Robert Landsburg's last photos are incredibly chilling. The photos of the pyroclastic cloud speeding towards him. He knows that he can't outrun it so instead he pulled out his camera and starts taking photographs of the pyroclastic cloud. After that, he put his camera inside his bag and shield the bag using his own body. RIP everyone affected by this eruption.
@@jtgd didn’t say he wasn’t still *kinda* insane. That was the most frustrating scene in the movie. He literally had perfect footage before just sacrificing it all to get eaten with the reel..
Fun little story: My grandparents live about 180 miles north of Mt St Helens. The day it erupted, my mom was home from college visiting. That morning, she and her parents were sitting at the breakfast table reading the newspaper and chatting. When it erupted, the bang rattled the windows and knocked a few cupboards open. Living in the flight path for the local naval air base, this was a common enough occurrence they didn't think much of it. Mom remembers jokingly saying "Oh, there goes the mountain!" It wasn't until ash started falling that they realized she was right.
Jesus! Funny, but I bet it was terrifying. My mother was driving to a camping area close to the mountain with her ex husband in '80 on a vacation near St. Helens, and was just close enough to see it erupt on the horizon. She said it took a minute or so for the shockwave to hit them, and when they saw it they immediately floored it out of there
@Grace - It could happen! I didn't know I lived near a fault line till we had an earthquake. Although, you'd think they would have taught me that in school...
@@Whisper_292 Well that’s terrifying 😂 I will now be dming my geography(are those the people who study earthquakes?) friends and we’ll see if they can help me out here cause WHAT?!?!
I’ve read that we can thank the humble gopher for the recovery of nature. The gophers that were underground survived the eruption, and their tunnels were used by other small creatures and helped with the recovery of vegetation.
Migrating birds also helped a lot. Between dropping seeds they've carried in their waste, to landing in dead waters, transferring bacteria that helps break down all the debris.
I was hoping you would mention what happened to Spirit Lake when the eruption happened. It was directly in the path of the lateral eruption. Almost all of the water was pushed out of the lake up into the surrounding hills. The pyroclastic flow filled in the lake bed and raised it 200 feet. When the water came back down, it brought nearly unimaginable amounts of dead, burnt trees back with it. All in a matter of _seconds._
Not only did the landslide trigger a tsunami, part of the landslide likely contained volcanic material that exploded on contact with the lake and created a second explosion that made the lateral blast even more powerful.
@@domm4633 I don't believe _tsunami_ is the correct term. What happened there is different than a tsunami. But you're right about the hot pyroclastic material hitting the cool lake. Booom! Lots of water was surely vaporized.
@@domm4633 There is a famous aerial photo of Mount St. Helens hours into the eruption taken from roughly the SW. Many scientists noticed a large whitish cloud rising in the background behind the eruption column. The overall opinion has been that it was Spirit Lake steaming violently from the hot debris in it.
I visited the area about 20 years after the devastation, and I have to say that it was a fascinating trip. You did a wonderful job of telling the story. There are two things I distinctly remember learning on my visit. First was the helicopter pilots saying how difficult it was to navigate the rescues with all the landmarks literally wiped out. And when the couple with the baby in the backpack were rescued, the helicopter pilot tried to get the parents to dump the backpack as they were trying to limit the weight on the helicopter. But they absolutely refused. It wasn’t until they were safely in the air that the mom showed them why the backpack was so important.
I got the tour out there about 4 years after, so the scars were pretty fresh on the land at that point, and the impression was definitely more poignant and impressive throughout the area at the time. It was so incredible that the photographs of the aftermath, no matter the screen involved just don't seem to do it justice. Even at 8 years old, I was truly shaken by the shear ferocity of what happened and how far it reached, how BIG it really was. Standing at the lookout and seeing trees still flattened like sticks along the muddy slopes forever out before me... That's something I've never managed to forget. It was sort of like walking into a post-apocalypse landscape right out of the storybooks. It's hard to believe just how big something could be one day, and it's just "pffft... and GONE" the next... wiped out in a handful of moments. ...a whole new level of "DAMN Nature, you scary!!!" ;o)
@PlasmaStorm73 [N5EVV] Take note, if a massive volcano is likely going to erupt then don't bring a baby within 50 miles of the damned thing! Nobody could have foreseen this outcome back when that couple went on their excursion, but we know about it now.
Robert Landsburg was dutifully doing his job as a photographer to the end, even snapping shots before his death which became an important scientific discovery and protecting his camera with his own body to avoid damage to it, dude is a hero.
@@billybussey He probably passed out long before he burned up. I don't think of it as pride. He had lived there for decades and didn't want to live any other way. No one knew what was going to happen. He took his chances and died. He'd had a long life. He got exactly what he wanted. He died on his own terms. I salute him for it.
@@jovetj Bull. I know his type. My grandma was like that. It's hick mentallity and it mainly comes from them never doing anything in their life and being lazy. They try to pass it off as some sort of vitue and it isn't.
@@billybussey It's not a virtue. It's just the way the person is. It could be pride, it could be stubbornness, but I'd chalk it down to fear of the unknown. His way of life was worth his life and that's his choice. I don't think it's fair for you to condemn someone you didn't know who died over 40 years ago based solely on your suspicions.
As a Volcano enthusiast, the eruption of Mt. St. Helen's has long been a favorite subject of mine. Just the sheer scale, the unique blast, the immediate aftermath, it's all fascinating. I've been to the Visitor Center located in the blast zone (I went in mid-2001), and I can tell you that pictures do not do this area justice. Being able to look directly into that huge crater and see the devastation all around me was mind-blowing. It should be worth mentioning that it was incredibly fortunate that the volcano erupted when it did on a Sunday, because any other day of the week, there would have been far more loggers present, and the death toll likely would have been much higher. But regardless, Mt. St. Helens is a huge testament to the true destructive and healing power that the earth can truly have.
@@madokami03 I've been there and I can attest it's well worth the trip. Give yourself time to walk along the ridge (there's a trail along it) when you go.
@@madokami03 I'll add that, if you can, plan to have a picnic at Coldwater Lake, just a few minutes away. It's absolutely beautiful... and was formed by the eruption.
I had the same experience you had, only in 1999. The mountain, six miles away across territory that looked like the surface of the moon, looked close enough to reach out and touch. I wondered what David Johnstones emotions were during those final moments. I'd be like, "Okay, God, here I come!"
Would love to see more volcanic eruptions covered on this channel; there are plenty of stories worth telling, such as the 1883 Krakatoa eurption, the 1902 Mont Peleé eruption, the 1985 Nevado del Ruiz eruption and the 1991 Mount Pinatubo eruption.
Agreed about the Mount Pinatubo eruption. I went with my family in the summer of 1992 to visit family who lived near there, and there was still ash on the ground. I'd love to see it covered on this channel.
i think one of my favorite things about your channel is the community youve fostered. every event that you talk about, i can look in the comments and find dozens if not hundreds of people talking about their firsthand experiences with the disaster, and even more people talking about what the areas are currently like, local concerns for future issues, and the way nature has reclaimed so much. its the sort of information that would be difficult to amass in one place otherwise, and i love it
To this day, Johnston's final words still haunt me: "Vancouver, Vancouver, this is it." As I type this I just turned 30 myself two months ago. I shudder at the thought of quitting the earth when I still have so much left to do, just like Johnston had unfinished business of his own. Still, it's definitely worth taking cues from Landsburg: if you know you're done for, you might as well go down swinging and make your final moments count.
There are actual recordings of Gerry Martin's last transmissions you can listen to right here on RUclips. He's very stoic and collected on the recording, but I found it horrifying to listen to.
I highly recommend approaching Mount St Helens from the northside if you ever visit. It's dense forest right until you reach the edge of the blast zone and then just dead trees everywhere. The silence is eerie too. You can just feel the energy.
It's not worth your life. I honestly get bothered with people who risk their lives in this way. Don't be like them. When a catastrophe is happening just leave.
I grew up in Western Washington and remember this like it was yesterday. My family was on our way back from a trip to Spokane dealing with the recent passing of my step-mother's aunt. We stopped in Wenatchee on the way home for some gas when the ash started to fall. My dad quickly got us moving into the pass and headed home. It looked like dirty snow falling. St. Helen's had been in the news a lot before the big eruption and I think people just kind of got complacent and stopped paying attention really until it did blow. I remember people going down there to see the mountain vent and it being almost like a circus atmosphere until it blew. My family was heading back from California in the summer of '84 and we stopped by an overlook where you could see St. Helens and the devastation. While there was massive destruction, what stuck with me was how many young saplings were already growing in that devastation as life carried on an reclaimed the area. May all those lost that day rest in peace.
I was 9 years old back then (it erupted just two days after my birthday) and it was all over the news and we were taught about it in school. I remember the news constantly talking about the ash and when it would reach us, and we were all the way down in Kansas.
Not exactly the same, but there's an old dam in a valley near me that got torn down because it was too old and wasn't generating power anyhow. I knew that valley when it was dammed up and now it's amazing how fast saplings are growing in the former reservoir just 3 years later.
My dad was working in Olympia at the time and living a bit north near Dupont. He was driving into work that day and saw the cloud rising over the horizon to the south. Said his gut instinct was that it was from a nuclear explosion, but quickly realized the mountain had gone. My mom was visiting her parents in Hood River, OR, and she said that by noon it was dark and you could look to the north across the Columbia and see the main ash cloud with huge bolts of lightning shooting through it. She said it was the most surreal thing she'd ever seen.
I grew up in Oregon and Mt. St. Helens looms large in everyone’s minds and hearts. Mentioned in the video was David Johnston, who worked for the USGS as a scientist. Officially, he wasn’t even suppose to be on the mountain that day, at the observation station on a ridge that would later bear his name. He covered for a coworker, and asked another to go home, as he could observe alone. He saved two of his fellow scientists lives by his actions. The photo you used of him was taken by his friend and colleague, Henry Glicken, a graduate student being mentored by Johnston at the time. Glicken’s story, and how his life was impacted by the event and death of his friend, is heartbreaking. Johnston relieved Glicken of his post at the observation station just 13 hours before the eruption, no doubt saving Glicken’s life. Glicken would convince three separate helicopter pilots to return to the mountain to search for Johnston’s body, but the trailer he was in wouldn’t be found until 1993. Glicken would later channel his distress over Johnston’s death into work with Barry Voight and his team that mapped the debris field from St. Helen’s collapse, nearly a quarter of the mass of the volcano. They traced the movement of each piece of debris, from blocks 100 yards wide to tiny fragments. He would attempt to secure job placement with USGS but they found his behavior was odd and unsettling, likely impacted by his grief over the events of Mt. St. Helens. He later would go on to research at Mt. Unzen in Japan, being killed in a pyroclastic flow with two other volcanologists, a husband and wife team from France, Maurice and Katia Kraff (who are fascinating in their own right). To date, Johnston and Glicken are the only American volcanologists who have died as a direct result of volcanic eruptions. It is haunting and almost fitting that Glicken would follow his friend and mentor in life, as well as death.
I grew up in Washington and have always been a bit fascinated with this event. However, it’s also burned into my brain that my uncle described it as a waking nightmare. He was on the freeway when all of a sudden the sky turned black and in minutes he couldn’t see or breathe. Thankfully he used his shirt as a face mask and got to safety, helping other people he came across along the way. I can’t even imagine the confusion and uncertainty that everyone must have been feeling in those moments..
My uncle's initial thought was that someone had dropped a nuclear bomb, because the radio in his car didn't work so he had no idea it was the mountain.
