Posted on 05/16/2008 7:15:49 AM PDT by Clint Williams
MOUNT St. HELENS, Wash. - On May 18, 1980, the once bucolic ice-cream cone shape that defined Mount St. Helens in Washington state disappeared in monstrous blast of ash, rock, gas, and heat.
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And inside the volcano, which was once a soft dome of snow but is now a gaping, steaming menace with an unpredictable streak, an unexpected phenomenon is taking place: a glacier is growing.
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But Walder cautions that a glacier inside a volcano leads a tenuous existence. A surge in volcanic activity, especially an eruption, could melt away the glacier in the space of a day, sending a torrent of water down the Toutle River in a flood that would bring widespread destruction downstream.
The damage could echo the devastation wrought by the volcano 28 years ago when the rapid melting of snow and glaciers during the May 18 eruption sent muddy walls of churning water streaming from the volcano, taking out bridges, homes and trees as it rushed downhill.
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(Excerpt) Read more at komotv.com ...
Glo-bull warming, aka climate change, never ceases to amaze me.
Bump. I know you are interested in these things.
I was a witness to St Helens as well...living up at McChord AFB in Washington, and standing there at the barracks window on a sunny day to watch the plume in the distance. We had several guys who had talked about going down and camping with ten miles of the mountain that week...but the boss wouldn’t let them take leave. I still consider the eruption one of the top twenty-five events of US history for the entire century. The curious thing is that the mountain was turning green with fresh grass and pine trees within three years. It is a huge lesson on how the planet recovers from things.
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