Tuesday, May 18, 2010

30 years ago today.

The news is full of that icelandic volcano with the name we can't say that has been erupting constantly for about the last month or so.  But that thing is just fizzling along compared to what happened 30 years ago this morning.  I feel old when I realize that a lot of people I know and work with weren't even around when this happened, but I was 12 years old at the time.  Of  course I'm talking about the blast of Mt. St. Helens that let loose at 8:32am on May 18, 1980.  I was out finishing up a camping trip at the Boy Scout "Camporee".  We were riding back in the van with the radio on and they were talking about rivers flooding.  I remember I just thought "poor suckers on the east coast just got hit with a flash flood", but they kept talking about it. Then I realized it was in Washington, and the volcano had caused it!  Got home and watched TV and after that day, I've had a pretty good interest in volcanoes.  You may notice the volcano blog entries here.
Here is the actual 30 year old TV coverage that I watched (after the commercial):



....and today NASA released this short clip showing the view from space:



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