Mt St Helen’s

Case Study
Compiled By Mrs Makurumidze
Distribution
Of
Volcanoes
Location • Mount St Helens is an active volcano in
Washington in the North-west of the United States.
 •As the Juan de Fuca plate is a denser oceanic plate, it slides under the
North-American plate and melts.
Plate Boundary • The molten magma then rises through the North-American plate to
form the Cascade Mountain range which
•Mount St Helens belongs to the Cascade Range of mountains
 •Mount St. Helens is a stratovolcano, which is a tall, cone shaped volcano.
• It’s made of many layers (strata) of hardened lava, volcanic ash, and tephra.
Type Of Volcano • Tephra is what volcano scientists (volcanologists) call the stuff that is blown out of
a volcano during an eruption.
What Led To The Eruption Of Mt St Helens
On May 18, 1980?
• The catastrophic Mount Saint Helens volcanic eruption that took
place on May 18, 1980 was the result of several factors.
• There was an accumulation of magma within the mountain's edifice
(the main portion of the volcano built by eruption )earlier that year.
• A resulting bulge on the mountain's north flank was further
weakened when an earthquake triggered a debris avalanche ( a large
mass of material moving down a slope) that relieved the pressure.
• Relieving the pressure resulted in the water that was contained within
the system turning into steam, which then forced its way out
explosively through a landslide scar.
 • On the 18th May 1980 at 8:32 am, a 5.1
magnitude earthquake caused the entire
north face of the volcano to collapse
Events spewing red-hot lava and volcanic ash over
the surrounding land.
• It was on a Sunday, with most people away
from work.
Footage Of St Helen Eruption
 Primary Effects

Social:
• 57 people killed
• Autopsies showed that most of the people
killed in the eruption likely died from
asphyxiation after inhaling hot ash,
according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
• 200 homes destroyed
• 300km of main roads destroyed
Primary Effects

Social
• Scientists, photographers, campers,
loggers, etc. who were on the mountain the
morning of the eruption were killed.
• Nothing in the path of Mount St. Helens’
eruption was spared.

The car of Reid

Blackburn, a
photographer. He was
one of the first victims of
 Economic:
• “most economically destructive volcanic eruption
Primary in the history of the United States”.
• 15km3 timber destroyed
Effects • Agriculture downwind of volcano suffered (e.g.12
million salmon died when their hatcheries were
destroyed)
 Environmental:
• 60 000km2 covered with volcanic debris
• Wildlife (deer, elk, bear, birds and small
mammals) damaged- estimated 7000 big game
killed.
Primary • Landscape said to be “more desolate than the
moon”. Nearly 135 miles of river
Effects • channels surrounding the volcano were affected
by the lahars of May 18.
• Sediment eventually found its way into the
Columbia River reducing the size of the
shipping canal, which subsequently had to be
dredged.
Primary Effects
Environmental
• Ash fell in 11 American states, reaching 30km into the sky.
• Just three days after the eruption, air pollution monitoring systems
detected ash in east coast cities such as New York, some 4,000km
away.
• The town of Yakima, as an example, some 150km away, was
blanketed in 1.5cm of ash.
• 540 million tonnes of ash were ejected into the atmosphere.
• The ash circled the globe in 17 days .
• The ash made roads slippery and reduced visibility.
• Many roads were closed, trains halted and aircraft grounded.
Secondary Effects
Economic:
Negative
• Overall cost estimated $1.1million
• Tourism trade dipped at first.
• Commercial flights cancelled from airports for 2 weeks
• Timber industries suffered
• Jobs lost in area
• Fish, in some hatcheries, perished as ash fell into lakes and streams, clogging their gills and raising the temperature of the
water.
• Crops were destroyed, or produced low yields, because ash settled on leaves, preventing photosynthesis.
Positive
But tourism did increase in the long term
providing more jobs
 Social:
• People moved away from neighbourhood
• Residents left without some amenities for a while
(e.g. Water treatment, electricity and sewage
Secondary removal damaged)
• Residents suffered emotional and stress problems
• Electricity supplies were interrupted and sewers
were blocked, and the ash damaged car engines.
 Environmental:
Positive
• Local ecosystem unbalanced
• Water polluted by volcanic debris
• Much of landscape is still scarred today
Secondary • Mount St Helens is now 8,636 ft tall. That is
1,314 ft shorter than it was before the eruption

Positive
• But the soil in the surrounding area became
more fertile
Cleaning Up

• Fortunately, Mount St. Helens was able to

be cleaned up with the efforts of people
like Sarah Deatherage Koss.
• She made plans to clean up the aftermath
of the eruption