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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class,

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Speaker 1: a show that talies the gains and losses of everyday history.

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Speaker 1: I'm Gay Bluesier, and today we're reflecting on the deadliest

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Speaker 1: most destructive volcanic event in US history, the eruption of

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Speaker 1: Mount St. Helen's. The day was May eighteenth. Triggered by

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Speaker 1: a powerful earthquake, Mount St. Helen's erupted in Washington State,

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Speaker 1: killing fifty seven people and forever changing the surrounding landscape,

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Speaker 1: called Luala Cloth or the Smoking Mountain by Native Americans.

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Speaker 1: Mount St. Helen's belongs to a chain of active volcanoes

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Speaker 1: in the Pacific rim known as the Ring of Fire.

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Speaker 1: Unlike the gentle slopes of shield volcanoes like those found

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Speaker 1: on the Hawaiian Islands, Mount St. Helen's is a strato

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Speaker 1: volcano that means it has steep sides which flank a

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Speaker 1: large cone composed of layers of lava and ash. Strato

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Speaker 1: volcanoes are considered more dangerous than their shield cousins, as

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Speaker 1: they tend to erupt more explosively and pose a greater

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Speaker 1: risk of landslides and avalanches. Thanks to their steep sides.

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Speaker 1: Mount St. Helen's is roughly two hundred and seventy five

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Speaker 1: thousand years old, which is fairly young as far as

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Speaker 1: volcanoes go. During that time, it's gone through a number

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Speaker 1: of eruptive cycles, with its last active period prior to

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Speaker 1: nineteen eighty falling between eighteen thirty one and eighteen fifty seven.

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Speaker 1: In the one hundred and twenty three years between then

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Speaker 1: and nineteen eighty, the volcano was all but silent. That

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Speaker 1: finally began to change on March twentie of that year,

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Speaker 1: when a series of tremors rattled the north side of

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Speaker 1: the mountain. The quakes continued throughout the week, culminating in

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Speaker 1: a minor eruption. On March twenty seven. For the first

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Speaker 1: time in over a century, Mount Saint Helen's began releasing

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Speaker 1: steam and ash from its crater and vents. Similar small

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Speaker 1: eruptions continued on a daily basis, and by mid April,

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Speaker 1: the north face of the mountain had begun to bulge.

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Speaker 1: Ground deformation is a telltale sign of serious volcanic activity,

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Speaker 1: and disturbingly, the mild wide bulge on Mount Saint Helen's

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Speaker 1: began to move upward by as much as six feet

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Speaker 1: per day. Scientists knew the bulge was caused by magma

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Speaker 1: just below the mountains surface, and that a more serious

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Speaker 1: eruption was likely imminent. They started pushing for authorities to

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Speaker 1: evacuate nearby residents and closed off the area to everyone

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Speaker 1: but researchers. It took some convincing, but their warning was

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Speaker 1: eventually heated, although some residents refused to leave their homes.

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Speaker 1: On the morning of May eighteenth, the entire mountain was

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Speaker 1: shaken by a five point one magnitude earthquake. The vibrations

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Speaker 1: caused a colossal landslide of rock and ice, one of

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Speaker 1: the largest debris avalanches ever recorded. The entire north face

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Speaker 1: of the summit suddenly gave way and began to slide

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Speaker 1: down the mountain. This led to the explosive decompression of

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Speaker 1: the steam and volcanic gases that had amassed in the

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Speaker 1: bulge beneath the mountain surface. This superheated volcanic matter then

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Speaker 1: erupted out of Mount Saint Helen's at a speed of

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Speaker 1: over three hundred miles per hour, fast enough to overtake

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Speaker 1: and blast right through the avalanche of debris that preceded it.

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Speaker 1: The result was a deadly surge of hot lava, gas

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Speaker 1: and debris, mingled with melting snow and ice. It raced

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Speaker 1: down the mountain slopes at eighty miles per hour, with

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Speaker 1: enough force to level approximately ten million trees, many as

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Speaker 1: far as twelve miles away from the blast. The volcanic

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Speaker 1: mud flows also destroyed more than two hundred homes, as

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Speaker 1: well as dozens of roads and bridges. The eruption slowed

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Speaker 1: by late afternoon and stopped completely by early the next day.

