boiled it would erupt twice again in the next month showering ash over Portland and Olympia Washington but this eruption this blast the equal of a 50-megaton bomb was the most dramatic in at least 500 years there are five volcanoes in Washington State Mount Saint Helens is just one of them the question when is the next eruption at Mount st. Helens Glenn Farley King 5 news we have the entire 30 plus minute documentary Glen just showed us on our YouTube page for a link to it you can text the word Helens to 206 4 4 8 4 5 4 5 our meteorologists rich Marriott joining us now rich you were a big part of everything leading up to the event you were of course around when all this happened take us back to the moments before you were a meteorology meteorologist for the u.s. Forest Service Avalanche Center and you were on the mountain before all this happened take us take us back to that day yeah well actually quite a while before it happened Jake because that winter the Forest Service is looking at increasing the cross-country skiing around Spirit Lake and maybe developing more trails there and so they asked us to come in that winter and evaluate what the avalanche danger is gonna be and look more closely at the weather forecast for because that's what we did we work out of the National Weather Service office and it was just it was a really popular place take a look back this is that this picture was taken the fall before not in 78 actually but I mean it was just such a spectacular place it was so beautiful and so people were easily drawn to its a bit of a halt to get there but just was a gorgeous place and especially in the wintertime it was perfect for cross-country skiing they'd already started to lay in some tracks just to kind of test it out and so we had already been there through much of the winter off and on going down and checking things I was checked on who was the snow Ranger for the Forest Service then checking out Spirit Lake itself for skiing we put in a snow study plot that was there and we also put in more weather instruments and hired a weather observer for that winter who was down there in Spirit Lake she actually lived next door to Harry Truman and she was taking weather observations we kind of build up some background history on what was like there so this all led up to the March 16th this is I'm the first one on the left my partner in the Avalanche Center is the is Mark Moore there in the blue and so we were down there frequently during the winter just checking out what was going on when the first earthquakes occurred around March 16th it shook the mountain and as you might imagine the snowpack on there we started seeing avalanches in place you didn't ordinarily see avalanches and so this is some pictures right after those first shakes took place we saw more of the so part of our job was the forecast both the weather and also the avalanche danger for the scientists working inside of the red zone you can see we worked pretty close to where the mountain was and we continued to monitor the situation and both within the snowpack and watching that bulge build on the north side of the mountain we became concerned enough when we got up to about the first part of May that we started to worry about our observer there in Spirit Lake and we actually went in and decided on the 8th of May that we had to take her out this is kind of like what it looked like at that point that snow had become quite dirty from the ash coming out of the mountain so we went back to her and went and took her out of there out of the Spirit Lake Lodge area there it's an older shop from there when it was much much snow year and so we went picked her up and we decided she wanted to go up and make one last look at the mountain so we went up to the top of the Timberline loop road and Satre and watched the Sun set on the mountain there on this was on the 8th of May we went back down and she want to say goodbye to Harry Truman so we got to go over and spend about an hour and a half with Harry Truman and meet all of his cats he kept and we also we're asking about why aren't you concerned about the mountain coming guys they had no concerns I mean he was a cantankerous guy for sure and he said there was a cave he had a cave on the other side of the lake they had supplies in there and he had a speedboat and if it started to erupt he was gonna jump in the speedboat go across the lake and he said he was good for a month there with the supplies obviously he didn't make it but that was a interesting experience and then ten days later there was a huge explosion which actually I was at home in Greenwood would that happen and then I went back down and I was in on the rescue flights and got to see firsthand the transformation of that area from this beautiful pristine wilderness to this gorgeous - this just moonscape so we'll take a look at that coming up in our next half hour Jake yeah such an interesting story I love hearing your harry truman's story rich thank you will hear more about Harry in the next half hour and all morning long we're gonna look back on this 40 years since the eruption with the help of you at home what a lot of memories coming in this morning like this one from Sean Austin who wrote to us and said here's a photo of a state trooper not long after the eruption all covered in dust seeing a lot of photos from Central Washington as well this one more recent from just a few days ago actually May 9th thanks to Greg Snyder who sent this photo from Elk Rock viewpoint one of the few spots you can see the inside there of the volcano also one more from Jane Dilbeck chouette ash on a car in Moses Lake these are just a few of the many memories we've been getting from you all morning and all week you can send in your photos anytime to our Facebook page thousands you have already joined in we'll continue to share them on air well right now we are only about 21 minutes until 8:30 - which is the exact time the mountain erupted 40 years ago coming up next you'll learn