My parents were camping and fled. They couldn't risk turning on the AC in the car as ash was coming down. It was a very hot car ride to get out of there, from the Port Angeles. Far enough away that it surprised them to get ash. Crazy how far it covered in the state. My grandparents had jars of ash in their garage.
Washingtonian here. My grandparents would tell me about this all the time when I was a kid. We even have a jar of ash around somewhere. Apparently the blast was so powerful that it was felt out on the Olympic Peninsula and my great grandmother yelled at my dad and aunt because she thought they were jumping off the couch onto the floor, shaking the entire house!
@@windsofmarchjourneyperrytr2823 I doubt is would cause that given that is a disease over the span of many years but I agree that it is terrible should it occur
Everyone around the PNW has a little jar of Mount Saint Helen's ash... What I find so remarkable is the recovery of plants and animals... you'd have to know about the eruption at this point to see the signs... There are still piles of ash around the Toutle River that I drive through every time I go to Portland. But they are covered with green now. My son was surprised to learn that the mounds were ash from the eruption.
My father was serving on a Canadian naval vessel operating out of Esquimalt when the eruption happened. Sot from the eruption managed to make it all the way there which caused a panic because initially it was believed to have been fallout from a nuclear blast that had caught the navy by surprise.
We got dust, soot, and ash further north on Vancouver Island. I was living in Qualicum Beach at the time, and we got about a centimeter, give or take a few millimeters, of ash and soot. For those wanting a reference, Qualicum Beach is about 2.5 hours north of Esquimalt at highway speeds. I'd give you a distance, but that is meaningless on the Island, given the countless curves and speed zone changes up and down the Island.
If the land was connected, taking ferries out of the equation, Esquimalt, which is just outside of Victoria, Canada, is about 4 hours' drive north of Mt Saint Helens. Meaning we saw ash and soot almost 7 hours' north of the volcano. There were reports in nearby towns of volcanic hail the size of peas.
I was a bit further north near the central island at the time. Everything was covered in ash and it floated on the surface of the lake we were camping at
My mother has a picture of when I was 1yrs old, sitting on the grass, in our backyard in North Vancouver, BC. On the back of that photo is written in my mothers handwriting, “The day Mount Saint Helens erupted.” Because seconds after she took the picture, she felt the explosion.
It’s really hard to grasp the scale of destruction until you drive to the overlook. We drove a half hour through flattened scenery before it dawned on me just how vast an area had been devastated. It truly is mind boggling.
I covered this eruption for my Geography GCSE, I remember learning about David Johnston's death and being genuinely shocked, it's not often you read through a textbook follower a scholar's work only to find out at the end of the chapter that they died gathering the information you just learned. Apparently his last transmission was "Vancouver, this is it!" before the volcano erupted. It's thought he died instantly after that, the combined effects of where he was at the time and the immense force of the eruption would have obliterated him.
His niece is now a vulcanologist, she was in Indonesia monitoring one of their volcanoes that was getting restless, it too had a bulge on the side, thankfully it went back to sleep. I met her on one of the chats from livestreams that were running on YT at the time.
I've heard the recording of his last transmission, and it's chilling knowing he died right after. The ridge he was on that day is now named for him, and is where the main visitor center for Mt. St. Helens is now.
I've seen several comments calling the photographers heroes, and I'm not disputing that, but David Johnstone is absolutely the biggest hero of all. He saved so many lives!
@@RightsForZombies Thing is the geologists were much more aware of the risks and were battling the politicians to get and keep the area closed. I think they had a rota to stay in the area, they all took that risk hoping they could get out a warning to evacuate people wider without getting killed themselves. They all knew they were putting their lives at risk doing that and it is something that has been repeated by vulcanologists around the world.
I could be wrong, and I probably am, but I believe this is your first time truly covering a natural disaster and it’s great! Hope you continue on with more!
@@ledichang9708 Snow storm in Scotland? That's really unexpected. I'd assume such would happen in Alaska, Greenland, Andorra, Switzerland, Canada, or somewhere like it.. not Scotland. RIP to the victims.
@@PhilipMarcYT Not sure if this is a joke or not, but snow in Scotland isn't remotely unusual. It would be very surprising if it didn't snow in many parts for significant amounts of the year.
I was there last summer, with my family that lives in Olympis. (You can see Mt. Rainier from there yard.) I had previously visited the Mountain seven years before. The lava dome has gotten quite a bit larger, as has the glacier on top of it. My 15 year old grandson was awestruck by the mountain. It is truly worth the visit.
You didn't mention that the eruption of Mount Saint Helens also changed the climate of the continental USA. California, which had been suffering from a serious drought from 1977 to 1980, suddenly went into a period of above-normal rains for several years because the ash cloud changed the jet stream heading over the USA.
When I was in grad school a decade ago I got to see Mount Saint Helens from the plane. I had a short hop between Seattle and Portland, so we were in a small turboprop plane. The pilot specifically circled the volcano for us to look out windows to see it. It was still so clear where the eruption had taken off the side of the mountain. One of my most memorable flights at seeing how the area had been so changed by the eruption.
My dads parents (and my dad who was yet to be born, his sisters only being toddlers at the time) lived miles away from the eruption, but still told me about how thick and just how much ash rained from the sky. Luckily they lived far enough away to not be affected by mudslides. This is always one of my favorite natural disasters to research and learn about. Not just because it was also very local
I was 6 years old when this happened. I lived North of Vancouver. I remember the ash very well. I also remember years following doing yard work and anytime I dug in the yard there was a thin layer of ash that can be seen. It was a continual reminder of the 1980 eruption.
Ash came down clear across the state as far as Pullman. A former WSU professor I used to work for said vacuuming up the ash in his house ruined the vacuum.
I was raised and once again live in Longview, Washington, very near Mt. St. Helens. Believe it or not, I have a few, vague, snapshot memories of the incident. I distinctly remember being able to see the peak from our deck on a hill overlooking the Cowlitz River. It's not longer visible, due to the eruption. I also vaguely remember wearing surgical masks because of all the ash in the air and on the roads. What's truly amazing though, despite its destruction, is the breathtaking rate at which it is recovering, ecologically speaking. I'm fortunate enough to be able to see it up close. Great episode, thank you, and please feel better soon; you sound as if you have a wee cold.
I visited Mt St Helen’s last summer. It should be on every persons bucket list for sure. Not only is it a grand display of the sheer beauty of the Pacific Northwest, it’s also a fascinating story and many lessons were learn from the eruption. After the eruption, the logging companies wanted to salvage a bad situation and worked for a few seasons to collect millions of the downed and burnt standing trees. Turing them into lumber while also replanting new saplings,millions of them, to help the area recover. That’s something I learned when I visited.
9:19 If you’re driving down I5 in southern Washington, right off the freeway, you can still see big piles of ash that were removed after the eruption. They look like hills of dark gray dirt a few stories high with plants growing on them. It blows my mind that over forty years later, you can still see the impact the eruption had on the landscape, even miles away from the mountain itself. My dad was a teenager living in Portland when it blew, he’s told me how wild it was to see the plume of smoke in the sky. He and his friends actually drove the logging roads that were still intact on the back side of the mountain to get pictures for their school newspaper a few days later, extremely unbeknownst to my grandparents 😅. The St. Helens eruption and the people who died will be remembered around here for generations to come.
My mom was about almost nine when this happened and lived in a small town in Washington at the time. She told me that when it erupted, her dad had lifted her up so she could see all the smoke. We visited it a couple summers ago and seeing how massive the area was honestly makes your stomach sink the first time you visit. For anyone whose thought about visiting, I'd suggest doing so during the summer. It will be hot, but the sky will be clear enough to see everything and really take it in.
As a Washington native who has been fascinated by this story since childhood - it was great to see you cover it, but you completely missed some of the greatest horror involved - the complete incompetence of how things were handled prior to, and following, the eruption. Among many other issues - the red zone was much smaller than it should have been, largely because of logging companies fighting against it, and individuals who had been in the safe zone when they were killed by the eruption were initially misreported (deliberately) as having been in the red zone without permission. There is a very strong story of "Scientists warn against possible imminent calamity, politicians and companies blow off their concerns as unnecessary fear-mongering. Calamity comes and it turns out, the scientists were right. Politicians and companies try to swing the narrative to make themselves look better in the aftermath" around the Mt. St. Helens eruption.
I lived 1500 miles away in Southern Kansas. You could write your name on the windshield of a car left outdoors from the ash that had blown that distance. We also had some absolutely beautiful sunsets as a result.
Yep! My mom told me about how they got a bunch of ash in Nebraska. Nothing like what they had to deal with closer to the center, but she said it was sobering that if they were seeing the effects that far away, what kind of fresh hell were locals dealing with?
Thanks for this video. Excellent job covering the material. I was 8 years old when Mount St. Helens erupted, and living in Troutdale, Oregon. I remember the day well. We were backing out of the driveway, on our way for Sunday breakfast, right at the time the eruption happened. We could see the ash cloud, as we were facing north to leave the neighborhood. My father is not usually one to swear, but on this day I heard some words that got my attention. So I knew things must have been serious. My father turned the car around and pulled back into the garage. He ordered everyone out, and then turned on the TV and radio. I later found out that he was concerned that the Mount St. Helens eruption would trigger an eruption of Mt. Hood. We packed some suitcases and a little food, but fortunately we did not need to evacuate. I remember we received about a quarter inch (a little more than 0.5 cm) of ash from the eruption. It looked like grey snow. My brother and I went outside and collected some of the ash in Mason jars my mother gave us. I still have the jar of ash in storage with some of my personal belongings.
I've lived in Oregon outside of Portland all my life, and I remember my Grandma telling me stories of the eruption. She was relatively young when it happened, early 20's at most, and has an interesting perspective of it. She showed me pictures of my Grandpa (if I am remembering it correctly) mowing their lawn after the eruption happened. Being relatively close to Mt. St Helens, around 200 miles, the ash had formed a layer imbedded in the grass. You can see plumes of ash being swept up around the mower while my grandpa uses a face mask to prevent smoke inhalation. I'll have to ask her again to tell me the story as it's been a very long time, but hearing her stories about these events in history is always so fascinating.
I grew up in Yakima, WA which was relatively close to the path of the ash cloud. I was too young to remember the eruption itself, but whenever I would play in the dirt in my yard, there was a noticeable layer of grey ash just below the surface. When my parents replaced the carpet in the house, we discovered a large amount of ash deposited beneath it from when people tracked it in on their shoes.
I was in high school when Mount St. Helens erupted. The pictures and captured videos of the massive landslide prior to the eruption were amazing and terrifying. I remember watching video clips of a man who was walking around the area after the eruption. His voice was heard describing what he had seen as he walked. He was expecting to die in that moment. The Mount St. Helens eruption was the biggest explosion in the United States. No one could ever imagine seeing something that destructive happening back then. Years later, while I was in a geology class, our geology professor said that he said that he and some of his colleagues visited Mount St. Helens to study the volcano from time to time. His main focus that he said at the time was Mount Rainier, a volcano near Seattle, Washington. He stated that Mount Rainier is way overdue for an eruption. When Mount Rainier erupts, it will be a catastrophic disaster of massive proportions. Floods, mudslides, and much more. It’s only a matter of time. But, volcanologists are watching these and other volcanoes closely, including Yellowstone.
Dunno if anyone else has mentioned this, but thank you for saying *both* the metric and the empirical measurements when speaking of scale! It really helps with the mental and physical image of the scale of the disasters
I hiked the back country on a pass that lead to the direct view of the blast crater. The level of destruction, even 40 years later, is impossible to convey with words. You can literally see the "shadow" of the hills that protected some trees, as the rest of the exposed trees and land was absolutely scoured. Looking down at the lake at the foot of the blast crater, all of the massive logs of the enormous fir trees look like toothpicks floating on its surface. You can still see the direction of the blast based on the direction the logs fell. It is truly an incredible place. If you can, hike the Mount Margaret trail. Unbelievable views, and a sense of scale for the disaster you can't get anywhere else.
