Selects: When Mount St. Helens Blew Its Top | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

hey everyone it's Josh and for this. week's ssk selects I've chosen our. January 2023 episode on the Mount St. Helen's eruption seems like just last. year it's a really good episode that's. packed with science action adventure. heroics life and death danger it's got. it all it's one of my favorite episodes. so I hope you enjoy it as well.

welcome to stuff you should know a. production of iHeart. Radio hey and welcome to the podcast I'm. Josh and there's Chuck and sitting in. for Jerry today is our great friend and. co-producer Dave C and the C stands for. cool say hello Dave hi everybody that's. that's a really great Dave impression. he's a he's a troll.

yes I always hear him. as uh Dave is great I wish you all knew. him but we do and so he's ours you're. gonna have to take our word for it. that's right speaking of take our word. for it Chuck I have to say to all the. people who don't know much about Mount. St Helens prepare to have your socks. knocked off or your lid blown or your. skin seared off of your your muscle yeah. this is a good one this is uh I mean. this is so bread and butter stuff you.

should know it is I don't know why it. took us almost 16 years to get to it and. none of that margarine stuff are low fat. it's like full milk fat butter bread and. butter stuff you should know salted. butter even you like salted huh no it. depends on what you using it for I like. just plain unsalted butter even on a. bread and butter piece of like bread. with butter yeah mainly with like baking. and cooking it's like that's when it. matters yeah I gotta um what's your. brand.

oh boy it depends uh I mean I love to. get the I hate to be that guy but I do. love to get the local butter when we go. to our farmers market and get it from. our CSA what's wrong with that well I. don't know CH can't just say paret can. you right you must be a social justice. Warrior you buy local butter I do like. that uh what's the stuff the Irish. butter in the grocery store that's my. brand uh carye gold Cary gold that's. good too like I've I've researched it. like I've literally researched butter.

cuz I want to get the most bang for my. buck and it is at the top of basically. every list of like any butter of any. kind it's really really good butter yeah. I I totally agree I love Gary gold I. take that stuff camping yeah I carry it. around in my pocket well I like that you. can get a a a tub it's a smaller tub but. I do like a spreadable tub as opposed to. a stick I haven't seen the tub yeah we. have a stick because we have a cute. little butter dish that we use so we. have we use the sticks.

so anyway back to um Mount St Helen's. the episode today I was four years old. when this happened so I mean I didn't. know what was going on but I imagine you. were like holy cow this is one of the. most amazing things I've ever seen on my. TV yeah I was nine and I remember it. being a big deal but it's funny when I. was researching this and then watching. um there's a really really great thing. on YouTube that I recommend that A&E put. out uh years ago it had to be was called.

minute by minute colon uh the eruption. of Mount St Helens really gripping stuff. as A&E used to do you know they probably. still do that kind of stuff but I don't. know um all of the media around it I was. thinking like man and I don't know if it. was more Regional or if it truly was. Nationwide but I remember the eruption. but I didn't remember like the six weeks. leading up to it which was a very big. deal yeah although I think it was more. of like a yeah a regional thing for this.

the leadup and then also if you were a. geologist a volcanologist a. seismologist anything that had to do. with volcanoes erupting or mountains. then it would have been a big deal to. you too and it definitely attracted them. from far and wide and because there was. so much warning um and it was able to by. it I mean Mount St Helens was able to. kind of draw to it like a magnet all of. these amazingly well-trained. researchers um.

they were there when it went off and. it's probably the most best documented. volcano in history because of that yeah. I mean because like you said they Mount. St Helens is basically saying it's. coming everyone would you like to. document this I'm telling you again it's. coming y uh and I'll show you in lots of. different scary ways that it's coming. and people left people stayed people. came there people laugh. cried like tourists came to see this. thing so for sure let's get into it okay.

so just a real quick refresher we've. done um volcanoes and I think we've done. super volcanoes too because that sounds. like us yeah uh 2010 was volcanoes. 2017 was super volcanoes okay so we. talked a lot about how volcanoes work in. those episodes so if you want to know a. lot more in depth go check those out but. just as a refresher for the specific. kind of volcano that Mount St Helens is. it's a strat volcano and it's created. when one younger plate is subducted.

under an older plate and as the younger. plate goes down into the bows of the. Earth all of the rock it carries with it. gets heated up same with water too and. that stuff travels upward because it's. less dense than the surrounding mantle. down below and as it gets closer and. closer to the crust it wants to pop out. of there but it can't necessarily. sometimes it can and when it can it just. spews out all sorts of molten lava and. that builds the volcano in a kind of a.

