Harry Vs The Volcano

The catastrophic eruption of Mount St. Helens on May 18, 1980, stands as one of nature's most dramatic displays of power – and one of humanity's most compelling stories of warning signs ignored.

From the moment the first earthquakes rumbled beneath the symmetrical peak in March 1980, scientists knew something unprecedented was brewing. Over two months, they tracked hundreds of tremors, witnessed the mountain's north face bulge outward at an alarming rate, and desperately tried to convince residents to evacuate the danger zone. Most listened. A few didn't.

Among the holdouts was Harry R. Truman, an 83-year-old lodge owner who, along with his 16 cats, refused to abandon his beloved Spirit Lake at the mountain's base. "If the mountain goes, I'm going with it," he famously declared, becoming a folk hero through countless media interviews. His stubbornness captivated America – children sent him fan mail, musicians wrote songs about him, and he even received marriage proposals.

When the mountain finally blew with the force of 500 atomic bombs, it triggered the largest landslide in recorded history. The lateral blast traveled at 300 miles per hour, flattening forests, melting glaciers, and sending ash 16 miles into the atmosphere. Darkness fell on cities hundreds of miles away as 57 people, including Truman, perished in the catastrophe.

But equally fascinating is the story of recovery. We explore how life returned to this lunar landscape – from wind-blown spiders to an ingenious experiment where scientists introduced pocket gophers for just one day. Those few hours of furry excavation yielded extraordinary results, with hundreds of thousands of plants thriving in gopher-worked areas while adjacent zones remained barren.

Today, Mount St. Helens stands as both a monument to destruction and a laboratory of rebirth. The youngest glacier on Earth now grows within its crater, while scientists continue monitoring the volcano's gradual rebuilding – having regained only 7% of its lost mass in four decades. It's a humbling reminder of nature's timescales and regenerative power.

Join us for this exploration of geological forces, human stubbornness, and the remarkable resilience of an ecosystem reborn from catastrophic destruction. You'll never look at volcanoes – or gophers – the same way again.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Two best friends we're talking the past, from
mistakes to arcades.
We're having a blast.
Teenage dreams, neon screens,it was all rad and no one knew
me Like you know.
It's like whatever.
Together forever, we're neverdone as ever, laughing and
sharing our stories.
Forever We'll take you back.

(00:25):
It's like whatever.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
Welcome to Like Whatever a podcast for.
By and about Gen X.
I'm Nicole and this is my BFF,heather.
Hello, so how was your week it?

Speaker 2 (00:43):
was better.
We're moving up, getting better.
Glad to hear it.
I'm not going to talk about it,but it's getting better.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
Yep, yep, yep, good, good, good.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
For all you ladies that are in your 50s, this is
just getting old real quick.
I'm hot one second.
I'm freezing cold the next.
I'm hot one second.
I'm freezing cold the next.
I can't take it.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
I've been having some really gnarly hot flashes the
past few days, this last weekthe hot flashes have been brutal
.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
I have just been the most angry person on the face of
the earth.
I mean just like literally forany reason.
I mean just like literally forany reason.
I mean you know normally I'm anangry person, but it's like
heightened to the nth degree.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
Yeah, it sounds difficult for you.

Speaker 2 (01:35):
It is.
I try when I'm out in public tocontain it.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
That's not working out very well, some people are
just asking for it.
You know what?
Most people are just asking forit, anyway.

Speaker 2 (01:44):
Yeah, that's not working out very well.
Some people are just asking forit.
You know what Most people arejust asking for it.
Anyway, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:50):
Anyway, we have a new Pope since our last recording.
We do have a new Pope.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
He's a Chicago Pope.
He is a Chicago Pope, the firstAmerican Pope.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
That's crazy right.

Speaker 2 (02:01):
He was not in any of the running that we had None of
the numbers.

Speaker 1 (02:06):
It is the craziest thing to hear him speak with an
American accent.
I have not heard him speak, butI can imagine it.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
It's really weird.
It's crazy.
He seems like he's going to bean okay guy.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
Yeah, I mean he seems very, very loved, and I mean
all his friends call him Bob.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
It seems like that's the direction the Catholic
Church has decided to take,because it was only what?