I lived in Arizona at the time of the eruption and even there you could see a haze in the air at times, particularly at sunset. It was a crazy time, and the nonstop pictures of the disaster area really gave you a weird feeling, that such a violent event could take place in an area of natural beauty, to be changed overnight into a blasted hellscape that looked like an alien planet.
Something super interesting to me is that if you go to Mt. St Helen's today (or look over it on satellite imagery), you can still see the thousands of logs in Spirit Lake floating from the day the eruption happened. Taking up almost all of the northeastern most corner of the lake. Spirit Lake also holds a record of a mega tsunami from that day, topping out at about 850 ft.
My dad's family lived up in Puyallup and Redmond at the time. Although it was devastating, the snapdragons were popping up all over the place afterward. My grandmother grew the best potatoes I've ever eaten in that crumbly volcanic soil in her backyard. I even have the light bulb-shaped bottle of St. Helens ash she gave us long ago. Thanks for covering this! 😎👍
Volcanic debris contains a lot of minerals that are vital for plant growth. A lot of Italian farmers that live around and on Mount Vesuvuis know how risky it is, but the soil mixed with the ash from eruptions is so fertile that they stay anyways.
David Johnston was the first to report the eruption. He was in contact with the USGS Vancouver offices by radio, and had time to say, "Vancouver! Vancouver! This is it!" before he was taken by the pyroclastic flow. A ham radio operator named Gerry Martin, monitoring the volcano on behalf of the Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service, had set up somewhat to the north of Johnston's observation post. He also reported the eruption; eerily, he saw the flow overcome Johnston: "Gentlemen, the camper and car that's sitting over to the south of me is covered. It's going to hit me too." Then he went silent. Martin's body was never recovered either.
@2:44 you can see the gray faces of hills at the bottom center, that is the depth of deposits the landslide, lahars, and ash that buried the valley. The Toutle River is cutting through the middle of the debris field, reclaiming it’s original path. Also for perspective of size… those are adult trees on top of the gray hills, not bushes.
Thank you for acknowledging those who helped save lives and the people who gave it all knowing their fate. Sometimes the stories are told without that information. ❤️👍🏼
David Johnston was supposedly one of the few people at the USGS predicting that Mt. St Helens would erupt laterally instead of vertically as most other scientists at the USGS were predicting. His last words before he was killed by the eruption was a radio transmission to the USGS in Vancouver: "Vancouver! Vancouver! This is it!" His body was never found and the wreckage of his USGS trailer was eventually found by road workers in 1993.
Robert Lansburg is the symbol of dedication. He knew that was the end and still thought about the importance of the pictures. Brave photographer and Great man.
I live in the mid west. Thousands of miles away. We had viles of ash from the railing of our porch. I took 1 to show & tell. Sadly we've lost them over the years. Can you imagine 1 of those super volcanoes would block out the sun for years. Great episode, reliving a childhood memory while listening to your description 🍺🍻🍺
I was driving across the Narrows Bridge in Tacoma, WA when it blew. It was a huge mushroom cloud! I wish I would have had a camera to get a picture of it.
A lot of people had lost faith that the volcano was going to blow, and there was a lot of pressure on the government to let people back into their homes and into the area. Harry Truman was seen as a bit of a folk hero, standing up to government officials and standing his ground on his own property. I've always wondered what he thought when the explosion happened and that pyroclastic flow came hurdling towards him.
To be honest, as someone who was in my mother's uterus about 130 miles north of St. Helens at the time, my fascination with the eruption as a teenager always included thinking he was a fool for thumbing his nose at evacuation attempts. As an adult, being reminded that he was widowed and that was the lifetime home he had shared with his wife changes my perspective on why he chose to stay. It was the Pearl S. Buck "let it come" approach.
I doubt he had time to think about much of anything. I’ve read that he likely died of heat shock in less than a second. He was probably dead before he realized what was happening - he was much closer than most of the other folks who died. They knew Harry was in the danger zone. Most of the others thought (albeit mistakenly) that they were a safe distance.
I doubt he had much time to think of anything. The heat that precedes the ash cloud can vaporize blood and make brains explode (as evidenced by skeletons found in Herculaneum, which got hit by the pyroclastic flow from Vesuvius).
My aunt lives in portland and when I was a kid she went to the site of the eruption and brought me back some obsidian from her trip! I lost it and I’ve never gotten over it, but when I was a kid I took that smooth, shiny rock everywhere! Along with the titanic, this was my favorite disaster case to research when I was in elementary school.
I've just discovered your channel and have been enjoying the documentaries - this one in particular. I was a college student at the University of Washington in Seattle when St. Helens blew and could clearly see the ash blowing upwards and flattening out before it continued on. . Luckily, we were barely hit with any. I don't know if you're taking suggestions for future posts, but you might want to look into the Red Canyon Mine #5 explosiong on March 30, 1895 in Uintah, Wyoming. My great-grandfather was one of the 61 people who died in and after the accident. It was massive enough to be reported in the New York Times, but I don't think many people know about it now.
Just noticed you're over a million subs now, congrats my dude! I've been here since your video on the Verruckt water slide accident, so good to see quality content get recognized.
6:09 We lived thousands of miles away from the eruption, and were on a car trip. When we got home, the car was coated in dust. Dad said, "That's the dust from Mount St. Helens." I was amazed. It certainly wasn't road dust, it was thick and grey and very fine, like talcum powder.
The story of Mr. Landsburg is particularly harrowing. He clearly knew he was doomed, but chose to record the moments and then protected his art with his body. In a way, he reminds me of the band on the Titanic: no hope of escape, but by continuing to do his work, he provided help for others.
I like to imagine something similar with Mr Truman. Just standing at his lodge, watching impending doom flow towards him. Instead of being scared, he says to his late wife “I’m coming home”
I think this is the event that sparked my love for true crime/true stories. I remember we had to do a research piece on it for class when I was like 11 and I found it so fascinating! I Love that you’re finally covering this!
Kinda disappointed you didn't mention Venus Dergan and Roald Reitan and how they survived the mudflow. I remember reading about them in a book as a kid and that was how I found out about the Mt St Helens eruption.
Thank you for this fine video. I was following the news about the volcano closely back in 1980. I live in Upstate NY and we got some ash even there. Up to now I had never heard of the photographer that was killed protecting his film. You always manage to find at least one tidbit of information that even the most die hard catastrophist has missed.
I was a teenager when the mountain erupted, I lived 30 miles directly due West of the volcano. We lived on the top of a hill overlooking interstate 5 and can see Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Rainier in their entirety. My brothers and I drove up to the mountain often, especially when the bulge was forming, nobody knew what would happen. At least until the roads were closed off. Usually there are a lot of clouds on the West side of Washington state, but this day the clouds were high and I had a great view of the volcano erupting. Since we were West of the Mountain, we did not hear the blast or get any ash (blast wave went North, ash went East). I have several pictures from that eruption and the many that followed it, sometimes I would look towards the mountain and it would suddenly have a minor eruption into the sky. That was an exciting time. About a week later, the wind was blowing West which is unusual, and we got about 1/4 inch of ash, which completely closed down interstate 5 for a month or more. It was so surreal like the world had ended, and so quiet with no traffic noise.
The scientist who died monitoring the volcano is a hero, he knew most likely knew exactly what was going on and stayed anyway. Even if that part isn't likely since I have no idea what the technology was even like, he's part of the team that helped save the residents and workers that were willing/able to leave from what was believed to be the most dangerous zone as best as they could. The photographer is also a hero for providing valuable information knowing full well he was going to die and then protecting it with his life. The whole volcanic team deserves far more recognition than they get, they were all brave putting their lives on the line most likely knowing full well how things were panning out but they stayed there anyway. The photographer was wrong place wrong time without any clue so he may not have known how great of a risk he was taking, but still showed incredible bravery and thinking in a way I think I never would when I would be watching my death rushing at me. Everyone here deserves immense credit, but I guess after rambling I think the rest of the team should be remembered too and not just the brave man who laid down his life to study the volcano for the people surrounding Mt. Saint Helen and the photographer who gave us valuable insight into what to do if it happens again
David Johnston, on May 17th, relieved Harry Glicken at the Coldwater II outpost. Glicken was taking time off to do an interview with his professor on his graduate work. Glicken would himself be killed by the eruption of Mount Unzen in Japan, 11 years later. Johnston was Glicken's mentor.
I was 10 and lived in Cheney, Washington when this happened. I heard the blast 200 miles away, in fact it woke me up. The ash cloud came billowing toward our town and caused complete darkness at 3:00 in the afternoon. Then ash rained down like snow. The next morning we have 4-6 inches of ash all over everything. I remember helping my father shovel ash and how strange it was that it was not snow. Quite a day. I even remember what I had for lunch that day!
I've known about this disaster for years, even known about the tragedies of those who lost their lives, but this is the first time I've ever heard Mr. Truman had cats with him. Such a small human detail, to be so committed to the place and way you built your life that you'd go down with literally all of it. Hopefully neither Mr. Truman or his cats suffered (and hopefully his poor cats weren't too scared, they had no idea...).
I lived in Missouri when this happened. My twin sister and I had just turned 13 a week before. I remember that summer being so extremely hot. The volcanic ash from this eruption was said to have created a greenhouse effect, which effected the weather, even that far away.
There are some RUclipsrs who have gone back over the years to video-map the regrowth of the devastated area. The ones who tie the current views back to the history of the sites are really interesting. I still remember one where there was an old photo of a logging truck stuck in the ash. He told the story of the workers who had abandoned it, and when he found it again, still on the mountain, there was a giant tree growing out of it.
I remember news coverage leading up to the eruption. Johnston tried to tell all the other 'experts' that it could blow out laterally but was told that was 'so improbable as to be nearly impossible' (I heard one geologist say exactly that on, I think, NBC evening news). Oops. Johnston's last words over the radio were, "It's coming!" If it were me, I think MY last words would've been, "I told you so!"
I mean, few people in history have earned the right to say "I told you so" as much or more than he did. His actual last words were "Vancouver, Vancouver, this is it!"
Like many other commenters, I grew up about 100 miles from the mountain. My family had a house with a lot of very large windows and the bang they made from the shockwave of the blast was amazingly loud. I was surprised they didn’t shatter. About 20 years ago, a friend and I climbed the mountain during the winter; I remember it being a fairly easy hike up and really cool to look down into the crater.
My late husband and I lived in a little town called Poulsbo, just West of Seattle and I remember this event very well! Since we were northwest of the mountain, we didn't get much ash, but it was a significant event. Mount St Helen visitor center is well worth a visit if you are ever in the area!
I remember sitting in our front yard watching the plumes of ash in the distance. It was such a surreal moment. Even now, 40+ years later, I can still hear the eerie silence that fell around us. As a kid, not many things can leave you speechless. But that? It was a moment meant to be without words.
I’m old enough to remember Mt.St.Helen’s. The ash in the air caused spectacular sunsets 🌅 for years afterwards, even on the east coast where I live. I remember Mr. Harry Truman who stayed put but I didn’t know about his 16 cats. 😿 Excellent documentary.
