Latest posts tagged with #MSH45 on Bluesky
There were a number of stories and subjects that didn't get shared on Instagram and TikTok during #MSH45 last year. The University of Puget Sound tragedy was one of them.
So, guess what, you got a built-out thread over it. No regrets.
Wide, hazy view of Mount St. Helens’ north face, showing the open crater and jagged rim with a few lingering snow patches. Below the volcano, the gray-brown blast zone slopes down into a sparse, recovering landscape with scattered shrubs and small trees. Large white text reading “Update” sits across the lower left of the image. Chris, the MSHA admin, took this photo back in August 2017.
(taps mic) 🗣️ I WANT TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTIONS AND HEAR YOUR SUGGESTIONS!
Now that #MSH45 is wrapped, I’d love to hear what you want to see more of from this account — and what questions you have.
Housekeeping updates/catholic guilt-fueled confessions. "That seems... strong?"
Okay, first. I've cleared out my posts before 2025. I saw some folks engaging with 2024 content recently. Those posts looked rough compared to #MSH45 content.
Everything that remains is canon, uncut funk, "the bomb."
#MSH45 | Turn of the Year: 1981
As the last hours tick away on a year where mountains moved and lives changed, the rebuilding process continued in the crater of Mount St. Helens.
Inside, three lava lobes formed a single 350-foot gray dome, emitting steam as earthquakes rippled through the mountain.
Screenshot of a tweet that reads, “It all began 40 years ago today. Over the next few months, I’m going to bombard this account, as much as I can, with photos, videos, and other thoughts about the 40th anniversary of the 1980 eruption.” Tweet action icons appear below, with counts showing 1 retweet and 4 likes.
Screenshot of a tweet beginning, “BEFORE 1980: #MountStHelens, 9677 ft. tall…” describing Mount St. Helens as a well-known recreational peak and noting its last eruption in 1857, ending with “#MSH40 /1.” Below the text is a three-image collage: at left, a dark, smoky eruption scene lit by an orange glow over water with a small boat in the foreground; at top right, a snowcapped Mount St. Helens viewed beyond forested ridges with Spirit Lake visible; at bottom right, a bright green aerial view of the intact, symmetrical pre-1980 volcano.
Color photo of a smiling man—also known as the person behind this account—with a shaved head, short beard and dark sunglasses, standing at a wooden overlook railing. He wears a black “Stanley Cup Champs 2017” Pittsburgh Penguins T-shirt and a green wristband. Behind him, Mount St. Helens rises in hazy light, with patchy snow streaks on the upper slopes and a broad, ash-gray valley below cut by braided stream channels and scattered green patches. August 2017.
Five years ago, stuck with my wife in a terrible apartment during the early days of the pandemic, this whole thing began.
As #MSH45 comes to a close, I am so thankful for what this project has given me—the memories, the connections, the community. Endless gratitude.
Happy holidays, and thank you.
Color photograph of Mount St. Helens as seen from Harry’s Ridge, about 5 miles north, Skamania County, Washington, April 29, 1983. The volcano’s north face is a broad, gray amphitheater with the open crater spanning the summit, its rim still streaked with late-season snow. Inside the crater, the growing lava dome is visible as a darker, rounded mass rising from the floor, subtly reshaping the interior compared with 1980–81 views. In the foreground, the ash-gray blast zone and pumice plain spread across the valley, broken by low ridges, gullies, and scattered dead snags under a pale, overcast sky. Photo by Lyn Topinka (USGS), cvof00009_ct.
Full newspaper front page from The Daily News (Longview, Washington), Tuesday, May 18, 1982 (Page 1, 25 cents). Left column headline reads “Quake risk overrated,” reporting that a major earthquake along a newly discovered seismic zone near Mount St. Helens is considered unlikely, quoting U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Craig Weaver. A large black-and-white photo across the top shows a man kneeling among a chaotic tangle of blasted logs and stumps; the caption says Ralph Killian of Vader searched in vain last summer for his son John, killed by the May 18, 1980 eruption, and plans to continue the search; photo credit: Chris Johns. The main story across the lower half is headlined “May 18, 1982” with subhead “Survivors still hurting, slopes still healing,” by Andre Stepankowsky, reflecting on the second anniversary and ongoing impacts. A small inset photo at lower right shows the eruption plume with caption “The volcano two years ago,” photo by Roger Werth. Additional briefs on the lower left include “Views of the News” and “Social Security crucial.”
As #MSH45 starts closing out (GOD WOW, talk about beating my expectations), one story I haven't even begun to touch is...What happened after 1980!
Well, uh, *what* happened? I see a few hands.
"The eruptions stopped." They didn't; a dome was built.
"People moved on." Not for families and locals.
#MSH45 | USGS Scenes from 1980
At the end of the Dec. 12 clip uploaded by the USGS in their film dataset were two unrelated scenes. Voila.
First, an aerial pass over stream channels and lakes after May 18, including the stark sight of a fallen tree ablaze. Then, a winter stop at the forest's edge.
#MSH45 | Dec. 12, 1980
Circle the lava dome. Watch it vent. Land anyway.
