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Mount St. Helens Disintegrates in Enormous Landslide

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Volcanic eruptions are extremely damaging. The Mt. St. Helens eruption covered 600 square km of land ruining all trees, vegetation and wildlife. With these things taking thousands to millions of years to regrow it truly shows the effects that volcanoes can have on wildlife in their area.

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The damage area from the pyroclastic flow and landslides totalled appx 600km². In realtive speaking, the damage area of the volcano is about the same size as the city of Chicago. Aside from land damage, the ash cloud that rose into the atmosphere continued for 9 hours after the eruption reaching 28 km above sea level. This ash spread all across the United States and Canada, disrupting air traffic and ground life.

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After the Eruption was concluded, there was an estimated 57 people dead as a result of the explosion. If people in the area had of been at work when the eruption occurred the death toll could have been much more significant.

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Throughout the eurption, Mt St Helens managed to destroy 200 homes, 300km of road and 24km of railway in the area. Aside from damaging man made structures, the eruption completely decimated the  surrounding landscape meaning that no wildlife or logging could occur in the area around the eruption.

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The Mt. St. Helens eruption was measured at  5 on the Volcanic Explosivity Index. The index measures the explosiveness of volcanic eruptions through, volume of products, eruption cloud height, observations.

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Where- Skamania County, Washington USA
Elevation- 8,363ft
Kind- Stratovolcano
Date- May 18 1980

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It's hard to be 100% accurate when it comes to volcanos. No matter the technology you can only predict and be aware of eruptions as they are partially random. With the first earthquake striking 2 months before the eruption scientists would have monitored the volcano with a close eye but would have no way of knowing for sure when it may erupt. When it is observed that the mountain is beginning to bulge this would be the time for people to start evacuating in the case of an eruption. Measures can be taken to save lives but ultimately it is impossible to predict natural disasters. Overall the best thing the government can do is allow scientists to do their job to observe the Earths earthquake and volcanic activity and allow them to make the call on an evacuation before it is too late.

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2 months before the actual eruption of Mt St Helens, a 4.2 magnitude earthquake happened around Washington USA, a week later steam started to rise from the mountain top.  Over the next month the mountain began to bulge, meaning a buildup of pressure under neath the surface. On May 18 1980 another earthquake, this one a 5.1 magnitude, caused the northern face of the mountain to collapse resulting in an enormous landslide, the largest in recorded history, which then resulted in the eruption of the volcano.