Speaker 1 (02:31):
four they only did four votes.

Speaker 2 (02:34):
So, yeah, obviously it's.
I think he's a little bit moreopen minded as the Catholic
Church goes Right right as openminded as you can get.
Being Pope, yeah, yeah,catholic church goes right.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
you know, as open-minded as you can get, yeah
yeah so and it's been coolseeing the coverage of like his
brothers like here.
It's just so crazy for them ithas to be crazy, right yeah, I
was watching um something at thenews last night or the night
before um, and they were somenews.
Uh, newscasters wereinterviewing one of the brothers

(03:08):
and while they wereinterviewing him, the pope
called his brother likefacetimed him on his tablet.
So the brother answered and, uh, the pope said hi to him and he
was like just so, you know, youknow, I'm, we're being filmed
right now.
I have a news crew here.
And he was like just so, youknow, you know I'm, we're being
filmed right now.
I have a news crew here.
And he is like pope goes, likeright now.

(03:28):
I told my husband.
I was like, thank god he didn'tanswer the phone, was like hey,
motherfucker, I'm themotherfucking pope I know.
Right, like that would be crazy, like you're like if it was
your sibling or whatever.

Speaker 2 (03:44):
You know, you could just be like well, I guess I'm
going to heaven.

Speaker 1 (03:48):
Yeah, I would not answer my sibling's phone call
while being filmed.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
No, no, no, no.

Speaker 1 (03:57):
Never know what's going to come out of her mouth,
so yeah, that was cool.

Speaker 2 (04:02):
That was definitely out of of nowhere, out of left
field, and I love howeverybody's claiming him like
pennsylvania's claiming him.
I saw one that was like as soonas the pope says, go birds, I'm
gonna start going back tochurch especially if it works.

(04:23):
I don't think he's probably aneagles fan.

Speaker 1 (04:25):
I think he's probably a the bears yeah, he is a white
socks fan, so you know theprobably the bears probably use
all the help they can get, yes,so hey, maybe it's their year,
maybe they got the pope and heyman, we play the bears when it's
great.

Speaker 2 (04:40):
I know they're crazy season.
It's going to be like you think.
The Immaculate Reception wasimpressive.

Speaker 1 (04:49):
Just wait.
They use that word a littleprematurely.

Speaker 2 (04:52):
We really are going to have an immaculate season.

Speaker 1 (04:59):
I watched a good Netflix series, since I like to
share all my lazy time watchingshows, but it's Four Seasons.
It is based on the movie FourSeasons, if you'll remember,
with Alan Alda.

Speaker 2 (05:15):
It's funny that you say that, because that was just
on our.
It popped up on our TV and wecouldn't remember it.
But it's Carol Burnett, right.

Speaker 1 (05:29):
I believe so.
So this show is alan alda'sinvolved in it somehow, um, with
production or something, Idon't know.
Tina fey is in it, um, stevecarell there's a lot of good
people in it, but it was, it wasexcellent.
It's really a definitely a genx type show, um, because it's

(05:49):
people our age and where they'reat with their relationships and
their marriages and their kids,and I have to watch it, yeah,
and it.
It was neat and it.
But my husband and I werecracking up the whole time
because the one couple is justus, like a million percent, like
I'm watching it, like I reallyneed this couple to make it to

(06:13):
the end, like still be good atthe end because I'm connecting
too hard.
I mean, there were moments wehad to pause it and laugh
because it was just so you so sous, um.
So yeah, I would highlyrecommend it, but it it also was
kind of um dishearteningbecause my relationship is so

(06:35):
stereotypical that it's in amovie, a tv show script.

Speaker 2 (06:39):
I don't think that's a bad thing yeah, no, it's not.

Speaker 1 (06:42):
But when you're feeling your feelings and you're
angry, you're like you're theworst.
But no, it's just how everybodyis.

