1 00:00:01,440 --> 00:00:04,240 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you Should Know, a production of I 2 00:00:04,360 --> 00:00:14,560 Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh 3 00:00:14,560 --> 00:00:17,279 Speaker 1: and there's Chuck and sitting in for Jerry today is 4 00:00:17,320 --> 00:00:21,560 Speaker 1: our great friend and co producer Dave c and the 5 00:00:21,680 --> 00:00:27,320 Speaker 1: sea stands for cool. Say hello, David, everybody, that's pretty. 6 00:00:27,680 --> 00:00:32,160 Speaker 1: That's a really great Dave impression. He's a he's a troll. Yes, 7 00:00:32,520 --> 00:00:36,839 Speaker 1: I always hear him is wal wal wal walt wal Uh. 8 00:00:37,040 --> 00:00:38,920 Speaker 1: Dave is great. I wish you all knew him, but 9 00:00:39,080 --> 00:00:41,159 Speaker 1: we do, and so he's ours. You're gonna have to 10 00:00:41,240 --> 00:00:44,400 Speaker 1: take our word for it. That's right, speaking of take 11 00:00:44,440 --> 00:00:47,000 Speaker 1: our word for it, Chuck, I have to say to 12 00:00:47,040 --> 00:00:49,120 Speaker 1: all the people who don't know much about Mount St. 13 00:00:49,159 --> 00:00:52,599 Speaker 1: Helen's prepared to have your socks knocked off, or your 14 00:00:52,760 --> 00:00:57,760 Speaker 1: lid blown or your skin seared off of your your muscle. Yeah, 15 00:00:57,840 --> 00:00:59,920 Speaker 1: this is a good one. This is uh. I mean, 16 00:01:00,080 --> 00:01:02,000 Speaker 1: this is so bread and butter stuff you should know 17 00:01:02,800 --> 00:01:04,880 Speaker 1: it is. I don't know why it took us almost 18 00:01:04,880 --> 00:01:07,160 Speaker 1: sixteen years to get to it. And none of that 19 00:01:07,400 --> 00:01:11,360 Speaker 1: margarine stuff are low fat. It's like full milk fat butter. 20 00:01:11,959 --> 00:01:14,720 Speaker 1: Bread and butter stuff you should know salted butter, even 21 00:01:15,280 --> 00:01:17,440 Speaker 1: you like salted Huh. It depends on what you're using 22 00:01:17,480 --> 00:01:21,280 Speaker 1: it for. I like just plain unsalted butter, even on 23 00:01:21,400 --> 00:01:24,240 Speaker 1: a bread and butter piece of like bread with butter. Yeah, 24 00:01:24,360 --> 00:01:27,039 Speaker 1: mainly with like baking and cooking. It's like that's when 25 00:01:27,080 --> 00:01:30,360 Speaker 1: it matters. Yeah, I got too. Um, what's your brand? 26 00:01:31,560 --> 00:01:35,280 Speaker 1: Oh boy? It depends. I mean I love to get 27 00:01:35,440 --> 00:01:37,320 Speaker 1: the hate to be that guy, but I dude, love 28 00:01:37,360 --> 00:01:39,000 Speaker 1: to get the local butter when we get to our 29 00:01:39,480 --> 00:01:41,520 Speaker 1: farmer's market and get it from our c s A. 30 00:01:41,959 --> 00:01:45,240 Speaker 1: What's wrong with that? Well, I don't know. Can't you 31 00:01:45,319 --> 00:01:47,840 Speaker 1: say parquake? Can you right? You must be a social 32 00:01:47,920 --> 00:01:50,720 Speaker 1: justice warrior you buy local butter? Do you like that? 33 00:01:51,160 --> 00:01:53,640 Speaker 1: What's the stuff? The Irish butter in the grocery store? 34 00:01:54,240 --> 00:01:58,280 Speaker 1: That's my brand? Uh? Carry Gold? Carry Gold. That's good too, 35 00:01:58,840 --> 00:02:01,880 Speaker 1: Like I've I've reached arched it, like I've literally researched 36 00:02:02,000 --> 00:02:04,040 Speaker 1: but the butter because I want to get the most 37 00:02:04,080 --> 00:02:06,120 Speaker 1: bang from my buck, and it is at the top 38 00:02:06,240 --> 00:02:09,359 Speaker 1: of basically every list. It's of like any butter of 39 00:02:09,440 --> 00:02:12,600 Speaker 1: any kind. It's really really good butter. Yeah, I totally agree. 40 00:02:12,639 --> 00:02:15,399 Speaker 1: I love carry Gold. I take that stuff camping. Yeah, 41 00:02:15,680 --> 00:02:18,320 Speaker 1: I carried it out in my pocket. Well, I like 42 00:02:18,440 --> 00:02:20,919 Speaker 1: that you can get a tub. It's a smaller tub, 43 00:02:20,960 --> 00:02:22,919 Speaker 1: but I do like a spreadable tub as opposed to 44 00:02:22,960 --> 00:02:25,480 Speaker 1: a stick. I haven't seen the tub. We have a 45 00:02:25,560 --> 00:02:28,959 Speaker 1: stick because we have a cute little butter dish, so 46 00:02:29,600 --> 00:02:33,960 Speaker 1: we have we used the sticks. So anyway back to um, 47 00:02:34,160 --> 00:02:38,280 Speaker 1: Mount St. Helen's the episode today. I was four years 48 00:02:38,320 --> 00:02:40,600 Speaker 1: old when this happened, so I mean I didn't know 49 00:02:40,680 --> 00:02:42,760 Speaker 1: what was going on, but I imagine you were like, 50 00:02:42,880 --> 00:02:44,880 Speaker 1: holy cow, this is one of the most amazing things 51 00:02:44,919 --> 00:02:47,640 Speaker 1: I've ever seen on my TV. Yeah, I was nine 52 00:02:47,880 --> 00:02:51,480 Speaker 1: and I remember it being a big deal. But it's 53 00:02:51,480 --> 00:02:53,880 Speaker 1: funny when I was researching this and then watching, UM, 54 00:02:54,360 --> 00:02:56,679 Speaker 1: there's a really really great thing on YouTube that I 55 00:02:56,760 --> 00:03:00,359 Speaker 1: recommend that A and He put out, You're ago it 56 00:03:00,440 --> 00:03:04,000 Speaker 1: had to be. It was called minute by Minute Colin. Uh, 57 00:03:04,639 --> 00:03:08,120 Speaker 1: the eruption of Mount St. Helen's really gripping stuff as 58 00:03:08,200 --> 00:03:10,359 Speaker 1: a any used to do. You know, they probably still 59 00:03:10,400 --> 00:03:12,520 Speaker 1: do that kind of stuff, but I don't know. Um, 60 00:03:12,639 --> 00:03:15,440 Speaker 1: all of the media around it, I was thinking, like man, 61 00:03:15,560 --> 00:03:18,519 Speaker 1: and I don't know if it was more regional or 62 00:03:18,520 --> 00:03:21,400 Speaker 1: if it truly was nationwide. But I remember the eruption, 63 00:03:21,919 --> 00:03:25,160 Speaker 1: but I didn't remember like the six weeks leading up 64 00:03:25,200 --> 00:03:29,079 Speaker 1: to it, which was a very big deal. Yeah, although 65 00:03:29,160 --> 00:03:31,359 Speaker 1: I think it was more of like a yeah, a 66 00:03:31,480 --> 00:03:34,320 Speaker 1: regional thing for this the lead up. And then also 67 00:03:34,400 --> 00:03:39,080 Speaker 1: if you were a geologist, a vulcanologists, a seismologist, anything 68 00:03:39,120 --> 00:03:42,360 Speaker 1: that had to do with volcanoes erupting or mountains, then 69 00:03:42,520 --> 00:03:44,160 Speaker 1: it would have been a big deal to you two. 70 00:03:44,200 --> 00:03:47,120 Speaker 1: And it definitely attracted them from far and wide. And 71 00:03:47,280 --> 00:03:51,640 Speaker 1: because there was so much warning, um, and it was 72 00:03:51,720 --> 00:03:54,200 Speaker 1: able to buy it. I mean, Mount St. Helens was 73 00:03:54,280 --> 00:03:56,520 Speaker 1: able to kind of draw to it like a magnet. 74 00:03:56,640 --> 00:04:01,960 Speaker 1: All of these amazingly well trained researchers, Um, they were 75 00:04:02,040 --> 00:04:04,280 Speaker 1: there when it went off. And it's probably the most 76 00:04:04,560 --> 00:04:08,720 Speaker 1: best documented volcano in history because of that. Yeah, I mean, 77 00:04:08,760 --> 00:04:11,160 Speaker 1: because like you said, the Mount st. Helens is basically 78 00:04:11,240 --> 00:04:14,720 Speaker 1: saying it's coming everyone. Would you like to document this? Yeah, 79 00:04:14,720 --> 00:04:18,000 Speaker 1: I'm telling you again, it's coming, and I'll show you 80 00:04:18,080 --> 00:04:21,000 Speaker 1: in lots of different scary ways that it's coming. And 81 00:04:21,880 --> 00:04:28,760 Speaker 1: people left, people stayed, people came there, people like tourists 82 00:04:28,800 --> 00:04:33,080 Speaker 1: came to see this thing. So let's get into it. Okay, 83 00:04:33,360 --> 00:04:37,200 Speaker 1: so just a real quick refresher, we've done um volcanoes, 84 00:04:37,240 --> 00:04:39,680 Speaker 1: and I think we've done super volcanoes too, because that 85 00:04:39,760 --> 00:04:46,559 Speaker 1: sounds like us. Yeah, was volcanoes, seventeen super volcanoes. Okay. 86 00:04:46,640 --> 00:04:48,680 Speaker 1: So we talked a lot about how volcanoes work in 87 00:04:48,760 --> 00:04:50,840 Speaker 1: those episodes, So if you want to know a lot 88 00:04:50,960 --> 00:04:53,520 Speaker 1: more in depth, go check those out. But just as 89 00:04:53,560 --> 00:04:56,880 Speaker 1: a refresher for the specific kind of volcano that Mount St. 90 00:04:56,960 --> 00:05:01,360 Speaker 1: Helens is. It's a strato volcano, and it's created when 91 00:05:01,640 --> 00:05:06,480 Speaker 1: one younger plate is subducted under an older plate, and 92 00:05:06,560 --> 00:05:09,280 Speaker 1: as the younger plate goes down into the bowels of 93 00:05:09,360 --> 00:05:11,960 Speaker 1: the Earth, all of the rocket carries with it gets 94 00:05:12,000 --> 00:05:14,880 Speaker 1: heated up. The same with water too, and that stuff 95 00:05:14,920 --> 00:05:18,240 Speaker 1: travels upward because it's less dense than the surrounding mantle 96 00:05:18,560 --> 00:05:21,440 Speaker 1: down below, and as it gets closer and close to 97 00:05:21,520 --> 00:05:23,840 Speaker 1: the crust, it wants to pop out of there, but 98 00:05:23,960 --> 00:05:26,760 Speaker 1: it can't necessarily, sometimes it can, and when it can, 99 00:05:27,120 --> 00:05:29,680 Speaker 1: it just spews out all sorts of molten lava and 100 00:05:29,839 --> 00:05:32,880 Speaker 1: that builds the volcano in a kind of a cone shape, 101 00:05:33,040 --> 00:05:38,000 Speaker 1: which is what Mount Saint Helen's was up until May. Yeah. Um, 102 00:05:38,120 --> 00:05:41,280 Speaker 1: it's a part of the cascade arc arranged there in 103 00:05:41,320 --> 00:05:45,080 Speaker 1: the Pacific Northwest, and all of this happened, and you know, 104 00:05:45,520 --> 00:05:49,040 Speaker 1: geologically speaking, pretty quickly. It happened over the course of 105 00:05:49,080 --> 00:05:51,599 Speaker 1: about forty years in the case of Mountain St. Helens, 106 00:05:52,160 --> 00:05:55,960 Speaker 1: which is pretty speedy. And uh, Ed helped us out 107 00:05:55,960 --> 00:05:58,240 Speaker 1: with this. We did a great job on this article. Um. 108 00:05:58,320 --> 00:06:00,719 Speaker 1: And Ed points out that you know in the Northwest, 