A Mount Saint Helens Story

The Cowlitz Indians that reside in the area call the mountain Lawetlia, or smoking mountain. An alpine lake with crystal clear water is at the mountain’s base. The Cowlitz Indians named it “Spirit Lake,” because they believe the region belongs to the dead. Certainly the Cowlitz Indians knew of the mountain’s previous eruption in1837. They knew to listen to the earth and at 8:32 AM on Sunday May 18, 1980, the rest of the

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The dam’s ability to trap a lahar and control run-off is rapidly diminishing, while the crater is filling with snow and ice, elevating the risk of yet another catastrophe with each passing year. The pressure needed to expel the plug could produce an explosion similar in size to the 1980 eruption” (Campbell and Barber. There are three theories, but no definitive answers, how the trout returned to Spirit Lake. As mud and debris settled out of what used to be Spirit Lake, the water turned a chocolate brown. “Spirit Lake Came Back to Life” May 10, 2000). A concrete portal marks the outlet of one of the most remarkable but least-known man-made features near Southwest Washington’s still-steaming volcano. What had been a pristine alpine lake suddenly became a hot, toxic sludge hole for volcano effluent. Running in a perfectly straight line, 1-1/2 miles altogether, the Spirit Lake outlet tunnel opens beneath a sharp curve in the road leading to the Johnston Ridge Observatory. Eventually the lake would fill and overflow this new debris dam, increasing the threat of a lahar in the future that could inundate much of lowland Kelso and Longview. The landslide debris raised the lake’s bottom 100 feet and the lake’s surface 200 feet. In July of 2000, two State fish biologists spent two days netting and fishing at the 3,000-acre lake. The eruption completely transformed the cone-shaped peak of Mount Saint Helens, melting city-sized glaciers in seconds, and destroying everything for 19 miles to the northwest.

Common topics in this essay:
Spirit Lake, Saint Helens, River Corps, Cowlitz Indians, Geological Survey, HELENS STORY, spirit lake, Lake Eventually, Columbia River, Corp Engineers, Ridge Observatory, saint helens, mount saint, mount saint helens, alpine lake, toutle river, debris dam, cowlitz indians, expectation seeing firsthand, tragic destructive, destructive volcanic, volcanic eruption, eruption mount saint, seeing firsthand explosive, explosive remains tragic,

Approximate Word count = 1121
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

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