cone shape which is what Mount St Helens. was up until May 18th 1980 yeah um it's. a part of the Cascade Arc uh arranged. there in the Pacific Northwest and all. of this happened and you know. geologically speaking pretty quickly. yeah uh it happened over the course of. about 40,000 years in the case of Mount. St Helens which is pretty speedy and uh. Ed helped us out with this when he did a. great job on this article um and Ed. points out that you know in the Pacific. Northwest why you see so many you know.

uh sort of Coney mountains like that is. because of this Cascade Arc and how. these mountains were formed you know not. too long ago right yeah 40,000 years ago. maybe less 40,000 for St Helens and I. think the whole Arc is less than 100. right um so the whole thing that's. driving Mount St Helens and apparently. also there's some other um I guess. volcanic mountains in the area like. Adams I think Mount Adams is one as well.

yeah there's a there's a magma chamber. somewhere under there I think um. possibly miles and miles below the. surface but under normal circumstances. like I said when a strat volcano is. formed the the lava just kind of is able. to find cracks in the crust and like. it's it it's released through there and. it builds the mountain up slowly and. slowly but if there's not a crack in the. crust as in the case where Mount St. Helens is um that magma starts to back. up it hits the crust and it starts to. back up below.

and all of a sudden you have a lot of. stuff going on that um makes things go. Kaboom when the the right set of. circumstances happens yeah this is this. is pretty notable uh this magma chamber. is uh well is and was quite large and. like you said it's it's looking for a. place to go but if it doesn't have a. place to go what'll happen and as you'll. see this is what happened in the case of. Mount St Helens is it starts bulging and. like the mountain if you're a GE just. it's super exciting to see this happen.

um even though it's very scary and. dangerous but when a geologist sees an. actual Mountain start to bulge out in a. direction and we're talking you know. hundreds of feet of Bulge over the. course of a pretty short period of time. then it it's pretty like uh it's it's a. pretty notable thing and that's exactly. what was happening in the case of the. magma chamber there in uh in Washington. yeah like this pressure is building up. so much it's causing a boil on the. mountain yeah the mountain grows a goer.

basically and that's just full of. pressure and magma just waiting to go. off it doesn't always go off and in fact. um Mount St Helen had two bulges also. called cryptodes which is pretty awesome. um from previous volcanic eruptions one. was called goat rocks bulge um and then. the other one was called the Sugar Bowl. bulge and they just never like the the. magma found its way out other ways but. the Bulge was left this is a new bulge. and like you said it was was growing I.

think about 6 feet a day every day it. kept growing another 6 feet which is. really fast for a mountain to grow uh. and that was one of the big signs. initially that that something was going. on and and one more thing before we. start to get into um Mount St Helens. itself Chuck I think we need to say like. Mount St Helens was big it was a big. eruption but it was not the biggest. eruption Mount St Helens has ever had. apparently the biggest eruption it's. ever had came just about 4,000 years ago.

which is within um traditional like. folktale memory yeah I mean it had been. an active volcano for 40,000 years but. the big one before 1980 was uh yeah like. you said four I was trying to look at a. specific year but let's just say 4,000. years ago yeah because once you get back. that far you know who cares who cares uh. but it became like you said part of. folklore uh the indigenous people there. uh especially the uh puup people called.

the mountain Le L wi t m and there was a. Le Brewing Company so wanted to shout. them out this is one of those things. where uh I thought I wonder why because. there's been such a push to change names. of things over the past like decade or. so this is one that was it seems so like. sort of. egregious that we should call it leit. and not Mount St ens right that I'm I'm. pretty ious I'm sure there's been pushes.

over the years to get it changed but the. Europeans of course named it Mount St. Helens in. 1792 uh after Captain George Vancouver. if that name rings a bell it should uh. gave the name of it because of a. diplomat named Allan Fitz Herbert uh. didn't call it Fitz Herbert Peak or. anything like that okay because his. Noble title was Baron St Helens thank. God uh but here's the rub is that Ellen. Fitz Herbert never even saw Mount St.

