Mount St Helens Research Paper

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Mount St. Helens is a volcano that is located in the state of Washington. This paper will provide an overview on the volcanic eruption of Mount St. Helens that happened in May of 1980. This paper will also cover how this eruption affected the Earth, the damages and death tolls of this eruption, the economic impact, and any permanent consequences.
Eruption of Mount St. Helens According to History – Mt. St. Helens (n.d.), approximately at 8:32 a.m. on May 18, 1980, a 5.1 magnitude earthquake happened about one mile underneath Mount St. Helens. Which in turn triggered Mount St. Helens to erupt without any warning. This caused the largest debris avalanche in the Earth’s recorded history. This debris avalanche caused a blast that traveled outwards …show more content…

Helens. As much as twelve percent of the total crops were destroyed by the ash debris nationwide. Local farmland was affected significantly; almost all of the crops and livestock that were located in the valleys at the foot of the volcano were destroyed by the floodwaters, pyroclastic flows, and lahars, which seeped down the volcano. The higher than usual damage in those valleys is thought to be due to the high concentrations of the farmland, drawn by the fertile volcanic soil. A lot of the surrounding natural vegetation was destroyed also; sections of forests were either burnt away by the pyroclastic flows or washed away when Spirit Lake flooded. Two hundred and fifty square kilometers of forest were wiped away. Rivers were filled with sediment, which include streams filled with salmon and trout. Since most of the rivers and streams were filled it destroyed most of the local drainage system, which caused a much greater risk of flooding in this area (Long Term Effects, n.d.). Permanent consequences that resulted from this eruption include the wildlife and tree life around this area would never be the same again. Nobody knows what kinds of animals were living in that area that might have died when this volcano erupted. There were so many things that scientists had yet to discover in those areas that they won’t be able to discover

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