Inside the crater of Mount St. Helens, USGS scientists treat the dome like a living instrument panel.
Measure gas fumaroles, check temperatures at the hottest reachable spots, and lay tape across cracks to track growth.
A blue-toned distant view of Mount St. Helens in the foreground, its snowfields darkened by ash. A bright white plume of steam rises from the crater area. Farther back at left, snow-covered Mount Rainier looks clean and white above a low layer of clouds. Photo: Al Hayward, n.d.
At dusk, the jagged rim of Mount St. Helens’ new crater fills the frame, lit warm on the left and fading into shadow. A thin column of steam drifts from the crater toward the right. A bright moon hangs in the deep blue sky. Photo: Al Hayward, n.d.
#MSH45 | A Changed Profile
Sure, Mount St. Helens’ new form would take getting used to.
But where reactions were once because of its ice cream cone-like slopes, now it was the ripped-open top that did the talking — snow gray with ash, the crater rim, steam drifting out under the moon.
Editorial cartoon showing a man styled as hijacker D.B. Cooper in sunglasses and a Hawaiian shirt, speaking through a window as volcanic rocks rain down outside on two men sharing an umbrella. Behind him are a “Wanted: D.B. Cooper” poster and headlines linking Cooper’s parachute jump to Mount St. Helens. Caption reads, “NO, REALLY… I’D PREFER TO STAY HERE!” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, April 2, 1980.
#MSH45 | Hijackers, Easter Eggs and a Volcano
April 2, 1980, Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
An editorial cartoon has hijacker D.B. Cooper hiding in a cabin in trademark shades, sporting a tropical shirt, while Mount St. Helens pelts “the law” outside with falling rocks.
Anything's possible, you know.
Watercolor painting with two aerial views of Mount St. Helens. At upper right, the pre-1980 snowcapped cone rises above green, forested ridges and a blue Spirit Lake. Filling most of the image, the post-eruption scene shows a low, blasted crater, brown landslide hummocks, and a dark, debris-filled lake. Dee Molenaar / U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)
#MSH45 | Watercolors
One of the most powerful “before and afters” of Mount St. Helens isn’t a photo at all, it’s this watercolor.
Legendary PNW mountaineer Dee Molenaar painted the graceful pre-1980 cone and Spirit Lake basin alongside the torn-open crater and devastated landscape that followed.
#MSH45 | May 7, 1980
Exploring the U.S. Geological Survey archives, we revisit the first week of May 1980, with a flight over quiet Mount St. Helens.
Later that afternoon, before 6 p.m., the volcano erupted after two weeks of quiet, releasing a small column of steam and ash.
Four-square layout on a green mountain backdrop. Top row shows black-and-white portraits of USGS volcanologist David A. Johnston on the left and volcanology graduate student Harry Glicken on the right. Bottom row shows the Mount St. Helens Institute logo and the Washington Trails Association logo. Text at the top reads “Giving Tuesday."
#MSH45 | #GivingTuesday
It’s wild that we’re already in the home stretch of this 45th anniversary year.
If you’ve learned something here about Mount St. Helens or the science behind it, today’s a good time to support the people and programs keeping that work going.
Links to give in bio!
#PNW
Oblique aerial view of Mount St. Helens’ October dome after it reached full size, showing a steep-sided plug of dark, blocky lava with radial cracks extending outward from the summit area. Steam rises from vents around the dome’s base, and the surrounding crater floor is coated in ash and debris. Skamania County, Washington. Photograph by USGS, Nov. 26, 1980.
Near-aerial view of the growing lava dome, its surface fractured into angular blocks with a central spine cutting through the upper face. Small fumaroles ring the dome, sending thin plumes of steam across the crater floor. Skamania County, Washington. Photograph by Terry Leighley, USGS, Nov. 25, 1980.
#MSH45 | Nov. 25 and 26, 1980
One month after rising from the depths, the October 1980 lava dome at Mount St. Helens is a 740-ft-wide, 120-ft-high plug in the crater—its top restless with steaming fumaroles.
Embrace the uneasy silence.
#MSH45 | The Film: Sieber's Folly Pays Off
Along with Harry Truman's family, among others, "St. Helens" executive producer Michael Murphy also struck a deal with one Otto Sieber.
This is the Seattle filmmaker whose May trip into the devastated area nearly cost him and his team their lives.
#MSH45 | The Movie: Lights, Camera, Action!
It's November 1980.
Portland’s KATU gives a peek behind the scenes of the filming of “St. Helens,” as Harry Truman, brought back to life by Art Carney, holds a press conference at a stand-in Mount St. Helens Lodge — Elk Lake Lodge near Mount Bachelor.
Film producer Roger E. Lewis in a studio portrait, wearing a weathered hat and zip-front shirt, his long sideburns framing a faint smile. Photo by Roger Werth. Source: The Daily News (Longview), September 1980.
Mount St. Helens viewed from the northwest across the pumice plain. The open crater and steep inner walls are visible, with light steam rising from the center. The foreground shows the ash-covered plain cut by shallow channels formed after the 1980 eruption. Photographed by Lyn Topinka, USGS, on September 16, 1980.
