Volcanoes: Mount St. Helens

Have you ever seen a Volcano erupt?

Mount St. Helen's a Composite Volcano Erupted in last in 1980, and my mom was 12 years old and living in Washington when it occurred. Her friend and her were outside playing in the yard that morning, when her friend suddenly asked, "what is that?" pointing into the sky. She looked over there was a giant smokey plume in the sky. 

She later remembers finding out that Mount St Helen's had erupted, and the hearing the news discuss how big the crater that occurred and how much damage was accounted for in the surrounding areas.

Although, they lived 2 hours north of the Volcano, in Olympia, a thin film of ash covered everything that, to her, seemed to last forever. Probably from the wind that kept blowing deposits of ash around. However most of the wind at the time blew south resulting in giant "piles and mountains of ash" on the side of the road the closer you got to the volcano.

Similar to today, those who lived close to Mount St. Helen's had to wear face masks to try and filter the dust and ash from the air. We have seen this not only because of the pandemic but also on the West Coast because of all the fires. 

My mom actually has a jar of ash from Mount St. Helen's that she actually got off of Mount Rainier, which is 85.23 miles away.

 

The ash became so normal to the region that they had a painting of the mountains in their house, which had been painted by an artist that mixed the ash in with his watercolors.

My own experiences have only been  pretty small and far between from playing with the dark igneous rocks in St. George that I remember being told were from volcanoes to visiting crater lake and learning how Mount Mazama eventually created the lake in the  crater ultimately giving it its name. 

Personally Volcanoes seem like something that isn't quite real, something to have happen in a natural disaster movie but like I cant seem to wrap my mind around the reality of how common they are around the world.