109 00:06:00,800 --> 00:06:03,800 Speaker 1: that's why you see so many you know, uh sort 110 00:06:03,839 --> 00:06:07,159 Speaker 1: of coney mountains like that is because of this cascade 111 00:06:07,279 --> 00:06:10,120 Speaker 1: arc and how these mountains were formed, you know, not 112 00:06:10,360 --> 00:06:13,680 Speaker 1: too long ago, right, Yeah, forty thousand years ago, maybe 113 00:06:13,800 --> 00:06:17,040 Speaker 1: less St Helens And I think the whole arc is 114 00:06:17,320 --> 00:06:20,720 Speaker 1: less than a hundred right, um, so the whole thing 115 00:06:20,800 --> 00:06:25,320 Speaker 1: that's driving Mount St. Helens. And apparently also there's some other, um, 116 00:06:26,160 --> 00:06:29,920 Speaker 1: I guess volcanic mountains in the area, like Atoms. I 117 00:06:29,960 --> 00:06:33,040 Speaker 1: think Mount Adams is one as well. But there's a 118 00:06:33,160 --> 00:06:35,920 Speaker 1: there's a magma chamber somewhere under there, I think, um 119 00:06:36,200 --> 00:06:40,320 Speaker 1: possibly miles and miles below the surface. But under normal circumstances, 120 00:06:40,360 --> 00:06:43,360 Speaker 1: like I said, when a Stratto volcanoes formed, the the 121 00:06:43,680 --> 00:06:45,680 Speaker 1: lava just kind of is able to find cracks in 122 00:06:45,760 --> 00:06:48,640 Speaker 1: the crust and like it's it's released through there and 123 00:06:48,720 --> 00:06:51,440 Speaker 1: it builds the mountain up slowly and slowly. But if 124 00:06:51,480 --> 00:06:53,400 Speaker 1: there's not a crack in the crust, as in the 125 00:06:53,520 --> 00:06:57,760 Speaker 1: case where Mount st Helens is um, that magma starts 126 00:06:57,800 --> 00:06:59,839 Speaker 1: to back up. It hits the crust and it starts 127 00:06:59,839 --> 00:07:02,560 Speaker 1: to back up below and all of a sudden you 128 00:07:02,640 --> 00:07:06,280 Speaker 1: have a lot of stuff going on. That um makes 129 00:07:06,600 --> 00:07:11,160 Speaker 1: things go kaboom when the right set of circumstances happens. Yeah, 130 00:07:11,320 --> 00:07:15,360 Speaker 1: this is this is pretty notable. This magma chamber is uh, 131 00:07:15,640 --> 00:07:19,080 Speaker 1: well I is in was quite large and like you said, 132 00:07:19,120 --> 00:07:21,120 Speaker 1: it's it's looking for a place to go. But if 133 00:07:21,160 --> 00:07:22,840 Speaker 1: it doesn't have a place to go, what will happen? 134 00:07:23,280 --> 00:07:24,640 Speaker 1: And as you'll see, this is what happened in the 135 00:07:24,680 --> 00:07:28,240 Speaker 1: case of Mount st Helens is it starts bulging, and 136 00:07:28,360 --> 00:07:32,000 Speaker 1: like the mountain, if you're a geologist, it's super exciting 137 00:07:32,040 --> 00:07:34,320 Speaker 1: to see this happen. Um, even though it's very scary 138 00:07:34,320 --> 00:07:37,920 Speaker 1: and dangerous. But when a geologist sees an actual mountains 139 00:07:37,960 --> 00:07:41,360 Speaker 1: start to bulge out in a direction and we're talking 140 00:07:41,600 --> 00:07:43,840 Speaker 1: you know, hundreds of feet of bulge over the course 141 00:07:43,880 --> 00:07:47,480 Speaker 1: of a pretty short period of time. Then it's pretty like, Uh, 142 00:07:47,840 --> 00:07:49,880 Speaker 1: it's it's a pretty notable thing. And that's exactly what 143 00:07:50,040 --> 00:07:52,560 Speaker 1: was happening in the case of the magma chamber there 144 00:07:52,600 --> 00:07:56,000 Speaker 1: in UH in Washington. Yeah, like this pressure is building 145 00:07:56,040 --> 00:07:58,800 Speaker 1: up so much it's causing a boil on the mountain. 146 00:07:59,520 --> 00:08:03,400 Speaker 1: The mountain grows a goiter basically, and that's just full 147 00:08:03,480 --> 00:08:05,960 Speaker 1: of pressure and magma just waiting to go off. It 148 00:08:06,040 --> 00:08:09,120 Speaker 1: doesn't always go off. And in fact Mount St. Helen's 149 00:08:09,200 --> 00:08:12,480 Speaker 1: had two bulges also called crypto domes, which is pretty 150 00:08:12,520 --> 00:08:17,600 Speaker 1: awesome UM, from previous volcanic eruptions. One was called Goat 151 00:08:17,720 --> 00:08:20,720 Speaker 1: Rocks Bulge UM, and then the other one was called 152 00:08:20,720 --> 00:08:24,840 Speaker 1: the Sugar Bowl bulge, and they just never like the 153 00:08:25,240 --> 00:08:28,400 Speaker 1: magma found its way out other ways, but the bulge 154 00:08:28,560 --> 00:08:30,600 Speaker 1: was left. This is a new bulge, and like you said, 155 00:08:30,640 --> 00:08:33,079 Speaker 1: it was growing I think about six ft a day. 156 00:08:33,679 --> 00:08:36,920 Speaker 1: Every day it kept growing another six ft, which is 157 00:08:37,200 --> 00:08:40,400 Speaker 1: really fast for a mountain to grow. Uh. And that 158 00:08:40,559 --> 00:08:43,439 Speaker 1: was one of the big signs initially that that something 159 00:08:43,559 --> 00:08:46,000 Speaker 1: was going on. And and one more thing before we 160 00:08:46,040 --> 00:08:49,120 Speaker 1: started to get into um Mount St. Helens itself, Chuck, 161 00:08:49,360 --> 00:08:51,679 Speaker 1: I think we need to say like Mount St. Helens 162 00:08:51,840 --> 00:08:54,640 Speaker 1: was big. It was a big eruption, but it was 163 00:08:55,000 --> 00:08:57,839 Speaker 1: not the biggest eruption Mountain St. Helens has ever had. 164 00:08:58,160 --> 00:09:01,319 Speaker 1: Apparently the biggest eruption it's ever came just about four 165 00:09:01,400 --> 00:09:05,800 Speaker 1: thousand years ago, which is within um traditional like folk 166 00:09:05,920 --> 00:09:09,880 Speaker 1: tale memory. Yeah, I mean it had been an active 167 00:09:09,920 --> 00:09:13,960 Speaker 1: volcano for forty thousand years, but the big one before 168 00:09:14,200 --> 00:09:17,920 Speaker 1: nineteen eighty was. Yeah, like you said, four, I was 169 00:09:17,920 --> 00:09:19,480 Speaker 1: trying to look at a specific year, but let's just 170 00:09:19,520 --> 00:09:22,000 Speaker 1: say four thousand years ago, because once you get back 171 00:09:22,000 --> 00:09:25,920 Speaker 1: that far, you know who cares? Who cares? But it became, 172 00:09:26,080 --> 00:09:29,120 Speaker 1: like you said, part of folklore. The indigenous people there, 173 00:09:30,000 --> 00:09:33,880 Speaker 1: especially the pulla Up people, called the mountain LeWitt l 174 00:09:33,960 --> 00:09:37,400 Speaker 1: O O w I T and there was a Lout's 175 00:09:37,440 --> 00:09:40,800 Speaker 1: brewing company, so shout them out. This is one of 176 00:09:40,880 --> 00:09:45,680 Speaker 1: those things where, uh, I thought, I wonder why, because 177 00:09:45,720 --> 00:09:47,920 Speaker 1: there's been such a push to change names of things 178 00:09:48,600 --> 00:09:51,599 Speaker 1: over the past like a decade or so, this is 179 00:09:51,679 --> 00:09:55,080 Speaker 1: one that was. It seems so like sort of egregious 180 00:09:55,960 --> 00:09:58,520 Speaker 1: that we should call it LeWitt and not Mount st. 181 00:09:58,559 --> 00:10:01,880 Speaker 1: Helens that I'm pretty curious. I'm sure there's been pushes 182 00:10:01,920 --> 00:10:03,680 Speaker 1: over the years to get it changed, but the Europeans, 183 00:10:03,720 --> 00:10:09,640 Speaker 1: of course named it Mountain St. Helen's in after Captain 184 00:10:09,720 --> 00:10:13,120 Speaker 1: George Vancouver. If that name rings a bell, it should 185 00:10:14,120 --> 00:10:16,600 Speaker 1: gave the name of it because of a diplomat name, 186 00:10:16,679 --> 00:10:22,000 Speaker 1: Alan fits Herbert didn't call it fits Herbert peak or 187 00:10:22,000 --> 00:10:25,120 Speaker 1: anything like that because his noble title was Baron St. 188 00:10:25,160 --> 00:10:29,120 Speaker 1: Helen's God. But here's the rub is that Allan fitz 189 00:10:29,160 --> 00:10:33,840 Speaker 1: Herbert never even saw Mountain St. Helen's the mountain named 190 00:10:33,880 --> 00:10:37,280 Speaker 1: after him, So like, I don't know, maybe maybe let's 191 00:10:37,280 --> 00:10:40,280 Speaker 1: call this one LeWitt. Yeah, I think that's a great 192 00:10:40,320 --> 00:10:42,439 Speaker 1: idea actually, And the reason they call it lewe It 193 00:10:42,600 --> 00:10:46,040 Speaker 1: that that was she was named after Um, a like 194 00:10:46,160 --> 00:10:51,160 Speaker 1: a famous volcanic fire tender woman, Um and low Itt 195 00:10:51,360 --> 00:10:53,240 Speaker 1: and a couple of other men who fell in love 196 00:10:53,280 --> 00:10:57,000 Speaker 1: with her and fought for her. Um became low it 197 00:10:57,160 --> 00:10:59,600 Speaker 1: became Mount St. Helen's or lou It if you want 198 00:10:59,600 --> 00:11:02,280 Speaker 1: to call it, at and then the other the other 199 00:11:02,360 --> 00:11:05,319 Speaker 1: men who were fighting for became mount Hood and mount Atoms. 200 00:11:05,640 --> 00:11:08,559 Speaker 1: They were smited by the creator God and turned into 201 00:11:08,640 --> 00:11:12,160 Speaker 1: mountains for fighting Um. And there's legends not just from 202 00:11:12,200 --> 00:11:14,959 Speaker 1: the pool up, but other indigenous tribes around the area 203 00:11:15,440 --> 00:11:18,319 Speaker 1: that something really big happened, and it looks like what 204 00:11:18,480 --> 00:11:20,800 Speaker 1: it is is a geo myth, which we've talked about before. 205 00:11:21,120 --> 00:11:23,400 Speaker 1: And I think the Great Floods episode that has been 206 00:11:23,480 --> 00:11:28,000 Speaker 1: handed down generation after generation that describes this enormous eruption 207 00:11:28,120 --> 00:11:31,920 Speaker 1: four thousand years ago pretty good stuff. Yeah, for sure. 208 00:11:32,200 --> 00:11:33,760 Speaker 1: And it was a big eruption too. There's just one 209 00:11:33,800 --> 00:11:37,120 Speaker 1: other thing. There is a layer of tefra of basically 210 00:11:37,240 --> 00:11:42,600 Speaker 1: volcanic ash and debris and stuff that is so thick 211 00:11:42,679 --> 00:11:45,640 Speaker 1: and so wide it goes up into British Columbia and 212 00:11:46,040 --> 00:11:49,480 Speaker 1: sixty two miles away from Mount St. Helen. It's still 213 00:11:49,720 --> 00:11:53,120 Speaker 1: twenty inches thick, almost two ft thick of ash sixty 214 00:11:53,160 --> 00:11:55,679 Speaker 1: two miles away. That's how big that four thousand year 215 00:11:55,720 --> 00:11:58,920 Speaker 1: ago eruption was. That's huge. And all this to say 216 00:11:59,000 --> 00:12:02,640 Speaker 1: that Mount Helen's uh which has an asked, by the way, 217 00:12:02,720 --> 00:12:06,600 Speaker 1: did you know that? Uh? Yeah, I did, you keep saying, Helen. 