who died in the mt st helens eruption
1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens Approximately 57 people were killed directly, including innkeeper Harry R. Truman, photographers Reid Blackburn and Robert Landsburg, and geologist David A. Johnston.[4] Hundreds of square miles were reduced to wasteland, causing over a billion U.S. dollars in damage ($3.03 billion in 2017 dollars[5]), thousands of animals were killed, and Mount St. Helens was left with a crater on its north side. At the time of the eruption, the summit of the volcano was owned by the Burlington Northern Railroad, but afterward the land passed to the United States Forest Service.[6] The area was later preserved, as it was, in the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument.
1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens Suddenly, at 8:32 a.m., a magnitude 5.1 earthquake centered directly below the north slope triggered that part of the volcano to slide,[24] approximately 7–20 seconds (about 10 seconds seems most reasonable) after the shock.[6] The landslide, the largest in recorded history, travelled at 110 to 155 miles per hour (177 to 249 km/h) and moved across Spirit Lake's west arm. Part of it hit a 1,150-foot-high (350 m) ridge about 6 miles (10 km) north.[6] Some of the slide spilled over the ridge, but most of it moved 13 miles (21 km) down the North Fork Toutle River, filling its valley up to 600 feet (180 m) deep with avalanche debris.[24] An area of about 24 square miles (62 km2) was covered, and the total volume of the deposit was about 0.7 cubic miles (2.9 km3).[6]