The Smoking Mountain
Lawetlat'la - Mount St. Helens
From my late teens through my mid-20s, I worked for the U.S. Geological Survey, Water Resources Division in Tacoma, Washington. Luckily, I was involved in many water resource studies after Mount St. Helens' gigantic eruption in May 1980. My partner, Colleen, and I met at the U.S.G.S. One of her fondest memories is performing a water chemistry analysis within days of the eruption on the Toutle River system, with one foot in the North Fork and one foot in the South.
Red Zone Pass summer 1980 USGS K. Tanner
July 1980 Ron Lombard and Mory Miles surveying a cross section on the South Fork Toutle River near Four Corners. USGS K. Tanner
Summer 1980 was very exciting all around the volcano, surveying cross-sections and establishing vertical control on all of the lahar-scoured river channels draining Mount St. Helens. I had to be patient and wait for our work to begin on the lakes created or affected by the blast, work that required helicopter rides. That day finally arrived in January 1981.
1981 brought busy times for the U.S.G.S. Tacoma office, with continued monitoring and measurement of all streams and rivers, chemical analyses on the many nearby lakes, study and test drilling on the debris avalanche deposits blocking the fast-filling Spirit, Coldwater, and South Fork Castle Creek Lakes…and best of all, bathymetric surveys of those three lakes and more.
Third week of January 1981 First trip to Coldwater Lake to perform preliminary bathymetric survey. USGS K. Tanner
Mid-May 1981 Leonard Nelson in aluminum boat in Bear Cove, West Arm of Spirit Lake with debris avalanche hummocks. Microwave trisponder range finder in boat for use in bathymetric mapping. USGS K. Tanner
Over the next 100+ days, from March 20 into July, I would like to share photographs, maps, charts, research links, newspaper clippings, and stories with you in daily presentations about Lawetlat'la. I will always try to share a photograph (or several) of that day's volcanic happenings, taken exactly 45 years ago. If no "photograph of the day" exists, then I will include artwork, a postcard, a map, or perhaps a camp badge. The historic pre-eruption photographs and story topics bounce around a bit, often adding background to the "photograph of the day", to a news clipping story, or to that day's introductory slide.
The 59 pre-eruption presentations focus mainly on U.S.G.S. geologists and volcanologists monitoring phreatic eruptions and the deformation of the volcano's north flank, historic photographs, maps, and legends. After Day 60, in addition to daily events, the presentations will feature each of the six distinct volcanic processes that occurred on May 18. Then, superelevations of high-velocity lahars, the "Stranded Logs", and five additional eruptions and pumiceous pyroclastic flows in summer and fall 1980.
And of course, the Spirit Lake Yacht Club stories…
Sandy Embrey, Norm Dion, Len Nelson, Steve Sumioka, Gary Turney, Ron Lombard, Jim Ebbert, Rick Wagner, Dave Kresch, my boss Charley Swift, Associate District Chief P.J. Carpenter, and Ken Tanner.
We still refer to ourselves as The Spirit Lake Yacht Club. You'll read our stories and hydrologic research and see our photographs from around the volcano. Many other Tacoma WRD hydrologists that you will meet are sadly gone, or are in their 80s and even 90s and I'm hustling to get their stories too. I am especially excited to share Sandy's and Gary's slides. Stunning, never-seen-before photos of the effects of the blast. A big U.S.G.S. 40th anniversary reunion scheduled for May 2020 at Toutle Lake High School was cancelled by the pandemic, and we eagerly await the upcoming 45th reunion this spring 2025.
The sequence and timing of events in the first 10 minutes of the May 18 eruption were very complex, and I'm continually learning more. Exploring the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument is fantastic, and countless happy days and nights have been spent there since the eruption. From hearing the amazing swoosh of the Nighthawks at dusk to picking chunks of pumice out of my hair. And I still have a research project up my sleeve regarding the many affected and newly-created lakes.
- Ken Tanner
July 20, 1982 N.P. Dion and S.S. Embrey reading Dissolved Oxygen levels at Deadmans Lake, 12.7 miles NNE of the vent and just beyond the blast zone. Deadman's served as the control in the lakes study. USGS S.S. Embrey
July 16, 1981 Chemical analysis on Spirit Lake's East Arm. USGS Water Resources Division's Sandy Embrey and Gary Turney hemmed in by log mat in 14-foot aluminum boat. USGS Lyn Topinka
First presentation will release on 03/20