218 00:12:06,640 --> 00:12:09,920 Speaker 1: I just wondered. I'm I'm being short because I don't 219 00:12:09,920 --> 00:12:12,200 Speaker 1: want to take up too much time talking about Certainly 220 00:12:14,400 --> 00:12:17,080 Speaker 1: that's good. That reminds me of the guy in college 221 00:12:17,120 --> 00:12:20,079 Speaker 1: who fell on the sidewalk and his books splayed out 222 00:12:20,120 --> 00:12:22,800 Speaker 1: and then he acted like he was reading. Yeah, I 223 00:12:22,960 --> 00:12:25,880 Speaker 1: love that story. I forgot about him. Um, all of 224 00:12:25,960 --> 00:12:27,959 Speaker 1: us to say is that Mount St Helen's had been, 225 00:12:28,360 --> 00:12:30,959 Speaker 1: you know, active, had a long history of activity. So 226 00:12:31,240 --> 00:12:33,960 Speaker 1: it's not like anyone ever thought, well, well, that thing 227 00:12:34,080 --> 00:12:37,199 Speaker 1: is done and it's never gonna happen again. No, definitely not. 228 00:12:37,920 --> 00:12:40,320 Speaker 1: Because also in the nineteenth century there was a lot 229 00:12:40,440 --> 00:12:43,120 Speaker 1: of um eruptions too. There's a painting by a Canadian 230 00:12:43,200 --> 00:12:47,200 Speaker 1: artist named Paul Kane who painted in eighteen forty seven eruption. 231 00:12:47,800 --> 00:12:50,840 Speaker 1: So I mean start starting in the nineteenth century. Um, 232 00:12:50,880 --> 00:12:56,640 Speaker 1: Mount St Helen's was documented pretty pretty clearly scientifically too, 233 00:12:56,760 --> 00:13:00,120 Speaker 1: as as being an eruptive volcano, disruptive volcan you know 234 00:13:00,200 --> 00:13:04,520 Speaker 1: you can almost say, all right, shall we take a break. Yeah, 235 00:13:04,640 --> 00:13:07,080 Speaker 1: that's a nice prelude, I think so too. All right, 236 00:13:07,120 --> 00:13:34,000 Speaker 1: we'll be back right after this geo. Okay, So we 237 00:13:34,040 --> 00:13:36,280 Speaker 1: got a nice background on Mount St Helen's that had 238 00:13:36,320 --> 00:13:39,640 Speaker 1: been very active for about or on a off, active 239 00:13:39,679 --> 00:13:43,800 Speaker 1: for forty thousand years, uh, including I believe the last 240 00:13:44,640 --> 00:13:48,120 Speaker 1: sort of big one was in eighteen fifty seven. Um, 241 00:13:48,480 --> 00:13:50,800 Speaker 1: not too long after that, in nineteen o eight, about 242 00:13:50,840 --> 00:13:54,839 Speaker 1: a million acres of land became part of Columbia National Forest, 243 00:13:54,920 --> 00:13:58,280 Speaker 1: which was hence renamed Gifford. Uh a pin shot or 244 00:13:58,320 --> 00:14:00,199 Speaker 1: pin show. I never know how to say that the 245 00:14:00,360 --> 00:14:03,599 Speaker 1: Bronson Pinchot National Forest National forest, and that was in 246 00:14:03,679 --> 00:14:08,240 Speaker 1: nine and Mount St. Helens is inside that National Forest. 247 00:14:08,920 --> 00:14:10,920 Speaker 1: Um all this uh, this sort of a long way 248 00:14:10,960 --> 00:14:13,880 Speaker 1: of saying. It wasn't like super populated. It didn't have 249 00:14:14,120 --> 00:14:16,800 Speaker 1: wasn't surrounded by neighborhoods and suburbs and stuff like that. 250 00:14:17,960 --> 00:14:20,880 Speaker 1: But there was something or is still something called Spirit 251 00:14:20,960 --> 00:14:23,600 Speaker 1: Lake there um near the base of the mountain, which 252 00:14:23,880 --> 00:14:27,360 Speaker 1: is uh, they have like youth camps there. People had 253 00:14:27,440 --> 00:14:32,560 Speaker 1: cabins here and there. There were recreational activities that all 254 00:14:32,640 --> 00:14:34,600 Speaker 1: over the place. So it's not like no one was there, 255 00:14:34,960 --> 00:14:39,480 Speaker 1: but it wasn't heavily populated right well put so, Um, 256 00:14:39,960 --> 00:14:42,760 Speaker 1: the whole thing starts. Actually even before the whole thing started, 257 00:14:42,840 --> 00:14:46,160 Speaker 1: and I saw in nineteen seventy five the two volcanologists 258 00:14:46,240 --> 00:14:49,920 Speaker 1: published a paper UM saying that it was very likely 259 00:14:50,040 --> 00:14:52,960 Speaker 1: Mount St. Helen's was going to erupt in the twentieth 260 00:14:53,000 --> 00:14:56,400 Speaker 1: century at some point, like a big one and five 261 00:14:56,480 --> 00:14:59,720 Speaker 1: years later, in March eighty, the whole thing was kicked 262 00:14:59,760 --> 00:15:03,240 Speaker 1: off by h four point oh earthquake, which is nothing 263 00:15:03,280 --> 00:15:05,520 Speaker 1: to sneeze at, and it was at the mountain. Like 264 00:15:05,600 --> 00:15:08,320 Speaker 1: this earthquake took place at the mountain, and all of 265 00:15:08,360 --> 00:15:12,280 Speaker 1: a sudden, within five days there were quake storms. There 266 00:15:12,400 --> 00:15:15,720 Speaker 1: was twenty four quakes of four point oh or greater 267 00:15:16,120 --> 00:15:20,400 Speaker 1: within eight hours. When a volcano starts doing that and 268 00:15:20,480 --> 00:15:23,760 Speaker 1: you're detecting it, you you, that's when the geologists come 269 00:15:23,840 --> 00:15:26,640 Speaker 1: running from far and wide. Yeah, so they you know, 270 00:15:26,720 --> 00:15:29,240 Speaker 1: the word gets out, and they did come running from 271 00:15:29,280 --> 00:15:31,240 Speaker 1: foreig and wide and they you know, set up camp 272 00:15:31,320 --> 00:15:36,080 Speaker 1: there at various places. Other just sort of um, as 273 00:15:36,120 --> 00:15:39,800 Speaker 1: I learned from watching this uh any special that um 274 00:15:39,920 --> 00:15:43,680 Speaker 1: there are like volcano chasers even that um, they hear 275 00:15:43,680 --> 00:15:46,120 Speaker 1: about this stuff. They're fascinated by it. I guess it's 276 00:15:46,160 --> 00:15:50,560 Speaker 1: just sort of amateur geo enthusiasts. And people started kind 277 00:15:50,600 --> 00:15:53,000 Speaker 1: of coming in there because they got wind that something 278 00:15:53,080 --> 00:15:56,640 Speaker 1: may be brewing at Mount St. Helen's including and this 279 00:15:56,840 --> 00:15:58,800 Speaker 1: is you know, they're all kinds of people we could 280 00:15:58,840 --> 00:16:01,960 Speaker 1: feature story wise, but one gentleman we are going to feature. 281 00:16:01,960 --> 00:16:04,360 Speaker 1: His name was David Johnston UH, and he was a 282 00:16:05,040 --> 00:16:08,120 Speaker 1: volcanologist at the U s g S, the United States 283 00:16:08,240 --> 00:16:11,880 Speaker 1: Geographical Survey, and he was one of the UM. There 284 00:16:11,920 --> 00:16:13,480 Speaker 1: were some great interviews with him in this A and 285 00:16:13,560 --> 00:16:17,040 Speaker 1: E special. He was very young guy, UM, super excited 286 00:16:17,080 --> 00:16:18,600 Speaker 1: to be there, and he was one of the ones 287 00:16:18,720 --> 00:16:21,760 Speaker 1: kind of sounding the alarm along with his partner and 288 00:16:21,800 --> 00:16:25,720 Speaker 1: this guy named Don Swanson about hey, like, you know, 289 00:16:25,840 --> 00:16:29,280 Speaker 1: the s is getting real here everybody, and it looks 290 00:16:29,320 --> 00:16:32,760 Speaker 1: like things like people need to start leaving. Yeah, like 291 00:16:33,720 --> 00:16:35,600 Speaker 1: the thing is is there are the people who did 292 00:16:35,680 --> 00:16:37,520 Speaker 1: live on the mountain were not the kind of folk 293 00:16:37,600 --> 00:16:41,120 Speaker 1: who listened to like, you know, the governmentcil neton college 294 00:16:41,160 --> 00:16:44,840 Speaker 1: boys or the government to be told like leave your home. 295 00:16:45,440 --> 00:16:48,560 Speaker 1: And then also there was um those youth groups that 296 00:16:48,680 --> 00:16:52,280 Speaker 1: were like you're going to ruin our week at Spirit Lake. UM. 297 00:16:52,400 --> 00:16:57,640 Speaker 1: There was also Weyerhauser the first base exactly it's like 298 00:16:57,720 --> 00:17:00,480 Speaker 1: a roller rink over there. UM. And then there was 299 00:17:00,560 --> 00:17:03,120 Speaker 1: Weyerhauser who had a contract to be able to log 300 00:17:03,600 --> 00:17:06,520 Speaker 1: on the on the mountain. They definitely didn't want to 301 00:17:06,560 --> 00:17:09,040 Speaker 1: have to shut down operations. So there's a lot of pressure, 302 00:17:09,640 --> 00:17:11,879 Speaker 1: a surprising amount of pressure, you know, more than you 303 00:17:11,920 --> 00:17:15,080 Speaker 1: would think to keep them outain open, and David Johnston 304 00:17:15,400 --> 00:17:17,879 Speaker 1: and Don Swanson and some of the other colleagues were like, 305 00:17:18,480 --> 00:17:21,080 Speaker 1: you really can't do this, and they managed to convince 306 00:17:21,200 --> 00:17:23,800 Speaker 1: the governor of Washington that it was the right move. 307 00:17:24,040 --> 00:17:26,840 Speaker 1: And then later on, as we'll see, there was even 308 00:17:26,920 --> 00:17:30,000 Speaker 1: more pressure to reopen because things didn't go as fast 309 00:17:30,080 --> 00:17:33,320 Speaker 1: as everyone thought, and they managed to push that back 310 00:17:33,359 --> 00:17:36,240 Speaker 1: as well, and as a result, David Johnston is frequently 311 00:17:36,320 --> 00:17:40,680 Speaker 1: credited for saving thousands of lives potentially, which is pretty cool. 312 00:17:40,840 --> 00:17:42,600 Speaker 1: I mean, and everything I've seen about and he was 313 00:17:42,680 --> 00:17:47,640 Speaker 1: a genuinely great person and also like a really great 314 00:17:47,760 --> 00:17:51,719 Speaker 1: pioneer in volcanology too. Yeah. Absolutely, um yeah. They did 315 00:17:51,760 --> 00:17:54,320 Speaker 1: eventually set up what they called a red zone, and 316 00:17:54,720 --> 00:17:57,399 Speaker 1: a lot of people did evacuate. Uh, there were some 317 00:17:57,560 --> 00:18:01,200 Speaker 1: notable people who didn't. Um. Certainly, we need to mention 318 00:18:01,280 --> 00:18:05,560 Speaker 1: Harry Truman. Um obviously not the president, but he was 319 00:18:05,680 --> 00:18:09,000 Speaker 1: this old kajer who ran the lodge there and he 320 00:18:09,240 --> 00:18:12,520 Speaker 1: became a folk hero because he famously thumbed his nose 321 00:18:12,720 --> 00:18:15,600 Speaker 1: and stayed and said, you know, I'm I'm a part 322 00:18:15,640 --> 00:18:17,760 Speaker 1: of this place. It's a part of me. If the 323 00:18:17,840 --> 00:18:21,840 Speaker 1: mountain goes, I'm gonna go with it. Art Carney played 324 00:18:21,960 --> 00:18:24,280 Speaker 1: him in the movie version. He was He got a 325 00:18:24,480 --> 00:18:29,240 Speaker 1: lot of media attention along with his sixteen cats. Um, 326 00:18:29,840 --> 00:18:32,840 Speaker 1: which is the only part of the story. Like, hey man, 327 00:18:33,359 --> 00:18:35,760 Speaker 1: I'm I'm all for people evacuating and keep people safe, 328 00:18:35,800 --> 00:18:40,280 Speaker 1: but I'm also like some old old mountain man wants 329 00:18:40,320 --> 00:18:42,480 Speaker 1: to stay up there and go go down with a volcano. 