I remember when my family went to the Mt St Helens Observatory Visitors Center an there was a small earthquake and an my poor younger siblings thought we were all about to be eaten by the volcano. We were told it was small an nothing to worry about yet, but my dad even after told that an eruption that second was unlikely the drive out of the mt st Helens park was suspiciously a bit faster then coming in. lol
Even when you do events that have been massively covered elsewhere, I almost always learn something from your videos that I didn't know before. As a resident of Washington, I was extra interested to see this one pop up, and you did not disappoint. Even though shorter than most other videos I've seen, I still learned something new. Most videos talk about Robert Landsburg and his photos, but this is the first time I've heard about the measures he took to protect them even as he knew he was doomed.
There was an ironic side to the eruption of Mount Saint Helens, the day before the event, volcanologist Harry Glicken was positioned on the ridge facing the volcano, but he had to leave for a job interview, with David Johnston relieving Harry right before the eruption. Harry Glicken was racked with guilt following the eruption, that killed his friend, from that moment on he devoted his life to studying volcanoes, until the 3 June 1991. On 1989, a volcano started erupting in Japan, Mount Unzen on the Japanese island of Kyushu, near Shimabara, Nagasaki, volcanologists from around the world came to study Unzen, including famous French volcanologists Maurice and Katia Krafft, it would climax on 3 June. At four in the afternoon, Unzen released a pyroclastic flow, just as the scientists predicted, however the pyroclastic flow was cascading faster than the scientists expected, when it hit the ridge, the velocity caused the flow split off in two directions, putting Harry and the Kraffts directly in the path of the glowing avalanche, 43 people died in that eruption. The irony was that Harry was spared from Mount St. Helens, that killed his mentor David Johnston, only himself to die from a different pyroclastic flow.
my granddad was a geologist who worked for the american government. one of his team members was David A. Johnston, who died in the eruption and had invited him out to observe the seismic activity on that day (my grandfather did a lot of work around volcanoes and earthquakes). unfortunately, or rather, fortunately, my grandad had a meeting in washington the day of the eruption, and couldnt be there. my grandfather would have been there the day it erupted. since he was not, he instead travelled there soon after the eruption to set up sensors, and also took a helicopter up to observer the crater. the smoke and ash was still heavy around the mountain though, and got caught up in the rotors. the pilot actually had to "bounce" the heli down the mountain as a result haha. i wish i had the opprotunity to know him before parkinsons-like symptoms took him over, he was an incredible man. he also did work on the apollo moon samples. my mom told me a story of how many years later he found some of the moon samples in a box in his office, and returned them to the government rather than keep them lol
I've been fascinated with this volcano since it erupted (I was a little kid, so totally primed for something like that catch my imagination). I lived in Washington for 15 years in my adulthood and tried to visit the volcano at least once a year. What really stood out for my last couple of visits in 2020 is how much nature had reclaimed the devastation zone. Springtime is green and vibrant now. Trees are growing back. Beautiful blue lakes dot the landscape. Life is persistent and always will come back.
sending thx from the US. I’ve been watching your videos for years now, always a instant click when I see a post! I love listening to these while at I’m work or getting stuff done around the house.
I watched this happen from 80 miles North when I was nine years old, it was Awesome to see. I still have a bucket of volcanic ash that I scooped off of my mother's Subaru. Truly once in a lifetime to witness. Thank you for the memories.
Visiting Mount St. Helens Volcanic Monument was a bucket list tip for me with my bestie a few years ago. Standing in the exact spot that Johnston did as the eruption took place was chilling. This eruption occurred when I was very young, and was the beginning of my fascination with Earth sciences and volcanism, something that continues to this day. Thank you for a good short overview of what happened.
Considering how big this eruption was, it's , incredibly fortunate that the death toll wasn't any bigger, though it's sad as in any disaster that there were over 50 lives lost. And it's astonishing just how much of the peak was blown away when St Helen's erupted
If people lived closer to it, the toll would have been higher, that’s why a lot of people warn of the possibility of Rainer blowing, because it’s so close to Seattle/Tacoma
@@elliottprice6084 St. Helens and Mt. Adams are more out in the middle of the woods, you have to take a trip to get to them. Whereas Mt. Rainer and Mt. Baker to the north of it, are the ones that they are most worried about if they were to blow. I'm pretty sure Mt. Hood isn't considered active in anyway, but I could see it doing some damage to the nearby Portland area depending on which way it decided to blow - plus Mt. Hood is near the towns on the Columbia River too. I just read an article that said that a small town 30 miles away from Rainer which has 6,700 people living in it, would be wiped off of the map based on past lava flows that have been studied. However, because they are worried about Rainer & Baker, there are sensors all over them, keeping an eye on these two mountains. We had a warning with Mt. St. Helens and we would have a warning with Rainer & Baker too.
As I pointed out, it was very fortunate it erupted on a Sunday. Had it been any other day, more loggers would have been at work, and the death toll would have likely been much greater.
I was 13 when Mt St. Helens erupted. I have vivid memories of the coverage of the eruption. In 2002, I took AmTrack from Chicago to Portland, OR. I loved it out there, but being able to see multiple not-dead volcanoes with the naked eye, made me far too nervous. Wondering if and when they were going to erupt. I couldn’t get all of the images of the people in the area dealing with the thick, heavy falling ash out of my mind when trying to imagine living there. I didn’t even get far enough into my imagination to cover lava, lahars, flying-rocks, etc.
Great video! St Helens was one of the first big news stories I remember, the eruption was on the geography syllabus of my school so I learned a lot about how it had happened. A lot of the debris and lahars from the eruption blocked a river that flowed near the mountain. A year or two later it was realised that the “dam” created by this material was at risk of collapsing causing a devastating flood. The US Army Corps of Engineers had to excavate an outflow tunnel to lower the water level and reduce the danger.
Another interesting result of Mount Saint Helens erupting in 1980: we now know A LOT more about the health risks volcanic ash pose on humans exposed to it, we always knew it was dangerous; but now we know specifically the kinds of cancers, soft tissue damage, lung problems, bone issues, and other chronic and acute illnesses and disease volcanic ash can trigger in people.
My 10 year old son’s favorite horror true story. We will be watching this tonight. Thank you very much for this documentary. I truly love your stories and style and time of each story. They are perfect.
Mt St Helens was just shy of 10k ft (9667 ft), or 2950 meters , before the eruption - about twice as high as was quoted in the video. 5000 ft is a foothill in the Cascades.
I had heard about the volcanologist who gave his last but hadn't known about the photographer as well! Thank you for the stark reminder how much scientists do in their observations and data collection
There was a second photographer who was killed, Reid Blackburn (was a National Geographic correspondent). His burned/buried Volvo sedan is seen in the images in this video.
As a geology major in Washington, we talk about Helens a lot - I've even had a full class that consisted of a two day camping trip to the volcano. There's some crazy stuff. I even go to see the car at 5:25 in person as we met the person who currently owns it. It still has pyroclastic flow materials in the back window, and my department took some back to study.
Wow! A Fascinating Horror I was there to witness! I lived near Yakima, WA when I was 10 and we got dumped on by St. Helens. I remember riding bikes with my friends(it was the 80's!) and we saw a large dark cloud coming with lightning coming out of it. A man stopped and told us what happened and we need to get inside because they didn't know it it was poison to breath. Ash fell like gray snow for hours. Not so good for cars, but turns out it made that area a great spot for growing wine.
I was born 9 years after this happened, but Mt. St. Helens will always have a place in my heart because I climbed it twice before the age of 13. It’s gorgeous up there, and crazy to look down into the crater.
I’ve been up to the crater of Etna in Sicily, and it’s quite a surreal thing to look down the crater and know what power was contained in that place. Plus the black sand and pumice was really quite beautiful to actually see.
The pet cat thing f’d me up as an elementary school student, learning about our state’s tragedy. My dad was golfing in Kirkland at the time, and he saw ash come down
Wow, thank you for such an awesome mini documentary. I remember seeing the devastation in the coverage on the television, but I had no idea that there was actually an exclusion zone and there was such a fight to have it strengthened or that so many people had ignored or flouted the exclusion zone. Your scientific explanations are really great. I was in my teens at the time and to us, It seemed as if it had been completely unexpected and taken everybody by surprise!
one of my earlier childhood memories is my family climbing to the top of rattlesnake ridge for my fathers birthday (may 20th, but we went on sunday because of his work) as we we're enjoying the view the ground shook and a giant mushroomcloud formed to the south
Robert Landsburg's last photos are incredibly chilling. The photos of the pyroclastic cloud speeding towards him. He knows that he can't outrun it so instead he pulled out his camera and starts taking photographs of the pyroclastic cloud. After that, he put his camera inside his bag and shield the bag using his own body. RIP everyone affected by this eruption.
Wow, I’ve heard this story before but being reminded of it the way you tell it is borderline impressive 👍🏼
It is some of the most amazing and the most disturbing photographs ever taken in my opinion.
A final act of bravery, the ultimate sacrifice for data that would never have been seen by civilized man otherwise
honestly i wish i had an opportunity to do something like that lol he seized it.
you know that masculine urge to die in a glorious way 😂
@@Penuts911 So only men want to die in glory?
As a photographer, I gotta salute that guy for rolling his film and protecting his camera as his last gesture.
Rolling it by hand! Yes, his self-control was incredible
Have to commend his precents of mind.
Now the dude from Nope doesn’t seem so insane
@@oops6876 well, he ran in the open to be eaten, but didn’t hide all the film in a good place
@@jtgd didn’t say he wasn’t still *kinda* insane. That was the most frustrating scene in the movie. He literally had perfect footage before just sacrificing it all to get eaten with the reel..
Fun little story: My grandparents live about 180 miles north of Mt St Helens. The day it erupted, my mom was home from college visiting. That morning, she and her parents were sitting at the breakfast table reading the newspaper and chatting. When it erupted, the bang rattled the windows and knocked a few cupboards open. Living in the flight path for the local naval air base, this was a common enough occurrence they didn't think much of it. Mom remembers jokingly saying "Oh, there goes the mountain!"
It wasn't until ash started falling that they realized she was right.
Jesus! Funny, but I bet it was terrifying. My mother was driving to a camping area close to the mountain with her ex husband in '80 on a vacation near St. Helens, and was just close enough to see it erupt on the horizon. She said it took a minute or so for the shockwave to hit them, and when they saw it they immediately floored it out of there
This is so scary!! Do you know how they got out if there? I’m interested to know more in case the nonexistent volcano in my town erupts soon
@@grace-4072 Just watch Dante's Peak.
@Grace - It could happen! I didn't know I lived near a fault line till we had an earthquake. Although, you'd think they would have taught me that in school...
@@Whisper_292 Well that’s terrifying 😂 I will now be dming my geography(are those the people who study earthquakes?) friends and we’ll see if they can help me out here cause WHAT?!?!
I’ve read that we can thank the humble gopher for the recovery of nature. The gophers that were underground survived the eruption, and their tunnels were used by other small creatures and helped with the recovery of vegetation.
Migrating birds also helped a lot. Between dropping seeds they've carried in their waste, to landing in dead waters, transferring bacteria that helps break down all the debris.
Don't forget the humble prairie lupin!
Pocket gophers.😊
_Gopher it_
One of many reasons why proper nature conservation is so important.
I was hoping you would mention what happened to Spirit Lake when the eruption happened. It was directly in the path of the lateral eruption. Almost all of the water was pushed out of the lake up into the surrounding hills. The pyroclastic flow filled in the lake bed and raised it 200 feet. When the water came back down, it brought nearly unimaginable amounts of dead, burnt trees back with it. All in a matter of _seconds._
To this day, the log mat covers about 1/3 of the lake surface.
Not only did the landslide trigger a tsunami, part of the landslide likely contained volcanic material that exploded on contact with the lake and created a second explosion that made the lateral blast even more powerful.
