Mt St. Helens Eruption Essay Example

Humans are often captivated by tragedy. This, perhaps, morbid curiosity makes itself known in the presence of things like murder-based television series or even the simple ‘inability to look away’ when witnessing something bad happen. In the world we live in today, there is no lack of tragedy and misfortune to consider, from the aforementioned sensationalization of crime, the prevalence of gun violence, or even the negative experiences and devastation a populace may face after some kind of disaster, whether that be man-made or natural. Natural disasters stand as an interesting rung on the ladder of human morbid curiosity, after all, many other tragedies are caused and contributed to by man, yet the magnitude of devastation of natural disasters still manages to hold public fascination. A prime example of this is the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. The mountain-volcano captured the public’s attention from early March of 1980 when noticeable seismic and volcanic activity began and only drew more even more rapt attention with its eruption and devastation in August of that same year (USGS 1). As one of the most destructive eruptions in all of the United States' history, much of the damage- and the immediate impact it had on numerous different sectors- was quickly catalogued and reported to the public: the lost homes, lives, and revenue, while other immediate impacts could be felt firsthand, like the closure of major highways due to reduced visibility (USGS 1-2). When considering the impacts of the devastating eruption of Mount St. Helens, it is evident that the immediate negative effects of the disaster are what is covered when considering the eruption, not the long-term, present-day ramifications of the eruption, good or bad. This acknowledgment of only the immediate and negative effects of the eruption of Mount St. Helens may connote the false idea that there were not lasting- or positive- impacts of the eruption, when in reality, there are numerous significant effects of the eruption of Mount St. Helens still felt today, many of which have been beneficial in their own right.  

While renowned for its beauty since long before the eruption, Mount St. Helens never experienced the level of tourism and pull factor that it has today, prior to the disaster. The area was simply not a tourist magnet at the magnitude that it is today. Whereas before, the mountain’s human landscape was mainly comprised of scattered local residents, cabins, and logging companies, now, much of the original area is encapsulated inside of Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument (USGS 2-3). A national site that allocates some of the land for purely scientific research, but still allows ample space for visitors to explore the area, climb Mount St. Helens, or even stop by one of the many visitor centers in the park that have interactive exhibits all about the famous eruption. People’s fascination with the disaster has proved to be enduring, so much so that according to Seattle Times article Mount St. Helens Continues to Draw Worldwide Visitors, even thirty years after the eruption people were traveling from more than twenty different countries to visit and see the mountain for themselves (Florip, par. 2). For whatever reason, whether that being humanity’s captivation with tragedy, or something of a different nature, the eruption of Mount St. Helens has ultimately managed to bring and sustain significantly more tourism to the area, and according to the Society for Risk Analysis, in line with this increase in tourism, “the regional economy in the footprint of Mount St. Helens has benefited,” too (SRA, par. 7). 

In similarity with the positive effect of the long-lasting increase in tourism, another enduring, and perhaps less anticipated, impact of the eruption are the enormous strides that have been made in volcanology, the study of volcanoes and their components, in direct result of the eruption. It may sound like a falsity, after all, what can there be to learn about a volcano after it has already erupted? Well, as demonstrated by Mount St. Helens, quite a bit, actually. According to the USGS article Mount St. Helens’ 1980 Eruption Changed the Future of Volcanology, “the eruption of Mount St. Helens sparked the advances in cutting-edge volcano science and monitoring that exist today” (par. 3). Mount St. Helens turned out to be the perfect case study to propel scientists and their research to the levels they are at today. The article presents that the eruption was the first of its kind and scale to be studied intensively with what were at the time new methods but are now standard of modern volcanology: things like extensive photography, studying the interior of the volcano, and using as many types of monitoring equipment as possible (par 4). Additionally, regarding how volcanic monitoring has improved the USGS document 10 Ways Mount St. Helens Changed Our World, states that in result of the eruption: 

Volcano monitoring has evolved from the placement of a few scientific instruments to broad integrated networks of sensors to detect a variety of indications of volcanic activity. […] These advancements allow scientists to provide early warnings that give officials precious additional time to enact evacuations or to advise people to shelter indoors. (USGS 6) 

The value of these systems is immense, they have the capability to, and do, save lives. They provide both the data for scientists to know of potential threats and the channels of communication with the public to adequately warn them. Meaning that even in the face of the destruction caused by the eruption, it has resulted in the modern-day capability to protect and forewarn people about possible similar occurrences, and potentially avoid such devastation as before. 

In line with the benefit felt today thanks to vast improvements in volcanology, is the impact on the surrounding landscape that the eruption of Mount St. Helens has resulted in. One may argue that the impact of the eruption of Mount St. Helens was not a positive for the surrounding landscape, after all, millions of trees were felled in the eruption and volcanic ash was deposited everywhere. However, despite the magnitude of trees it may seem were felled by the eruption, that was actually a very small portion of the trees in the region. So, few, in fact, that logging even continued in the region until the early 1990s (Bailey 4). Additionally, volcanic ash had very little impact on preventing new life from growing, seedlings were able to emerge through thinner ash layers and a variety of plants were still able to grow in ash-filled soil (USGS 3). Ultimately, this means that the harm the eruption may have caused the local environment through factors like felled trees and ash deposits are not actually as significant of concerns as they may first be assumed to be.  

A substantial environmental impact that can be attributed to the eruption, however, is the positive effect on species diversity that the eruption had. It may sound counterintuitive, that the destruction of the natural landscape may lead to a flourishing and diverse ecosystem, however, at present, that is the case with Mount St. Helens. There may be the assumption made that all the local life was destroyed in the most intense places of the eruption, but it has been shown that the various ecosystems of Mount St. Helens were not impacted equally by the disaster, which has resulted in a unique array of complex habitats. According to the USGS document 10 Ways Mount St. Helens Changed Our World, “Even though the eruption killed most life in the immediate area, many organisms survived. Snow and ice cover protected many plants and animals,” from there nitrogen-fixing plants were able to grow in the nutrient lacking soil thus creating support for other species to live and grow (USGS 3). The plants and animals in their variety of surviving and new pioneering species provided the groundwork for progressively more and more species to take hold of the area again. Resulting in not only a non-barren landscape- like one may expect for hundreds of years after the eruption of a volcano –but a flourishing ecosystem where the “diversity of life at Mount St. Helens today exceeds that of the pre-eruption landscape” (USGS 3). 

The 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens is undoubtably an event that had, and still has, a large impact on the United States. It was one of the worst volcanic disasters in this country’s history and the results of that were felt by the nation both during and in the immediate wake of the eruption. Whether the nation’s attention was fixated on the ‘disaster’ of the situation because of humanity’s morbid curiosity with misfortune or something else is a point up for debate. However, what has been shown is that not only are there impacts of the eruption that are still very much felt today, but that not everything that came out of this ‘disaster’ was really so disastrous. Many of the present-day effects are actually beneficial, like increased regional tourism, large advancements in relevant fields of science, and higher levels of biodiversity at the site of the eruption. While the eruption of Mount St. Helens was undoubtably tragic in many immediate regards, the existence of that tragedy- or any other tragedy -should not be used to overshadow the fact that there were ultimately beneficial outcomes, too.