330 00:18:42,640 --> 00:18:46,440 Speaker 1: Like that's his right, but send the cats away. Don't 331 00:18:46,520 --> 00:18:49,520 Speaker 1: say like I'm gonna go down and kill these sixteen 332 00:18:49,560 --> 00:18:52,240 Speaker 1: cats at the same time. Yeah, it's kind of like 333 00:18:52,359 --> 00:18:55,280 Speaker 1: being buried in like you know, medieval times and having 334 00:18:55,359 --> 00:18:57,600 Speaker 1: your live horse buried with you. Yeah. I just I 335 00:18:57,640 --> 00:18:59,359 Speaker 1: don't know. Man. Once I heard about the cats, because 336 00:18:59,400 --> 00:19:01,359 Speaker 1: I was all into the sky, right, and then I 337 00:19:01,440 --> 00:19:03,280 Speaker 1: heard about the cat I was like, oh, dude, you 338 00:19:03,280 --> 00:19:06,240 Speaker 1: should have at least set the cats away. Yeah, no way, 339 00:19:06,440 --> 00:19:16,040 Speaker 1: not not a lodge cajure. So um, Harry Truman will 340 00:19:16,080 --> 00:19:18,280 Speaker 1: come back in. This is Harry Ard Truman, by the way, 341 00:19:18,320 --> 00:19:21,960 Speaker 1: everybody said his middle initial to differentiate him. He'll come 342 00:19:21,960 --> 00:19:24,800 Speaker 1: back in later. But so this mark the last thing 343 00:19:24,840 --> 00:19:28,600 Speaker 1: that we happened on the mountain. March in eight hours, 344 00:19:28,680 --> 00:19:32,399 Speaker 1: there's twenty four four point or greater magnitude earthquakes, and 345 00:19:32,520 --> 00:19:35,760 Speaker 1: that brought everybody running. Um. This whole thing was so 346 00:19:36,000 --> 00:19:39,520 Speaker 1: perfectly planned that on the day of the eruption there 347 00:19:39,680 --> 00:19:44,440 Speaker 1: was the mineral and gem show in Yakima, like I think, 348 00:19:44,560 --> 00:19:46,960 Speaker 1: less than a hundred miles away from Mount St. Helen's, 349 00:19:47,200 --> 00:19:49,560 Speaker 1: So anybody who has any had anything to do with 350 00:19:49,720 --> 00:19:53,080 Speaker 1: geology just happened to be in the area or was 351 00:19:53,200 --> 00:19:57,520 Speaker 1: purposefully in the area. And then on March that's just 352 00:19:57,600 --> 00:20:02,200 Speaker 1: getting more and more and more. There was an actual eruption, right, yeah, 353 00:20:02,320 --> 00:20:05,080 Speaker 1: So this was I mean, compared to what eventually ended 354 00:20:05,119 --> 00:20:07,840 Speaker 1: up happening, you could call this sort of many eruption. 355 00:20:08,680 --> 00:20:12,280 Speaker 1: Even though it sent it made a big boom. Apparently 356 00:20:12,320 --> 00:20:15,080 Speaker 1: it was a pretty cloudy day so it wasn't super visible, 357 00:20:15,160 --> 00:20:19,080 Speaker 1: but the ash column went up sixty feet into the air, 358 00:20:19,680 --> 00:20:22,600 Speaker 1: it's nothing to sneeze, and a new crater formed at 359 00:20:22,640 --> 00:20:25,960 Speaker 1: the summit, which grew to about six hundred feet wide, 360 00:20:26,960 --> 00:20:29,399 Speaker 1: so it was a major thing. There was another one 361 00:20:29,440 --> 00:20:34,080 Speaker 1: on again throwing ash into the air, and this is 362 00:20:34,160 --> 00:20:37,920 Speaker 1: like basically from that point through the big one in 363 00:20:38,080 --> 00:20:46,159 Speaker 1: mid May, it was just constant uh warning, constant upheaval, mudslides, avalanches, 364 00:20:46,720 --> 00:20:50,400 Speaker 1: craters growing, and like the mountain is saying like it's 365 00:20:50,440 --> 00:20:54,080 Speaker 1: gonna happen people. This is not a false alarm until 366 00:20:54,240 --> 00:20:57,520 Speaker 1: things calmed down, and that's what you were talking about earlier, 367 00:20:57,560 --> 00:21:00,680 Speaker 1: Like things kind of settled down on what was that 368 00:21:00,840 --> 00:21:06,800 Speaker 1: like May around around may to where the people got 369 00:21:06,840 --> 00:21:09,239 Speaker 1: Auntie that were evacuated and said, hey, listen, we want 370 00:21:09,280 --> 00:21:11,639 Speaker 1: to go back and check on our stuff. And the 371 00:21:11,720 --> 00:21:14,000 Speaker 1: governor eventually was like, all right, I think it, you 372 00:21:14,080 --> 00:21:15,800 Speaker 1: know at the time, and I think Washington still is 373 00:21:15,880 --> 00:21:18,639 Speaker 1: a little bit of one of those like uh, not 374 00:21:18,800 --> 00:21:21,800 Speaker 1: quite live free or die, but you know, like all right, listen, 375 00:21:21,840 --> 00:21:23,480 Speaker 1: these people pay taxes, they want to go back to 376 00:21:23,520 --> 00:21:27,040 Speaker 1: their homes, sign a waiver that you're not gonna sue us, 377 00:21:27,560 --> 00:21:29,720 Speaker 1: and let him go back there. And that's what they did. 378 00:21:30,320 --> 00:21:34,000 Speaker 1: They did. There's footage of them signing um waivers on 379 00:21:34,080 --> 00:21:36,760 Speaker 1: the hood of a car with some obvious state lawyer 380 00:21:36,800 --> 00:21:39,320 Speaker 1: in a three piece suit of canning people a pen 381 00:21:39,920 --> 00:21:43,280 Speaker 1: being like signed here. It's really hilarious, but um they did. 382 00:21:43,359 --> 00:21:46,119 Speaker 1: They started some people started to trickle in um and 383 00:21:46,240 --> 00:21:50,040 Speaker 1: that's actually why there were you know, I think, and 384 00:21:50,240 --> 00:21:54,480 Speaker 1: we ended up with fifty seven casualties. Seven people died, 385 00:21:55,400 --> 00:21:58,200 Speaker 1: and that was one reason why it was actually that high. 386 00:21:58,400 --> 00:22:00,720 Speaker 1: Could have could have been less, but bowl were allowed 387 00:22:00,720 --> 00:22:03,600 Speaker 1: to trickle back in. They still kept like a perimeter, 388 00:22:04,080 --> 00:22:07,280 Speaker 1: but I think it was kind of porous. If you 389 00:22:07,400 --> 00:22:09,520 Speaker 1: wanted to get through, you could get through. And there 390 00:22:09,560 --> 00:22:13,200 Speaker 1: are stories in that minute by minute episode of People. 391 00:22:13,359 --> 00:22:17,080 Speaker 1: There's this one backpacker who is probably hilarious at parties 392 00:22:17,080 --> 00:22:19,680 Speaker 1: because he makes like a funny a funny voice for 393 00:22:19,760 --> 00:22:22,400 Speaker 1: the police when the police is talking, when he's recreating 394 00:22:22,400 --> 00:22:26,159 Speaker 1: a conversation. Um, he's he's stuck through with friends. There 395 00:22:26,160 --> 00:22:27,960 Speaker 1: are a lot of people on the mountain that otherwise 396 00:22:28,040 --> 00:22:30,480 Speaker 1: might not have been had they kept it closed. But 397 00:22:30,560 --> 00:22:32,520 Speaker 1: they did open it up a little bit, and it 398 00:22:32,680 --> 00:22:35,159 Speaker 1: was because nothing had happened for a little while, and 399 00:22:35,200 --> 00:22:39,080 Speaker 1: then about three days later everything happened. You said, you 400 00:22:39,160 --> 00:22:41,560 Speaker 1: said S was getting real. This is when the S 401 00:22:41,680 --> 00:22:46,240 Speaker 1: hit the fan. Yeah, well, I mean just prior to this, 402 00:22:46,359 --> 00:22:48,159 Speaker 1: I guess let's let's back up one half second and 403 00:22:48,280 --> 00:22:50,840 Speaker 1: let you know about what happened when David Johnson and 404 00:22:50,920 --> 00:22:54,800 Speaker 1: Don Swanson, they had moved from their initial base at 405 00:22:54,840 --> 00:22:58,680 Speaker 1: cold Water one, which was about I think eight or 406 00:22:58,800 --> 00:23:02,840 Speaker 1: nine miles away. Uh, took their second station, which was 407 00:23:02,920 --> 00:23:05,680 Speaker 1: called cold Water two, which is about five to six 408 00:23:05,760 --> 00:23:08,399 Speaker 1: miles from the mountain. UM and notably it was on 409 00:23:08,440 --> 00:23:11,080 Speaker 1: the northeast side of the mountain, which turned out to 410 00:23:11,119 --> 00:23:13,800 Speaker 1: be the wrong spot to be UM. But you know, 411 00:23:13,960 --> 00:23:16,800 Speaker 1: these guys knew what was going on. Uh. They know 412 00:23:16,920 --> 00:23:20,600 Speaker 1: it's a dangerous job. And apparently they were swapping UM 413 00:23:20,840 --> 00:23:24,440 Speaker 1: taking shifts. And Don Swanson got the call from Johnston 414 00:23:24,520 --> 00:23:26,640 Speaker 1: and he said, hey, listen, I've got tonight and tomorrow 415 00:23:26,920 --> 00:23:29,200 Speaker 1: if you come and relieve me the next day. And 416 00:23:29,359 --> 00:23:33,159 Speaker 1: then on May eighteenth, nineteen eighty is when Johnston was 417 00:23:33,240 --> 00:23:36,119 Speaker 1: there when everything went boom. Yeah, and I think there 418 00:23:36,160 --> 00:23:39,560 Speaker 1: have been other colleagues and grad students and everything around 419 00:23:39,600 --> 00:23:41,840 Speaker 1: cold Water too, and Johnston sent him away. He's like, 420 00:23:41,920 --> 00:23:45,000 Speaker 1: this is outside the red zone, it's still potentially dangerous. 