@@domm4633 I don't believe _tsunami_ is the correct term. What happened there is different than a tsunami. But you're right about the hot pyroclastic material hitting the cool lake. Booom! Lots of water was surely vaporized.
Harry Truman looked it right in the face. the lodge is buried under all that earth and water...
wild
@@domm4633 There is a famous aerial photo of Mount St. Helens hours into the eruption taken from roughly the SW. Many scientists noticed a large whitish cloud rising in the background behind the eruption column. The overall opinion has been that it was Spirit Lake steaming violently from the hot debris in it.
For someone who teaches me about all sorts of earthly horrors, you have such a soothing and pleasant voice
Sometimes I fall asleep to his videos. He's very comforting.
@@MyNameHere101 me too
Lol same. I picture him with tea or cocoa and a very comfortable sweater.
I visited the area about 20 years after the devastation, and I have to say that it was a fascinating trip. You did a wonderful job of telling the story. There are two things I distinctly remember learning on my visit. First was the helicopter pilots saying how difficult it was to navigate the rescues with all the landmarks literally wiped out. And when the couple with the baby in the backpack were rescued, the helicopter pilot tried to get the parents to dump the backpack as they were trying to limit the weight on the helicopter. But they absolutely refused. It wasn’t until they were safely in the air that the mom showed them why the backpack was so important.
What a fool’s errand that couple took!
I can't get over how irresponsible they were to take a hiking trip in a zone in imminent danger... And with a baby!
@ganymededarling Because a vertical eruption was expected, the area that couple was hiking in was considered to be safe at the time.
I got the tour out there about 4 years after, so the scars were pretty fresh on the land at that point, and the impression was definitely more poignant and impressive throughout the area at the time. It was so incredible that the photographs of the aftermath, no matter the screen involved just don't seem to do it justice. Even at 8 years old, I was truly shaken by the shear ferocity of what happened and how far it reached, how BIG it really was.
Standing at the lookout and seeing trees still flattened like sticks along the muddy slopes forever out before me... That's something I've never managed to forget. It was sort of like walking into a post-apocalypse landscape right out of the storybooks. It's hard to believe just how big something could be one day, and it's just "pffft... and GONE" the next... wiped out in a handful of moments.
...a whole new level of "DAMN Nature, you scary!!!" ;o)
@PlasmaStorm73 [N5EVV] Take note, if a massive volcano is likely going to erupt then don't bring a baby within 50 miles of the damned thing! Nobody could have foreseen this outcome back when that couple went on their excursion, but we know about it now.
Robert Landsburg was dutifully doing his job as a photographer to the end, even snapping shots before his death which became an important scientific discovery and protecting his camera with his own body to avoid damage to it, dude is a hero.
THAT is dedication! And Harry Truman also faced his end on his own terms.
@@jovetj I bet he didn't think that way when he was burning up with his cats. Pride is a stupid reason to die.
@@billybussey He probably passed out long before he burned up.
I don't think of it as pride. He had lived there for decades and didn't want to live any other way. No one knew what was going to happen. He took his chances and died. He'd had a long life. He got exactly what he wanted. He died on his own terms. I salute him for it.
@@jovetj Bull. I know his type. My grandma was like that. It's hick mentallity and it mainly comes from them never doing anything in their life and being lazy. They try to pass it off as some sort of vitue and it isn't.
@@billybussey It's not a virtue. It's just the way the person is. It could be pride, it could be stubbornness, but I'd chalk it down to fear of the unknown. His way of life was worth his life and that's his choice.
I don't think it's fair for you to condemn someone you didn't know who died over 40 years ago based solely on your suspicions.
As a Volcano enthusiast, the eruption of Mt. St. Helen's has long been a favorite subject of mine. Just the sheer scale, the unique blast, the immediate aftermath, it's all fascinating. I've been to the Visitor Center located in the blast zone (I went in mid-2001), and I can tell you that pictures do not do this area justice. Being able to look directly into that huge crater and see the devastation all around me was mind-blowing.
It should be worth mentioning that it was incredibly fortunate that the volcano erupted when it did on a Sunday, because any other day of the week, there would have been far more loggers present, and the death toll likely would have been much higher. But regardless, Mt. St. Helens is a huge testament to the true destructive and healing power that the earth can truly have.
That moment at the visitor center when they open the curtains and you get to see the mountain. It is a breathtaking moment.
@@k33k32 I can’t even imagine the feeling… visiting is definitely up there in my bucket list for that kind of experience alone
@@madokami03 I've been there and I can attest it's well worth the trip. Give yourself time to walk along the ridge (there's a trail along it) when you go.
@@madokami03 I'll add that, if you can, plan to have a picnic at Coldwater Lake, just a few minutes away. It's absolutely beautiful... and was formed by the eruption.
I had the same experience you had, only in 1999. The mountain, six miles away across territory that looked like the surface of the moon, looked close enough to reach out and touch. I wondered what David Johnstones emotions were during those final moments. I'd be like, "Okay, God, here I come!"
Would love to see more volcanic eruptions covered on this channel; there are plenty of stories worth telling, such as the 1883 Krakatoa eurption, the 1902 Mont Peleé eruption, the 1985 Nevado del Ruiz eruption and the 1991 Mount Pinatubo eruption.
Agreed about the Mount Pinatubo eruption. I went with my family in the summer of 1992 to visit family who lived near there, and there was still ash on the ground. I'd love to see it covered on this channel.
I was at Clark AB, evacuated to Subic Bay when the Pinatubo eruption happened. I truly thought we were going to die.
I lived in San Francisco when Pinatubo erupted. The sunsets in SF were strange and spectacular.
Yes please!
1815 Tambora as well, the most powerful one in history.
i think one of my favorite things about your channel is the community youve fostered. every event that you talk about, i can look in the comments and find dozens if not hundreds of people talking about their firsthand experiences with the disaster, and even more people talking about what the areas are currently like, local concerns for future issues, and the way nature has reclaimed so much. its the sort of information that would be difficult to amass in one place otherwise, and i love it
Most definitely! That is why I also read the comments here😊
To this day, Johnston's final words still haunt me: "Vancouver, Vancouver, this is it." As I type this I just turned 30 myself two months ago. I shudder at the thought of quitting the earth when I still have so much left to do, just like Johnston had unfinished business of his own. Still, it's definitely worth taking cues from Landsburg: if you know you're done for, you might as well go down swinging and make your final moments count.
There are actual recordings of Gerry Martin's last transmissions you can listen to right here on RUclips. He's very stoic and collected on the recording, but I found it horrifying to listen to.
😂
@@achiever8008What's funny?
@@rrice1705 Seriously. He witnessed and described Johnston's site getting covered, and saw it coming for him next. Terrifying.
I highly recommend approaching Mount St Helens from the northside if you ever visit. It's dense forest right until you reach the edge of the blast zone and then just dead trees everywhere. The silence is eerie too. You can just feel the energy.
The photographers who died that day were heroes. May they rest at peace, and may we never forget their endeavours.
It's not worth your life. I honestly get bothered with people who risk their lives in this way. Don't be like them. When a catastrophe is happening just leave.
@@billybussey Right, of course. When a 600km/h pyroclastic flow is headed your way, just step to the side.
Not really, they shouldn't have been there to begin with. Bad decision to stay
@@ejthedhampir507 If you go towards danger I have zero empathy or admiration for you. He wasn't saving anyone.
@@billybussey 6:49
I grew up in Western Washington and remember this like it was yesterday. My family was on our way back from a trip to Spokane dealing with the recent passing of my step-mother's aunt. We stopped in Wenatchee on the way home for some gas when the ash started to fall. My dad quickly got us moving into the pass and headed home. It looked like dirty snow falling.
St. Helen's had been in the news a lot before the big eruption and I think people just kind of got complacent and stopped paying attention really until it did blow. I remember people going down there to see the mountain vent and it being almost like a circus atmosphere until it blew. My family was heading back from California in the summer of '84 and we stopped by an overlook where you could see St. Helens and the devastation. While there was massive destruction, what stuck with me was how many young saplings were already growing in that devastation as life carried on an reclaimed the area. May all those lost that day rest in peace.
I was 9 years old back then (it erupted just two days after my birthday) and it was all over the news and we were taught about it in school. I remember the news constantly talking about the ash and when it would reach us, and we were all the way down in Kansas.
Not exactly the same, but there's an old dam in a valley near me that got torn down because it was too old and wasn't generating power anyhow. I knew that valley when it was dammed up and now it's amazing how fast saplings are growing in the former reservoir just 3 years later.
My dad was working in Olympia at the time and living a bit north near Dupont. He was driving into work that day and saw the cloud rising over the horizon to the south. Said his gut instinct was that it was from a nuclear explosion, but quickly realized the mountain had gone.
My mom was visiting her parents in Hood River, OR, and she said that by noon it was dark and you could look to the north across the Columbia and see the main ash cloud with huge bolts of lightning shooting through it. She said it was the most surreal thing she'd ever seen.
I grew up in Oregon and Mt. St. Helens looms large in everyone’s minds and hearts.
Mentioned in the video was David Johnston, who worked for the USGS as a scientist. Officially, he wasn’t even suppose to be on the mountain that day, at the observation station on a ridge that would later bear his name. He covered for a coworker, and asked another to go home, as he could observe alone. He saved two of his fellow scientists lives by his actions.
The photo you used of him was taken by his friend and colleague, Henry Glicken, a graduate student being mentored by Johnston at the time. Glicken’s story, and how his life was impacted by the event and death of his friend, is heartbreaking.
Johnston relieved Glicken of his post at the observation station just 13 hours before the eruption, no doubt saving Glicken’s life. Glicken would convince three separate helicopter pilots to return to the mountain to search for Johnston’s body, but the trailer he was in wouldn’t be found until 1993.
Glicken would later channel his distress over Johnston’s death into work with Barry Voight and his team that mapped the debris field from St. Helen’s collapse, nearly a quarter of the mass of the volcano. They traced the movement of each piece of debris, from blocks 100 yards wide to tiny fragments.
He would attempt to secure job placement with USGS but they found his behavior was odd and unsettling, likely impacted by his grief over the events of Mt. St. Helens. He later would go on to research at Mt. Unzen in Japan, being killed in a pyroclastic flow with two other volcanologists, a husband and wife team from France, Maurice and Katia Kraff (who are fascinating in their own right).
To date, Johnston and Glicken are the only American volcanologists who have died as a direct result of volcanic eruptions. It is haunting and almost fitting that Glicken would follow his friend and mentor in life, as well as death.
Really interesting, informative comment. Thanks for taking the time to share it.
I grew up in Washington and have always been a bit fascinated with this event. However, it’s also burned into my brain that my uncle described it as a waking nightmare. He was on the freeway when all of a sudden the sky turned black and in minutes he couldn’t see or breathe. Thankfully he used his shirt as a face mask and got to safety, helping other people he came across along the way. I can’t even imagine the confusion and uncertainty that everyone must have been feeling in those moments..
My uncle's initial thought was that someone had dropped a nuclear bomb, because the radio in his car didn't work so he had no idea it was the mountain.
My parents were camping and fled. They couldn't risk turning on the AC in the car as ash was coming down. It was a very hot car ride to get out of there, from the Port Angeles. Far enough away that it surprised them to get ash. Crazy how far it covered in the state. My grandparents had jars of ash in their garage.
I was 12 and waiting for the bus in Olympia (about 60 miles away) the sky got dark SO fast it was really spooky. Remember that vividly.