Helens the mountain named after him so. like I don't know maybe maybe let's call. this one leit yeah I think that's a. great idea actually and the reason they. called it l that that was she was named. after um a like a famous volcanic fire. tender woman um and L and a couple of. other men who fell in love with her and. fought for her um became L became Mount. St Helens or L if you want to call it. that and and then uh the other the other.

men who were fighting for became Mount. Hood and Mount Adams they were smited by. the Creator God and turned into. Mountains for fighting um and there's. Legends not just from the puup but other. indigenous tribes around the area that. something really big happened and it it. looks like what it is is a geom myth. which we've talked about before and I. think the great floods episode that has. been handed down generation after. generation that describes this enormous. eruption 4,000 years ago pretty good. stuff stuff yeah for sure and it was a.

big eruption too there's just one other. thing there's a layer of tefra of. basically volcanic ash and debris and. stuff that is so thick and so wide it. goes up into British Columbia and 62. miles away from Mount St Helen it's. still 20 in thick almost 2 feet thick of. Ash 62 miles away that's how big that. 4,000 year ago eruption was that's huge. and all this to say that Mount St Helen. uh which has an S by the way did you.

know that uh yeah I did you keep saying. Helen I just wondered I'm I'm being. short because I don't want to take up. too much time talking about. certain oh that's good that reminds me. of the guy in college who fell on the. sidewalk and his books splited out and. then he acted like he was reading yeah I. love that story forgot about him um all. this to say is that Mount St Helens had. been you know act had a long history of. activity. so it's not like anyone ever thought.

well well that thing is done and it's. never going to happen again no. definitely not um because also in the. 19th century there was a lot of um. eruptions too there's a painting by a. Canadian artist named Paul Kain who. painted in 1847 eruption so I mean start. starting in the 19th century um Mount St. Helen was um documented pretty pretty. clearly scientifically too as as being. an eruptive volcano a disruptive volcano. you can say uh all right shall we take a.

break yeah that's a nice Prelude I think. so too all right we'll be back right. after this learning stuff with. josua and. Char stuff you should. [Music].

okay so we got a nice background on. Mount St Helens it had been uh very. active for about or on and off active. for 40,000 years uh including I believe. the last sort of big one was in. 1857 MH um not too long after that in. 1908 about a million acres of land. became part of Columbia national forest. which was hence renamed gford uh Pinot. or pin show I never know how to say that. the Bronson pincho National Forest.

National Forest and that was in 1949 and. M uh Mount St Helens is inside that. National Forest um all this uh is sort. of a long way of saying it wasn't like. super populated it didn't have wasn't. surrounded by neighborhoods and suburbs. and stuff like that right uh but there. was something uh or is still something. called Spirit Lake there um near the. base of the mountain which is uh they. have like youth camps there people had. cabins here and there there were. recreational activities that all over.

the place so it's not like no one was. there but it wasn't heavily populated. right well put so um the whole thing. starts actually even before the whole. thing started and I saw in 1975 that two. volcanologists published a paper um. saying that it was very likely Mount St. Helens was going to erupt in the 20th. century at some point like a big one. yeah and five years later on March 20th. 1980 the whole thing was kicked off by a.

4.0 earthquake which is nothing to. sneeze at and it was at the mountain. like this earthquake took place at the. mountain and all of a sudden within 5. days there were Quake storms there was. 24 Quakes of 4.0 or greater within eight. hours oh man when a volcano starts doing. that and you're detecting it you you. that's when the geologists come running. from far and wide yeah so they you know. the word gets out and they did come. running from far and wide and they you. know setup Camp there at various places.

uh other just sort of um as I learned. from watching this uh an& special that. um there are like volcano Chasers even. that um they hear about this stuff. they're fascinated by it I guess it's. just sort of amateur Geo enthusiasts and. people started kind of coming in there. because they got wind that something may. be Brewing at Mount St Helens uh. including and this is you know there all. kinds of people we could feature. story-wise but uh one gentleman we are.

going to feature his name was David. Johnston uh and he was a vol. volcanologist at the USGS the United. States geographical survey and he was. one of the um there were some great. interviews with him in this A&E special. he was he's a very young guy um super. excited to be there and he was one of. the ones kind of sounding the alarm uh. along with his partner this guy named. Don Swanson about hey like you know the. S is getting real here everybody and it. it looks like thing like need to start.

leaving yeah like the thing is is there. the people who did live on the mountain. were not the kind of folk who listen to. like you know Pencil Neck college boys. or the government to be told like leave. your home and then also there was um. those youth groups that were like you're. going to ruin our week at Spirit Lake um. there was also warehouser they're hoping. to get the first base exactly it's like. a roller rink over there yeah um and. there was weh Houser who had a contract.

to be able to log on the um on the. mountain they definitely didn't want to. have to shut down operations so there's. a lot of pressure a surprising amount of. pressure you know more than you would. think to keep the mountain open and. David Johnston and Don Swanson and some. of the other colleagues were like you. really can't do this and they managed to. convince the governor of Washington that. it was the right move and then later on. uh as we'll see there was even more. pressure to reopen because things didn't. go as fast as as everyone thought and.

they managed to push that back as well. and as a result David Johnston is. frequently credited for saving thousands. of lives potentially which is pretty. cool I mean and everything I've seen. about him he was a genuinely great. person and also like um a really great. Pioneer in volcanology too yeah. absolutely um yeah they did eventually. set up what they called a red zone and a. lot of people did evacuate uh there were. some notable people who didn't um. certainly we need to mention Harry.