421 00:23:45,200 --> 00:23:47,199 Speaker 1: There's no reason for more than just one of us 422 00:23:47,240 --> 00:23:48,639 Speaker 1: to be here at a time, So you guys go. 423 00:23:49,640 --> 00:23:53,080 Speaker 1: So at eight thirty two am on May eighteenth night, 424 00:23:53,920 --> 00:23:58,480 Speaker 1: Mount St. Helen's like blew up. And there's like a 425 00:23:58,640 --> 00:24:02,120 Speaker 1: typical idea that people have of a volcano going off, 426 00:24:02,200 --> 00:24:05,359 Speaker 1: and most of the time it's shooting like a huge 427 00:24:05,440 --> 00:24:08,040 Speaker 1: thing at ash and magma straight into the air from 428 00:24:08,080 --> 00:24:11,640 Speaker 1: its top. But that is not what happened with Mount 429 00:24:11,720 --> 00:24:14,800 Speaker 1: st Helens. Mount st Helens was a very specific and 430 00:24:15,000 --> 00:24:18,000 Speaker 1: unusual type of eruption because it didn't go out of 431 00:24:18,040 --> 00:24:21,080 Speaker 1: the top. It came out of the side, and it 432 00:24:21,240 --> 00:24:26,080 Speaker 1: came out in what was known as a lateral blast eruption. Yeah, 433 00:24:26,240 --> 00:24:28,840 Speaker 1: so you know, like we said earlier, that pressure is 434 00:24:28,920 --> 00:24:32,600 Speaker 1: building up uh a lot under the surface. There's a 435 00:24:32,680 --> 00:24:35,320 Speaker 1: lot of moisture down there. Some of it was um, 436 00:24:35,400 --> 00:24:38,920 Speaker 1: like you mentioned, from that initial uh plate subduction. That's 437 00:24:38,920 --> 00:24:42,360 Speaker 1: called magmatic water. Some of it is just regular groundwater 438 00:24:42,560 --> 00:24:44,560 Speaker 1: from from rain and snow and everything. Because it is 439 00:24:44,600 --> 00:24:47,920 Speaker 1: the mountains, that's called meteoric water. And all of that 440 00:24:48,000 --> 00:24:50,679 Speaker 1: stuff is just heating up. It's got pressure from below 441 00:24:51,119 --> 00:24:54,160 Speaker 1: because it's heating, It's got pressure from above because all 442 00:24:54,200 --> 00:24:56,280 Speaker 1: of that weight of the rock is just pushing it down, 443 00:24:57,160 --> 00:25:01,280 Speaker 1: and all of this magma is just like boiling under there. 444 00:25:01,480 --> 00:25:03,200 Speaker 1: But and I don't know we talked about this before. 445 00:25:03,200 --> 00:25:05,520 Speaker 1: I guess it was in one of the volcano episodes. 446 00:25:05,640 --> 00:25:08,520 Speaker 1: But it's it's not allowed to turn to steam because 447 00:25:08,600 --> 00:25:11,520 Speaker 1: there's no room for it. Like steam is expansive and 448 00:25:12,200 --> 00:25:16,960 Speaker 1: it can't expand. So it's just this superheated beyond the 449 00:25:17,040 --> 00:25:21,959 Speaker 1: boiling point level of liquid that's just distributed all throughout 450 00:25:22,080 --> 00:25:25,160 Speaker 1: the upper half and notably sort of the north side 451 00:25:25,200 --> 00:25:28,400 Speaker 1: of this mountain. Yeah, and that that created that bulge 452 00:25:28,520 --> 00:25:31,600 Speaker 1: that kept growing by about six ft a day. UM. 453 00:25:31,920 --> 00:25:35,040 Speaker 1: That was the bultree. It is because like it's as 454 00:25:35,359 --> 00:25:38,520 Speaker 1: violent as it as you can imagine that a bulge, 455 00:25:38,720 --> 00:25:40,320 Speaker 1: and it's something that can make a bulge on the 456 00:25:40,359 --> 00:25:43,840 Speaker 1: side of the mountain would be. And so under under 457 00:25:43,880 --> 00:25:48,920 Speaker 1: other circumstances a plenty in eruption where where volcano explodes 458 00:25:48,960 --> 00:25:51,560 Speaker 1: out of the top, like you typically think of that 459 00:25:51,760 --> 00:25:54,840 Speaker 1: pressure that magma is going to basically force the top 460 00:25:54,920 --> 00:25:58,680 Speaker 1: of the mountain open and that's how it's going to explode. 461 00:25:59,200 --> 00:26:01,280 Speaker 1: This is not what how been with Mount St Helen's 462 00:26:01,520 --> 00:26:04,440 Speaker 1: that kind of UM. I guess the hump was on 463 00:26:04,760 --> 00:26:06,680 Speaker 1: one side. It was on the north flank, wasn't it. 464 00:26:07,600 --> 00:26:09,679 Speaker 1: So it was on the north flank, And the thing 465 00:26:09,800 --> 00:26:13,280 Speaker 1: that kicked off Mount St Helen's eruption wasn't the volcano. 466 00:26:13,400 --> 00:26:16,720 Speaker 1: It was actually an earthquake in the volcano, and that 467 00:26:17,240 --> 00:26:21,959 Speaker 1: that that earthquake caused the largest landslide and recorded history 468 00:26:22,200 --> 00:26:26,399 Speaker 1: on Earth. More than half of a square mile of 469 00:26:26,520 --> 00:26:31,440 Speaker 1: Mount St. Helen's suddenly vanished away. It just suddenly dropped 470 00:26:31,520 --> 00:26:34,040 Speaker 1: off the side, the north side of the mountain. Yeah, 471 00:26:34,119 --> 00:26:36,679 Speaker 1: and it's um like, you should really go check out 472 00:26:36,720 --> 00:26:39,320 Speaker 1: the footage of this stuff. It's some of the most 473 00:26:39,359 --> 00:26:44,440 Speaker 1: amazing like natural geologic disaster footage I've ever seen, just 474 00:26:44,560 --> 00:26:46,600 Speaker 1: to see this mountain and then that you know, especially 475 00:26:46,640 --> 00:26:50,560 Speaker 1: in the Anything to see people interviewed, uh describing like 476 00:26:50,640 --> 00:26:53,560 Speaker 1: seeing this with their eyeballs that was it was just 477 00:26:53,720 --> 00:26:56,440 Speaker 1: like it was incomprehensible what they were witnessing, like a 478 00:26:56,600 --> 00:27:00,240 Speaker 1: mountain that large and and part of it just going 479 00:27:00,280 --> 00:27:03,479 Speaker 1: away immediately again. And one of the reasons they were 480 00:27:03,520 --> 00:27:06,040 Speaker 1: able to witness it, and we have such great documentations 481 00:27:06,080 --> 00:27:09,360 Speaker 1: because at eight thirty two am, a pair of geologists, 482 00:27:09,480 --> 00:27:12,240 Speaker 1: husband and wife geologists, happened to be flying in a 483 00:27:12,359 --> 00:27:15,080 Speaker 1: plane because they had hired a plane to go look 484 00:27:15,119 --> 00:27:17,119 Speaker 1: at Mount St. Helen's because they'd heard that, you know, 485 00:27:17,359 --> 00:27:20,560 Speaker 1: it was there's some stuff going on, and they happened 486 00:27:20,600 --> 00:27:23,680 Speaker 1: to make one more pass right as the mountain that 487 00:27:23,800 --> 00:27:26,119 Speaker 1: earthquake dropped the side of the mountain. They were like 488 00:27:26,480 --> 00:27:28,640 Speaker 1: right above it in a plane. As a matter of fact, 489 00:27:28,760 --> 00:27:31,240 Speaker 1: you know, what's where's your quote? Should we read that? Yeah, 490 00:27:31,680 --> 00:27:35,840 Speaker 1: this is Dorothy Dorothy Stoffel Uh in twenty nineteen. She said, 491 00:27:35,880 --> 00:27:38,000 Speaker 1: the whole north half of the mountain that we were 492 00:27:38,040 --> 00:27:41,320 Speaker 1: flying just five feet above, began churning, and a mile 493 00:27:41,440 --> 00:27:45,520 Speaker 1: long fracture shot across the mountain faster than our minds 494 00:27:45,560 --> 00:27:48,119 Speaker 1: could absorb. The north half of the mountain just became 495 00:27:48,200 --> 00:27:52,640 Speaker 1: like fluid and slid away. Amazing. I saw somebody else 496 00:27:52,680 --> 00:27:56,520 Speaker 1: describe as like a zipper opening along the mountain. Yeah. 497 00:27:56,680 --> 00:27:59,480 Speaker 1: And and you know there there were amateur photographers around 498 00:27:59,600 --> 00:28:01,760 Speaker 1: for some of the stuff. Um, some of these hikers 499 00:28:01,840 --> 00:28:04,440 Speaker 1: like that guy you mentioned that was telling the story 500 00:28:04,520 --> 00:28:09,520 Speaker 1: and finding voices, UM and volcano chasers like they got 501 00:28:09,680 --> 00:28:12,320 Speaker 1: some some like some One guy got like twenty two 502 00:28:12,359 --> 00:28:14,320 Speaker 1: pictures in a row and this is when it eventually blew. 503 00:28:14,480 --> 00:28:17,320 Speaker 1: The other guy got like six or eight pictures. Uh. 504 00:28:17,480 --> 00:28:20,760 Speaker 1: There was a family uh camping with their two young 505 00:28:20,880 --> 00:28:24,480 Speaker 1: daughters and that guy they were you know on the 506 00:28:24,560 --> 00:28:27,479 Speaker 1: north side, Um, you know, well below it but uh, 507 00:28:27,760 --> 00:28:30,280 Speaker 1: you know, within the range. And he was like, you know, 508 00:28:31,200 --> 00:28:33,000 Speaker 1: speaking to how it didn't blow from the top, he said, 509 00:28:33,040 --> 00:28:35,920 Speaker 1: it looked like somebody shot a shotgun out of the 510 00:28:35,960 --> 00:28:39,320 Speaker 1: side of this mountain pointed at us. So ash ash 511 00:28:39,440 --> 00:28:42,200 Speaker 1: was raining down, but it was raining like at people 512 00:28:42,400 --> 00:28:46,120 Speaker 1: and less down from the sky right exactly. It wasn't 513 00:28:46,120 --> 00:28:47,880 Speaker 1: going up and then coming back down. It was coming 514 00:28:48,000 --> 00:28:51,160 Speaker 1: straight at you if you were anywhere north of the mountain. Yea. 515 00:28:51,840 --> 00:28:53,640 Speaker 1: And the reason why the north of the mountain was 516 00:28:53,680 --> 00:28:56,360 Speaker 1: so dangerous because that's where that hump had been. That's 517 00:28:56,400 --> 00:28:59,800 Speaker 1: also where the earthquake moved a good portion of the mountain, 518 00:29:00,080 --> 00:29:04,000 Speaker 1: which meant that all that pressure that was keeping that pressurized, 519 00:29:04,040 --> 00:29:09,280 Speaker 1: superheated water from boiling under the mountain was suddenly exposed. 520 00:29:09,720 --> 00:29:12,120 Speaker 1: It was that pressure was gone, and so all of 521 00:29:12,200 --> 00:29:18,160 Speaker 1: that incredibly hot water flash heated into steam. And when 522 00:29:18,240 --> 00:29:20,760 Speaker 1: that happens, that expands. Like you said, the reason that 523 00:29:20,880 --> 00:29:24,120 Speaker 1: one of the reasons steam can't exist in that situation 524 00:29:24,240 --> 00:29:27,960 Speaker 1: is because it's too expansive. When it does have the 525 00:29:28,080 --> 00:29:32,320 Speaker 1: chance to expand, uh, it does so with incredible force. 