Mount St. Helens

Mount St. Helens-location Mt. St Helens-active and non-active

mountains Cause and Effect of the 1980 eruption Map of Mt. St. Helens Mt. St. Helens History Summary glossary bibliography

Table of content

Mt. St. Helens Mt. St. Helens is located in the state of Washington. The county is Skamania

and the Mountain range is the Cascades.

It is also situated in the well known Ring of Fire.

Mt. St. Helens-an active volcanoThat has plates that move , causing an earthquake. The hot gases that are under pressure deep below the earth, escape and cause an eruption. With time, as the plates move the hot gases escape causing the earth to melt into magma.

Mountains-non-activeHave plates that move the same plates and layers grow with different thickness. This determines the heights. Unlike, volcanic mountains the gases do not escape and the plates move more slowly. Sculpturing is an other way mountains are made by the movement of rivers and the direction of the wind.

Mt St Helens and a Mountain are similar in that they both contain several layers of the

earth and are made by the uplift of the earths crust.

The 5.1 earthquake that shook Mount St. Helens ,awoke the dormant volcano it

erupted and started an avalanche and destroyed 200+ homes and 27 bridges and killed 57 people. In all, the damage of Mount St. Helens eruption did 2.5 billion dollars in damage and 30 sq. miles of devastation and was equal to 500 nuke.

CAUSE AND EFFECT

Mt. St. Helen erupted in 1650 BC. In 1857 they saw smoke followed by an eruption. Then it laded dormant for 123 years until march

27th, 1980 when smoke started to escape. From March 27thto May 18th,1980 there was

1,000 earthquakes . The earthquakes caused a big bulge on the north

side of the volcano indicating that the gases from the earth were moving upward.

The earthquakes eventually shook up a landslide, breaking off the bulge blasting laterally ash, pumice , lava and gas 15 miles into the atmosphere

By Noon that day, in Spokan Wa 250 miles away, the sky turned to complete darkness. Ash had spread as far as Oklahoma.

Mt. St. Helens history

Mount St. Helens is a volcano in the cascades. In May, 1980 Mount St. Helens exploded violently. Mother nature showed us that she still has the upper hand. It was very devastating!

summary

Volcano-an opening of the Earths crust witch molten lava, ash, and gases are ejected.

Eruption-A sudden, often violent outburst.

Avalanche-A fall or slide of a large mass.

Magma-a mixture of finely divided solids with enough liquid to produce a pasty mass.

Pumice-a light porous ,gassy lava used in solid as an abrasive and in powered form as a polish and an abrasive.

Glossary

Volcano-The Eruption and Healing of Mount St.Helens. By Patricia Lauber

Back Into The Fire-Mt.St. Helens: A Documentary By Spunknet Productions

Bibliography