1980 disasters

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Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 26. Chapters: 1980 fires, 1980 industrial disasters, 1980 natural disasters, Terrorist incidents in 1980, Transport disasters in 1980, 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, Oktoberfest, Hurricane Allen, August 1980 Bologna bombing, Alexander L. Kielland, Harvey's Resort Hotel bombing, Dunmurry train explosion, 1980 Ispaster attack, MGM Grand fire, Central Hotel Fire, Bundoran, 1980 Dominican Embassy siege in Bogotá, 1980 United States heat wave, 1980 Paris synagogue bombing, List of terrorist incidents, 1980, List of shipwrecks in 1980, More Trees Down Derecho, Said Al Nasr, 1980 Central Mexico earthquake, Ash Wednesday fires, 1980 Saskatoon Queen's Hotel fire. Excerpt: The 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, a stratovolcano located in Washington state, in the United States, was a major volcanic eruption. The eruption (which was a VEI 5 event) was the only significant one to occur in the contiguous 48 U.S. states since the 1915 eruption of Lassen Peak in California. The eruption was preceded by a two-month series of earthquakes and steam-venting episodes, caused by an injection of magma at shallow depth below the volcano that created a huge bulge and a fracture system on Mount St. Helens' north slope. USGS scientists convinced the authorities to close Mount St. Helens to the general public and to maintain the closure in spite of pressure to re-open it; their work saved thousands of lives. An earthquake at 8:32:17 a.m. PDT (UTC-7) on Sunday, May 18, 1980, caused the entire weakened north face to slide away, suddenly exposing the partly molten, gas- and steam-rich rock in the volcano to lower pressure. The rock responded by exploding a hot mix of lava and pulverized older rock toward Spirit Lake so fast that it overtook the avalanching north face. An eruption column rose 80,000 feet (24,400 m) into the atmosphere and deposited ash in 11 U.S. states. At the same time, snow, ice and several entire glaciers on the volcano melted, forming a series of large lahars (volcanic mudslides) that reached as far as the Columbia River, nearly fifty miles (eighty kilometers) to the southwest. Less severe outbursts continued into the next day only to be followed by other large but not as destructive eruptions later in 1980. Fifty-seven people (including innkeeper Harry R. Truman and geologist David A. Johnston) and thousands of animals were killed. Hundreds of square miles were reduced to wasteland, causing over a billion U.S. dollars in damage ($2.74 billion in 2007 dollars), 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 afterwa