Truman um obviously not the president. but he was this old codger who ran the. lodge there and he became a folk hero. because he famously thumbed his nose and. stayed and said you know I'm I'm a part. of this place it's a part of me if the. mountain goes I'm going to go with it uh. Art Carney played him in the movie. version he was he got a lot of media. attention uh along with his 16 cats um. which is the only part of the story like.

hey man I'm I'm all for people. evacuating to keep people safe but I'm. also like some old old uh mountain man. wants to stay up there and go go down. with the volcano like yeah that's his. right but send the cats away don't say. like I'm gonna go down and kill these 16. cats at the same time yeah it's kind of. like being buried in like you know. medieval times and having your live. horse buried with you yeah I just I. don't know man once I heard about the. cats cuz I was all into this guy right. and then I heard about the cats I was.

like oh dude you should have at least. set the cats away yeah no way not not a. lodge. [Laughter]. codger so um Harry Truman will come back. in this is Harry AR Tran by the way. everybody said his middle initial to. differentiate him right he'll come back. in later but so this the last thing that. we that happened on the mountain March. 25th in 8 hours there's 24 for .0 or. greater magnitude earthquakes and that.

brought everybody running um this whole. thing was so perfectly planned that on. the day of the eruption there was the um. mineral and gem show in Yakama like I. think less than a 100 miles away from. Mount St Helens so anybody who has any. had anything to do with geology just. happened to be in the area or was. purposefully in the area yeah and then. on March 27th it's just getting more and. more and more there was an actual. eruption right yeah so this was uh I.

mean compared to what eventually ended. up happening you could call this a sort. of mini eruption uh even though it sent. it made a big boom uh apparently it was. a pretty cloudy day so it wasn't super. visible but the ash column went up 6,500. feet into the air that's nothing to. sneeze it and a new crater formed at the. summit uh which grew to about 1,600 ft. wide mhm so it was a major thing there. was another one on the 28 e again. throwing Ash into the air and this is.

like basically from that point through. the big one in miday it was just. constant uh warning constant upheaval. mudslides Avalanches craters growing and. like the mountain is saying like it's. going to happen people this is not a. false alarm right uh until things calm. down and that's what you were talking. about early like things kind of settle. down on uh what was that like May around.

the 15th around 15th of May to where the. people got antsy that were evacuated and. said Hey listen we want to go back and. check on our stuff yeah and the governor. eventually was like all right I think it. you know at the time and I think. Washington still is a little bit of one. of those like uh not quite Live Free or. Die but you know like all right listen. these people pay taxes they want to go. back to their homes sign a waiver that. you're not going to sue us and let them. go back there and that's what they did. they did There's footage of them signing.

U waivers on the hood of a car with some. obvious state lawyer in a three-piece. suit like handing people a pen being. like sign here it's really hilarious but. um they did they started some people. started to trickle in um and that's. actually why there were you know I think. end we ended up with. 57 casualties 57 people died and that. was one reason why it was actually that. high could have could have been less but. people were allowed to trickle back in.

they still kept like a a perimeter but I. think it was kind of porous if you. wanted to get through you could get. through and there are stories in that. minute by- minute episode of people. there's this one Backpacker who is. probably hilarious at parties cuz he. makes like a funny a funny voice for the. police when the police is talking when. he's recreating a conversation he had it. was funny um he he's he's snuck through. with friends there are a lot of people. on the mountain that otherwise might not. have been had they kept it Clos but they. did open it up a little bit and it was.

because nothing had happened for a. little while and then about 3 days later. everything happened you said you said s. was getting real this is when the S hit. the. fan yeah uh well I mean just prior to. this I guess let's let's back up one. half second and let you know about uh. what happened with David Johnson and Don. Swanson they had moved from uh their. initial base at cold water 1 which was. about uh I think 8 or 9 miles away. uh to their second station which was.

called Cold Water 2 which is about 5 to. 6 miles from the mountain um and notably. it was on the northeast side of the. mountain which uh turned out to be the. wrong spot to be um but you know these. guys knew what was going on uh they know. it's a dangerous job and apparently they. were swapping um taking shifts and Don. Swanson got the call from Johnston and. he said Hey listen I've got tonight and. tomorrow if you come and relieve me the. next day and then on May 18th 1980 is.

