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The 40th anniversary today of one of the most famous case-studies in the Geography curriculum, and an event which forever changed the shape of the volcano that erupted on the 18th of May 1980 just after 8.30am following an earthquake that triggered a landslide.
Names like Dave Johnston, Harry Truman, Jim Scymanky and others are known to many students from their involvement in the stories of that day and the pyroclastic flows, lateral blasts and ash fall that changed the Pacific NW for a while.
There's a useful illustrated memory here.
The Portland Art Museum also has an online exhibition of images of Mt. St. Helens in Art. Here's the description of the online exhibition.
To commemorate the 40th anniversary of the great eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980, the Portland Art Museum is proud to present an exhibition that examines artists’ responses to the awesome beauty and power of the volcano. From pre-contact Native American objects to contemporary paintings, drawings, and photographs, the show will trace the mountain’s changing image and significance for local peoples. Native Americans used the substance of the volcano—mainly basalt and obsidian—to create objects of great beauty and utility. While Mount St. Helens featured in their creation stories, no depictions of the volcano in the visual arts are known before the mid-1840s, when explorers Henry James Warre and Paul Kane traveled through the area. As luck would have it, their visits coincided with the volcano’s last eruptive period and they recorded the venting of steam and ash on the north side, presaging its destruction on May 18, 1980.
It includes some paintings from Ursula K. Le Guin
There was also a classic song from the time, which mentioned lava but we'll let them off...
Check out the map made by Brendan Conway as well. This allows you to visit and explore the volcano using 3D modelling in ArcGIS Online.
The New York Times reported on how the eruption changed the way that future eruptions were managed which potentially helped save more lives.
The 40th anniversary today of one of the most famous case-studies in the Geography curriculum, and an event which forever changed the shape of the volcano that erupted on the 18th of May 1980 just after 8.30am following an earthquake that triggered a landslide.
Names like Dave Johnston, Harry Truman, Jim Scymanky and others are known to many students from their involvement in the stories of that day and the pyroclastic flows, lateral blasts and ash fall that changed the Pacific NW for a while.
There's a useful illustrated memory here.
The Portland Art Museum also has an online exhibition of images of Mt. St. Helens in Art. Here's the description of the online exhibition.
To commemorate the 40th anniversary of the great eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980, the Portland Art Museum is proud to present an exhibition that examines artists’ responses to the awesome beauty and power of the volcano. From pre-contact Native American objects to contemporary paintings, drawings, and photographs, the show will trace the mountain’s changing image and significance for local peoples. Native Americans used the substance of the volcano—mainly basalt and obsidian—to create objects of great beauty and utility. While Mount St. Helens featured in their creation stories, no depictions of the volcano in the visual arts are known before the mid-1840s, when explorers Henry James Warre and Paul Kane traveled through the area. As luck would have it, their visits coincided with the volcano’s last eruptive period and they recorded the venting of steam and ash on the north side, presaging its destruction on May 18, 1980.
It includes some paintings from Ursula K. Le Guin
Mount St. Helens fascinated Ursula K. Le Guin (1929–2018), the renowned author best known for her science fiction novels. The volcano was visible from her house in Portland’s Northwest Hills and she was enthralled by its many moods in the ever-shifting weather and light. She watched the great eruption all day, declaring it “the biggest thing I ever saw or hope to see.” Le Guin referred to the mountain as “the Lady” and chose to depict it visually:
When “the Lady” started shaking and doing strange things in 1979, my love of her beautiful presence became a driving interest, almost a fixation. While she was dormant I had made sketches trying to catch the pure line of her almost-but-not-quite symmetrical flanks and the clouds that wreathed around her head like veils. As activity increased and ash eruptions began to blacken the cone, I drew what I saw as best I could, sitting at my study window, using binoculars to bring details close. Experimenting then with chalk pastels, I found them a good medium for the drama of ash and cloud and snow going on there, 60 miles away overland and 9,000 feet up in the air.
Le Guin’s family has kindly allowed a selection of her pastels to be shown here for the first time.
I hadn't been aware of the connection between Ursula K. Le Guin and Mt. St Helens. There's more here.There was also a classic song from the time, which mentioned lava but we'll let them off...
Check out the map made by Brendan Conway as well. This allows you to visit and explore the volcano using 3D modelling in ArcGIS Online.
The New York Times reported on how the eruption changed the way that future eruptions were managed which potentially helped save more lives.
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