Speaker 2 (06:50):
It's crazy, right.
At least you don't have crazyon your side.
I guess you used to.
The only fun and exciting thingI found is the other night.
I don't know if it popped up onthe Facebook or what, but it is
Star Trek spirits, wine andspirits, and I needed them all,

(07:16):
I don't drink that much I drink.
Literally the only time I drinkis when I do my shots of
Fireball right before we recordthat is literally the only time.
But they have Romulan ale it'svodka and it's blue andball
right before we record.
That is literally the answer.
But they have romulan ale it'svodka and it's blue and I need
it.
And they have klingon bloodwine and I don't like it's.
I think it was a cab.
I don't like red wine at all,but I need it because it says

(07:39):
klingon blood wine and they havea chateau picard.
It was 2, 22, 41 and I forgetthe other one, what the other
year was, but I needed them andthe bottles are beautiful well,
you would definitely drink thevodka.

Speaker 1 (07:57):
I would, yes, it is your drink of choice it is my
drink of choice blue vodka inparticular.

Speaker 2 (08:06):
It's lovely but yeah, I need, I need it um, but it's
expensive, so to hold off waittill I get, so y'all gotta make
us famous, so I can buy romeoand ale because it is illegal
yeah, I uh oh, I went to um aedgar allen post speakeasy you

(08:26):
were saying on friday nighthow'd that go um?

Speaker 1 (08:29):
well, first of all, it didn't start till 10 o'clock
and I am proud to say that meand my friend made it like
that's too late.
Yeah, drove home safe andeverything that's too late.
It's two hours, right, uh-huh,um.
So it's a like a travelingcircus kind of thing.
It's just five people, um,there were four men and one girl

(08:53):
and they're all probablymid-20s I would guess, and they
do everything.
So this one was held in like aum kind of a wedding venue with
a barn.
So they set up the barn andthat's where the show was.
Um, so they had different tableswith like baby dolls and edgar

(09:13):
allen poe stuff and they hadthis really old looking paper
and a feather pen for everybodyto sign in when they came in,
but it wasn't like orderly in abook, it was just random sheets
of paper and everybody was justwriting stuff and all the
lighting was cool, you knowpurple and green and blue and
red.
And then so they set all thatup and you come in and they

(09:35):
serve.
They did four readings,dramatic readings, sure, and
each reading had its own drinkthat went with it.
Oh, that's cool, yep, so theywould come out, serve the
cocktails, go in the back.
Somebody would come up, do thelittle intro for what was coming
up and then quote the ravennevermore that was one that they

(09:57):
did imagine.
That they did black cat, umtelltale heart, yes, which is
probably my favorite becauseI've always connected with it,
because that would totally be methe guilt, my anxiety, not the
guilt.
I don't think the anxiety ofthem finding it like I'm just

(10:17):
gonna go ahead and tell thembecause I can't.
Yeah, they're gonna find outeventually, so that's why I'll
never commit a crime with nicole, yeah, yeah yeah, it wouldn't
be the guilt it's no, I wouldnever squeal on you, but they
would break you easy.
I'm glad you know that about meI already do.

Speaker 2 (10:38):
Okay, I am impossible to break, but I was gonna say
if I ever kill anybody, I am amillion percent having you.
I can lock it down forever.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, and I knowthat that's the italian side of
me.

Speaker 1 (10:52):
Uh-huh, there are no right here yeah, so let's see
telltale heart, the raven blackcat, oh and uh, mask of the red
death.
Yeah, they were really, reallygood, and my favorite drink was
a bourbon with cream cinnamon.
It had an anista in it, oh mygosh, it was so good.

(11:16):
I can't do whiskey.
It was really, really fun,though we had an absolute blast.
And then yesterday I went allthe way to Philly to go to a
Phillies game and it gotpostponed until today.
So we did go to ReadingTerminal Market.

Speaker 2 (11:35):
I saw on Facebook.

Speaker 1 (11:36):
And we had lunch and moseyed around and came back
home and then the game's beingreplayed tonight.
But all three of us were likemeh and came back home and then
the game's being replayedtonight.
Yeah, but all three of us werelike meh, like maybe if it
wasn't cold and rainy againtoday it's a terrible day.
Yeah, if it was a bright, sunnyday maybe we would have tried

(11:59):
to make it work.
But really it's funny.
I'm old now.
Yesterday was enough.
I can't drive to Philly againTwo days in a row.
Are you crazy girl?
I hear you.

