30 years later, we're still thinking of volcanoes

On May 18, 1980, Mt St Helens, in Washington state, erupted.

Mt St Helens erupting:


And this one:


Here is a time-lapse of the last thirty years of the area and how it's changed:


In their May issue, National Geographic cover story was on Mt St Helens. You can see various articles on their website about the volcano, its eruption, etc. here.

Of course, it's not like volcanoes are old news. There's Eyjafjallajökull, a subglacial volcano in Iceland, which is currently erupting and causing headaches for air travel due to its ash clouds over Europe:


Thanks to Occasion for sharing the last one. It is truly magnificent.

In 1980 I had just moved to Kansas. The family joke is that whenever we leave an area, disaster hits it. In South Carolina and Louisiana, tornadoes touched down near where we lived. In 1980 we left the West Coast (California) there were earthquakes and Mt St Helens blew. I don't know if there were tornadoes when we left Kansas in 1982, but then what do you think the chances were?

Anyway, I remember on the news the great amounts of ash on people's cars and pretty much everywhere within its path. The sunsets were beautiful, of course. But unfortunately 57 people died as a result of the eruption. There was the good fortune that it happened on a Sunday, when loggers were not at work, or the death toll might have been higher. So as we pay homage to a terrible yet beautiful natural phenomenon, it's a good time to remember them as well.