Mount St. Helens' 1980 Eruption (Free Essay Sample)

Learning from past mistakes from a scientific viewpoint is crucial to better understand our world. This idea is especially true when learning from the Mount. St. Helens catastrophe in 1980. It is seen as one of the most powerful natural disasters to happen in the United States. According to USGS, with the monitoring instruments sceintists have today, they may have been able to better predict the size of the eruption on May 18, 1980. A volcanic surprise can be a catastrophic incident that would result in terrible repercussions for the people living near it and the environment. The eruption was unexpected for many reasons. Geologists found indications that there would be a volcanic eruption, but none expected the eruption to be as big as it was in reality. The too-small size of the danger zone was one of the faults of this natural disaster. National Geographic argues that the fact that scientists were caught off guard was why many people were injured and killed. With new technology and information in the present day, mistakes like this may be avoided in the future. Warning citizens with a more accurate representation of the scale of natural disasters is needed for the safety of everyone for the future. 

Before the volcano erupted, there had been signs pointing to a catastrophe waiting to happen. There had been many accounts of small earthquakes, frequent puffs of steam leaving the volcano, and visual alerts to indicate that magma was ascending inside. The bulge that was seen kept growing as days went on which resulted in anxious waiting. Despite these observational warnings, many played it off as unlikely. Although the fist signs were seen on March 16, the biggest eruption happened on May 18. There was time for proper evacuation to save the lives of the people living around the mountain. 

The day of the largest eruption many events accompanied the disaster. Along with the actual eruption of the volcano, there were earthquakes that set off avalanches, a lateral blast, and a pyroclastic flow. The avalanche caused the debris to sweep the area around that spanned 23 km. It was calculated that the volume of the debris was around 2.5 km3. Regarding the lateral blast, it damaged areas 30 km away from the volcano site. Not only is debris that was being blasted hot, but the actual blast was moving at the speed of 480 km/hr. The aftermath of this took down all trees that were in the path. As for the proclastic flow, it reached around 800 degrees fahrenheit and moved a spreed of around 100 km/hr. There were at least 17 different pyroclatic flows that were happening in multiple directions. The effects of all of these events created a damaged environment and destroyed home, streets, and living conditions of citizens. 

The actual explosion had many effects due to the fact that it had a VEI of 5. As a result of this event, fifty-seven people died and thousands of animals killed. 90 square miles of habitat around the eruption site was affected. This included forests, ponds, lakes, and land in general. Nothing was alive around the area surrounding the volcano; this included plants, animals, insects, and organic matter. Everything close to the disater site was burned down or burried from the massive eruption. A crater, about 3.7 billion cubic yards wide, made by the powerful energy of the explosion is still seen today. The health effects were damaging to humans too. Specifially, the gas and dust had impacts on climate. The result of the blocking of solar radiation coming from the sun caused the climate to cool. Also, as a volcano erupts, tons of carbon dioxide is released into the air also adding to climate change. This climate impact will directly hurt the health of the people living in Washington with particles staying in the air along with many other neighboring states too. The ash that was sprayed into the air clumped together and caused breathing problems due to suffocation. There was not only impacts to the air that humans breathe, but also to the growth of native plants. 

The main issue about this natural disaster is that the signs were not taken as seriously as it should have been. Although there was science backing up the idea of an eruption coming in the near future, steps were not taken to evacuate. However, even though the eruption could have been, predicted at the time, the technology would not have been able to accurately predict the magnitude or exact date it would have exploded. At the time, the best technology scientists had to use to predict natural disaters was tiltmeters and surveying instruments. These tools were not precise enough to get exact data for predictions. According to USGS, an example of a technological advance scientists have today that would have been helpful is high-precision Global Positioning System receivers and better sensors to keep track of even the smallest changes and deformations. Another new machinery that could have been helpful is InSAR which allows the viewer to see a map of the deformation happening in the mountain range area using satellite radar images. If scientists were able to use these new technologies, the Mount St. Helens may have resulted in far less damage and casualties. 

In recent years, the warnings have been developed into a better system. For example, the National Volcano Early Warning System (NVEWS) was created. In 2019, this system was established to keep watch on potential volcanoes and alert citizens of any danger that may spark concern. This enables an active system when a warning of a possible explosion may erupt and protect safety by early detection. The evacuation system will let citizens be notified as early as the detection is major enough. This gives each person enough time to evacuate the area and relocate to a safer location. Additionally, new measures of recovery are being implemented in response to the Mount St. Helens eruption. Countries are now aware the extent of the possible economic and environmental damages a big volcano can have on an area so more preparations are being used. 

Although the eurption was a harsh event to happen in Washington, the explosion taught scientists a good lesson: always be aware of the dangerous effects of not paying enough attention to volcanoes. Learning this lesson in 1980 makes sure that scientists will do everything they can to stop this from happening again. It gives them more motivation to design more accurate and precise technological instruments. The lasting damages and facts about this volcano will always be a reminder that without proper interpretatiions of data, effects can be catastrophic. This natural disaster that happened in 1980 may have been a blessing in disguise. It was a wake up call to people living in Pacific Northwest since it was one of the first major explosions. Additionally, researchers can explore the remains of what the eruption left to try and use it to enhance predictions of other volcanoes. This could be by getting a better idea of when it might explode, what the damage will be, how long it will last, or how big the magnitude it wil be, to name a few. Also, another lasting impact this explosion caused the world to be more aware of the long-term effects. As if the initial damage was not bad enough, effects of the volcano are still seen today. It takes a long time for the environment to go back to the way it was before a disruption and volcanic eruptions are no exceptions. From now on, volcanoes will be treated with caution and studied immensely to ensure safety of the environment and health of living things.

What scientists know now is that volcanoes are unpredicatable, but new research and technology can possibly lower the damage it will make. Understanding the patterns seen at the Mount St. Helens volcano can further study and perhaps reduce the destruction of land and air around the natural disaster. 

Work Cited

Clark, Larry. Washington State Magazine, https://magazine.wsu.edu/web-extra/mount-st-helens-the-aftermath-and-lessons-learned/

“Mount St. Helens' 1980 Eruption Changed the Future of Volcanology: U.S. Geological Survey.” Mount St. Helens' 1980 Eruption Changed the Future of Volcanology | U.S. Geological Survey, https://www.usgs.gov/news/featured-story/mount-st-helens-1980-eruption-changed-future-volcanology. 

“1980 Cataclysmic Eruption.” 1980 Cataclysmic Eruption | U.S. Geological Survey, https://www.usgs.gov/volcanoes/mount-st.-helens/1980-cataclysmic-eruption. 

“Volcano Watch - 25 Years Later, What Have We Learned from Mount St. Helens?” Volcano Watch - 25 Years Later, What Have We Learned from Mount St. Helens? | U.S. Geological Survey, https://www.usgs.gov/news/volcano-watch-25-years-later-what-have-we-learned-mount-st-helens.

Worrall, Simon. “Mistakes Led to Needless Deaths from Worst Volcanic Blast.” Science, National Geographic, 3 May 2021, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/160320-mount-st-helens-eruption-logging-volcano-olson-ngbooktalk.