about a man who was on Mount st. Helens to warn the rest of us David said we're essentially sitting next to a keg of dynamite that the fuse is lit but we don't know how long that fuse is well tell you about the scientists who told the world what was happening the day of the eruption we'll be right back you [Music] this morning we are remembering those who lost their lives when Mount st. Helens erupted 40 years ago right now you'll learn about a man who was on the mountain to warn the rest of us King fives Glenn Farley talks to two people who knew him well and one who used to work right here at King five the pictures can only suggest the power of that eruption captured on a clear sunny Sunday morning of May 18 1980 the top 1,400 feet of the mountain blown off that explosion prompting perhaps the most famous last words said in the Pacific Northwest Vancouver Vancouver this is it this is the man who said those words trying to provide the warning to the rest of us 40 years ago David Johnston scientist David and I were standing on a mountain ridge doing an interview and David said we're essentially sitting next to a keg of dynamite he said the fuse is lit but we don't know how long that fuse is Jeff runner retired four years ago was King fives meteorologist but in 1980 he was the station's science reporter reporting live from st. Helens even from the inside of a camera it's because the weather here is so very stormy located in what would become known as the blast zone on the north side of mount st. Helens he had met Johnston two years earlier if we were to stand here when that went off we would surely die well he was right well obviously we didn't know ultimately what would happen we knew it was a very hazardous place in fact we had a station at Spirit Lake that had to be serviced every five days and we knew that was too dangerous Steve Malone is now a professor emeritus at the University of Washington at one point Johnston was his student this is a this is Malone 40 years ago his hair darker he's a seismologist studying earthquakes Johnston specialized in volcanoes earthquakes are precursors to eruptions and the two remain connected during the emergency for months thousands small quakes had shaken the ground under mount st. Helens indicating molten rock was on the move there's all these earthquakes going on as the ground tremble as the north side of the mountain bulged out as property-owners hung out at roadblocks allowed to check on their cabins and homes just a day before the eruption but nobody knew was the trigger point and everybody was tired of waiting Renner photographer Mark Anderson and engineer Mike Carter came home on Thursday for good reason it was Carter's wedding anniversary had you stayed what would have happened I wouldn't be talking to you today we were camped I believe the name of the small Ridge or Knob as it were was spud mountain and it was directly within the blast zone to the north of the volcano we first started out camping in a camper trailer and then we moved into a tent so that we could get even closer on Friday Malone flew over a camper where David Johnston was staying to monitor the mountain for signs of trouble I was installing two stations on May 16th one at Elk Rock to the west and another one at a site called SOS just near Timberline and flying in the helicopter across there I could look over and see the camper that was up on Coldwater Ridge there may also be some changes in the road blocks in this area at least if local merchants have their say another trip for cabin owners was planned for Sunday morning Renner says had the eruption come an hour later instead of 57 dead it could have been hundreds the eruption began at 8:30 2:00 in the morning did you think of David that morning oh yeah oh yeah very early on when I heard how big it was that was one of the first thoughts not knowing and then probably late in the morning when the word was coming in that the devastation area was huge it started to sink yeah David Johnston was literally blasted off the mountain ridge that he was on and his body was never found renner and the king team flew back to their old camping site to find this Datsun b210 the driver still at the wheel and I asked our helicopter pilot Bob Wright to set us down I just needed for a sense of closure to see what had happened to this person and all I'll say is that if you had experienced the heat of that blast it was not a pleasant sight but it firmly implanted in my mind to this day how close I came how close mark came how close Mike Carter came and the fact that we didn't told me that I had to make good advantage I had to take good advantage of the time that was given to me because that was my view that as a gift not everybody got that that day you could feel the palpable despondency the sadness the we weren't able to do what we hoped we could do by anticipating hours or a day ahead something big Johnson was heard over the radio that Sunday morning alerting his colleagues in the final seconds of his life Vancouver Vancouver this is it story just gives me chills King fives Glenn Farley joining us now live this morning and Glen you have reported on this for decades we've had many conversations about it earthquakes were a key indicator something was going to happen right yeah and the thing about it when we thought could talk about earthquakes is a safety type deal to prepare for we're usually talking about something large something that can shake your house that can cause damage things like that but the key indicator here in these volcanoes are these little often itty bitty sub magnitude 1 earthquakes that they start to pick up on deep underground and that's what tells you that something is starting to stir we saw that again when there was another eruption that started in 2004 what's called a dome building eruption we saw just not just a few of these earthquakes but it just build up into thousands and then tens of thousands these really small events in this blast changed the way that