Speaker 2 (12:08):
My mom is always like oh, I really missed the season
tickets and I'm like I missgoing to the game.
I do not miss the three hourdrive at one o'clock in the
morning I do not miss every home.
Yes, I don't miss the walkingseven and a half miles to the
stadium I do not miss sittingout in the freezing freaking ass

(12:30):
cold or the blazing ass heat.
Yes, I do not miss any of thatI do.
If I could just teleport thereand then teleport back yes, but
that drive to philly is justespecially for, like a night
game.
And then then, on top of it, thenight games are just so rowdy,
and so I just I can't do itanymore yeah, and she has the

(12:55):
benefit of just sitting there,so she doesn't have to do any of
that she does teleport fromthere.

Speaker 1 (13:00):
So yeah, exactly no, I can't.

Speaker 2 (13:04):
I can't do it anymore .
Yeah, it's too much, especiallyeight games a year.
All right, that's a lot.

Speaker 1 (13:10):
I mean, the older you get, the better it is on tv
yeah, it really is.
You can see everything, yeahthey replay it, and now with the
.

Speaker 2 (13:19):
You know what you're.
You're closer on your tv thanyou are in in real life.
Oh yeah, so I don't know.

Speaker 1 (13:25):
Maybe I'm just old.

Speaker 2 (13:26):
Maybe I'm just a terrible fan, but can't do it.
You did your time.

Speaker 1 (13:31):
I did 25 years, I did my time yeah.

Speaker 2 (13:35):
Ended, one stadium opened another.
No more, can't do it Too old.
Was that all you had for thisweek?

Speaker 1 (13:45):
The only other thing I wanted to say was Happy
Belated Mother's Day to everyone.
I had a really nice day, justrelaxed.
I heard from all of my kids.
My son lives in California so Icouldn't see him.
My middle daughter and herhusband Came over and cooked me
dinner and my youngest Works ina restaurant, so she had to work

(14:08):
all day.
My middle daughter and herhusband came over and cooked me
dinner and my youngest works ina restaurant, so she had to work
all day because it's Mother'sDay.

Speaker 2 (14:14):
Oh my God, it was awful she was sending me texts.

Speaker 1 (14:16):
I was like I do not miss working Mother's Day in a
restaurant, but she door dashedme a box of insomnia cookies,
because I guess that's what the22 year olds are doing.

Speaker 2 (14:30):
They door dash.
You know what?
I was door dashing on Sundayand it was nothing but going to
Food Lion and picking up flowersand I was going to start doing
those.
And then on the Facebook pagefor people, I was reading it and
they were like don't do theshopping, there's no flowers
left, it's a pain in the ass.
You got to pick through crap.
It takes too long and I waslike all righty.

(14:51):
Then that will not be happeningfor me, but I mean it makes
total.

Speaker 1 (14:55):
I mean, at this point I just never really thought of
it like I was.
I heard, or my ring, let meknow somebody was at the front
door and I was like did somebodysend me flowers?

Speaker 2 (15:07):
That was another thing.
Floor shops you could pick upat florists too and door dash it
.
I don't know, it's crazy.
I didn't I grew weary of itreal quick.

Speaker 1 (15:21):
So I was like you know what.

Speaker 2 (15:22):
I'm just going to go sit in my house by myself, just
stare at the tv, because it'syour favorite thing to do.
It really is my.
I did get a happy mother's dayfrom my stepdaughter, so oh a
happy momster day.
Oh yes, because she calls mestep monster that is so sweet
I'm her, I, I, I asked her tocall me that at first and she

(15:43):
was like really.
And I was like I mean, wouldyou expect anything different
from?

Speaker 1 (15:47):
me and she was like nope so.

Speaker 2 (15:50):
I'm her stepmomster, but so I did get a happy
Mother's Day from her.

Speaker 1 (15:55):
That was very kind yes.

Speaker 2 (15:57):
The dogs didn't, the bird didn't.
Ungrateful bitches.

Speaker 1 (16:01):
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (16:02):
Always yeah, Okay.
So now that we got that out ofthe way, let us first, before I
say what I'm going to say, I didnot tell her until a half an
hour ago what the subject was.
I'm so excited she doesn't everread it anyway.
So I don't know.
I don't even know why Ibothered sending anything.
So let's fuck around and findout about Mount St Helens.

