It was 30 years ago today.
A huge ash cloud moved across the country over the following days, reminding anyone who cared to look up what had happened.
Many considered it a disaster. People had died. Property was just plain gone. After all, a forest had been destroyed. Surely life would never get back to normal with the ecosystem blown up. Those experts were wrong; the aftermath offered a tremendous opportunity to study life returning to the area, cleansed of what had come before.
And now, 30 years later, Mount St. Helens is still clearly an active volcano, still part of a chain of volcanoes that includes Mount Hood overlooking Portland and Mount Rainier sandwiched between Seattle and Tacoma. Rainier is considered by the Federal government to be “one of the Most Hazardous Volcanoes in the United States”. The last time it erupted, a tsunami raced across the Pacific Ocean, immortalized in this famous painting.
Comparisons between America’s biggest volcanic disaster at Mount St. Helens and the current volcanic eruptions in Iceland are irresistible. And while Eyjafjallajökull is likely to be full of sound and fury for months to come, today we remember the events of 30 years ago, when a mountain blew up.
Cross-posted on ShortWoman.com.