#MSH45 | The Movie: Sept. 1980
Producer Roger Lewis dreams of bringing Mount St. Helens to the big screen. With tentative funding from Taft International Films, he heads to Washington for research and interviews.
For now, he believes he's the only one chasing this story—but only for so long.
A waterfall drops from a cliff into the Smith Creek drainage, where ash-covered slopes and scattered stumps show the extent of the May 18 blast’s impact. Skamania County, Washington. Nov. 13, 1980. USGS.
#MSH45 | Nov. 13, 1980
At lower elevations, the snow came on more slowly.
Here in the Smith Creek drainage, as captured by USGS scientists, the barren land was as stark as it was immediately after the May 18 eruption.
#MSH45 | 1981: "St. Helens"
Later this week, we'll discuss one of the most, erm, visible pop culture artifacts of the 1980 eruption.
A former lawyer from Portland's dream, aided by an infamous documentarian, featuring a former TV actor whose career was reinvigorated by an Oscar six years earlier.
#MSH45 | Nov. 14, 1980
Spokane's KREM airs a segment from Portland's KGW, its chopper's camera lingers on a wintry St. Helens—snow piled deep across the shattered rim, steam drifting lazily from fumaroles.
Then they play back October’s eruption tape, stripping away all but the volcano’s own voice.
uh...must tie it back in...wait...YES.
#MSH45 | May 13, 1980
Pittsburgh starter Rick Rhoden, rehabbing with the Portland Beavers, goes seven against his Pirate teammates in a home exhibition game.
The Oregon Journal says Rhoden "belongs in the PCL as much as skiers belong on Mount St. Helens."
View of Mount St. Helens from Harry’s Ridge, five miles north of the volcano, on Nov. 2, 1980. The crater floor shows a growing lava dome surrounded by snow-covered inner walls, with thin wisps of steam rising from vents. Foreground slopes are bare and gray from the May eruption. Photo by Terry Leighley, USGS.
View of Mount St. Helens from the USGS Johnston Ridge Observatory webcam on Nov. 2, 2025. The volcano’s snow-dusted crater and flanks are illuminated under a clear blue sky, with lahar-carved valleys and green vegetation spreading across the North Fork Toutle River valley in the foreground.
#MSH45 | Then and Now
Mount St. Helens on Nov. 2, 1980.
Mount St. Helens on Nov. 2, 2025.
Two USGS scientists observe Mount St. Helens from the Coldwater II observation post on May 2, 1980. One sits in a folding chair with binoculars while the other stands beside him, both focused on the volcano’s snow-dusted, bulging north flank under a clear blue sky. The scene captures the calm weeks before the May 18 eruption. Photo by Rick Hoblitt/USGS.
#MSH45 | May 2, 1980
Earlier this year, the U.S. Geological Survey shared this previously unseen photo of Mount St. Helens from the then-brand-new Coldwater II observation post.
It would only last another 16 days.
Mount St. Helens at sunset on Oct. 27, 1980, its upper slopes covered in snow and glowing faintly pink in the evening light. The lower ridges are in shadow under a calm, partly cloudy sky. Skamania County, Washington. USGS photo.
Or how's about...
#MSH45 | Oct. 27, 1980
And once again, the mountain is calm.
#MSH45 | May 1985
Five years after the eruption, Mount St. Helens had become a laboratory. USGS scientists practically lived in the crater, tracking the dome’s growth, measuring gas, tilt, and cracks.
"It’s been a very cooperative lab,” said geologist Don Swanson.
#MSH45 | May 1980
Morton, Washington
The mushroom cloud rose to the south, blotting out the sky and the sun. As it climbed higher, it drifted closer—then came the fallout. Mudballs and ash rained from the sky.
When it was over, the town lay under a thin gray grit. The cleanup would take weeks.
Close view of the south side of Mount St. Helens’ October 1980 lava dome, a blocky gray surface split by a deep vertical crack with wisps of steam along the rim. A small boulder sits in the ash at the bottom edge. Photographed Oct. 24, 1980, by Terry Leighley/USGS.
Geologist Don Swanson, wearing a red jacket and a respirator, walks on ash and rubble beside the new lava dome as steam rises from fumaroles and the crater wall looms behind. Photographed Oct. 24, 1980, by Terry Leighley/USGS.
#MSH45 | Oct. 24, 1980
Would you stand next to a lava dome just days after an eruption?
USGS geologists Don Swanson and Terry Leighley did, along with others who investigated this new hill of igneous origin.
#MSH45 | October 1980
It's the spooky season, so here’s USGS footage from a helicopter flight into the steam-filled crater of Mount St. Helens during its last major eruption in 1980.
Perhaps, the ghosts of lava domes past?
#PNW #WashingtonState #Science
#MSH45 | October 1980
Let's revisit the final eruption sequence of Mount St. Helens in 1980, featuring footage from the U.S. Geological Survey that may feel a bit too close for comfort.
Once the column of ash dissipates, we can see the earliest stages of the lava dome's formation within the crater.