(16:26):
Heather loves a disaster.
My sources are USGSgov andvisit MountStHelenscom.
Both are really good sites andreally informative.
I so badly want to go.
Those of you that live outthere that listen.
I want to come out.

Speaker 1 (16:48):
I want to see it.

Speaker 2 (16:51):
So Mount St Helens, it was 8,364 feet currently Well
, actually not currently, but9,677 feet before it erupted.
It's located in southwesternWashington, about 50 miles
northeast of Portland, oregon.
Also, I want to go to Portland.
It's one of several loftyvolcanic peaks that dominate the

(17:15):
Cascade Range of the PacificNorthwest.
Geologists call Mount St Helensa composite volcano or
stratovolcano.
Call Mount St Helens acomposite volcano or
stratovolcano a term for asteep-sided, often symmetrical
cone constructed of alternatinglayers of lava flows, ash and
other volcanic debris.
Composite volcanoes tend toerupt explosively and pose

(17:36):
considerable danger to nearbylife and property.
In contrast, the gentle,sloping shield volcanoes such as
those in Hawaii, typicallyerupt non-explosively, producing
fluid lavas that can flow greatdistances from the active vents
.

Speaker 1 (17:50):
I don't think I really realized that I did not
either.
It just never really occurredto me.

Speaker 2 (17:56):
Me either, and so when I was learning about it, I
was like that makes total sense.
It does make sense.

Speaker 1 (18:01):
Like I wonder if Pompeii was a cone.

Speaker 2 (18:04):
I don't know, I didn't look it up.
It had to have been because itsent ash everywhere.

Speaker 1 (18:09):
Yeah, and it was fast .

Speaker 2 (18:11):
Yes, from my understanding, when it's a cone,
I guess it doesn't have a vent,so it blows as your husband
said earlier, I can't believeyou're going to give me that I
am.

Speaker 1 (18:22):
I'm giving him credit .

Speaker 2 (18:26):
It's an earth zit, but the ones in Hawaii, like you
can fly over them and see downin them and they're always like
spewing lava and stuff.
They're just a constant vent, Iguess, and this one's not Makes
sense.
Yeah, I never thought about iteither.
And then, when I was doing this, I was like, oh, you know what?

Speaker 1 (18:46):
How about that?

Speaker 2 (18:48):
Now I know something about volcanoes.
The ones in Hawaii may destroyproperty, but they rarely cause
death or injury because they'reso slow.
Not slow, but you know it'scoming, you know it's coming.
Mount St Helens and otheractive cascade volcanoes and

(19:18):
those of Alaska compromise theNorth American segment of the
Pacific Ring of Fire, anotorious zone that produces
frequent, often destructiveearthquake volcanic activity.
I love, I have always lovedthat phrase the Ring of Fire.

Speaker 1 (19:23):
Yes For that, yes, the whole Pacific.
Yes, somebody really nailed itwhen they really did probably it
was probably natives.

Speaker 2 (19:29):
Yeah, that'd be my guess for sure.
Um, mount saint helens is theyoungest of the major cascade
volcanoes, in the sense that itis visible.
Cone was entirely formed duringthe past 2200 years, well after
the melting of the last of theeight ice age glaciers about 10
000 years ago.
Mount st helens smooth,symmetrical slopes are little

(19:51):
affected by erosion as comparedwith its older, more glacially
scarred neighbors mount rainierand mount adam in adams in
washington and mount hood inoregon.
The local indigenous people andearly settlers in the then
sparsely populated regionwitnessed the occasional violent
outbursts of Mount St Helens.
The most recent of the pre-1980eruptive activity began in 1800

(20:15):
with an explosive eruptionfollowed by several additional
minor explosions and extrusionsof lava, and ended with the
formation of the Goat Rocks LavaDome by 1857.
Cool, so now I'm going to giveyou the history.
300,000 years ago.