we look at active volcanoes forever the equipment much different then than it is now what did scientists have to work with back then well it was interesting and talking to Steve Malone for example he said you know the stuff we had back then was state-of-the-art now there wasn't the kind of monitoring on the volcanoes that there is now because the Cascade oh count the Cascades Volcano Observatory in Vancouver was not established then under the US Geological Survey but it is now there is monitoring that is something we're getting into it's 6:30 tonight but there is much better equipment really even since 2004 yeah and also go on before you go we've heard so much discussion about the mount st. Helens bulge can you explain what that bulge is and why was so it's significant I think there's a we think about mountains these kinds of volcanoes just being solid rock and the fact is they're not from what the scientists say it's really kind of a collection it's almost like a garbage pile of ash and stone and stuff and the north side of that was weaker so as the magma was being forced into the mountain itself that was the weakest part of it and that started to push out push out as much as about three to six feet a day and that's the thing that they were watching very closely and it was a 5.0 earthquake again not that big but bigger than what they'd seen that got that explosion and the debris avalanche and everything going yeah I'm big enough delenn-- Farley thank you so much for your work on this super interesting stuff on this somber anniversary thanks Glen at the bottom right hand corner of your screen right now we've got a countdown clock to the exact moment 40 years ago today when mount st. Helens erupted and here's a live look this morning and what the mountain looks like from Sky King coming up next we'll talk with one King 5 news photographer who got an up-close view of the devastating eruption a king photographer camped out near Mount st. Helens for weeks before the eruption to bring viewers the latest photos in information mark Anderson joins us live now and Mark you've got an incredible story I mean you were right there at the mountain you had left and gone home so tell me your reaction when you found out that Mount st. Helens erupted and you were this close to being there good morning Mimi well you know the first thing is I was just totally amazed that it had happened we we knew something was going to happen but to be gone away from the mountain when it did happen it just was a very humbling experience for me we know that you were in a chopper for King five just hours after the eruption and what you saw was pretty incredible we will get back to you in our next half-hour and hear more from you about that because your story is just really just gives me chills we're so glad that you're here to tell us this story stick around we'll talk with you again coming up in our next half hour thanks mark and still to come it is just a few minutes away from 8:32 we are counting down to the very moment that mount st. Helens erupted 40 years ago today stay with us we'll be right back you're looking at some of the only footage of the exact moment mount st. Helens erupted 40 years ago today it's short it's grainy but remember back then there weren't any cell phones or easy ways to record video and no one really knew the exact moment the mountain might explode let's take you live to Sky King and you can see what the area looks like today that giant crater of Mount st. Helens it's amazing after 40 years how much has grown back how much life has come back but the eruption still left its mark and right now on the bottom right corner of your screen you can see we've got a countdown clock to the exact moment when the eruption happened in 1980 and maybe just under two minutes now until that fateful moment when all of it happened in all morning we have team coverage of what happened then and the four decades sense with rich Marriott Glenn Farley in our Michael crow and they're still more to come and as we wait for those last few moments let's take a look back at what exactly led up to the disaster 40 years ago here's Vanessa misciagna March 16th 1980 100 earthquakes are recorded in one week this is considered the first sign of activity 11 days later a small burst of steam the first in over a hundred years the following days until April 3rd smaller eruptions begin to happen plumes of steam and ash explode out reaching 20,000 feet into the air April 8th a series of explosions that lasted for four hours the longest since the mountain had come back to life later that month April 22nd the eruption slowed down from about one per hour and March to about one per day small eruptions continued as do the earthquakes as we near May 18 in this time on the North flank of the mountain a bulge begins forming growing some six feet every day we now know this was magma rising high into the volcano then on May 18th 1980 a Sunday at 8:32 a.m. a 5.1 magnitude quake strikes the volcano erupts causing a landslide and pushing out debris at over 300 miles per hour within 15 minutes of the eruption smoke and ash rise 15 miles into the air the eruption devastates an area of approximately 370 miles in the inner zone of the eruption which extends for about six miles there virtually no trees left only scorched earth and we are now at that moment maybe the exact minute on your clock reaching that 40-year moment 8:32 a.m. Pacific time when Mount st. Helens erupted on the left side of your screen here you can see the eruption that massive massive landslide there that followed as well and live Sky King up this morning maybe and I just can't help but think as we hear all these stories from King five viewers in the past those who worked who were there at the time just kind of gives you chills to think of the magnitude of this event I mean an event 500 times the energy of an atomic bomb I mean it's something 40 years ago then that still makes you just breaching chills today yeah so many