The progressive return of life after Mt. Saint Helens eruption in 1980.
Mount Saint Helens is still recovering from its historic eruption in 1980. In 2014, I visited the Mt. Saint Helens Memorial Site. Rangers showed two 15-minute movies. One movie was on the eruption. The other was on regeneration. It was fascinating.
Because Mt. Saint Helens is in rainy Western Washington, trees and bushes grew up quickly.
Survivors
The massive eruption blasted east and south with ash that went up to 30,000 feet in the sky, searing heat and poisonous gases. Fish that were frozen in lakes on the north side of the mountain survived. So did small, hibernating mammals like voles.
Emerging from their underground dens, small animals pushed seeds they stored for winter onto the ash-covered ground. Those seeds were the first plants to grow.
Fish-Eating Birds Arrive
Large birds arrived to eat fish in the lakes. In their poop, eagles, hawks, Osprey and other raptors deposited plant seeds and fertilizer.
Eventually, animals began returning. Small birds brought egg-eating/hunting animals like foxes and coyotes. As plants and trees grew, deer and elk returned to graze. Bears and wolves followed to hunt deer and elk.
One of the last animals to return were porcupines, who dragged their bodies 13 miles through ash to their ancestral home of Mt. Saint Helens.
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Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.@wolf041, @Moravian, @Stormchaser007, @Beowolfsfriend, @Triphid, @Julie808, @RoyMillar, @BudFrank, @gigihein
A week before Mt. Saint Helens erupted, I was sailing in the Puget Sound on a sunny day. I turned and scanned the white, snowy Cascade Mountains.
Mt. Saint Helens stuck out: it was brown. Hot rising magma had melted the snow.
Hairs rose up on my arms. I felt afraid. It felt like "bad medicine," as Native Americans warned.
A week later, the mountain blew.
LiterateHiker
Level 9
May 19, 2020
2
Interesting observation.
About 30-35:, years ago, I lived on a mountain just a bit south of St Helens. I could see it out my kitchen window on the few days of the year it wasn't raining, . I would feel the ground move once in a while and there would be a little belch of smoke out of it. Beautiful sight , but I wouldnt want to be directly below the thing. There was still plenty of damage left from the eruption around there at that time.
wolf041
Level 7
May 19, 2020
0
Im always interested in natural phenomenon such as volcanos, love yo hear about the recovery of the area after the eruption
Stormchaser007
Level 2
May 19, 2020
1
In 82, recently out of the military, I started back into college. My geology prof showed us some slides of the eruption. They were stunning. They showed the movement of the blast moving toward the camera. At about 300 yards the photographer wrapped the camera and put it under a truck seat. The photographer was one of my prof's old TA's. His two colleagues, a married couple, had gone for supplies. He was never seen again. I won't forget those phot.
Beowulfsfriend
Level 9
May 18, 2020
1
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