May 8, 2008: Volcano

[Imigo Jones]

BigV, great pics! That must have been really something to stand there and behold the mountain, both the immediacy of its mass but also sensing what that glow and steam meant.



To get more precisely oriented: The shot above is from the northeast (see map below). "We ask that you credit the source of the images as 'Image courtesy of USDA Forest Service, Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument.' " 'Kay.
MSHNVM Photo Gallery



North is straight right.
So, facing the mountain, V, you were to the left (south or SE) of Spirit Lake for those shots? Nice.

Of course, it's also really something knowing what occurred there when we were younger. The photographer who caught this amazing sequence was somewhere out "your" way, only probably farther south:






"Explosions (red) begin to rip through the landslide (green)
[Original illustrations by T.R. Alpha]"




"Exploded rock debris (red) forms a pyroclastic surge that quickly overtakes the landslide (green)"

Photo sequence: "08:32:21.0 am . . . 08:33:18.8 am"
Page with GIF animation of Rosenquist pics.
The graphic on this page briefly tells the photographer's story. He was 10 miles away.



This graphic (and two added to pic sequence) shows MSH from straight east, or south of you, BigV. Also, the first photo inset must be from the south or southwest of the eruption.

Short USGS page on the mechanisms of magma intrusion, landslide, and explosion of the north face of Mt. St. Helens.
Site map for ton of USGS pages on Mt. St. Helens.
Index for megatons of volcano pages, but inexplicably omitting Io.