Mount St. Helens: A 30-year mystery

[KatWrangler]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37194878...ience-science/

The catastrophic eruption of Mount St. Helens on May 18, 1980, transformed modern understanding of volcanoes. But scientists today still struggle to successfully tap the deepest secrets of the mountain's foulest moods.

I can't believe it's been 30 years. I swear it's like it just happened.

For the people that died.

[AdinaL]

30 years. Wow.

[Purple Sage]

Wow, 30 years. I was obsessed with the Mt. St. Helens issue of National Geographic when it came out. I was only five, but I remember it well. We drove to the mountain when we visited Washington when I was nine, too....another vivid memory from childhood. The fallen trees were still there looking like matchsticks.

[Tradd]

Wow - 30 years? I remember relatives who lived somewhere out west, I can't remember exactly where, brought back baggies of the ash to relatives in the Midwest. My parents had a small jar of the ash sitting in a kitchen cupboard behind the extra mugs until maybe 10 years ago!

[Purple Sage]

My dad still has a cup of the ash on a shelf in his dining room, if you can believe that! He's a bit of a packrat, though.

[aussiemum]

Mt St Helens is an amazing place to see- hopefully we will visit there later this year & I can't wait to show it to my kids & DH. It is a powerful reminder that human life on this planet is fragile, no matter how much we might like to think differently. Can't believe it's been 30 years!!