526 00:29:33,200 --> 00:29:36,040 Speaker 1: And that's what happened. That's why Mount Saint Helen's blew 527 00:29:36,120 --> 00:29:38,960 Speaker 1: out the side rather than the top because there had 528 00:29:39,000 --> 00:29:41,720 Speaker 1: been a weakening and the pressure that allowed all that 529 00:29:41,880 --> 00:29:45,480 Speaker 1: to just blow out and blow out it did. Yeah, 530 00:29:45,600 --> 00:29:48,480 Speaker 1: I mean it was um. If you look at it, 531 00:29:48,560 --> 00:29:52,920 Speaker 1: it looks almost like a controlled demolition blast or something. Um. 532 00:29:53,040 --> 00:29:55,320 Speaker 1: It definitely doesn't look like any kind of volcano blast 533 00:29:55,400 --> 00:29:57,760 Speaker 1: that you might think of in your head. Um. It 534 00:29:57,840 --> 00:30:00,520 Speaker 1: happened kind of all at once, and it was twenty 535 00:30:00,640 --> 00:30:05,040 Speaker 1: four megaton blast, which I know everyone always tries to 536 00:30:05,040 --> 00:30:08,840 Speaker 1: compare it to like Hiroshima. It was six hundred times 537 00:30:09,800 --> 00:30:14,200 Speaker 1: as powerful as the Hiroshima atomic bomb. Good lord, But 538 00:30:14,320 --> 00:30:16,600 Speaker 1: I mean that's what it would take to move point 539 00:30:16,800 --> 00:30:20,240 Speaker 1: six square or cubic miles of mountain all of a 540 00:30:20,280 --> 00:30:24,160 Speaker 1: sudden too, you know, And that that blast chuck that 541 00:30:24,440 --> 00:30:28,000 Speaker 1: that twenty four megaton blast. It was described as like 542 00:30:28,640 --> 00:30:33,479 Speaker 1: a fast moving cloud of heat and stones moving at 543 00:30:33,720 --> 00:30:36,160 Speaker 1: at some points pretty close to the mountain three hundred 544 00:30:36,240 --> 00:30:39,640 Speaker 1: miles an hour, heated to like six hundred and sixty 545 00:30:39,720 --> 00:30:43,680 Speaker 1: degrees fahrenheit. I think that's like three degrees celsius, just 546 00:30:44,120 --> 00:30:49,400 Speaker 1: blowing northward away from the mountain and everything within eight 547 00:30:49,520 --> 00:30:54,200 Speaker 1: miles of that of the Mountain was in that blast zone, 548 00:30:54,520 --> 00:30:58,840 Speaker 1: and if you recall correctly, David Johnston's um cold Water 549 00:30:59,360 --> 00:31:04,280 Speaker 1: to camp was within about five miles. Yeah, he obviously 550 00:31:04,360 --> 00:31:07,000 Speaker 1: didn't make it. Uh, they found I think they found 551 00:31:07,000 --> 00:31:09,920 Speaker 1: pieces of his trailer like a decade later. H he 552 00:31:10,000 --> 00:31:13,720 Speaker 1: had time to send out one signal which was over 553 00:31:13,800 --> 00:31:18,520 Speaker 1: his radio Vancouver, Vancouver, this is it. The only person 554 00:31:18,600 --> 00:31:21,400 Speaker 1: to pick that up was a Ham radio operator nearby, 555 00:31:22,320 --> 00:31:27,040 Speaker 1: and they renamed that Arie Johnston Ridge in his honor. Um. Obviously, 556 00:31:27,160 --> 00:31:31,520 Speaker 1: Harry Truman perished along with those sixteen cats, and he 557 00:31:31,760 --> 00:31:34,920 Speaker 1: was close enough, uh to where I saw that. They 558 00:31:34,960 --> 00:31:40,400 Speaker 1: said that he and everything around him was basically instantly vaporized, 559 00:31:40,480 --> 00:31:42,880 Speaker 1: Like he wouldn't have felt anything. It would have happened 560 00:31:43,320 --> 00:31:46,400 Speaker 1: his death and vaporization would have happened in like less 561 00:31:46,400 --> 00:31:49,120 Speaker 1: than a second. Yeah, I have the impression the same 562 00:31:49,160 --> 00:31:52,200 Speaker 1: thing happened to David Johnston. And also that rad that 563 00:31:52,360 --> 00:31:56,280 Speaker 1: Ham radio operator who was volunteering to kind of document it. 564 00:31:56,680 --> 00:32:01,240 Speaker 1: He documented David Johnston. Um get covered up, he said, 565 00:32:01,720 --> 00:32:05,280 Speaker 1: Um the he said, gentleman, the camper in the car 566 00:32:05,440 --> 00:32:07,240 Speaker 1: that's sitting over to the south of me. He was 567 00:32:07,280 --> 00:32:10,280 Speaker 1: talking about David Johnston is covered is going to hit 568 00:32:10,360 --> 00:32:13,680 Speaker 1: me too. And that was Jerry Martin, that Ham radio operator, 569 00:32:13,840 --> 00:32:16,920 Speaker 1: and that was his last transmission. He was vaporized as well. 570 00:32:17,040 --> 00:32:22,440 Speaker 1: Essentially everything everything north of the mountain within eight miles 571 00:32:22,800 --> 00:32:28,160 Speaker 1: was just destroyed, just destroyed, like entire hundred foot trees 572 00:32:28,240 --> 00:32:32,200 Speaker 1: that were like ten twelve feet in diameter, just completely 573 00:32:32,280 --> 00:32:35,400 Speaker 1: flattened and also denuded of any bark on the way 574 00:32:35,440 --> 00:32:39,520 Speaker 1: as well. UM. And this was just a blast that UM. 575 00:32:40,040 --> 00:32:44,080 Speaker 1: The landslide that was created from that, the the earthquake 576 00:32:44,160 --> 00:32:48,080 Speaker 1: that initially triggered the eruption UM that had in some 577 00:32:48,240 --> 00:32:51,680 Speaker 1: incredible effects as well. Yeah, because what you've got, you know, 578 00:32:51,840 --> 00:32:54,479 Speaker 1: beyond this avalanche happening, is you've got all of a sudden, 579 00:32:54,840 --> 00:32:56,760 Speaker 1: all this heat happens in a place where there's a 580 00:32:56,800 --> 00:33:01,240 Speaker 1: lot of snow, so that snow melts, that glacier ice melts, 581 00:33:01,800 --> 00:33:05,400 Speaker 1: and you have flooding, and you have mud slides, and 582 00:33:05,680 --> 00:33:07,360 Speaker 1: you have a word that I had never even heard 583 00:33:07,400 --> 00:33:10,360 Speaker 1: of before Ed included it in here, which was lahar, 584 00:33:11,200 --> 00:33:14,880 Speaker 1: which sounds like just a mud slide on steroids, like 585 00:33:14,960 --> 00:33:19,200 Speaker 1: a mudside carrying ammunition with it. And this is just 586 00:33:19,720 --> 00:33:23,320 Speaker 1: raining down everywhere and and like causing a path of 587 00:33:23,360 --> 00:33:26,160 Speaker 1: destruction that hasn't been seen in like modern times in 588 00:33:26,200 --> 00:33:28,520 Speaker 1: this country. Yeah, it was like it had so much 589 00:33:28,600 --> 00:33:32,000 Speaker 1: power chuck that that that slide did that one part 590 00:33:32,040 --> 00:33:35,600 Speaker 1: of it was carrying chunks of rock as big as 591 00:33:35,720 --> 00:33:38,240 Speaker 1: five hundred and fifty eight feet or seven hundred and 592 00:33:38,320 --> 00:33:43,000 Speaker 1: seventy across. That's as big as a fifty story building. 593 00:33:43,240 --> 00:33:46,760 Speaker 1: It was moving rocks that size just fast as you 594 00:33:46,800 --> 00:33:49,560 Speaker 1: can imagine, down the mountain into the valleys. And I 595 00:33:49,640 --> 00:33:52,360 Speaker 1: saw it described as if you were watching it from 596 00:33:52,400 --> 00:33:55,440 Speaker 1: a ridge, as some people were, like far away, you 597 00:33:55,480 --> 00:33:59,000 Speaker 1: would see the cloud or the debris starting to come 598 00:33:59,480 --> 00:34:02,040 Speaker 1: at you. It would disappear into a valley, and then 599 00:34:02,040 --> 00:34:03,440 Speaker 1: all of a sudden it would come up over the 600 00:34:03,560 --> 00:34:06,680 Speaker 1: ridge and keep keep going. It would. It was just 601 00:34:06,920 --> 00:34:10,359 Speaker 1: filling valleys with rocks and debris. It's just it's it's 602 00:34:10,480 --> 00:34:15,960 Speaker 1: unimaginable trying to grasp what happened. And it's even crazier 603 00:34:16,120 --> 00:34:20,120 Speaker 1: that some people are actually they're watching this happen crazy. 604 00:34:20,960 --> 00:34:24,120 Speaker 1: It is crazy. You want to take a break, Yeah, 605 00:34:24,160 --> 00:34:25,680 Speaker 1: we'll take a break and talk a little bit more 606 00:34:25,719 --> 00:34:54,160 Speaker 1: about the after effects right after this. Okay, we're back, 607 00:34:54,440 --> 00:34:58,600 Speaker 1: and as Chuck promised everyone, it's after effect time. Well, 608 00:34:58,680 --> 00:35:01,880 Speaker 1: we talked a little bit about it. Um. Obviously, Spirit Lake, 609 00:35:01,920 --> 00:35:03,600 Speaker 1: which we mentioned at the beginning, which was at the 610 00:35:03,640 --> 00:35:08,160 Speaker 1: base of the mountain UM, has a very strange effects 611 00:35:08,239 --> 00:35:10,879 Speaker 1: on bodies of water. It Uh, it did two things. 612 00:35:10,960 --> 00:35:14,719 Speaker 1: It made the lake larger, but it also made it shallower, 613 00:35:14,880 --> 00:35:18,040 Speaker 1: because it just flooded all this water down there and 614 00:35:18,200 --> 00:35:21,319 Speaker 1: raised it such that the outlet was basically dammed up, 615 00:35:21,800 --> 00:35:23,400 Speaker 1: and so the lake got a whole lot bigger, but 616 00:35:23,480 --> 00:35:26,440 Speaker 1: it reduced its depth by about eight feet. Um. I 617 00:35:26,520 --> 00:35:29,520 Speaker 1: think five years later they built a spillway tunnel to 618 00:35:30,280 --> 00:35:33,839 Speaker 1: control the depth of the lake. Um. Two hundred homes 619 00:35:33,880 --> 00:35:37,160 Speaker 1: and cabins and about two hundred miles of road and 620 00:35:37,320 --> 00:35:41,839 Speaker 1: railways were completely obliterated. Yeah. I also saw that lake 621 00:35:42,239 --> 00:35:45,560 Speaker 1: was now two hundred feet higher in elevation than it 622 00:35:45,640 --> 00:35:48,560 Speaker 1: had been before, as if like there was so much debris. 623 00:35:49,120 --> 00:35:52,200 Speaker 1: It like raised the lake two hundred feet even though 624 00:35:52,239 --> 00:35:54,600 Speaker 1: it also made it shallower. It's nuts, And I think 625 00:35:54,640 --> 00:35:58,520 Speaker 1: it lowered the ultimate height of Mount Saint Helen's right. Yeah, Um, 626 00:35:58,920 --> 00:36:02,200 Speaker 1: I can't remember. I think by like six meters or 627 00:36:02,280 --> 00:36:06,200 Speaker 1: something like that. Some ridiculous amount of height just blown off. 628 00:36:06,920 --> 00:36:09,720 Speaker 1: And that was another thing too, like the after effects 629 00:36:09,800 --> 00:36:12,040 Speaker 1: of it um if you look at Mount St. Helen's 630 00:36:12,080 --> 00:36:15,839 Speaker 1: today or especially like right afterward, UM, it was turned 631 00:36:15,840 --> 00:36:18,680 Speaker 1: into like an amphitheater, Like the north side was blown 632 00:36:18,719 --> 00:36:20,880 Speaker 1: out and the other sides were kind of curved around 633 00:36:21,440 --> 00:36:23,520 Speaker 1: and what was neat is one of the huge after 634 00:36:23,640 --> 00:36:25,720 Speaker 1: effects of Mount St. Helen's. One of the more positive 635 00:36:25,760 --> 00:36:28,080 Speaker 1: ones is I saw it described as like a crash 636 00:36:28,200 --> 00:36:32,920 Speaker 1: course um for vulcanologists and seismologists and everybody who are 637 00:36:32,960 --> 00:36:37,040 Speaker 1: now just had this amazing natural laboratory to study in. 638 00:36:37,560 --> 00:36:40,480 Speaker 1: And that the eruption, because it was the lateral blast, 639 00:36:40,880 --> 00:36:44,120 Speaker 1: opened up like basically a cross section of the mountain 640 00:36:44,440 --> 00:36:47,759 Speaker 1: that they could study. Now it's it's past history from 641 00:36:47,800 --> 00:36:50,200 Speaker 1: the inside out, which I thought was pretty neat. And 642 00:36:50,280 --> 00:36:53,120 Speaker 1: a young Trey Anastasia said, one day I shall play 643 00:36:53,320 --> 00:36:57,520 Speaker 1: at the base of that amphitheater and bore people with noodling. 