Washingtonian here. My grandparents would tell me about this all the time when I was a kid. We even have a jar of ash around somewhere. Apparently the blast was so powerful that it was felt out on the Olympic Peninsula and my great grandmother yelled at my dad and aunt because she thought they were jumping off the couch onto the floor, shaking the entire house!
Don't open that jar. Silicosis just SOUNDS nasty.
@@windsofmarchjourneyperrytr2823 I doubt is would cause that given that is a disease over the span of many years but I agree that it is terrible should it occur
My grandparents had a jar of Mount St. Helen's ash too.
@@windsofmarchjourneyperrytr2823 The dust when melted down turns into a beautiful purple-blue glass.
Everyone around the PNW has a little jar of Mount Saint Helen's ash... What I find so remarkable is the recovery of plants and animals... you'd have to know about the eruption at this point to see the signs... There are still piles of ash around the Toutle River that I drive through every time I go to Portland. But they are covered with green now. My son was surprised to learn that the mounds were ash from the eruption.
My father was serving on a Canadian naval vessel operating out of Esquimalt when the eruption happened. Sot from the eruption managed to make it all the way there which caused a panic because initially it was believed to have been fallout from a nuclear blast that had caught the navy by surprise.
We got dust, soot, and ash further north on Vancouver Island. I was living in Qualicum Beach at the time, and we got about a centimeter, give or take a few millimeters, of ash and soot. For those wanting a reference, Qualicum Beach is about 2.5 hours north of Esquimalt at highway speeds. I'd give you a distance, but that is meaningless on the Island, given the countless curves and speed zone changes up and down the Island.
If the land was connected, taking ferries out of the equation, Esquimalt, which is just outside of Victoria, Canada, is about 4 hours' drive north of Mt Saint Helens. Meaning we saw ash and soot almost 7 hours' north of the volcano. There were reports in nearby towns of volcanic hail the size of peas.
How dreadful that would be - way out on the ocean wondering what was going on at home, or even if there would still be a home to return to.
I was a bit further north near the central island at the time. Everything was covered in ash and it floated on the surface of the lake we were camping at
@@0Mayweed0 Did you get the volcanic hail, or just ash?
My mother has a picture of when I was 1yrs old, sitting on the grass, in our backyard in North Vancouver, BC. On the back of that photo is written in my mothers handwriting, “The day Mount Saint Helens erupted.”
Because seconds after she took the picture, she felt the explosion.
It’s really hard to grasp the scale of destruction until you drive to the overlook. We drove a half hour through flattened scenery before it dawned on me just how vast an area had been devastated. It truly is mind boggling.
I covered this eruption for my Geography GCSE, I remember learning about David Johnston's death and being genuinely shocked, it's not often you read through a textbook follower a scholar's work only to find out at the end of the chapter that they died gathering the information you just learned. Apparently his last transmission was "Vancouver, this is it!" before the volcano erupted. It's thought he died instantly after that, the combined effects of where he was at the time and the immense force of the eruption would have obliterated him.
His niece is now a vulcanologist, she was in Indonesia monitoring one of their volcanoes that was getting restless, it too had a bulge on the side, thankfully it went back to sleep. I met her on one of the chats from livestreams that were running on YT at the time.
I've heard the recording of his last transmission, and it's chilling knowing he died right after. The ridge he was on that day is now named for him, and is where the main visitor center for Mt. St. Helens is now.
I've seen several comments calling the photographers heroes, and I'm not disputing that, but David Johnstone is absolutely the biggest hero of all. He saved so many lives!
@@RightsForZombies Thing is the geologists were much more aware of the risks and were battling the politicians to get and keep the area closed. I think they had a rota to stay in the area, they all took that risk hoping they could get out a warning to evacuate people wider without getting killed themselves. They all knew they were putting their lives at risk doing that and it is something that has been repeated by vulcanologists around the world.
I could be wrong, and I probably am, but I believe this is your first time truly covering a natural disaster and it’s great! Hope you continue on with more!
Snow storm in Scotland was a natural disaster as nobody expected it was going to be that bad.
@@ledichang9708 Snow storm in Scotland? That's really unexpected. I'd assume such would happen in Alaska, Greenland, Andorra, Switzerland, Canada, or somewhere like it.. not Scotland. RIP to the victims.
I think there were a few mud slides too?? I could be mistaken though
He did one on Pompeii too and some other ones
@@PhilipMarcYT Not sure if this is a joke or not, but snow in Scotland isn't remotely unusual. It would be very surprising if it didn't snow in many parts for significant amounts of the year.
Mount Saint Helen’s is one of the most spectacular places I have ever been to. You really have to see it with your own eyes what nature can do.
I went maybe 10 years ago, and you really are right. Standing there looking out at the wasteland it created just can't be recreated in any photos.
Agreed. I went in 2017. Awe inspiring.
I was there last summer, with my family that lives in Olympis. (You can see Mt. Rainier from there yard.) I had previously visited the Mountain seven years before. The lava dome has gotten quite a bit larger, as has the glacier on top of it. My 15 year old grandson was awestruck by the mountain. It is truly worth the visit.
Grew up with it in my back yard practically. It's breathtaking.
David Johnston's final words: "Vancouver, Vancouver, THIS IS IT!"
You didn't mention that the eruption of Mount Saint Helens also changed the climate of the continental USA. California, which had been suffering from a serious drought from 1977 to 1980, suddenly went into a period of above-normal rains for several years because the ash cloud changed the jet stream heading over the USA.
When I was in grad school a decade ago I got to see Mount Saint Helens from the plane. I had a short hop between Seattle and Portland, so we were in a small turboprop plane. The pilot specifically circled the volcano for us to look out windows to see it. It was still so clear where the eruption had taken off the side of the mountain. One of my most memorable flights at seeing how the area had been so changed by the eruption.
That's a pilot that loves their job.
My dads parents (and my dad who was yet to be born, his sisters only being toddlers at the time) lived miles away from the eruption, but still told me about how thick and just how much ash rained from the sky. Luckily they lived far enough away to not be affected by mudslides.
This is always one of my favorite natural disasters to research and learn about. Not just because it was also very local
I was 6 years old when this happened. I lived North of Vancouver. I remember the ash very well. I also remember years following doing yard work and anytime I dug in the yard there was a thin layer of ash that can be seen. It was a continual reminder of the 1980 eruption.
Ash came down clear across the state as far as Pullman. A former WSU professor I used to work for said vacuuming up the ash in his house ruined the vacuum.
I was raised and once again live in Longview, Washington, very near Mt. St. Helens. Believe it or not, I have a few, vague, snapshot memories of the incident. I distinctly remember being able to see the peak from our deck on a hill overlooking the Cowlitz River. It's not longer visible, due to the eruption. I also vaguely remember wearing surgical masks because of all the ash in the air and on the roads. What's truly amazing though, despite its destruction, is the breathtaking rate at which it is recovering, ecologically speaking. I'm fortunate enough to be able to see it up close. Great episode, thank you, and please feel better soon; you sound as if you have a wee cold.
I visited Mt St Helen’s last summer. It should be on every persons bucket list for sure. Not only is it a grand display of the sheer beauty of the Pacific Northwest, it’s also a fascinating story and many lessons were learn from the eruption.
After the eruption, the logging companies wanted to salvage a bad situation and worked for a few seasons to collect millions of the downed and burnt standing trees. Turing them into lumber while also replanting new saplings,millions of them, to help the area recover. That’s something I learned when I visited.
9:19 If you’re driving down I5 in southern Washington, right off the freeway, you can still see big piles of ash that were removed after the eruption. They look like hills of dark gray dirt a few stories high with plants growing on them. It blows my mind that over forty years later, you can still see the impact the eruption had on the landscape, even miles away from the mountain itself. My dad was a teenager living in Portland when it blew, he’s told me how wild it was to see the plume of smoke in the sky. He and his friends actually drove the logging roads that were still intact on the back side of the mountain to get pictures for their school newspaper a few days later, extremely unbeknownst to my grandparents 😅. The St. Helens eruption and the people who died will be remembered around here for generations to come.
My mom was about almost nine when this happened and lived in a small town in Washington at the time. She told me that when it erupted, her dad had lifted her up so she could see all the smoke. We visited it a couple summers ago and seeing how massive the area was honestly makes your stomach sink the first time you visit.
For anyone whose thought about visiting, I'd suggest doing so during the summer. It will be hot, but the sky will be clear enough to see everything and really take it in.
As a Washington native who has been fascinated by this story since childhood - it was great to see you cover it, but you completely missed some of the greatest horror involved - the complete incompetence of how things were handled prior to, and following, the eruption. Among many other issues - the red zone was much smaller than it should have been, largely because of logging companies fighting against it, and individuals who had been in the safe zone when they were killed by the eruption were initially misreported (deliberately) as having been in the red zone without permission.
There is a very strong story of "Scientists warn against possible imminent calamity, politicians and companies blow off their concerns as unnecessary fear-mongering. Calamity comes and it turns out, the scientists were right. Politicians and companies try to swing the narrative to make themselves look better in the aftermath" around the Mt. St. Helens eruption.
I lived 1500 miles away in Southern Kansas. You could write your name on the windshield of a car left outdoors from the ash that had blown that distance. We also had some absolutely beautiful sunsets as a result.
So crazy I had no idea it had gotten that far away!
Yep! My mom told me about how they got a bunch of ash in Nebraska. Nothing like what they had to deal with closer to the center, but she said it was sobering that if they were seeing the effects that far away, what kind of fresh hell were locals dealing with?
Just imagine what would happen if the Yellowstone Super Volcano erupted. People in Germany would be writing their names on their windshields.
i believe ash was detected as far as NYC. it’s bananas
Wow!
That last raio call still chills me to the bone really though.There's something terrifying about it
"Vancouver, Vancouver, this is it!" Those words chill to the bone any Cascadian who ever hears them....
Brings tears to my eyes every time I hear it.
Thanks for this video. Excellent job covering the material.
I was 8 years old when Mount St. Helens erupted, and living in Troutdale, Oregon. I remember the day well. We were backing out of the driveway, on our way for Sunday breakfast, right at the time the eruption happened. We could see the ash cloud, as we were facing north to leave the neighborhood. My father is not usually one to swear, but on this day I heard some words that got my attention. So I knew things must have been serious. My father turned the car around and pulled back into the garage. He ordered everyone out, and then turned on the TV and radio. I later found out that he was concerned that the Mount St. Helens eruption would trigger an eruption of Mt. Hood. We packed some suitcases and a little food, but fortunately we did not need to evacuate. I remember we received about a quarter inch (a little more than 0.5 cm) of ash from the eruption. It looked like grey snow. My brother and I went outside and collected some of the ash in Mason jars my mother gave us. I still have the jar of ash in storage with some of my personal belongings.
I've lived in Oregon outside of Portland all my life, and I remember my Grandma telling me stories of the eruption. She was relatively young when it happened, early 20's at most, and has an interesting perspective of it. She showed me pictures of my Grandpa (if I am remembering it correctly) mowing their lawn after the eruption happened. Being relatively close to Mt. St Helens, around 200 miles, the ash had formed a layer imbedded in the grass. You can see plumes of ash being swept up around the mower while my grandpa uses a face mask to prevent smoke inhalation. I'll have to ask her again to tell me the story as it's been a very long time, but hearing her stories about these events in history is always so fascinating.
I grew up in Yakima, WA which was relatively close to the path of the ash cloud. I was too young to remember the eruption itself, but whenever I would play in the dirt in my yard, there was a noticeable layer of grey ash just below the surface. When my parents replaced the carpet in the house, we discovered a large amount of ash deposited beneath it from when people tracked it in on their shoes.
