Volcano: First Seventy Days, Mount St. Helens, 1980

When one hears the word "volcano", it conjures up pictures of a far away place, often an island, in a poor country, creating massive destruction with a high death toll. One certainly does not think of a volcano erupting in urban America. On May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens, in the southern Washington Cascades, just 40 miles of the heavily populated Portland, Oregon Metro Area, violently erupted. At the time of the writing of this book, there were 75 souls who were in the path of the lava traveling at 80 miles/hour, dead; the mountain was reduced in size by 1,277 feet, and the landscape was forever changed--a change that scientists generally concur takes millions of years to complete. By the morning of Monday, May 19, 1980, the mighty Columbia River was clogged with 22 feet of silt, the amount of ash and dust that was forcibly expelled from the mountain was enough to bury Manhattan Island to a depth of 28 stories, 200 forest fires ignited and rivers flooded. This book documents the destruction and beauty of one of the most awesome forces of nature, with stunning full-page color photos--a picture really is worth a thousand words!