Mt St Helens Research Paper

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The eruption of Mt. St. Helens took place on May 18th and sent sixty thousand feet of ash, steam, and water into the air. Fifty seven people went dead or are still missing. Mt. St. Helens is located in southwestern Washington used to be a beautiful cone about 9,600 feet tall. The eruption, which removed the upper 1,300 feet of the summit, put a horseshoe shaped crater into the area, and made it a barren wasteland. Today the land is healing, and has recovered its natural beauty, but the landscape will be forever changed. On March 1, 1980, a brand new system of seismographs at the Washington University went into play to monitor earthquake activity in the Cascades. On March 20, it recorded a 4.2 magnitude earthquake deep beneath Mount…show more content…
St. Helens. At Noon, the first eruption of ash and steam spewed into the air at 6,00 feet. Two twin fissures opened up at the Mounts north face. Volcanologists set up reflective between the fissures and used lasers placed on a mountain ridge six miles away to record changes. On March 31, instruments began to record the pulses known as “volcanic tremor.” These pulses indicated that magma was on the move. In April, the laser equipment began to get signals of change in the volcano. A creepy swelling bulge was forming between the fissures. By late April, the laser measurements showed that the bulge was growing at about five feet per…show more content…
On March 20, it recorded a 4.2 magnitude earthquake deep beneath Mount St. Helens. From March 25 to March 27, quakes of magnitude 4.0 happened at the mountain as many as three times a day, and smaller earthquakes occurred many times every hour. At 8 PM, on March 27, the U.S Geological Survey issued a hazard watch for Mt. St. Helens. At Noon, the first eruption of ash and steam spewed into the air at 6,00 feet. Two twin fissures opened up at the Mounts north face. Volcanologists set up reflective between the fissures and used lasers placed on a mountain ridge six miles away to record changes. On March 31, instruments began to record the pulses known as “volcanic tremor.” These pulses indicated that magma was on the move. In April, the laser equipment began to get signals of change in the volcano. A creepy swelling bulge was forming between the fissures. By late April, the laser measurements showed that the bulge was growing at about five feet per day. On the morning of May 18, the changes to the bulging mountain were consistent with what had been reported several times daily since the watch began. At 8:32, a magnitude-5.1 earthquake registered on the seismographic equipment. Just later, the volcano erupted and knocked down 19 miles of a nearby forest
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