40 years after its famous eruption, Mount St. Helens looms on the horizon Wonder, threat

we. Forest Service TNS The Mt. St. Helens Pit Towers over hikers on a trail that crosses the Pumice Plain, as the U.S. Forest Service proposes a controversial route.

On the occasion of the anniversary

Reading richard Los Angeles Times via tns Mt. St. Helens, recently viewed from a roadside view, is banned from visitors during the fortieth anniversary of its eruption, due to the outbreak of the coronavirus.

TOUTLE, WASHINGTON. On the morning of May 18, 1980, the earthquake of Mount St. Helens shook and the face of the North Mountain collapsed in one of the largest recorded avalanches.

The slide revealed the volcano, which led to the magma that exploded 500 times as powerful as the Hiroshima bomb in the most devastating eruption in US history.

The catastrophic chain of events killed 57 people and thousands of animals, drove 250 homes, 47 bridges, 185 miles of highways, clogged rivers, sunken valleys, and closed the shipping channel in the Columbia River.

Forty years later, the destruction may not be over.

The avalanche renews Lake Spirit – once a popular entertainment spot at the base of the volcano – that raises the lake bed by 200 feet and casts debris that acts as a massive dam holding 73 billion gallons of water.

The US Forest Service officials say the situation is precarious: the only relief valve for the 3 square mile lake is a 1.6 mile drainage tunnel that was hastily built in 1985 and frequently deformed due to breakdowns and landings.

The violation is not believed to be imminent, but if it does, the consequences will be disastrous.

Chris Stribge, director of the Spirit Lake Forest Service project, said a massive increase in water, mud and debris could flood the cities below and disable the four ports of the Columbia River: Longview, Vancouver and Calama in Washington and Portland Harbor in Oregon.

“We are doing our best to make sure this never happens,” said Stribg. “It will be somewhat a repetition of the 1980 mudslide downstream.”

The Forest Service proposes digging debris to assess how much lake water a natural dam can safely measure and how it can work when the long-awaited Cascadia earthquake strikes. The degraded cast iron gate at the entrance to the tunnel will be replaced by a safer double bulkhead.

None of this is particularly controversial, given the potential disaster. However, the conflict is approaching another issue: How to bring workers and equipment to the far side of the St Helens National Volcanic National Monument.

The Forest Service wants to build a temporary road 3 1/2 miles across the Khuffat Plain, an area affected by the landslide and explosion in 1980 but has since seen a remarkable regeneration of plants and animals.

Researchers studying the area argue that helicopters can be used to transport workers and equipment in order to maintain a fragile ecosystem.

Scientists describe the plain as a unique blank board where they watch nature recolonize.

“It is an amazing area that people thought would take hundreds of years to recover, but it happened much faster than we thought,” said Carrie Leroy, freshwater ecologist at Evergreen State College, who studies watersheds.

When the work began in the blast zone in July 1980, scientists predicted that life would only recolonise from the edges, said Charlie Crisafulli, an ecologist at the Northwest Pacific Research Station.

He said: “Boy, how naive we were.”

North pocket Gopher – nocturnal creatures that escaped underground when the volcano appeared – to build piles, which led to the emergence of the main carbon and nitrogen that helped plants to grow.

Willow bushes grew, attracting songbirds and beavers that built ponds. Deer and elk returned. Nutrient flow to Spirit lake, supporting aquatic ecosystem.

Once a black hot stew full of trees and dead animals appears, the lake appears calm, infested with thousands of wood. Researchers have discovered the types of insects that may not be found anywhere.

Scientists believe they have the law on their side. The Mount St. Helens Volcanic National Monument, which is 172 square miles, was created in 1982 under a congressional law requiring managers to allow “geological forces and environmental succession to continue largely unimpeded.”

The centerpiece of the monument is a 8,366-foot mountain, which has lost more than 1,300 feet of eruption. The Johnston Ridge Observatory offers longer views of the open crater and lava dome than the Seattle Space Needle.

Jim Joel, an environmental engineer at Washington University Tacoma who studies the lake, said road construction would change the natural patterns of erosion and may enter invasive species through tires and tractors.

He said: “If you start messing with this, it removes every reason you create the memorial.”

Harry Romberg, a volunteer at the Sierra Club Washington branch, said the Forest Service had to consider more seriously transporting workers and equipment by helicopter.

Rebecca Hoffman, a forestry memorial guard, said that helicopters were not possible because construction equipment was too large and workers would have to travel to and from the lake frequently.

Hoffman said: “We all want the research to continue, and it will continue.” But she added that the law that created the memorial also said that there was nothing to prevent the Forest Service from administering public safety.

Forest service managers have watched with concern, as rain and thawing snow elevated Spirit Lake while the tunnel was closed for repairs. They plan to use data from the dam pits to help determine how to build an additional outlet that can be built as a backup copy of the tunnel.

If managers decide to go ahead after reviewing the final round of objections, and if they do not sue the opponents, construction may begin next year. The project will take millions of dollars in about two years.

At present, the memorial has been closed due to the coronary virus crisis. Visitors can only drive up to the highway views and look across the river down Spirit Lake to the top of the snow-capped mountain.

Local hotels, restaurants and gift shops selling t-shirts and ashes were preparing for tens of thousands of visitors for their 40th anniversary programs and did not include survivors of the explosion and responders. Instead, businesses are closed while Washington state is closed, and volcanologists, artists, educators, and survivors will appear in online events.

Among the disappointed was Joe Bongovanni, who owned a gift shop across Spirit Lake Highway from a site where he bulldozed 13 houses in 1980. Not only was he losing souvenir sales, but he commented plans to start taking customers on exploration campaigns. His True Passion: A Search of Sasquatch.

He recently restored the Humvee and equipped it with surveillance devices, including dashboard-mounted thermal screens that he believed could discover creatures similar to what is said to live in the northwest Pacific forest.

Bongiovanni said that people can choose whether they believe in Bigfoot or not. But when the Cascadia earthquake struck, he said, no one should doubt the necessity of running for a higher ground, given the undeniable specter of Lake Spirit.

He said, “Our personal belongings no longer exist.” “But what do you need other than your neck?”

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(C) 2020 Los Angeles Times

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