when Johnston was there when everything. went boom yeah and I think there have. been other colleagues and grad students. and everything around cold water too and. Johnston sent him away he's like this is. outside the Red Zone it's still. potentially dangerous there's no reason. for more than just one of us to be here. at a time so you guys go so at 8:32 a.m. on May 18th 1980 uh Mount St Helens like. blew up and there's like a typical idea. that people have of a a volcano going.

off and most of the time it's shooting. like a huge thing of Ash and magma. straight into the air from its top yeah. but that is not what happened with Mount. St Helens Mount St Helens was a very. specific and unusual type of eruption. because it didn't go out of the top it. came out of the side and it came out in. what was um known as a lateral blast. eruption yeah so you know like we said. earlier that pressure is building up. uh a lot under the surface there's a lot.

of moisture down there some of it was um. like you mentioned from that initial uh. plate subduction that's called magmatic. water uh some of it is just regular old. groundwater from from rain and snow and. everything because it is the mountains. that's called meteoric water and all of. that stuff is just heating up it's got. pressure from below because it's heating. it's got pressure from above because all. of that weight of the rock is just. pushing it down yeah and all of this. magma is just like boiling under there.

but and I know we talked about this. before I guess it was in one of the. volcano episodes but it's it's not. allowed to turn to steam because there's. no room for it like steam is expansive. and it can't expand so it's just this. superheated beyond the boiling point. level of liquid that's just distributed. all throughout the the upper half and. notably sort of the north side of this. mountain yeah and that that created that. bulge that kept growing by about six. feet a day um that was what the it is.

because like it's as violent as it as. you can imagine that a bulge and. something that could make a bulge on the. side of a mountain would be yeah and so. under under other circumstances a a. penan eruption where where volcano. explodes out of the top like you. typically think of that pressure that. magma is going to basically Force the. top of the mountain open and that's how. it's going to explode this is not what. happened with Mount St Helens that kind.

of um I guess the hump was on one side. it was on the North flank wasn't it yeah. so it was on the North flank and the. thing that kicked off Mount St Helen's. eruption wasn't the volcano it was. actually an earthquake in the volcano. and that that VA that earthquake caused. the largest landslide in recorded. history on Earth more than half of a. square mile of Mount St Helens suddenly. vanished away it just suddenly dropped.

off the side the north side of the. mountain yeah and it's um like you. should really go check out the footage. of this stuff it's some of the most. amazing like natural geologic uh. disaster footage I've ever seen just to. see this mountain and then that you know. especially in the A&E thing to see. people interviewed uh describing like. seeing this with their eyeballs that it. was just like it was incomprehensible. what they were witnessing like a. mountain that large and and part of it. just. going away immediately yeah and one of.

the reasons they were able to witness it. and we have such great documentation is. because at 8:32 a.m. a pair of. geologists husband and wife geologists. happened to be flying in a plane yeah. because they'd hired a plane to go look. at Mount St Helens because they'd heard. that you know it was there's some stuff. going on and they happened to make one. more pass right as the mountain that. earthquake dropped the side of the. mountain they were like right above it. in a plane as a matter of fact yeah. what's where quote should we read that. yeah uh this is Dorothy uh Dorothy stoel.

uh in 2019 she said the whole North half. of the mountain that we were flying just. 500 ft above began churning and a mile. long fracture shot across the mountain. faster than our minds could absorb the. north half of the mountain just became. like fluid and slid away amazing I saw. somebody else describe it as like a. zipper opening along the. mountain yeah and and you know there. there were amateur photographers around. for some of this stuff um some of these.

hikers like that guy you mentioned that. was telling the story in funny. voices um and volcano Chasers like they. got some some like some one guy got like. 22 pictures in a row and this is when it. eventually blew the other guy got like. six or eight pictures mhm uh there was a. family uh camping with their two young. daughters oh man and that guy they were. you know on the North side um you know. well below it but uh you know within the. range and he was like you know speaking.

to how it didn't blow from the top he. said it looked like somebody shot a. shotgun out of the side of this mountain. pointed at us so Ash Ash was raining. down but it was raining like at people. and less down from the sky right exactly. it wasn't going up and then coming back. down it was coming straight at you if. you were anywhere north of the mountain. yeah and the reason why the north of the. mountain was so dangerous is because. that's where that hump had been that's. also where the earthquake moved a good. portion of the Mountain which meant that. all that pressure that was keeping that.

pressurized superheated water from. boiling Under the Mountain was suddenly. exposed it was that pressure was gone. and so all of that incredibly hot water. flash heated into steam and when that. happens that expands like you said the. reason that one of the reasons steam. can't exist in that situation is because. it's too. expansive when it does have the chance. to expand uh it it does so with. Incredible Force yeah and that's what.

