Memorial of Mt. St. Helen's Eruption in 1980

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May 18, 1980, was the castastrophic eruption of Mt. St. Helens in the Pacific Northwest of the US. It was not unexpected exactly; the geologists had been watching it carefully for a couple of months because of rapid growth on the side of the volcano. The lava dome was growing by about 5 feet per day. They warned that there could be a huge landslide or mudslide from melting snow, but they did not expect what happened. There was a large earthquake, the lava dome slid off the side of the mountain and there was what is now known as a "lateral blast" where the steam and hot volcanic ash (not ash from burning; volcanic ash is powdered rock) burst out with the release of pressure. Now the phenomenon of lateral blast has been studied and other volcanoes have also been shown to do it. Unfortunately, 57 people died in the blast. If you were alive in 1980, do you remember where you were when you heard about it? I was in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, which is not too far from the volcano. I had just started playing the prelude at church when there was the sound of an explosion and the whole church shook. I thought a truck had come off the highway and hit the front of the church. Of course there was no internet so I didn't find out until the evening news that a volcano had erupted near us! Because of the direction of the wind, Vancouver got no ash at all, but the sky was a weird orange color all day.