(20:36):
We're going to go back in time.
Wow, the stratovolcano known asMount St Helens or I wrote this
phonetically down thereLutolata.
Lutolata Formed when the Juande Fuco tectonic plates
subducted under the NorthAmerican one.

(20:57):
So that's, of course, how allmountain ranges are formed,
where they bump plates.

Speaker 1 (21:03):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (21:04):
And that's earthquakes and all that happy
geological shit.
So if you're a geologist, maybeturn this off.
It's not going to be good foryou.
You're going to be screaming atus 1850 BCE, which I did not
realize that we were now doingBCE, which is before the common

(21:27):
era.

Speaker 1 (21:28):
I had heard that.

Speaker 2 (21:29):
I knew we had changed it and it was no longer before
Christ, which is what BC wasbefore right.

Speaker 1 (21:35):
Right.

Speaker 2 (21:35):
Yeah, we're not doing that anymore, right.

Speaker 1 (21:37):
So now it's BCE Supposedly Right.
I don't see a big push to makeit.

Speaker 2 (21:43):
The Mount St Helens website uses.
Bce.
Good for them.
So that is before the CommonEra.
The volcano experiences whatscientists consider its biggest
eruption ever Of 5 to 10 cubickilometers of material, about 5
to 10 times bigger than 1980.
Bigger than 1980, a thousandbce.

(22:11):
A series of lava flows begin toform the edifice we now known
as mount st helens, making thepeak younger than the great
pyramids of giza wow, I knowit's so crazy when you think
about this shit and you're likehold on what it's so hard to
wrap your head around.
It really is like it's justyou're that, but that's been
there forever.
No, that's crazy.

(22:31):
1792.
Explorer George Vancouver namesthe peak after fellow Brit
Alian Fitzherbert Baron, stHelens, sure, but the local
Native American tribe, theCowalitz tribe, had long called
it Luleta or Smoker.

Speaker 1 (22:50):
In the 50s.

Speaker 2 (22:51):
That's a much better name.
Yes, A hundred percent.
In the 50s through the 70s theykind of just jammed that all
together.
There must not have been awhole lot of shit happening in
those years, or no one cared.
Spirit Lake at the foot of themountain becomes a camping and
fishing destination lined withcabins, a YMCA camp and Mount St

(23:13):
Helen's Lodge run by a colorfulWorld War I vet, Harry Truman.

Speaker 1 (23:18):
No not that Harry Truman, because I fell for it
for a second.

Speaker 2 (23:23):
It's a different Harry Truman, and we'll talk
about him later.
1975, the US Geological Surveygeologists forecasted that Mount
St Helens would erupt again,possibly before the end of the
century.
Foreshadowing In the spring of1980, geologists converged on

(23:45):
Vancouver, washington, including30-year-old US geology survey
volcanologist and University ofWashington PhD grad, david A
Johnston.
He showed up because no one'sever been able to study an
eruption like this up closebefore.
There's a reason for that, alsoforeshadowing he did not.

Speaker 1 (24:04):
He might have seen it up close, but he didn't live to
tell about it.

Speaker 2 (24:10):
So March 1980, magnitude 4.1 earthquake signals
a reawakening eruption of ashand steam.
March 16th is the first sign ofactivity.
A hundred earthquakes in a week.
I know I don't know about youpeople up there.
I know you get earthquakes andI can't even imagine a fucking

(24:31):
earth how do you even know whenone ends and one starts?
A hundred in a week.
I don't know, that's scary.
When I went to alaska like Iwas like please do not have an
earth.

Speaker 1 (24:42):
I don't know why I'm so fucking scared of earthquakes
, but oh, I was in an earthquakein san francisco no, thank you
yeah, when I went out there Idon't know eight, nine, ten
years ago, ten more than that,um, anyway.
Uh, we were staying in like ahigh-rise hotel in the middle of
the city and I was in theshower and my youngest daughter

(25:05):
was in bed still sleeping and Ifelt a rump, like I thought it
was somebody pushing a cleaningcart or something down the
hallway like it was rumbled likethat and then I got out of the
shower and all over the news wehad just had an earthquake and
like stuff fell off the shelvesand stuff like it was strong

(25:28):
enough for that I in in lower instores and things like that.
Nothing fell in our hotel room,I don't think we have that one
here.