happened that's why Mount St Helens blew. out the side rather than the top because. there had been a weakening in the. pressure that allowed all that to just. blow out and blow out it did yeah I mean. it was um if you look at it it looks. almost like a a controlled demolition. blast or something um it definitely. doesn't look like any kind of volcano. blast that you might think of in your. head um it happened kind of all at once. and it was a 24 Megaton blast uh which I.

know everyone always tries to compare it. to like Hiroshima it was 1,600 times uh. as powerful as the Hiroshima uh atomic. bomb good Lord but I mean that's what it. would take to move 6 square or cubic. miles of mountain all of a sudden too. you know yeah and that that blast Chuck. that that 24 Megaton blast it was. described as like a a fast moving cloud. of heat and Stones moving at at some.

points pretty close to the mountain 300. miles an hour man heated to like 660 de. Fahrenheit I think that's like 380° C. just blowing northward away from the. mountain and everything within 8 miles. of that uh of the mountain was in that. Blast Zone and if you recall correctly. David Johnson's um cold water to Camp. was within about five miles yeah he.

obviously didn't make it uh they found I. think they found pieces of his trailer. like a decade later uh he had time to. send out one signal which was uh over. his radio uh Vancouver Vancouver this is. it uh the only person that picked that. up was a a ham radio operator nearby and. uh they renamed that area Johnston Ridge. in his honor um obviously Harry Truman. perished along with those 16 cats mhm. and he was close enough uh to where I.

saw that they said that he he and. everything around him was basically. instantly vaporized like he wouldn't. have felt anything it would have. happened his death and vaporization. would have happened in like less than a. second yeah I have the impression the. same thing happened to David Johnston. and also that ra that ham radio operator. who is volunteering to kind of document. it he documented David Johnston um. getting covered up he said um the he.

said gentlemen the camper in the car. that's sitting over to the south of me. he was talking about David Johnston is. covered is going to hit me too and that. was Jerry Martin that ham radio operator. and that was his last transmission he. was vaporized as well essentially. everything everything north of the. mountain within 8 Miles was just. destroyed just destroyed like entire 100. foot trees that were like 10 12 feet in. diameter just completely flattened and.

also denuded of any bark on the way as. well um and this was just a blast that. um the landslide that was created from. that the the earthquake that initially. triggered the eruption um that had in. some incredible effects as well yeah. because what you've got you know beyond. this Avalanche happening is you've got. all of a sudden all this heat happens in. a place where there's a lot of snow so. that snow melts all that glacier ice. melts and you have flooding and you have.

mudslides and you have a word that I had. never even heard of before Ed included. it in here which was Lahar which sounds. like just a Mudslide on steroids yeah. like a muds side carrying ammunition. with it right and this is just raining. down everywhere and and like causing a. path of Destruction that hasn't been. seen in like modern times in this. country yeah it was like it had so much. power truck that that that slide did.

that one part of it was carrying chunks. of rock as big as 558 fet or 170 m. across wow that's as big as a 50 story. building it was moving rocks that size. just fast as you can imagine down the. mountain into the valleys and I saw it. described as if you were watching it. from a ridge as some people were like. far away you would see the the cloud or. the debris starting to come. at you it would disappear into a valley.

and then all of a sudden it would come. up over the ridge keep keep going it was. it was just filling valleys with rocks. and debris it's just it's it's. unimaginable trying to grasp what. happened and it's even crazier that some. people are actually there watching this. happen crazy it is. crazy uh you want to take a break yeah. we'll take a break and talk a little bit. more about the after effects right after. this. in stuff with.

josua and. Char stuff you. [Music]. should okay and we're back and as Chuck. promised everyone it's after effect time. well we talked a little bit about it um. obviously Spirit Lake which we mentioned.

at the beginning which was at the base. of the mountain um has a very strange. effects on bodies of water it uh it did. two things it made the lake larger but. it also made it shallower because it. just flooded all this water down there. and raised it such that the outlet was. basically damned up and so the lake got. a whole lot bigger but it reduced its. depth by about 80 ft um I think 5 years. later they built a Spillway tunnel. to uh control the depth of the lake um.

