The Strange Thing About Mount Saint Helens

Mount Saint Helens has a strange quirk which makes it somewhat unique among volcanoes which are similarly explosive. Unlike Edgecumbe in Alaska, Pinatubo in the Philippines, or Katla in Iceland, Mount Saint Helens has never collapsed into a caldera in its 43,000 year long lifespan. #short #shorts #volcano #washingtonstate #mtsthelens

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Sources/Citations:
[1] U.S. Geological Survey
[3] Cascades Volcano Observatory
[4] Alaska Volcano Observatory

[outlawbillionairez]

After the 1981 eruption, Mt ST Helens started building a dome that was a gigantic plug. So the eruption must not have left a void .

[zaphodwashere]

I was in my family's driveway in Tacoma on Sunday morning on May 18th and my brother and I heard a tremendous roar and a bang, we ran inside and turned on channel 5 and saw that St Helens had erupted. We went back outside and could see the top of the ash cloud. It was on the news for several weeks afterwards & we got several light ash falls over the next few days.

[TheSpaceEnthusiast-vlwx]

What is amazing about Mount Saint Helens, at least for me, is how rapidly it built itself up during several times in its history. The summit dome that formed the upper flanks of Mount Saint Helens before 1980 for instance was built in roughly 150 years between the 1500s or 1600s and the 1700s! Consequently, by the time it collapsed on May 18, 1980 at roughly 8:33 am and 40-ish seconds (This came from a paper examining the components of the lateral blast.), it was only roughly 300 years old.

Do note that the dates and times here are based on my memory. It has been quite a while since I last read on Mount Saint Helens so I might be mistaken. I thus encourage all of you reading this comment to research on Mount Saint Helens' former summit dome and the research papers related to the lateral blast and collapse dynamics of the volcano's north side that fateful day.

[sarahb.]

Not long ago I read in a book that about 4 or 5 days after the Mount Saint Helens eruption that there were elk crossing the ash flow already. That had shocked me! Did that stuff cool off so fast?? The book had said everything was destroyed but here these elk were walking on the ash. And their hooves were making holes in it and they were dropping life giving dung (with plant seeds) - and that was the start of the life coming back after such a horrible disaster. The other thing I recall reading in the same book was that some animals had actually survived the eruption because they were living underground! They were safe in their burrows! I have no idea how deep a typical rodent burrow is but to think a few feet of soil was enough to save them from lava! Amazing!!

The book was not actually on Mount Saint Helens but on Mount Shasta. But since Shasta is also a volcano there was a big long chapter on the eruption of Mount Saint Helens. The book actually discussed the history of the area + of the Cascades. It was actually fascinating! It was a kindle book.

[maxpower]

I always thought it had collapsed but had been rebuilt due to its abnormally high activity

[tHebUm]

Uncanny you made this short--was thinking earlier today how much I'd dig a deeper dive video (longer than your normal 4 minutes) of you getting into the 1980 eruption and how scientists underestimated it/got caught out not having an exclusion zone.

[tomdolton]

Very true if it didn't ever collapse in to a caldera that may mean it's possible that it is more powerful than we know and it's just getting started or it may be it can not get Enough water to do so

[kirkmorrison]

I remember Pinatubo causing a rough winter in Virginia ice that stayed on my hood for almost 2 months i had to put a piece of cardboard in front of the radiator on my truck. That way with the towing package it would reach operating temperature.

[AllTheHappySquirrels]

I remember reading something about a potentially shared magma chamber between St. Helen's and Mt. Adams, might that contribute to the no-caldera mystery?

[kenwin]

You can see signs of the 1860 BC eruption near Castle Rock, it was that big

[BMAN-ebjk]

I’m not a true volcano expert, but if I was to guess, perhaps one reason why the ground on Mount Saint Helens never really collapsed into a caldera might possibly be the result that its magma chamber didn’t empty as much as with other violent eruptions like Mount Pinatubo. If this was the case, it would mean the hat the ground above wouldn’t have as far to collapse into the empty chamber. This would mean a much less noticeable depression in the ground.



(This is just my guess, I have been interested in volcanos for a long time, but I am not a full scale volcanologist. So feel free to correct me if I was wrong.)

[ThatOpalGuy]

Honga tonga: "hold my beer..."

[StAu]

A hike to Mt. Pinatubo it’s one of the best ones for me.

[supertoasting]

Maybe something about the structure of the volcano can support itself even if the magma chamber is largely emptied?

[oropendola]

From what I remember from the video covering the Yn Tephra, St Helens was still a series of lava domes that still hadn't taken its pre-1980 shape. I'm guessing that the eruption (and subsequent ones) were ones that built up the cone's size over the millennia before reaching its nearly 10, 000 feet maximum height prior to the 1980 eruption

[sterntaler]

I'm not familiar with Mt. St. Helen's eruption history and remains of former eruptions. But my first idea was, that the collapse and forming a caldera might have happened already at the 1860 BCE eruption and the caldera was "filled up" again by later eruptions from a deeper magma chamber 🤔

[elw]

And the news reported recently that the mountain is rumbling again and being monitored!

[evanhoward]

When did Kermit leave the muppets and start a YT

[tHebUm]

Where's the full length companion video explaining why!?

[WitchesandNature]

The narrator of this video sounds like Kermit the Frog