644 00:36:59,760 --> 00:37:02,120 Speaker 1: They they there, No, I don't think so. I don't 645 00:37:02,120 --> 00:37:04,399 Speaker 1: think there's anything there. How was this kidding? Oh wow, 646 00:37:04,480 --> 00:37:07,520 Speaker 1: that was just completely made. I never will miss a 647 00:37:07,719 --> 00:37:11,400 Speaker 1: chance to take a ticket fish with you. Uh so, 648 00:37:12,360 --> 00:37:16,080 Speaker 1: ash is raining down and out. Uh, it literally darkened 649 00:37:16,080 --> 00:37:19,080 Speaker 1: the skies. Um. When this ash, if you were close 650 00:37:19,200 --> 00:37:22,880 Speaker 1: enough to it, it would literally burn you alive. Um. 651 00:37:23,000 --> 00:37:25,560 Speaker 1: If you're far away, it can just create a lot 652 00:37:25,600 --> 00:37:29,400 Speaker 1: of problems everything from uh, you know, just equipment not working, 653 00:37:29,520 --> 00:37:35,960 Speaker 1: electrical outages and blackouts and brown outs. Visibility is obviously terrible. Um. 654 00:37:36,120 --> 00:37:39,120 Speaker 1: As far as crops go, certain crops were wiped out 655 00:37:39,760 --> 00:37:42,799 Speaker 1: by this ash and the toxic gases. Some of them 656 00:37:43,320 --> 00:37:45,560 Speaker 1: did a little bit better because they just got a 657 00:37:45,600 --> 00:37:47,919 Speaker 1: little bit of the ash and it um ash will 658 00:37:47,960 --> 00:37:51,200 Speaker 1: help promote rainfall and hold moisture in the ground better. 659 00:37:51,280 --> 00:37:55,520 Speaker 1: So apparently wheat crops and apple crops fared pretty well. Yeah, 660 00:37:55,600 --> 00:37:58,080 Speaker 1: that was surprising. Yeah. I also saw and there was 661 00:37:58,160 --> 00:38:01,040 Speaker 1: a lot of devastation. Any any big game animal in 662 00:38:01,120 --> 00:38:04,880 Speaker 1: the blast zone. Was I said, big game animal by 663 00:38:04,920 --> 00:38:07,640 Speaker 1: the way, was it was in the blast zone? Was 664 00:38:08,000 --> 00:38:11,640 Speaker 1: was killed without question, But they were They were very surprised. 665 00:38:11,680 --> 00:38:15,160 Speaker 1: Biologists who went in to investigate shortly afterward found they 666 00:38:15,200 --> 00:38:18,960 Speaker 1: were like entire communities and ecosystems of smaller animals and 667 00:38:19,040 --> 00:38:23,200 Speaker 1: plants and microbes. Fun. Guy that had survived just fine. 668 00:38:23,680 --> 00:38:26,359 Speaker 1: And we're among the first to recallonize and we're part 669 00:38:26,400 --> 00:38:31,120 Speaker 1: of the reason why um Mount St. Helen's ecosystem started 670 00:38:31,160 --> 00:38:34,319 Speaker 1: to rebound so quickly. I mean, that's what will happen, 671 00:38:34,440 --> 00:38:37,200 Speaker 1: right if if if the Earth ever just burns up 672 00:38:37,200 --> 00:38:40,239 Speaker 1: into a fiery ball, that'll just become a big mushroom field, 673 00:38:40,320 --> 00:38:44,000 Speaker 1: right probably, and then the animals that lived underground will 674 00:38:44,040 --> 00:38:47,200 Speaker 1: come above ground and say it's our time, baby, I 675 00:38:47,280 --> 00:38:52,239 Speaker 1: look forward to for some um what else happened? Oh? 676 00:38:52,320 --> 00:38:55,800 Speaker 1: I saw that the ash cloud that that um that 677 00:38:56,000 --> 00:38:58,320 Speaker 1: blew finally out of the top. We should say that 678 00:38:58,960 --> 00:39:01,880 Speaker 1: the lateral blast was followed by a plenty in blast 679 00:39:02,680 --> 00:39:05,120 Speaker 1: and that shot, like you know, that was the money 680 00:39:05,200 --> 00:39:08,680 Speaker 1: volcano shot that everybody was looking for. A plume of 681 00:39:08,800 --> 00:39:11,960 Speaker 1: ash and smoke rose eighty thousand feet into the air, 682 00:39:12,640 --> 00:39:14,840 Speaker 1: and it was moving so fast that it circled the 683 00:39:14,880 --> 00:39:17,759 Speaker 1: globe in fifteen days, came back to square one in 684 00:39:17,880 --> 00:39:21,440 Speaker 1: fifteen days. And of course that was like affecting air traffic. 685 00:39:21,600 --> 00:39:25,520 Speaker 1: Do you remember the icelandic Uh volcano that affected air 686 00:39:25,560 --> 00:39:28,080 Speaker 1: traffic in Europe for like weeks. Weren't you stranded by 687 00:39:28,120 --> 00:39:34,239 Speaker 1: that or something? Okay? Okay? Um it like they knew 688 00:39:34,320 --> 00:39:38,120 Speaker 1: what to do in part because of how Mount St. 689 00:39:38,200 --> 00:39:40,400 Speaker 1: Helen's affected air travel. At the time, they were like, 690 00:39:40,960 --> 00:39:43,920 Speaker 1: this is brand new to us, um, but it helped 691 00:39:44,040 --> 00:39:46,680 Speaker 1: lay the groundwork for understanding what to look for how 692 00:39:46,760 --> 00:39:49,359 Speaker 1: to deal with that kind of stuff later on. Yeah, 693 00:39:49,440 --> 00:39:51,080 Speaker 1: the um. The other thing I wanted to point out 694 00:39:51,120 --> 00:39:53,360 Speaker 1: to about Spirit Lake was if you look at footage 695 00:39:54,040 --> 00:39:57,239 Speaker 1: of the lake and now these kind of rivers that 696 00:39:57,400 --> 00:40:00,320 Speaker 1: were just happening, and it literally like re out it 697 00:40:00,920 --> 00:40:05,080 Speaker 1: you know, the Columbia River and the Cowlitz River in sections, um, 698 00:40:05,239 --> 00:40:08,200 Speaker 1: but it looks like it looks like a logging operation 699 00:40:08,360 --> 00:40:11,719 Speaker 1: is happening, um, and like you could almost and may 700 00:40:11,800 --> 00:40:14,000 Speaker 1: have been able. Well obviously it has been too dangerous, 701 00:40:14,000 --> 00:40:17,120 Speaker 1: but it looks like you could have walked over these logs. 702 00:40:17,239 --> 00:40:20,120 Speaker 1: They were so like packed and these were just trees 703 00:40:20,360 --> 00:40:23,719 Speaker 1: you know, an hour before. Yeah, if you could do 704 00:40:23,880 --> 00:40:27,920 Speaker 1: that lumberjack log rolling thing, you could have probably made 705 00:40:27,960 --> 00:40:30,840 Speaker 1: it across the lake. But there in that minute by 706 00:40:30,920 --> 00:40:33,760 Speaker 1: minute episode, there was a pair of like high school 707 00:40:33,800 --> 00:40:36,800 Speaker 1: sweethearts who have been camping and they had a harrowing 708 00:40:36,880 --> 00:40:40,279 Speaker 1: experience because they they both got thrown into Spirit Lake, 709 00:40:40,800 --> 00:40:43,960 Speaker 1: and um, the boyfriend was able to rescue the girlfriend. 710 00:40:44,080 --> 00:40:46,279 Speaker 1: Is like the logs were starting to close in on him. 711 00:40:46,360 --> 00:40:48,880 Speaker 1: He pulled her out from the lake and they were 712 00:40:48,960 --> 00:40:51,719 Speaker 1: hanging onto logs when they finally made it out and 713 00:40:51,800 --> 00:40:55,960 Speaker 1: were rescued. That happened like that happened to somebody. They 714 00:40:56,000 --> 00:40:58,560 Speaker 1: were in their car. Oh is that how? And that's 715 00:40:58,600 --> 00:41:00,680 Speaker 1: how they got in the lake. They were in their car. Yeah, 716 00:41:00,760 --> 00:41:02,239 Speaker 1: they said it just picked him up and all that 717 00:41:02,360 --> 00:41:05,040 Speaker 1: they were driving and then they were floating and they 718 00:41:05,080 --> 00:41:06,960 Speaker 1: said that there you know there she said, like my 719 00:41:07,080 --> 00:41:08,799 Speaker 1: instinct was to get out of the car, but there 720 00:41:08,880 --> 00:41:11,640 Speaker 1: was like nowhere to go, right yeah, because there were 721 00:41:11,880 --> 00:41:15,160 Speaker 1: trees everywhere floating around beside him, right yeah. And this 722 00:41:15,360 --> 00:41:17,120 Speaker 1: is you know, these are just sort of That's what 723 00:41:17,239 --> 00:41:19,640 Speaker 1: was so cool about the special is it really brought 724 00:41:19,719 --> 00:41:22,200 Speaker 1: in the human element of these people that were around there. 