Mount St. Helens in 1980
@mountsthelens1980.bsky.social
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Hi there, I’m Chris. Just a guy who is endlessly fascinated by the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens (Lawilátɬa/Loowit). #MSH45 About Me: https://bsky.app/profile/mountsthelens1980.bsky.social/post/3lohgbvt4ab2d Links: https://linktr.ee/sthelensin1980
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Reposted by Mount St. Helens in 1980
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Here's one more for the road—this time, taken from Earth orbit.

Mount St. Helens and some of the devastated area, captured by satellite. July 7, 1980.

Bad engagement prompt: “Do you remember when you first saw Mount St. Helens from space?”
NASA satellite image of Mount St. Helens and surrounding valleys taken July 7, 1980, showing the aftermath of the May eruption. White labels identify major features including Spirit Lake, Coldwater Creek, a newly forming lake behind a debris dam at the canyon mouth, and debris filling the Toutle River valley. The dark crater at lower right shows a lava plug forming within the volcano’s summit.

Photographed by NASA–Johnson Space Center.
Collection: Robert D. Tokarczyk, National Museum of Forest Service History (Catalog no. 2023.070.030).
Reposted by Mount St. Helens in 1980
mountsthelens1980.bsky.social
#MSH45 | Oct. 14, 1980
“1st dam done; 2nd next week.”

The Longview Daily News reports the Corps’ 6,000-foot catchment dam at Hoffstadt Creek on the North Fork Toutle will finish next week.

A large settling basin and rock spillways hold water to allow silt to settle before passing downstream.
Newspaper clipping from the *Longview Daily News*, Oct. 14, 1980. The headline reads “1st dam done; 2nd next week.” The article describes U.S. Army Corps of Engineers work on sediment control in the Toutle River basin following the Mount St. Helens eruption, noting the first 6,000-foot catchment dam at Hoffstadt Creek is nearly complete and a second will begin the following week. The piece explains that each dam will slow the Toutle’s flow so heavier silt settles out before reaching the lower Toutle and Cowlitz Rivers.
mountsthelens1980.bsky.social
Here's one more for the road—this time, taken from Earth orbit.

Mount St. Helens and some of the devastated area, captured by satellite. July 7, 1980.

Bad engagement prompt: “Do you remember when you first saw Mount St. Helens from space?”
NASA satellite image of Mount St. Helens and surrounding valleys taken July 7, 1980, showing the aftermath of the May eruption. White labels identify major features including Spirit Lake, Coldwater Creek, a newly forming lake behind a debris dam at the canyon mouth, and debris filling the Toutle River valley. The dark crater at lower right shows a lava plug forming within the volcano’s summit.

Photographed by NASA–Johnson Space Center.
Collection: Robert D. Tokarczyk, National Museum of Forest Service History (Catalog no. 2023.070.030).
Reposted by Mount St. Helens in 1980
mountsthelens1980.bsky.social
Let's take to the skies on Oct. 15, 1980, as a @wsdot.wa.gov camera gives us a top-down view of Mount St. Helens.

A quiet mountain, for the moment.
Vertical aerial view of Mount St. Helens on October 15, 1980, five months after the eruption. The image looks directly down into the then-newly formed crater, where steam rises from the nascent lava dome. The mountain’s northern flank is sheared away.
Photographed by Washington State Department of Transportation, October 15, 1980.
Reposted by Mount St. Helens in 1980
beattylab.bsky.social
View of "war ravaged" Portland, with Mount St. Helens in the background. Taken from my department's break room.
Reposted by Mount St. Helens in 1980
hammerlady.bsky.social
In the meanwhile? Here's today's view, she's sporting a full white coat already!
Mt. St. Helens covered in snow, blue sky, rolling green hills in front.
mountsthelens1980.bsky.social
Other news:
- A dozen small quakes since Sunday at Mount St. Helens; officials see no sign of renewed eruption unless they intensify.
- Washington alfalfa yields up 2% over 1979; researchers report little lasting ash damage.
Two geologists stand among survey equipment on a gray, ash-covered plain on the south side of Mount St. Helens, measuring surface deformation five months after the May 1980 eruption. The stripped slope of the volcano rises in the background beneath a clear blue sky, with a plume of white steam rising from the crater. Equipment cases and yellow tripods are scattered across the barren landscape. Photographed by Terry Leighley, Oct. 1, 1980.
mountsthelens1980.bsky.social
#MSH45 | Oct. 14, 1980
“1st dam done; 2nd next week.”