people posting on our Facebook page their memories of that day I was four years old living in Puyallup at the time really too young to remember anything that happened but I asked some viewers on Facebook you know what do you remember and people remember waking up and not hearing any birds outside some people looked out their windows and thought it was snowing because the ash was coming down and other people felt you know this the small shake or shock or earthquake in in their neighborhood so many people remembering this day forty years ago and when you go back to Mount Saint Helens and you stand there you just can't believe what happens it's so the magnitude is so great and one of the people that we always look to who still works here at King five it's rich Marriott who has his own experience of that day and so rich as we you know look back 40 years ago it's hard to believe that it's been 40 years you were working for the u.s. Forest Service Avalanche Center and so you were very familiar with the mountain before the blast and of course after everything happened and watching mother nature come back in places the mountain will never be the same again and that area the devastation that happened there's there's still that evidence of that right oh yeah they're definitely the evidence it's though it's in fact I was talking to Jake about this yesterday though it's tragic to see such a beautiful place transformed into a moonscape to have the opportunity to watch that come back and see it be reborn and rebuild as we've seen over the last 40 years is really a gift I mean this isn't something a lot of people get to see and we living in the northwest we have gotten to see it as I was talking about in the earlier segment we were have been down there during the winter looking at the area for the potential putting in more cross-country ski trails so we had already been down there taking observations and such so fortunate wasn't there the day of the explosion but we got called back we worked in the weather service office and a group of weather service people and I and Mark Moore who is my partner of the Avalanche Center went down to work on the rescue missions they were looking for eyes basically to look out of the helicopters and look for survivors and done search and rescue take a look at that group that came down from the Weather Service so you can see the ash on the vehicles they're coming down we can't you can see that it's a motley group for sure this was I think there was before we actually got into the helicopters and headed out we were in depth you can see the Toutle Airport was just obviously with rescue helicopters we were flying and a two-bladed Chinook we kept the rear door open so we had more visibility and everybody was crowded in they were looking out the windows looking for the possibility of finding survivors first damages ours we flew up the Toutle that day and this was about four days after the eruption when the weather finally began to improve it kind of tanked right after the eruption we started to see the effects of the flooding school buses trapped in there then we started to see the effects of the blast wave as we got closer to the ash was everywhere as we got closer to the mountain trees down on cars vehicles on the roads just timber down forever and keep in mind that I've been there 10 days before two weeks before it was looking you know it was just this pristine beautiful forest that we had to look at but it had been turned into a moonscape with fumaroles and steam vents it was just an amazing time for sure and we're still eruptions going on in fact our helicopter pilot had to dive behind a ridge one time when this one went off because we didn't know exactly what the mountain when it's gonna do and then we were confronted by Spirit Lake which was just totally covered in those logs when we came back from that first mission NBC have just come out Chris Wallace who worked from them at that point came out was looking for somebody who knew the area to fly with him just to fly around for two hours and look at whatever we wanted and I cheered and he chose me and we took off and here's a little clip from our flight that day four days after the big explosion really is something other worldly it definitely is I see something I don't know if people have ever seen anything like this possibly sign it's in some remote area but to be here in an area where a lot of people have spent time where people have lived and worked it's just amazing to see 70 nature new this it was just it was we were when we were flying the rescue missions were flying grid we weren't supposed to go off them this was a case where that looks interesting you could fly there fortunately we we didn't find any any but unfortunately did find survivors fortune we didn't find any bodies but it was just it was an amazing time to to be there and see this transformation and it was just it was either we'll only box of ice the size of houses laying on top of that was left of the glaciers had been blown off the mountain it was truly an amazing experience to see that transformation and and to see the transformation in the last 40 years as we watched it all come back Jake and me me and slide unbelievable rich I love here and you tell the story and I always loved seeing that video of you all bearded up and you said a message back in the day my other line loved it yeah nothing about that stuff yeah thanks buddy all right so also right now we want to bring in Mount Saint Helens Institute's executive director ray your covets this morning ray can you hear us I get here you all right good I can hear you too so first this morning on this 40th anniversary your thoughts about all that's happened since then and just the way that this changed the world forever in a lot of ways well it sure did first thanks for having me on this morning I've worked at mountain house for 13 years and of course I wasn't there before 1980 but I think it's such an interesting place of both loss for many