725 00:41:22,880 --> 00:41:25,160 Speaker 1: Um and they you know, they all survived because they 726 00:41:25,200 --> 00:41:29,320 Speaker 1: were being interviewed obviously UM Dorothy Stoffel, who was the 727 00:41:30,000 --> 00:41:33,480 Speaker 1: the geologist that was flying with UM. I guess it 728 00:41:33,560 --> 00:41:36,279 Speaker 1: was her husband, Keith. Was that her brother her her 729 00:41:36,360 --> 00:41:40,560 Speaker 1: husband Keith? Okay, Um they survived that plane flight, like 730 00:41:40,719 --> 00:41:43,160 Speaker 1: they got out of there. There were stories of people 731 00:41:43,239 --> 00:41:46,840 Speaker 1: that literally it was like from a movie. Drove, you know, 732 00:41:47,000 --> 00:41:50,320 Speaker 1: a hundred and ten miles an hour, like out running 733 00:41:50,400 --> 00:41:55,320 Speaker 1: this ash debris slide coming at right. Yeah, and some 734 00:41:55,480 --> 00:41:57,719 Speaker 1: people didn't make it. So there was one guy who 735 00:41:57,840 --> 00:42:00,759 Speaker 1: was chronicled in that that was driving as fast as 736 00:42:00,800 --> 00:42:03,920 Speaker 1: you can in the blasts just caught up with him 737 00:42:04,000 --> 00:42:07,719 Speaker 1: and buried him um in the in the ash um 738 00:42:08,360 --> 00:42:11,840 Speaker 1: and he probably died pretty much instantly. But like again, 739 00:42:11,960 --> 00:42:14,800 Speaker 1: that happened to people. There's very famous footage of a 740 00:42:14,920 --> 00:42:20,000 Speaker 1: house just flowing down like a newly engorged mud slide 741 00:42:20,040 --> 00:42:23,120 Speaker 1: e river moving so fast that you probably could have 742 00:42:23,239 --> 00:42:26,280 Speaker 1: towed water skiers from the house. Essentially it was moving 743 00:42:26,360 --> 00:42:29,720 Speaker 1: that fast just down the river. So I mean again, 744 00:42:29,960 --> 00:42:33,960 Speaker 1: it was one of the most documented um volcanic eruptions 745 00:42:34,040 --> 00:42:36,759 Speaker 1: of all times. So there's really amazing footage on there 746 00:42:37,080 --> 00:42:39,480 Speaker 1: or just on the internet, is what I mean. Um, 747 00:42:39,840 --> 00:42:42,600 Speaker 1: But that wasn't the last time that that Mount St. 748 00:42:42,640 --> 00:42:46,840 Speaker 1: Helen's has erupted. I think it erupted a few times 749 00:42:46,920 --> 00:42:52,279 Speaker 1: between nineteen eighty and maybe I think, yeah, and then 750 00:42:52,360 --> 00:42:55,360 Speaker 1: the biggest one recently was between two thousand four and 751 00:42:55,440 --> 00:42:58,400 Speaker 1: two thousand eight. Yeah, it started sort of getting a 752 00:42:58,440 --> 00:43:01,880 Speaker 1: little more active again. Uh this time though, you know, 753 00:43:02,000 --> 00:43:04,960 Speaker 1: one of the things that um to the benefit of 754 00:43:05,000 --> 00:43:07,800 Speaker 1: the surrounding area when a volcano blows like that is 755 00:43:07,840 --> 00:43:11,080 Speaker 1: that pressure is released and it's gonna take a long 756 00:43:11,160 --> 00:43:13,879 Speaker 1: time to build back up to that level again kind 757 00:43:13,880 --> 00:43:16,320 Speaker 1: of depending on what how it reforms on top of it. 758 00:43:17,000 --> 00:43:20,160 Speaker 1: But this time apparently there are, uh, there are more 759 00:43:20,440 --> 00:43:23,680 Speaker 1: ways for this pressure to be released. So I think 760 00:43:23,719 --> 00:43:26,040 Speaker 1: it's just sort of the pressure is being released a 761 00:43:26,080 --> 00:43:30,600 Speaker 1: little more gradually since the two thousand foursion too. But 762 00:43:30,800 --> 00:43:33,160 Speaker 1: there they do say that like, oh no, like it 763 00:43:33,280 --> 00:43:37,000 Speaker 1: will happen again, like things are uh, there is a 764 00:43:37,040 --> 00:43:40,320 Speaker 1: new lava dome growing and the pressure is going to 765 00:43:40,400 --> 00:43:43,239 Speaker 1: build up, and it could be in a thousand years 766 00:43:43,320 --> 00:43:45,920 Speaker 1: or it could be in ten years. Yeah, we just 767 00:43:46,040 --> 00:43:48,319 Speaker 1: don't know now, but they are studying it. Like there 768 00:43:48,719 --> 00:43:51,960 Speaker 1: there's a lot of active research and study going on 769 00:43:52,040 --> 00:43:54,360 Speaker 1: at Mount Saint Helen's now. Yeah, I believe, you know, 770 00:43:54,440 --> 00:43:56,520 Speaker 1: the eruption was such a big deal that they've they've 771 00:43:56,600 --> 00:43:59,240 Speaker 1: opened the U s g S opened a research station 772 00:43:59,360 --> 00:44:04,560 Speaker 1: nearby UM and also that that two thousand four activity 773 00:44:05,080 --> 00:44:07,840 Speaker 1: basically ran from two thousand four to two eight. Like 774 00:44:07,960 --> 00:44:10,479 Speaker 1: you said, they've been studying the mountain closely. So there's 775 00:44:10,640 --> 00:44:15,480 Speaker 1: amazing time laps footage of those four years, and it's 776 00:44:15,520 --> 00:44:19,239 Speaker 1: astounding how fast and how big Mount St. Helen's just 777 00:44:19,400 --> 00:44:23,520 Speaker 1: grows from that eruption activity. It's called time laps Images 778 00:44:23,560 --> 00:44:29,480 Speaker 1: of Mount St Helen's um dome growth. It's on YouTube, UM, 779 00:44:29,760 --> 00:44:32,759 Speaker 1: and I recommend checking that out as well. Yeah, I 780 00:44:32,760 --> 00:44:37,320 Speaker 1: would just be careful when you google dome growth or 781 00:44:37,440 --> 00:44:42,800 Speaker 1: bulge growth. Boy. So, man, we are so juvenile sometimes, 782 00:44:42,840 --> 00:44:46,799 Speaker 1: aren't we? And by we I mean me too. Um. 783 00:44:47,000 --> 00:44:49,960 Speaker 1: But like we said, Mount St Helens bounced back, Spirit 784 00:44:50,080 --> 00:44:52,520 Speaker 1: Lake open back up and the cold Water two station 785 00:44:52,680 --> 00:44:56,080 Speaker 1: has been renamed after David Johnston and there's an amazing 786 00:44:56,120 --> 00:44:58,600 Speaker 1: memorial too. I saw on some trip Advisor posts that 787 00:44:58,640 --> 00:45:01,399 Speaker 1: somebody so I was like, the one of the best, um, 788 00:45:02,320 --> 00:45:05,800 Speaker 1: like not welcome center, but you know, information centers that 789 00:45:05,960 --> 00:45:08,360 Speaker 1: the person's ever been to. So I would like to 790 00:45:08,400 --> 00:45:12,400 Speaker 1: go there. Some cookies are en real? All right? You 791 00:45:12,480 --> 00:45:15,480 Speaker 1: got anything else? I got nothing else? All right, We'll 792 00:45:15,520 --> 00:45:19,120 Speaker 1: go forth and research um Mount St Helen's with an 793 00:45:19,280 --> 00:45:22,800 Speaker 1: s UM. And you can start doing that by watching 794 00:45:22,880 --> 00:45:26,080 Speaker 1: Dante's Peak. Since I said Dante's peak, it's time for 795 00:45:26,160 --> 00:45:30,400 Speaker 1: listener mail. This is following up on an email that 796 00:45:30,520 --> 00:45:34,760 Speaker 1: you particularly liked from our speectacular. Okay, hey, guys, thoroughly 797 00:45:34,880 --> 00:45:37,920 Speaker 1: enjoying the most recent spectacular. The accents are comedy genius. 798 00:45:38,640 --> 00:45:44,720 Speaker 1: Uh Meagle, do you want to pop in and say Hi, Hello, perfect? 799 00:45:45,440 --> 00:45:47,239 Speaker 1: I'm gonna bring Megle back every now and then. By 800 00:45:47,239 --> 00:45:49,440 Speaker 1: the way, I just want to prepare you in the audience. 801 00:45:50,360 --> 00:45:52,719 Speaker 1: I wanted to address a couple of eighteen hundreds diction 802 00:45:52,800 --> 00:45:55,439 Speaker 1: issues that call some puzzlement. Uh. When you got talked 803 00:45:55,480 --> 00:45:58,600 Speaker 1: about toilet it's basically what Josh said. I've always thought 804 00:45:58,640 --> 00:46:01,440 Speaker 1: of it as a refreshing as freshening up in the bathroom, 805 00:46:01,520 --> 00:46:03,960 Speaker 1: washing your face and hands when first waking up, or 806 00:46:03,960 --> 00:46:06,440 Speaker 1: going to bed. A double check with Marion Webster, though, 807 00:46:06,480 --> 00:46:12,120 Speaker 1: and it's more generally dressing and grooming. That makes sense. Yeah. Sure. 808 00:46:12,400 --> 00:46:15,759 Speaker 1: On the other hand, the strangers in the beverage from 809 00:46:15,800 --> 00:46:18,120 Speaker 1: the toll House is a lot more puzzling. I had 810 00:46:18,280 --> 00:46:20,560 Speaker 1: no idea what it meant, And although Josh's guests that 811 00:46:20,640 --> 00:46:23,359 Speaker 1: beverage meant the pub was clever, it doesn't really make 812 00:46:23,440 --> 00:46:26,440 Speaker 1: sense just as a reminder of the sentence is talking 813 00:46:26,480 --> 00:46:29,480 Speaker 1: about some men drinking tea in an end and pausing 814 00:46:29,640 --> 00:46:33,440 Speaker 1: to quote discover the sex and dates of arrival of 815 00:46:33,520 --> 00:46:36,960 Speaker 1: the strangers, which floated in some numbers in the beverage 816 00:46:37,080 --> 00:46:39,919 Speaker 1: end quote. I think I found the answer, though, guys, 817 00:46:40,000 --> 00:46:43,440 Speaker 1: in a Dictionary of Scottish dialect, we love this stuff 818 00:46:43,440 --> 00:46:46,160 Speaker 1: by them, this is amazing. Tea leaves floating on the 819 00:46:46,200 --> 00:46:48,839 Speaker 1: surface of your drink are considered omens that you will 820 00:46:48,880 --> 00:46:51,920 Speaker 1: meet someone new, So these tea leaves are called strangers. 821 00:46:52,280 --> 00:46:54,719 Speaker 1: If you pick up a stranger and bite it, the 822 00:46:54,880 --> 00:46:57,160 Speaker 1: toughness will tell you whether the new acquaintance will be 823 00:46:57,320 --> 00:47:01,239 Speaker 1: male or female. Amazing. I'm gonna guess there's also a 824 00:47:01,280 --> 00:47:03,560 Speaker 1: way to predict the date you meet this person, although 825 00:47:03,560 --> 00:47:05,640 Speaker 1: I didn't see reference to that. So that's what the 826 00:47:05,719 --> 00:47:08,320 Speaker 1: characters are doing, guys, using tea leaves to predict the future. 827 00:47:09,120 --> 00:47:11,320 Speaker 1: By the way, other omens can also be strangers, like 828 00:47:11,400 --> 00:47:14,839 Speaker 1: unburned candlewicks or sit on greats. I've loved the show 829 00:47:14,920 --> 00:47:18,400 Speaker 1: for years, look forward to anymore. That is a great email. 830 00:47:18,640 --> 00:47:23,760 Speaker 1: Nat Jacob's fantastic uh sleuthing and we are super grateful. 831 00:47:24,120 --> 00:47:27,640 Speaker 1: Top to bottom start to finish. Wonderful email. Also just 832 00:47:27,920 --> 00:47:31,319 Speaker 1: put so nicely to not like you big dummies. Yeah, 833 00:47:31,800 --> 00:47:34,240 Speaker 1: because I got it pretty wrong. It was a terrible guess, 834 00:47:35,880 --> 00:47:38,759 Speaker 1: but I mean that was really hard. Like you was obscure, 835 00:47:39,320 --> 00:47:42,120 Speaker 1: you know very much? Anyway, I love knowing that now. 836 00:47:42,239 --> 00:47:44,480 Speaker 1: That was one of my favorite emails. So thanks a lot, Nat. 837 00:47:44,760 --> 00:47:46,120 Speaker 1: And if you want to be like Nat and get 838 00:47:46,200 --> 00:47:48,400 Speaker 1: in touch with us in the best way possible, you 839 00:47:48,560 --> 00:47:51,880 Speaker 1: can send us an email to Stuff podcast at iHeart 840 00:47:51,960 --> 00:47:58,360 Speaker 1: radio dot com. Stuff you Should Know is a production 841 00:47:58,440 --> 00:48:01,319 Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio from our podcasts My heart Radio, 842 00:48:01,600 --> 00:48:04,520 Speaker 1: visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever 843 00:48:04,600 --> 00:48:12,640 Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows. H m hm