I was in high school when Mount St. Helens erupted. The pictures and captured videos of the massive landslide prior to the eruption were amazing and terrifying. I remember watching video clips of a man who was walking around the area after the eruption. His voice was heard describing what he had seen as he walked. He was expecting to die in that moment.
The Mount St. Helens eruption was the biggest explosion in the United States. No one could ever imagine seeing something that destructive happening back then.
Years later, while I was in a geology class, our geology professor said that he said that he and some of his colleagues visited Mount St. Helens to study the volcano from time to time. His main focus that he said at the time was Mount Rainier, a volcano near Seattle, Washington. He stated that Mount Rainier is way overdue for an eruption. When Mount Rainier erupts, it will be a catastrophic disaster of massive proportions. Floods, mudslides, and much more.
It’s only a matter of time. But, volcanologists are watching these and other volcanoes closely, including Yellowstone.
I remember seeing the video of the walking man. It's really dramatic. I was surprised it wasn't mentioned.
Dunno if anyone else has mentioned this, but thank you for saying *both* the metric and the empirical measurements when speaking of scale! It really helps with the mental and physical image of the scale of the disasters
I hiked the back country on a pass that lead to the direct view of the blast crater. The level of destruction, even 40 years later, is impossible to convey with words. You can literally see the "shadow" of the hills that protected some trees, as the rest of the exposed trees and land was absolutely scoured. Looking down at the lake at the foot of the blast crater, all of the massive logs of the enormous fir trees look like toothpicks floating on its surface. You can still see the direction of the blast based on the direction the logs fell. It is truly an incredible place.
If you can, hike the Mount Margaret trail. Unbelievable views, and a sense of scale for the disaster you can't get anywhere else.
I lived in Arizona at the time of the eruption and even there you could see a haze in the air at times, particularly at sunset. It was a crazy time, and the nonstop pictures of the disaster area really gave you a weird feeling, that such a violent event could take place in an area of natural beauty, to be changed overnight into a blasted hellscape that looked like an alien planet.
Wow!
I lived in Southern California at the time. Two large states away, we had white ash fall like small snowflakes.
Something super interesting to me is that if you go to Mt. St Helen's today (or look over it on satellite imagery), you can still see the thousands of logs in Spirit Lake floating from the day the eruption happened. Taking up almost all of the northeastern most corner of the lake. Spirit Lake also holds a record of a mega tsunami from that day, topping out at about 850 ft.
WOAH.
My dad's family lived up in Puyallup and Redmond at the time. Although it was devastating, the snapdragons were popping up all over the place afterward. My grandmother grew the best potatoes I've ever eaten in that crumbly volcanic soil in her backyard. I even have the light bulb-shaped bottle of St. Helens ash she gave us long ago. Thanks for covering this! 😎👍
Volcanic debris contains a lot of minerals that are vital for plant growth. A lot of Italian farmers that live around and on Mount Vesuvuis know how risky it is, but the soil mixed with the ash from eruptions is so fertile that they stay anyways.
David Johnston was the first to report the eruption. He was in contact with the USGS Vancouver offices by radio, and had time to say, "Vancouver! Vancouver! This is it!" before he was taken by the pyroclastic flow.
A ham radio operator named Gerry Martin, monitoring the volcano on behalf of the Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service, had set up somewhat to the north of Johnston's observation post. He also reported the eruption; eerily, he saw the flow overcome Johnston: "Gentlemen, the camper and car that's sitting over to the south of me is covered. It's going to hit me too." Then he went silent.
Martin's body was never recovered either.
@2:44 you can see the gray faces of hills at the bottom center, that is the depth of deposits the landslide, lahars, and ash that buried the valley. The Toutle River is cutting through the middle of the debris field, reclaiming it’s original path. Also for perspective of size… those are adult trees on top of the gray hills, not bushes.
Thank you for acknowledging those who helped save lives and the people who gave it all knowing their fate. Sometimes the stories are told without that information. ❤️👍🏼
David Johnston was supposedly one of the few people at the USGS predicting that Mt. St Helens would erupt laterally instead of vertically as most other scientists at the USGS were predicting. His last words before he was killed by the eruption was a radio transmission to the USGS in Vancouver: "Vancouver! Vancouver! This is it!"
His body was never found and the wreckage of his USGS trailer was eventually found by road workers in 1993.
Robert Lansburg is the symbol of dedication. He knew that was the end and still thought about the importance of the pictures. Brave photographer and Great man.
I live in the mid west. Thousands of miles away. We had viles of ash from the railing of our porch. I took 1 to show & tell. Sadly we've lost them over the years. Can you imagine 1 of those super volcanoes would block out the sun for years. Great episode, reliving a childhood memory while listening to your description 🍺🍻🍺
I lived in Southern California at the time. Two large states away, we had white ash fall like small snowflakes.
I was driving across the Narrows Bridge in Tacoma, WA when it blew. It was a huge mushroom cloud! I wish I would have had a camera to get a picture of it.
A lot of people had lost faith that the volcano was going to blow, and there was a lot of pressure on the government to let people back into their homes and into the area. Harry Truman was seen as a bit of a folk hero, standing up to government officials and standing his ground on his own property. I've always wondered what he thought when the explosion happened and that pyroclastic flow came hurdling towards him.
His last thoughts may have been " Well Mittens and Muffy, looks like I don't have to clean your litter box anymore!"
To be honest, as someone who was in my mother's uterus about 130 miles north of St. Helens at the time, my fascination with the eruption as a teenager always included thinking he was a fool for thumbing his nose at evacuation attempts. As an adult, being reminded that he was widowed and that was the lifetime home he had shared with his wife changes my perspective on why he chose to stay. It was the Pearl S. Buck "let it come" approach.
I doubt he had time to think about much of anything. I’ve read that he likely died of heat shock in less than a second. He was probably dead before he realized what was happening - he was much closer than most of the other folks who died. They knew Harry was in the danger zone. Most of the others thought (albeit mistakenly) that they were a safe distance.
I doubt he had much time to think of anything. The heat that precedes the ash cloud can vaporize blood and make brains explode (as evidenced by skeletons found in Herculaneum, which got hit by the pyroclastic flow from Vesuvius).
@@FunSizeSpamberguesa I think you're right. That would certainly be the most merciful death for him and his cats.
My aunt lives in portland and when I was a kid she went to the site of the eruption and brought me back some obsidian from her trip! I lost it and I’ve never gotten over it, but when I was a kid I took that smooth, shiny rock everywhere! Along with the titanic, this was my favorite disaster case to research when I was in elementary school.
I've just discovered your channel and have been enjoying the documentaries - this one in particular. I was a college student at the University of Washington in Seattle when St. Helens blew and could clearly see the ash blowing upwards and flattening out before it continued on. . Luckily, we were barely hit with any.
I don't know if you're taking suggestions for future posts, but you might want to look into the Red Canyon Mine #5 explosiong on March 30, 1895 in Uintah, Wyoming. My great-grandfather was one of the 61 people who died in and after the accident. It was massive enough to be reported in the New York Times, but I don't think many people know about it now.
Just noticed you're over a million subs now, congrats my dude! I've been here since your video on the Verruckt water slide accident, so good to see quality content get recognized.
Same here! Also unrelated, but I love your pfp that's my fave movie
6:09 We lived thousands of miles away from the eruption, and were on a car trip. When we got home, the car was coated in dust. Dad said, "That's the dust from Mount St. Helens." I was amazed. It certainly wasn't road dust, it was thick and grey and very fine, like talcum powder.
It's a wonder it didn't do even more damage to engines and anything else with an air intake.
@@bonniehalf-elven We got some in the UK too!
@@bonniehalf-elven You're lucky it didn't do damage to YOU, to hell w the cars. It's full of silica. Ie, ground glass, as I recall.
The story of Mr. Landsburg is particularly harrowing. He clearly knew he was doomed, but chose to record the moments and then protected his art with his body. In a way, he reminds me of the band on the Titanic: no hope of escape, but by continuing to do his work, he provided help for others.
I like to imagine something similar with Mr Truman. Just standing at his lodge, watching impending doom flow towards him. Instead of being scared, he says to his late wife “I’m coming home”
Jeez…this is the plot of Dante’s Peak…
Thank you for your consistent work in bringing us these stories🙏🏾🧡
I think this is the event that sparked my love for true crime/true stories. I remember we had to do a research piece on it for class when I was like 11 and I found it so fascinating! I Love that you’re finally covering this!
Kinda disappointed you didn't mention Venus Dergan and Roald Reitan and how they survived the mudflow. I remember reading about them in a book as a kid and that was how I found out about the Mt St Helens eruption.
Thank you for this fine video. I was following the news about the volcano closely back in 1980. I live in Upstate NY and we got some ash even there. Up to now I had never heard of the photographer that was killed protecting his film. You always manage to find at least one tidbit of information that even the most die hard catastrophist has missed.
I was a teenager when the mountain erupted, I lived 30 miles directly due West of the volcano. We lived on the top of a hill overlooking interstate 5 and can see Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Rainier in their entirety. My brothers and I drove up to the mountain often, especially when the bulge was forming, nobody knew what would happen. At least until the roads were closed off. Usually there are a lot of clouds on the West side of Washington state, but this day the clouds were high and I had a great view of the volcano erupting. Since we were West of the Mountain, we did not hear the blast or get any ash (blast wave went North, ash went East). I have several pictures from that eruption and the many that followed it, sometimes I would look towards the mountain and it would suddenly have a minor eruption into the sky. That was an exciting time. About a week later, the wind was blowing West which is unusual, and we got about 1/4 inch of ash, which completely closed down interstate 5 for a month or more. It was so surreal like the world had ended, and so quiet with no traffic noise.
The scientist who died monitoring the volcano is a hero, he knew most likely knew exactly what was going on and stayed anyway. Even if that part isn't likely since I have no idea what the technology was even like, he's part of the team that helped save the residents and workers that were willing/able to leave from what was believed to be the most dangerous zone as best as they could. The photographer is also a hero for providing valuable information knowing full well he was going to die and then protecting it with his life. The whole volcanic team deserves far more recognition than they get, they were all brave putting their lives on the line most likely knowing full well how things were panning out but they stayed there anyway. The photographer was wrong place wrong time without any clue so he may not have known how great of a risk he was taking, but still showed incredible bravery and thinking in a way I think I never would when I would be watching my death rushing at me. Everyone here deserves immense credit, but I guess after rambling I think the rest of the team should be remembered too and not just the brave man who laid down his life to study the volcano for the people surrounding Mt. Saint Helen and the photographer who gave us valuable insight into what to do if it happens again
On the other hand, 16 innocent cats 😿 😏
David Johnston, on May 17th, relieved Harry Glicken at the Coldwater II outpost. Glicken was taking time off to do an interview with his professor on his graduate work. Glicken would himself be killed by the eruption of Mount Unzen in Japan, 11 years later. Johnston was Glicken's mentor.
@@matehavlik4559 Yeah, that makes m sad, too.
I was 10 and lived in Cheney, Washington when this happened. I heard the blast 200 miles away, in fact it woke me up. The ash cloud came billowing toward our town and caused complete darkness at 3:00 in the afternoon. Then ash rained down like snow. The next morning we have 4-6 inches of ash all over everything. I remember helping my father shovel ash and how strange it was that it was not snow. Quite a day. I even remember what I had for lunch that day!
I've known about this disaster for years, even known about the tragedies of those who lost their lives, but this is the first time I've ever heard Mr. Truman had cats with him. Such a small human detail, to be so committed to the place and way you built your life that you'd go down with literally all of it. Hopefully neither Mr. Truman or his cats suffered (and hopefully his poor cats weren't too scared, they had no idea...).