people but also a landscape which is reborn in such a new way and you know life is persistence life is resilient and we've seen that since 1980 and the stories around life that are returning continue to evolve over time you know we've seen mountain goats show up there's 400 mountain tops a hell is now and they were just a handful before the eruption of course they're all eradicated during the eruption there's just so many compelling stories and you know this is interrupted time and time again over the course of history and you know like the college people know that they've lived I don't know ask a four thousand years so it's just a landscape which it's hard to put some of these emotions together the loss the renewal the scale of the place both in terms of time as well as just the enormity of the volcano and the crater so it's a really such a compelling landscape that draws people in and allows us to take away connection to science to the outdoors the public land that makes us ask questions and think critically so I think it's really important landscape in so many different ways yeah I just love the way that you said that to being reborn that is so true real quick I just want to also ask you about your fundraiser for the Institute over the weekend you had Bill Nye the Science Guy in this virtual event how did that go did you reach your fundraising goal pretty well it was great for the hell of it of the Institute a lot of fun talking with him you know we just have some really significant challenges all of our programming for pretty much the entire year has changed we can't do what we were doing before we're really relying upon getting people up to Mach to Helens experience and landscape firsthand there's no substitute for that and of course we can't do that right and who knows when we're going to be able to bring kids back up for outdoor school their classes it's clear that we're gonna be able to do that safely so you know we've had to think about how to retool and how to evolve and you know support from donors allows us to do that in its near term but also really get through this so on the other end of this we can bring people back to mouth they haven't really experienced all that have to offer have yeah I know that you do do so many great things up there with the Mount st. Helens Institute another disaster had to get in the way but will get us all back up there again right you're convinced thanks so much for being with us we look forward to hearing from you throughout the day all right take care thank you so many of you have shared your memories of the Mount st. Helens eruption with us on social media and we will just want to share a few of them with you right now Jackie crow flew over the mountain on may 17 1980 so a day before the eruption you can see in this photo the top is all in tact and then this photo from David volts showing that he still has ash from the eruption in a jar so continue sharing your memories with us your photos or videos if you have them on our King 5 Facebook page we'll be right back we want to continue our conversation with King photographer Mark Anderson now who was the very first photographer to fly over the devastation after the Mount st. Helens eruption so mark in our last half-hour we heard from you about how you were at the mountain station they're covering it for weeks leading up to the eruption you actually left and just narrowly missed being there at the time of the eruption then you got into a chopper right a helicopter to fly over it and you covered this this the the aftermath of the eruption you know before we had cell phones and Wi-Fi signals so tell us what it was like to cover such a huge event like that all the way back then well our normal way of communicating was with FM radios and landlines all remember landlines but as we flew down early that morning after the eruption first thing that I saw was the Toutle River all of a sudden it was full of logs and then as we continued on up the mountain towards the mountain all of this hot ash that had been deposited and and so once we got to the ash area as we continued on to towards the mountain that's when we started to see all of this hot mud coming down and it was it was something that shocked us all Jeff and and Bob our pilot I think we were all just amazed at the damage it looked like you're on the moon so then as we continued our survey as we headed now back down away from the the mountain scene the homes and the the logging camp that had been destroyed and the bridge that had been torn apart it was just truly truly something that I never thought I would see well you guys have been covering the impending eruption we knew that they was coming did you have any idea that it would look like this the aftermath would be like this oh heavens no you know Jeff and I were driving up visiting with the geologists almost on a daily basis and we saw the the big bulge and you know as I recall the discussion was that they were concerned that the glacier would slip away and come down off the mountain but nothing in terms of the cataclysmic explosion that that happened and you were actually back home when the eruption happened share with us again just how close you came to to actually being there both you and Jeff at the time well our engineer Michael Carter his wedding anniversary was that weekend and he had called to the station to see if they could send another engineer down well as fate would have it our instruction was to come home after the 11 o'clock see our families resupply and head back Monday morning so we were we were so close and flying over the car were that we were parked and having the scene that gentleman deceased there was shocking yeah we heard Jeff describe that in our last half-hour in the story the Glen did so it is it is surreal as we look at these images and videos and I can't even imagine that those pictures and videos even capture what you were able to see with your own human eye Marc Anderson thank you very much for sharing