The single greatest surprise to scientists entering the blast zone shortly after the eruption was the realization that many organisms survived in, what initially appeared to be, a lifeless landscape. Scientists entering the blast zone for the first time found a mostly gray and brown landscape covered with dead trees and a uniform covering of ash and pumice.
It wasn’t long before scientists working in the area found surviving populations of plants and animals. This was particularly evident in areas protected by snow cover and where erosion had thinned the overlying ash deposits (along streams and in gullies that formed on hillslopes). Plants were observed sprouting from the pre-eruption soil surface and signs of activity by gophers and ants indicated that subterranean animals (living below ground) had survived beneath the volcanic ash.
The survival of plants and animals in the midst of the apparent total devastation was of special interest to the scientific community. Early studies have demonstrated that, even after a large-scale, catastrophic disturbance, recovery processes are strongly influenced by carry over of living and dead organic material from pre-disturbance ecosystems. At Mount St. Helens, ecosystem recovery was influenced not only by the survival of plants and animals, but also by the tremendous quantities of organic material that remained in the standing dead and blown down forest.
Another story, told by the park rangers at St. Helens:
A couple days after the eruption, geologists helicoptered near the crater and planted a seimograph that sent telemetry back to the USGS Vancouver office. The next day, the USGS was getting some very strange readings from that seimograph, so they assumed it was broken and went out to check it.
When they flew over, they found out what was causing the readings. A small herd of elk had migrated back into the blast zone. The antenna for the seimograph was the tallest thing in the area, and they were rubbing their antlers against it, since there were no trees!
If you get the chance, go visit the Mt. St. Helens National Volcanic Monument. It is absolutely GORGEOUS, and you'll learn a lot!
Thanks for the link. It just emphasizes what I said at post 1 even more.
Aren't there bacteria that can live on nuclear rods?