The Longview Daily News reports the Corps’ 6,000-foot catchment dam at Hoffstadt Creek on the North Fork Toutle will finish next week.

A large settling basin and rock spillways hold water to allow silt to settle before passing downstream.
Newspaper clipping from the *Longview Daily News*, Oct. 14, 1980. The headline reads “1st dam done; 2nd next week.” The article describes U.S. Army Corps of Engineers work on sediment control in the Toutle River basin following the Mount St. Helens eruption, noting the first 6,000-foot catchment dam at Hoffstadt Creek is nearly complete and a second will begin the following week. The piece explains that each dam will slow the Toutle’s flow so heavier silt settles out before reaching the lower Toutle and Cowlitz Rivers.
Reposted by Mount St. Helens in 1980
mountsthelens1980.bsky.social
If you’re Rip Van Winkle in 1979, take my advice: you absolutely CANNOT fall asleep in this spot.

Don't do it, man.
View looking south toward Mount St. Helens before the 1980 eruption, with the North Fork Toutle River winding through a dense evergreen forest below. The snowcapped summit rises above the trees under a clear summer sky, its northern slopes still intact. Photographed by Howard Critchell, date unknown.
mountsthelens1980.bsky.social
Really leaning into the "if you're x person in y year..." prompts this morning, like a friggin' blue collar comedy tour act.
mountsthelens1980.bsky.social
Have to say, the Lake Nyos tragedy ranks among the worst nightmare scenarios.

If you're eight in the mid-'90s and reading books about earth sciences, you're gonna see photos of the Nyos aftermath and lose some innocence over it.
mountsthelens1980.bsky.social
If you’re Rip Van Winkle in 1979, take my advice: you absolutely CANNOT fall asleep in this spot.

Don't do it, man.
View looking south toward Mount St. Helens before the 1980 eruption, with the North Fork Toutle River winding through a dense evergreen forest below. The snowcapped summit rises above the trees under a clear summer sky, its northern slopes still intact. Photographed by Howard Critchell, date unknown.
mountsthelens1980.bsky.social
Mariners fans: I'm sorry you have to listen to John Smoltz while watching your team do well on TV.

A jellyfish has more of a personality.
Reposted by Mount St. Helens in 1980
mountsthelens1980.bsky.social
Obviously, I'm pulling for the M's.

Ken Griffey Jr. (and Sr.) were from Donora, down the Mon Valley from Pittsburgh. So was Stan Musial, but that's beside the point.

As a Pirates fan, no ill will exists between our franchises.
pnsn1.bsky.social
You feel that Seattle?! Check out that Polanco P-Wave! Polanco Game Winning Single, Crawford Scores, MARINERS WIN!! @Mariners are Toronto Bound! @Tmobilepark @FoxSports
#SeisTheMoment #SeizeTheMoment
Seismogram showing ground motion at T-Mobile Park for game-winning single by Seattle Mariner Jorge Polanco, JP Crawford scores! MLB poster for PostSEAson 2025 that reads Seis the Moment with a small seismogram between the Seis and the The.  Has website for PNSN seismograms of the game. mariners.pnsn.org
Reposted by Mount St. Helens in 1980
mountsthelens1980.bsky.social
Before it was Mount St. Helens, it was Lawetlat’la—Loowit, the smoking mountain.

To the Cowlitz (Upper Cowlitz/Taidnapam) and Yakama (Klickitat), the volcano is alive—a place of story, balance and renewal.

Today, we honor those who have cared for it since time immemorial. #IndigenousPeoplesDay
View looking south toward Mount St. Helens from the Johnston Ridge Observatory area on August 6, 2017. The wide panorama shows the open crater of the volcano beneath a hazy summer sky, with the North Fork Toutle River valley stretching across the center. Replanted forests and natural regrowth patch the gray landscape of ash and debris left by the 1980 eruption.

Photographed by Chris, August 6, 2017.
mountsthelens1980.bsky.social
Before it was Mount St. Helens, it was Lawetlat’la—Loowit, the smoking mountain.

To the Cowlitz (Upper Cowlitz/Taidnapam) and Yakama (Klickitat), the volcano is alive—a place of story, balance and renewal.