I lived in Missouri when this happened. My twin sister and I had just turned 13 a week before. I remember that summer being so extremely hot. The volcanic ash from this eruption was said to have created a greenhouse effect, which effected the weather, even that far away.
There are some RUclipsrs who have gone back over the years to video-map the regrowth of the devastated area. The ones who tie the current views back to the history of the sites are really interesting. I still remember one where there was an old photo of a logging truck stuck in the ash. He told the story of the workers who had abandoned it, and when he found it again, still on the mountain, there was a giant tree growing out of it.
After all these years I can never get tired of watching Mount Saint Helens and once again you provide a bright new perspective ❤
I remember news coverage leading up to the eruption. Johnston tried to tell all the other 'experts' that it could blow out laterally but was told that was 'so improbable as to be nearly impossible' (I heard one geologist say exactly that on, I think, NBC evening news). Oops. Johnston's last words over the radio were, "It's coming!" If it were me, I think MY last words would've been, "I told you so!"
I mean, few people in history have earned the right to say "I told you so" as much or more than he did. His actual last words were "Vancouver, Vancouver, this is it!"
Like many other commenters, I grew up about 100 miles from the mountain. My family had a house with a lot of very large windows and the bang they made from the shockwave of the blast was amazingly loud. I was surprised they didn’t shatter. About 20 years ago, a friend and I climbed the mountain during the winter; I remember it being a fairly easy hike up and really cool to look down into the crater.
I was about 60 miles away in Olympia and dont remember the sound but the sky getting SO dark so quickly is ingrained in my brain.
My late husband and I lived in a little town called Poulsbo, just West of Seattle and I remember this event very well! Since we were northwest of the mountain, we didn't get much ash, but it was a significant event. Mount St Helen visitor center is well worth a visit if you are ever in the area!
I remember sitting in our front yard watching the plumes of ash in the distance. It was such a surreal moment. Even now, 40+ years later, I can still hear the eerie silence that fell around us. As a kid, not many things can leave you speechless. But that? It was a moment meant to be without words.
From how far away were you viewing the plume?
@@marylizakowski706 - Puget Sound, about 150 miles of the mountain.
@@BenjiTheSnorkie cool.
I’m old enough to remember Mt.St.Helen’s. The ash in the air caused spectacular sunsets 🌅 for years afterwards, even on the east coast where I live. I remember Mr. Harry Truman who stayed put but I didn’t know about his 16 cats. 😿 Excellent documentary.
I remember when my family went to the Mt St Helens Observatory Visitors Center an there was a small earthquake and an my poor younger siblings thought we were all about to be eaten by the volcano. We were told it was small an nothing to worry about yet, but my dad even after told that an eruption that second was unlikely the drive out of the mt st Helens park was suspiciously a bit faster then coming in. lol
Congratulations on the BIG One Million! 🙏😎
Even when you do events that have been massively covered elsewhere, I almost always learn something from your videos that I didn't know before. As a resident of Washington, I was extra interested to see this one pop up, and you did not disappoint. Even though shorter than most other videos I've seen, I still learned something new. Most videos talk about Robert Landsburg and his photos, but this is the first time I've heard about the measures he took to protect them even as he knew he was doomed.
There was an ironic side to the eruption of Mount Saint Helens, the day before the event, volcanologist Harry Glicken was positioned on the ridge facing the volcano, but he had to leave for a job interview, with David Johnston relieving Harry right before the eruption. Harry Glicken was racked with guilt following the eruption, that killed his friend, from that moment on he devoted his life to studying volcanoes, until the 3 June 1991. On 1989, a volcano started erupting in Japan, Mount Unzen on the Japanese island of Kyushu, near Shimabara, Nagasaki, volcanologists from around the world came to study Unzen, including famous French volcanologists Maurice and Katia Krafft, it would climax on 3 June. At four in the afternoon, Unzen released a pyroclastic flow, just as the scientists predicted, however the pyroclastic flow was cascading faster than the scientists expected, when it hit the ridge, the velocity caused the flow split off in two directions, putting Harry and the Kraffts directly in the path of the glowing avalanche, 43 people died in that eruption. The irony was that Harry was spared from Mount St. Helens, that killed his mentor David Johnston, only himself to die from a different pyroclastic flow.
such irony. No one can escape death at the end.
I could watch your videos and listen to your voice for hours. Perfectly put together and always informative
I was 5 (across the country in NJ) when that happened, and I still remember seeing it on the news and being fascinated by it.
I was, too. I was in South Carolina. I think it's the reason my subconscious won't go near a volcano. And never want to go to Hawaii or Yellowstone.
That photographer's last acts are so moving. To love your craft so much.... ❤️
I remember this day, like it was yesterday. Will never forget it.
Same.
my granddad was a geologist who worked for the american government. one of his team members was David A. Johnston, who died in the eruption and had invited him out to observe the seismic activity on that day (my grandfather did a lot of work around volcanoes and earthquakes). unfortunately, or rather, fortunately, my grandad had a meeting in washington the day of the eruption, and couldnt be there. my grandfather would have been there the day it erupted. since he was not, he instead travelled there soon after the eruption to set up sensors, and also took a helicopter up to observer the crater. the smoke and ash was still heavy around the mountain though, and got caught up in the rotors. the pilot actually had to "bounce" the heli down the mountain as a result haha. i wish i had the opprotunity to know him before parkinsons-like symptoms took him over, he was an incredible man. he also did work on the apollo moon samples. my mom told me a story of how many years later he found some of the moon samples in a box in his office, and returned them to the government rather than keep them lol
I've been fascinated with this volcano since it erupted (I was a little kid, so totally primed for something like that catch my imagination). I lived in Washington for 15 years in my adulthood and tried to visit the volcano at least once a year. What really stood out for my last couple of visits in 2020 is how much nature had reclaimed the devastation zone. Springtime is green and vibrant now. Trees are growing back. Beautiful blue lakes dot the landscape. Life is persistent and always will come back.
sending thx from the US. I’ve been watching your videos for years now, always a instant click when I see a post! I love listening to these while at I’m work or getting stuff done around the house.
I watched this happen from 80 miles North when I was nine years old, it was Awesome to see. I still have a bucket of volcanic ash that I scooped off of my mother's Subaru. Truly once in a lifetime to witness. Thank you for the memories.
Visiting Mount St. Helens Volcanic Monument was a bucket list tip for me with my bestie a few years ago. Standing in the exact spot that Johnston did as the eruption took place was chilling. This eruption occurred when I was very young, and was the beginning of my fascination with Earth sciences and volcanism, something that continues to this day. Thank you for a good short overview of what happened.
Considering how big this eruption was, it's , incredibly fortunate that the death toll wasn't any bigger, though it's sad as in any disaster that there were over 50 lives lost. And it's astonishing just how much of the peak was blown away when St Helen's erupted
If people lived closer to it, the toll would have been higher, that’s why a lot of people warn of the possibility of Rainer blowing, because it’s so close to Seattle/Tacoma
@@amandag8629 how close are these volcanoes to populated areas?
@@elliottprice6084 St. Helens and Mt. Adams are more out in the middle of the woods, you have to take a trip to get to them. Whereas Mt. Rainer and Mt. Baker to the north of it, are the ones that they are most worried about if they were to blow. I'm pretty sure Mt. Hood isn't considered active in anyway, but I could see it doing some damage to the nearby Portland area depending on which way it decided to blow - plus Mt. Hood is near the towns on the Columbia River too.
I just read an article that said that a small town 30 miles away from Rainer which has 6,700 people living in it, would be wiped off of the map based on past lava flows that have been studied. However, because they are worried about Rainer & Baker, there are sensors all over them, keeping an eye on these two mountains. We had a warning with Mt. St. Helens and we would have a warning with Rainer & Baker too.
As I pointed out, it was very fortunate it erupted on a Sunday. Had it been any other day, more loggers would have been at work, and the death toll would have likely been much greater.
I was 13 when Mt St. Helens erupted. I have vivid memories of the coverage of the eruption. In 2002, I took AmTrack from Chicago to Portland, OR. I loved it out there, but being able to see multiple not-dead volcanoes with the naked eye, made me far too nervous. Wondering if and when they were going to erupt. I couldn’t get all of the images of the people in the area dealing with the thick, heavy falling ash out of my mind when trying to imagine living there. I didn’t even get far enough into my imagination to cover lava, lahars, flying-rocks, etc.
Great video! St Helens was one of the first big news stories I remember, the eruption was on the geography syllabus of my school so I learned a lot about how it had happened.
A lot of the debris and lahars from the eruption blocked a river that flowed near the mountain. A year or two later it was realised that the “dam” created by this material was at risk of collapsing causing a devastating flood. The US Army Corps of Engineers had to excavate an outflow tunnel to lower the water level and reduce the danger.
Another interesting result of Mount Saint Helens erupting in 1980: we now know A LOT more about the health risks volcanic ash pose on humans exposed to it, we always knew it was dangerous; but now we know specifically the kinds of cancers, soft tissue damage, lung problems, bone issues, and other chronic and acute illnesses and disease volcanic ash can trigger in people.
My 10 year old son’s favorite horror true story.
We will be watching this tonight.
Thank you very much for this documentary. I truly love your stories and style and time of each story. They are perfect.
Mt St Helens was just shy of 10k ft (9667 ft), or 2950 meters , before the eruption - about twice as high as was quoted in the video. 5000 ft is a foothill in the Cascades.
I had heard about the volcanologist who gave his last but hadn't known about the photographer as well! Thank you for the stark reminder how much scientists do in their observations and data collection
There was a second photographer who was killed, Reid Blackburn (was a National Geographic correspondent). His burned/buried Volvo sedan is seen in the images in this video.
As a geology major in Washington, we talk about Helens a lot - I've even had a full class that consisted of a two day camping trip to the volcano. There's some crazy stuff. I even go to see the car at 5:25 in person as we met the person who currently owns it. It still has pyroclastic flow materials in the back window, and my department took some back to study.
Wow! A Fascinating Horror I was there to witness! I lived near Yakima, WA when I was 10 and we got dumped on by St. Helens. I remember riding bikes with my friends(it was the 80's!) and we saw a large dark cloud coming with lightning coming out of it. A man stopped and told us what happened and we need to get inside because they didn't know it it was poison to breath. Ash fell like gray snow for hours. Not so good for cars, but turns out it made that area a great spot for growing wine.
I was born 9 years after this happened, but Mt. St. Helens will always have a place in my heart because I climbed it twice before the age of 13. It’s gorgeous up there, and crazy to look down into the crater.
I’ve been up to the crater of Etna in Sicily, and it’s quite a surreal thing to look down the crater and know what power was contained in that place. Plus the black sand and pumice was really quite beautiful to actually see.
The pet cat thing f’d me up as an elementary school student, learning about our state’s tragedy. My dad was golfing in Kirkland at the time, and he saw ash come down
I’ve read about this disaster, mostly in the I Survived book, but it’s crazy seeing real photos of how massive this eruption was
Wow, thank you for such an awesome mini documentary. I remember seeing the devastation in the coverage on the television, but I had no idea that there was actually an exclusion zone and there was such a fight to have it strengthened or that so many people had ignored or flouted the exclusion zone. Your scientific explanations are really great. I was in my teens at the time and to us, It seemed as if it had been completely unexpected and taken everybody by surprise!
one of my earlier childhood memories is my family climbing to the top of rattlesnake ridge for my fathers birthday (may 20th, but we went on sunday because of his work) as we we're enjoying the view the ground shook and a giant mushroomcloud formed to the south
I've been watching you for a year this month. Congrats on one million, keep up the good work FH