![](http://www.swisseduc.ch/stromboli/perm/msh/icons/vvmap.jpg)
I lived twenty-five miles south of mount Saint Helens when it blew up May 18, 1980. It was quite a show. The mountain blowing up was quite a display. What was even more remarkable was the mud flows we watched on the news for the next week. These mud flows from the side of mountain formed a minature grand canyon. This minuature grand canyon is complete with layers of different sizes of rocks (strata). Notice that the canyon formed from Mount Saint Helens "has a dendritic ( tree-like ) system of tributary canyons". It was clearly formed by a catastrophic flood as I watched it form (hint: observation) from live pictures on the news. Did you observe the grad canyon "formed by a gradual erosiion process". Perhaps you have invented the worlds first time machine and watched the grand canyon form----you should patent it....
The dendritic patterns to the right of Windy Ridge are due to preexisting topography, if I'm not mistaken. The "Little Grand Canyon" touted by John Morris and others is on the Toutle River, seen flowing out of the picture on the upper left. It is fed by drainage from the ash field seen above the main crater, and this drainage shows the braided stream effect evident in the Spokane Scablands. I've often seen a similar appearance to drainage down the face of a highway embankment.
![](http://www.jwoolfden.com/jpg/StHelens.jpg)
"Now I want them to see that just as nature has given to them, as well as to philosophers, eyes with which to see her works, so she has also given them brains capable of penetrating and understanding them." - Galileo