Speaker 2 (25:37):
Yeah, that cracked the um.
The washington monument in dcgave it a little.
I didn't feel that I don't knowwhy I was at the restaurant.

Speaker 1 (25:44):
I don't know if because the floor is cut, I
don't know, but I was like theonly one that didn't notice it I
was in, I was driving, but Iwas lucky that I was at a stop
sign, because I was sitting at astop sign and I honestly, god,
thought somebody had run up andwas jumping up and down on my
back bumper.
And I'm looking all in themirrors and there's nothing
there and I was like what wasthat bumper?

(26:05):
and I'm looking all in themirrors and there's nothing
there and I was like what wasthat ghost?

Speaker 2 (26:07):
yeah, I don't, I don't know.
I don't know why earthquakesbother me so much.
We, I mean I it's scary.
I mean I guess because you'renot, it's not something you're
familiar.
I'm sure if you live over thereand you've experienced them a
million times in your life, thenyou, you probably are more
scared of a hurricane oralthough tornadoes is like the
worst, the worst.
There's no way.
I could no live, I'm nevergoing.
Sorry guys who live in tornadoalley I could not do it but

(26:31):
again, I guess, if you grow upthere, I guess I mean well, I
mean so for them, probably youknow it's what it runs over your
house in like three seconds,five seconds, whereas a
hurricane is like a goodsustained four or five hours of
wind.
Yeah, true.
Well, we don't get that here,so we don't get the big

(26:54):
hurricanes here, so we actuallydon't have.
I'll stop saying that, becausewe'll get a tsunami tomorrow.
I'll be at work floating aroundin the mail truck, because I'm
pretty sure that will float.
Uh, okay, so that was march,the 100 earthquakes in a week.
March 24th 20 earthquakes in anhour.

(27:16):
So I don't know how you wouldnot know, it was all the same
earthquake.

Speaker 1 (27:21):
Right.

Speaker 2 (27:23):
March 27th, a 250-foot crater opened.
Ooh.
March 28th 12 more eruptions.
March 30th 93 explosions in oneday.
So if you don't see this coming, Right, Like, okay, come on now

(27:43):
.
Because I remember it it's way.
When I did the research on itit was way different than what I
actually remembered it in mybrain because I thought it, just
like I knew that they hadwarning, because I've seen I'll
talk about the docudrama later,but I've seen that a couple
times and I knew they they had,they knew it was coming and they

(28:05):
told people but it was likenobody believed it.
But when researching it I feellike it was a lot less dramatic.
I mean, people died, right,people die in every disaster.

Speaker 1 (28:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (28:19):
The hurricane takes four days to get here and they
tell everybody to get out of thebowl that they're living in
because it's going to fill withwater.
Yeah, People died, so you knowyou can't.
Anyway.

Speaker 1 (28:36):
Sorry, New Orleans.
You did warn us that you'vebeen angry.
Don't give a look.

Speaker 2 (28:41):
I am going to do Katrina because I have to get it
out of my brain.
Katrina is like Katrina I don'tknow what the word for it is Is
just I cannot ever stopthinking about katrina okay,
ever.
There's one person inparticular in the whole katrina

(29:04):
nonsense that haunts me I meanhaunts me.
His name is hardy jackson.
He haunts me.
I just I can never get theimages of Katrina.
The whole way, the whole thingwas just fucking blown and it
just Katrina.

(29:24):
Yeah.
So prepare yourselves becauseI'm going to be angry on that
one.
April 1st 1980.
Plumes of ash and steam reach20,000 feet.
See again, I don't remember any, I just remember it blowing.

Speaker 1 (29:40):
Well you would have been five, I know, but I
remember a lot, that's true, Imight have been living in a van.

Speaker 2 (29:45):
No, I was in school by then.
Yeah, you think, yeah, uh.
April 3rd, the crater grew toabout 1,300 feet in diameter.
April 8th explosions last fourhours the longest yet, like four
hours, again four hours ofexplosions.

(30:06):
You got to think to yourselfyeah, this bitch is going to
blow.

Speaker 1 (30:09):
Yeah, You're just down there watching your stories
eating your lunch.

