"Figure 2. The eruption blasted away the top of Mount St Helens leaving an enormous crater."
Article image and caption
Posted on 05/24/2017 10:53:13 AM PDT by fishtank
Learning the lessons of Mount St Helens. How its eruption backs biblical history
by Tas Walker
It was not until I visited Mount St Helens volcano in Washington State, USA, that I fully appreciated the immensity of its 1980 explosion. Over many years, I had learned a lot about the eruption, watching videos, listening to lectures, and reading reports. When the mountain blew up physically, it also blew away many false ideas about geology, ideas that were wrong, but had been believed for more than a century.
After decades of inactivity, Mount St Helens coughed to life in March 1980, some two months before its explosive eruption. Its smoke and rumbling were warning that something big was building up. Officials set up an exclusion zone around the volcano based on scientists’ ideas about how an eruption would occur. However, the blast was larger than expected, plus it first erupted sideways to the north instead of vertically. Of the 57 people that died, all but three were outside the exclusion zone.Wrong geological ideas can be deadly.
(Excerpt) Read more at creation.com ...
"Figure 2. The eruption blasted away the top of Mount St Helens leaving an enormous crater."
Article image and caption
There is considerable evidence that the story of a Great Flood is repeated in many cultures.
I do have a question though and that is where did all that water come from?
I just happened to be up in the area on business a couple of years after the blast. Rented a car and drove out to MSH.
AMAZING the destructive power. Driving along, miles from the mountain, there was a sign that read, “Entering blast zone”.
Trees were beginning to pop back up through the rubble, but the trees that were standing before the eruption were laying like match sticks all facing out away from the mountain. Pixie stick style.
Put me in awe.
Was flying from Seattle to Reno once when the pilot took us down for a close look at the destruction. Incredible.
I’m not an expert, but here are a few thoughts. The second chapter of Genesis notes that no rain had as yet fallen on the earth, but a “mist,” used to rise and water the entire surface of the land.
At the conclusion of the Flood, it’s noted in Genesis 8 that both the “fountains of the deep,” and the “floodgates of the sky,” were “closed.” Iow, rain didn’t account for all the water. There was a geological cataclysm that included the bursting open of the “fountains of the deep.”
Additionally, some have interpreted the earlier allusion to mist as meaning it didn’t rain at all until the flood. Rather, a heavy cloud cover created a year-round tropical environment.
These are just some hopefully useful thoughts. I’m not a Flood aficionado. Maybe someone who knows more about it can give more specifics.
Mostly subterranean. Lot of it still down there. It's not free liquid at those temperatures and pressures, of course.
There are hundreds and hundreds of active volcanoes on Earth. Many are under the ocean and many don’t get news coverage because they are smoldering or are far away from populated areas. The most significant fact about Mount Saint Helens, aside from the awesome destructive power, is how close it was to a major city. That is not evidence of anything in the debate over creationism versus evolution. There is no use discussing it as such.
Bfl
Awesome article. Great part where they sent samples to a lab which found the samples to be 3 million years old—they were only 10!
That artical is not very factual. The eruption was caused by an earthquake landslide on the north face which caused the mountain to release its pressure laterally. The majority of the material was from 2 giant slabs of rock that slid one after another which resulted in the largest landslide in recorded history. During the landslide the walls of the verticle lava channel was weakened and the side blew out. The explosion launched chunks of rock the size of large houses over 5 miles and scattered them beyond where the observatory now sits. The landslide hit Spirit Lake and pushed the entire lake over 1000’ up the hillside.
I have been giving tours up in that area for years,I have been fascinated with that mountain since I was a kid, and it is one of my most favorite places to go. The destruction is impressive but at the same time gorgeous.
Excellent summary. Was there back in the day. Interesting subject, but rather absurd when shoe-horned into a narrow brand of religeous dogma.
I realize that the “fountains of the earth” had erupted. That must have set off chains of earthquakes all over the world.
Agree. It must have been a worldwide upheaval, unique in history.
I think FW that you are pretty correct in the flood idea. I believe the flood story to be true, as well as the Creation story. Although I think the Creation story is much more difficult to understand, as the story was told by people as revealed to them by God (whereas the flood was witnessed).
I’m also in agreement with webheart - one volcano (or a million) doesn’t do much to “prove” the flood story, or a young-earth creation.
Thanks for your input. What did you think about the rock-dating part of the article? I found it interesting, but again, it’s not an area in which I’m knowledgeable.
I was there 7 years after the explosion. Trees were strewn on the ground facing away from the mountain, as you said. There were also a lot of small trees which apparently had survived because they had been covered with snow at the time of the eruption.
Lava dust from MSH was deposited on my hometown in Southwestern Montana and I still have tube full of the dust my father collected and sent to me. It deposited, if I remember correctly, an inch or more of the dust,
600 miles away.
LOL - I didn’t read the article. I’m an “old earth” creationist. (But not an evolutionist).
Yeah religious dogma sucks almost as much as atheist dogma.
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