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Speaker 1: The shape of the mountain had been changed drastically by

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Speaker 1: the calamity. More than one thousand feet of its elevation

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Speaker 1: had been blasted away, and its iconic volcanic cone was

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Speaker 1: now nothing but a crater. Roughly one point four billion

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Speaker 1: cubic yards of ash fell from the sky following the eruption.

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Speaker 1: It damaged buildings and electronics, and clogged sewers, rivers, and

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Speaker 1: other waterways throughout the state. In total, the erupt and

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Speaker 1: was said to have caused two point seven billion dollars

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Speaker 1: worth of damage, but its heaviest costs was the loss

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Speaker 1: of life. Millions of fish, thousands of birds and mammals,

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Speaker 1: and fifty seven humans were killed by the eruption. This

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Speaker 1: included scientists, photographers, hikers, and residents who lived at the

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Speaker 1: foot of the mountain. It's sobering to note, however, that

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Speaker 1: the death toll could have been much higher if not

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Speaker 1: for the vigilance of vulcanologists, including some who died in

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Speaker 1: the disaster, such as doctor David A. Johnston. It's believed

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Speaker 1: that thousands of people would have died that day. In

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Speaker 1: the aftermath, there was a greater focus on volcanic research

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Speaker 1: in America. The eruption proved that volcanic activity was a

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Speaker 1: threat not only to Hawaii, but to the continental US

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Speaker 1: as well. Mount Saint Helen's erupted five more times during

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Speaker 1: the summer and fall of night, though thankfully not to

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Speaker 1: the same extent as on May eighteenth. The volcano remains

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Speaker 1: active today and is now continuously monitored by the Cascades

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Speaker 1: Volcano Observatory. A new lava dome has been steadily growing

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Speaker 1: at the peak of Mount St. Helen's, and minor earthquakes

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Speaker 1: remain a regular occurrence in the area. Scientists don't anticipate

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Speaker 1: another large scale eruption anytime soon, but that doesn't make

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Speaker 1: their preparedness any less necessary. The lifespan of volcanoes can

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Speaker 1: stretch to several million years, which means Mount St. Helen's

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Speaker 1: could still be in its infancy. So while a massive

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Speaker 1: eruption may not be imminent, it's probably just a matter

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Speaker 1: of time, and for Washington's sake, hopefully a long one

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Speaker 1: before we go. I know this has been a somewhat

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Speaker 1: heavy episode, so I thought i'd leave you with a

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Speaker 1: more upbeat fact about the eruption of Mount St. Helen's,

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Speaker 1: namely that had helped inspire the origin of the Transformers.

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Speaker 1: The eruption in Washington was major news, as you might imagine,

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Speaker 1: and it was still on people's minds four years later.

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Speaker 1: That's when Issue one of the Transformers comic book was

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Speaker 1: published by Marvel Comics, introducing the world to the Age

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Speaker 1: Old War between two factions of shape shifting alien robots.

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Speaker 1: The debut issue tells the story of how the heroic

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Speaker 1: Autobots and the evil Decepticons wound up bringing their battle

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Speaker 1: to Earth. Their ship crashes into the side of a

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Speaker 1: dormant volcano on prehistoric Earth, and the impact knocks everyone

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Speaker 1: on board offline. Four million years later, in the volcano erupts,

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Speaker 1: reactivating the robots tooth and resume their cosmic feud. The

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Speaker 1: comic refers to the volcano as Mount St. Hilary, a

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Speaker 1: fictional peak said to reside in Oregon, just outside of Portland.

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Speaker 1: The real world inspiration is hard to miss, but it's

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Speaker 1: even more explicit in the original story treatment, where the

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Speaker 1: volcano is actually called out as Mount St. Helen's. The

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Speaker 1: change was likely made out of respect for the victims

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Speaker 1: and to avoid the controversy of using a deadly real

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Speaker 1: life event to market toy robots to children. The franchise

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Speaker 1: is still going strong after all these years, so it

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Speaker 1: seems they made the right call. I'm Gabe Louisier, and

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Speaker 1: hopefully you now know a little more about history today

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Speaker 1: than you did yesterday. If you have a second and

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Speaker 1: you're so inclined, consider following the show on Twitter, Facebook,

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Speaker 1: also send any questions, comments, or other feedback you might

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Speaker 1: have to this day at I heart media dot com.

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Speaker 1: Thanks to Chandler Mays for producing the show, and thank

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Speaker 1: you for listening. I'll see you back here again tomorrow

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Speaker 1: for another day in History class. It is a pet

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Speaker 1: of un