Today, we honor those who have cared for it since time immemorial. #IndigenousPeoplesDay
View looking south toward Mount St. Helens from the Johnston Ridge Observatory area on August 6, 2017. The wide panorama shows the open crater of the volcano beneath a hazy summer sky, with the North Fork Toutle River valley stretching across the center. Replanted forests and natural regrowth patch the gray landscape of ash and debris left by the 1980 eruption.

Photographed by Chris, August 6, 2017.
Reposted by Mount St. Helens in 1980
mountsthelens1980.bsky.social
Oh, by the way...

┳┻|
┻┳|
┳┻| _
┻┳| •.•) It's "last eruption in 1980" week.
┳┻|⊂ノ
┻┳|
Reposted by Mount St. Helens in 1980
mountsthelens1980.bsky.social
June 1954: The Hoffstadt Creek Bridge is under construction on the then-State Secondary Highway 1R, also known as the Spirit Lake Highway.

May 1980: Now a part of SR 504, said bridge was practically deconstructed by the lahars of May 18 down the North Fork Toutle.

Sunrise, sunset.
Construction crew placing reinforced steel for the deck slab of the Hoffstedt Creek Bridge, June 1954. The photo looks southeast toward Spirit Lake along Secondary State Highway No. 1-R. The creek, once routed beneath the small bridge visible in the background, was diverted under the new concrete structure as part of the $95,250 Strong & MacDonald contract project.
Washington State Department of Transportation Photograph Collection, June 1954. Aerial view of the Hoffstadt Creek Bridge on State Route 504, taken May 28, 1980. The bridge is almost entirely buried beneath thick mudflow and volcanic debris deposited by the May 18 eruption of Mount St. Helens. Fallen trees and sediment choke the creek channel and blanket the surrounding forest.
Washington State Department of Transportation Photograph Collection, May 28, 1980. Aerial view of the Hoffstadt Creek Bridge on State Route 504, taken May 28, 1980. The bridge is almost entirely buried beneath thick mudflow and volcanic debris deposited by the May 18 eruption of Mount St. Helens. Fallen trees and sediment choke the creek channel and blanket the surrounding forest.
Washington State Department of Transportation Photograph Collection, May 28, 1980.
Reposted by Mount St. Helens in 1980
mountsthelens1980.bsky.social
June 1954: The Hoffstadt Creek Bridge is under construction on the then-State Secondary Highway 1R, also known as the Spirit Lake Highway.

May 1980: Now a part of SR 504, said bridge was practically deconstructed by the lahars of May 18 down the North Fork Toutle.

Sunrise, sunset.
Construction crew placing reinforced steel for the deck slab of the Hoffstedt Creek Bridge, June 1954. The photo looks southeast toward Spirit Lake along Secondary State Highway No. 1-R. The creek, once routed beneath the small bridge visible in the background, was diverted under the new concrete structure as part of the $95,250 Strong & MacDonald contract project.
Washington State Department of Transportation Photograph Collection, June 1954. Aerial view of the Hoffstadt Creek Bridge on State Route 504, taken May 28, 1980. The bridge is almost entirely buried beneath thick mudflow and volcanic debris deposited by the May 18 eruption of Mount St. Helens. Fallen trees and sediment choke the creek channel and blanket the surrounding forest.
Washington State Department of Transportation Photograph Collection, May 28, 1980. Aerial view of the Hoffstadt Creek Bridge on State Route 504, taken May 28, 1980. The bridge is almost entirely buried beneath thick mudflow and volcanic debris deposited by the May 18 eruption of Mount St. Helens. Fallen trees and sediment choke the creek channel and blanket the surrounding forest.
Washington State Department of Transportation Photograph Collection, May 28, 1980.
mountsthelens1980.bsky.social
*Kiedis.

(I don't care, but I have standards to uphold)
Reposted by Mount St. Helens in 1980
mountsthelens1980.bsky.social
Anthony Kedis's first draft of the outro of Under the Bridge:

Under the bridge, lahar.
Cabin was washed away.
Under the bridge, lahar.
Bridge didn’t last the day.
Reposted by Mount St. Helens in 1980
mountsthelens1980.bsky.social
#MSH45 | May 18, 1980
KATU Portland films a cabin drifting down the Toutle River from Hollywood Gorge—floating, spinning in a brown slurry.

Downstream, it hits Tower Road Bridge—30 miles from Mount St. Helens.

By morning, the bridge itself was gone.