200 homes and cabins and about 200 miles. of Road and Railways were completely. obliterated yeah I also saw that Lake. was now 200 feet higher in elevation. than it had been before as if like there. was so much debris it like raised the. lake 200 feet even though it also made. it shallower it's nuts and I think it. lowered the ultimate height of Mount St. Helens right yeah um I can't remember I. think by like uh 600 M or something like.

that some ridiculous amount of height. just blown off and that was another. thing too like the after effects of it. um if you look at Mount St Helens today. or especially like right afterward um it. turned into like an Amphitheater yeah. like the north side was blown out and. the other sides were kind of curved. around and what was neat is one of the. huge after effects of Mount St Helens. one of the more positive ones is I saw. it described as like a crash course um. for volcanologists and seismologists and.

everybody who were now just had this. amazing natural laboratory to study in. and that the eruption because it was a. lateral blast opened up like a basically. a crosssection of the mountain that they. could study now it's its past history. from the inside out which I thought was. pretty neat and a young Trey Anastasio. said one day I shall play at the base of. that Amphitheater oh did he and bore. people with noodling On My Guitar. they played there no I don't think so I.

don't think there's anything there I was. just kidding oh wow that was just. completely made up oh yeah I never will. miss a chance to take a ticket fish I'm. with you uh so Ash is raining down and. out uh it literally darkened the skies. um when this ash if you were close. enough to it it would literally burn you. alive yeah um if you're far away it can. just create a lot of problems everything. from uh you know just equip not working. electrical bages and blackouts and brown.

outs uh visibility is obviously terrible. um as far as crops go certain crops were. wiped out uh by this Ash and the toxic. gases some of them did a little bit. better because they just got a little. bit of the Ash and it um Ash will help. promote rainfall and hold moisture in. the ground better so apparently wheat. crops and apple crops fared pretty well. yeah that was surprising yeah I also saw. there was a lot of Devastation any any. big game animal in the blast zone was.

yeah I said big game Animal by the way. was was in the blast zone was was killed. without question but they were they were. very surprised biologists who went in to. investigate shortly afterward found. there were like entire communities and. ecosystems of smaller animals and plants. microbes fungi that had survived just. fine and we're among the first to. recolonize and we're part of the reason. why um m St Helen's ecosystem started to.

rebound so quickly I mean that's what'll. happen right if if if the Earth ever. just burns up into a fiery ball that'll. just become a big mushroom field right. probably and then the animals that lived. underground will come above ground and. say it's our time baby I look forward to. that day for some. reason um what else happened oh I saw. that the ash cloud that that um that. blew finally out of the top we should. say the the lateral blast was followed. by a plinian blast and that shot like.

you know that was the money volcano shot. that everybody was looking for a plume. of Ash and smoke Rose 880,000 ft into. the air and it was moving so fast that. it circled the globe in 15 days came. back to square one in 15 days and of. course that was like affecting air. traffic do you remember that Icelandic. uh volcano that affected air traffic in. Europe for like weeks weren't you. stranded by that or something no okay I. don't think so okay um it it like they.

knew what to do in part because of how. um Mount St Helens affected air travel. at the time they were like this is brand. new to us um but it it helped lay the. ground workk for understanding what to. look for how to deal with that kind of. stuff later on yeah the um the other. thing I wanted to point out too about. Spirit Lake was if you look at footage. of the lake and now these kind of rivers. that were just happening and it. literally like rerouted you know the. Columbia River and the cetz river in.

sections um but it looks like it looks. like a logging operation is happening um. and like you could almost and may have. been able well obviously it would been. too dangerous but it looks like you. could have walked over these logs they. were so like packed and these were just. trees you know an hour before yeah if if. you could do that Lumberjack log rolling. thing yeah you could have probably made. it across the. could but there in that minute by minute.

episode there was a a pair of like high. school sweethearts who've been camping. and they had a heroing experience. because they B they both got thrown into. Spirit Lake and um the boyfriend was. able to rescue the girlfriend as like. the logs were starting to close in on. them he he pulled her out from the lake. and they were hanging on to logs when. they finally made it out and were. rescued that happened like that happened. to somebody yeah they were in their car. oh is that H that's how they got in the. lake they were in their car yeah they. said it just picked them up and all they.

were driving and then they were floating. and they said that they're you know. they're she said like my instinct was to. get out of the car but there was like. nowhere to go right yeah because there. were trees everywhere floating around. beside them right yeah and this is you. know these are just sort of that's what. was so cool about the special is it. really brought in the human element of. these people that were around there. right um and they you know they all. survived because they were being. interviewed obviously um Dorothy stoel. who was the the geologist that was. flying with um I guess was her husband.