her story with us we appreciate it Jake it heard many a story from Marc there in the news car over the years he's such a great ascetic King 5 also just a moment ago again we marked the 8:32 a.m. cific time anniversary the exact moment when Mount st. Helens erupted 40 years ago today since the eruption our own Glenn Farley is reported on the mountain extensively for decades really Glenn let's talk a little bit about Mount st. Helens specifically we see other volcanoes in the world sort of spewing lava a little bit here little there this was different than other volcanoes right set the record straight yes yes and no I mean Mount st. Helens is what's called a stratovolcano as is Mount Rainier and the five other in the three other volcanoes for a total of five in Washington State you go further down you conclude Mount Hood into that as well where Kilauea in Hawaii is a shield volcano so the kind of action you got out of Mount st. Helens is typical for these kinds of volcanoes here in the northwest and for much around-the-world much around the Pacific Rim Kilauea in Hawaii is a shield volcano that's where you get these this lava this liquid lava that comes out our mountains basically explode and that's what happened and Glen Helens is still a active volcano today right I mean there was an eruption in 2004 there are still small earthquake swarms there today is this something we worried about it's always worrying I mean I think we would get enough warning when we see the small earthquakes and things like we did in 2004 and at one point the Forest Service kind of pushed everybody back there that became a greater area of concern you got a lot of what's called phreatic explosions where really you had water that would percolate down through the crater and then when that would hit the magma that was coming up the magma being superheated it would explode the Pacific Northwest seismic network now at the University of Washington they listened for those volcano earthquakes very closely as they do at the Cascades Volcano Observatory in in in in Vancouver Washington and again you can see the P n SN map up right now it's pretty quiet most of the time but there are days when we will see a smattering of earthquakes around Mount Rainier for example and there's often earthquake activity around Mount st. Helens and under Mount st. Helens but then they say you have to be able to tell the difference between an earthquake that is being caused by moving magma versus earthquakes just because you have a lot of fractures and fissures and everything around there and you get short movements in that in that land and that you can give you an earthquake as well and the two are happening for different reasons interest story tonight at 6:30 about other active volcano dangers right tell us about that real quick so we're gonna go back and look at just how well our volcanoes are being monitored and know we have five volcanoes and what people don't remember is that Mount Baker was actually thought that would erupt before Mount st. Helens so starting in 1975 1978 there was a lot of investigation they did not have the earthquakes associated with that they had a lot of steam coming out of the top of it but there's not all that much monitoring there well there was a lot of monitoring at st. Helens we're gonna get into all of that tonight excellent Glenn Farley with more interesting facts and figures about Mount st. Helens appreciate it buddy thanks me as we head to break here's another live look at Mount st. Helens from Sky King coming up we will take a look back at some more of your memories of that day 40 years ago we'll be right back [Music] well all morning long as we look back 40 years since the eruption of Mount st. Helens we also want you to share art your memories with us so we can share them on air we've got a lot of you submitting your facebook comments to us in pictures and before we pass the baton to our dayside colleagues we want to share a few more of those gail Pearson rode and says she thinks it was her second climb to the crater rim in October of 2018 with her two sons after winning the climbing permit lottery also this one from Caren Jeffery who was living in Shelton and had to wear a face mask this is her daughter showing ash on her mom's car a lot of great stories out there made definitely and we have a extensive coverage on our web site to tell you about there's a link to take a virtual tour of the mountain a timeline of the events leading up to the eruption stories of people who study the mountain before and after the explosion and so much more so you can text the keyword Helens to 206 four four eight four five four five and we'll send you a link to our website don't forget to check out our YouTube page as well we have our award-winning documentary on the mountain that King produced back in 1980 it's called the mountain erupts the roughly 30 minute special is fascinating and shows video and moments that you may never have seen again the entire thing is on our youtube channel and of course our website has a link so again just text the word helens to 206 for four eight forty five forty five and we have coverage planned all day on the eruption anniversary on King 5 news at four we'll talk with a woman by the name of Carmen Andrew she shot amazing photos during a field trip back in 1980 her memories of those moments right after the eruption on King 5 news at 5 our environmental reporter Michael Crowe gives us a look at how the present-day landscape how it's changed and how life is returned to the mountain and then at 6:30 Glenn Farley will join us with a look at other volcanoes in our state to see if that destruction could happen once again in our future Jake it's a big day lots of coverage 40 years ago have a great day everybody [Music]

Channel: KING 5

Views: 88,579

Keywords: Mount St. Helens, Mt. St. Helens, Eruption, Volcano, Seismic, Washington, Disaster, Anniversary

Id: xktEF1yYGLo

Length: 44min 44sec (2684 seconds)

Published: Wed May 20 2020