Keith or was that her brother her her. husband Keith oh okay um they survived. uh that plane flight like they got out. of there there were stories of people. that literally it was like from a movie. drove you know 110 miles an hour like. outrunning this ash debris slide coming. at right yeah and some people didn't. make it so there was one guy who was. chronicled and that that was driving as. fast as he can and the the the blast.

just caught up with him and buried him. um in the in the ash um and he probably. died pretty much instantly but like. again that happened to people there's. very famous footage of a house just. flowing down like a newly engorged muds. slidy River yeah moving so fast that you. probably could have towed water skiers. from the house essentially it was moving. that fast just down the river so I mean. again it was one of the most documented.

um volcanic eruptions of all time so. there's really amazing footage on there. or just on the Internet is what I mean. um but that wasn't the last time that. that Mount St Helens has erupted I think. uh it erupted a few times between 1980. and maybe 1996 I think yeah and then the. biggest one recently was between 2004. and 2008 yeah it started sort of getting. a a little more active again uh this. time though you know one of the things.

that um to the benefit of the. surrounding area when a volcano blows. like that is that pressure is released. and it's going to take a long time to. build back up to that level again uh. kind of depending what how it reforms on. top of it uh but this time apparently. there are uh there are more ways for. this pressure to be released so I think. it's just sort of the pressure is being. released a little more gradually since. the 2004. that's my impression too uh but there. they do say that like oh no like it will.

happen again like things are uh there is. a new lava Dome growing and the pressure. is going to build up and it could be in. a thousand years or it could be in 10. years yeah we just don't know no but. they are studying it like there there's. a lot of uh active research and study. going on at Mount St Allens now yeah I. believe you know the eruption was such a. big deal that they they've opened the. USGS opened a research station nearby um.

and also that that 2004 um activity. basically ran from 2004 to 2008 like you. said they've been studying the mountain. closely so there's amazing time-lapse. footage of those four years and it's. astounding how fast and how big Mount St. Helens just grows from that eruption. activity it's called time-lapse images. of Mount St Helen's um Dome growth it's. on YouTube YouTube um and I recommend. checking that out as well yeah I would.

just be careful when you Google Dome. growth or bulge growth oh boy so man we. are so juvenile sometimes aren't we sure. and by we I mean me no me too um but. like we said Mount St Helens bounce back. Spirit Lake open back up and the cold. water 2 station has been renamed after. David Johnston and there's an amazing. Memorial too I saw in some Trip Advisor. posted somebody said it was like the one. of the best um like not welcome center.

but you know information centers that. the person's ever been to so I would. like to go there some the cookies are. unreal right you got anything else I got. nothing else all right go forth and. research um Mount St Helens with an S um. and you can start doing that by watching. Dante's Peak since I said Dante's Peak. it's time for listener mail. this is following up on an email that. you particularly liked from our.

Spooktacular okay hey guys thoroughly. enjoying the most recent Spooktacular. the accents are comedy genius uh meigle. do you want to pop in and say. hi. hello perfect I'm going to bring migle. back every now and then by the way just. want to prepare you and the audience. okay uh I wanted to address a couple of. 1800's addiction issues that cause some. puzzlement uh when you guys talked about. toilet it's basically what Josh said. I've always always thought of it as a. refreshing as freshening up in the. bathroom washing your face and hands.

when first waking up or going to bed I. double check with Mar and Webster though. and it's more generally dressing and. grooming okay that makes sense yeah sure. on the other hand the strangers in the. beverage from the toll housee is a lot. more puzzling I had no idea what it. meant and although Josh's guess that. beverage meant the pub was clever it. doesn't really make sense uh just as a. reminder the sentence is talking about. some men drinking tea in an in M and. pausing to quote discover the sex and.

dates of arrival of the strangers which. floated in some numbers in the beverage. end quote uh I think I found the answer. though guys in a dictionary of Scottish. dialect we love this stuff by the way. yeah this is amazing uh tea leaves. floating on the surface of your drink. are considered Omens that you will meet. someone new so these tea leaves are. called strangers M if you pick up a. stranger and bite it the toughness will. tell you whether the new acquaintance. will be male or female amazing amazing. uh I'm going to guess there's also a way.

to predict the date you meet this person. although didn't see reference to that so. that's what the character should doing. guys using tea leaves to predict the. future uh by the way other Omens can. also be strangers like unburn candle. wicks or soot on grates I've loved the. show for years look forward to many more. that is a great email Nat Jacobs. fantastic uh sleuthing yep and we are. super grateful top to bottom start to. finish wonderful email also just put so. nicely too not like you big dummies yeah.

because I got it pretty wrong it was a. terrible guess I didn't think it was a. bad guess but I mean that was really. hard like you that was obscure you know. very much anyway I love knowing that now. that was one of my favorite emails so. thanks a lot Nat and if you want to be. like Nat and get in touch with us in the. best way possible you can send us an. email to stuff podcast iHeart. [Music]. radio.com stuff you should know is a. production of iHeart radio for more. podcasts iHeart Radio visit the iHeart.

Radio app Apple podcasts or wherever you. listen to your favorite shows. [Music].