Speaker 2 (30:14):
You know you're getting 100 in a day.

Speaker 1 (30:17):
Well, probably part of the problem is you don't know
when, and it's happeninggradually and slowly, like when
a wildfire is coming coming atyour house and your tires are
melting on your car.
You know you gotta go.

Speaker 2 (30:33):
It's time to go go um april 22nd, eruption average
drops to one per day from oneper hour see that's.
That's when you gotta worry ina some prepping in some point in
april, which I didn't give adate officials designate red,

(30:53):
which is dangerous, and blue,which is permitted workers only
zones around the mountain andmost residents are evacuated.
So in april they're like ohyeah, this shit's gonna go.
This is, this is gonna be aproblem.
May 7th to may 17th, smalleruptions resume.
More than 10 000 occurred andthe north flank grew outward 450

(31:16):
feet to form a prominent bulgegrowing six and a half feet a
day.
This was evidence that magmahad risen high into the volcano.
Also, it is the Earth's it.
I love it, I don't care.
May 18th 1980 at 830 am, anearthquake with a magnitude of

(31:37):
5.1 on the Richter scaletriggered a gigantic landslide
on the mountains.
North-based the north slopefell away in an avalanche the
largest debris avalanche everrecorded.
That was followed and overtakenby a lateral air blast which
carried a high-velocity cloud ofsuperheated ash and stone
outwarded 15 miles.

Speaker 1 (32:11):
It didn't travel the ground.
No that's the air and the ash.

Speaker 2 (32:15):
Okay, it started and yeah, it blew it, and that's the
air.
The land it was, but it wasn'tmoving quite at 300 miles an
hour.
Right, the avalanche andlateral blast were followed by
mud flows, pyroclastic flows andfloods that buried the river

(32:40):
valleys around Mount St Helensin deep layers of mud and debris
as far as 17 miles away.
So the landslide made it 17miles, the hot air made it 15.
So eventually, the landslidebeat it, the landslide dang beat

(33:03):
it.
The lateral blast devastated anearly area, nearly 372 square
miles, in an inner zoneextending six miles from the
summit.
Virtually no trees remained ofa dense forest.
Beyond this area, all standingtrees were blown down and at the
blast's outer limits theremaining trees were seared.
Pyroclastic flows poured out ofthe crater at 50 to 80 miles
per hour and spread five milesto the north, creating the

(33:25):
Pumice Plain.
Meanwhile, simultaneous withthe blast, a vertical eruption
of gas and ash formed a columnsome 16 miles high that produced
ash falls as far as centralMontana.

Speaker 1 (33:40):
That's crazy.

Speaker 2 (33:47):
Complete darkness occurred in Spokane, Washington,
about 250 miles northeast ofthe volcano Laheres, which I
also phonetically spelled outLaheres, laheres formed when hot
rocks and gas melted the snowand ice on the volcano flowing
down river valleys around thevolcano.
Oh, I know I was like oh shit,yeah, there's like snow and shit
that's got to go somewhere.

(34:08):
The largest and mostdestructive Laher occurred in
the North Fork of the TuttleRiver.
The Laher's destroyed bridgesand homes, eventually flowing
into the Cowlitz River, which inturn flowed into thetle River.
The La Jers destroyed bridgesand homes, eventually flowing
into the Cowlitz River, which inturn flowed into the Columbia
River.
57 people died, largely fromasphyxiation, mostly in areas
outside the red and blue zones.

(34:29):
Shows how much they know.
They should have probably madethose areas wider.
Most fishing, camping and hiking.
So that's where my problem isDon't do that.
The eruptive event ends aboutnine hours later, after a column

(34:51):
of ash rises 18 miles in theair and some 1,300 feet of
mountain blows off, reducing theheight of Mount St Helens to
8,366 feet.
540 million tons of ash fall intotal.

Speaker 1 (35:06):
This is so interesting because it's nothing
I've ever really thought aboutbefore, so all this information
is just like wow you know itblew and you know people died
Right and you can watch it on.

Speaker 2 (35:18):
YouTube they have video and you can.
You can watch it right on uhyoutube.
They have video of it, you canwatch it.
I did so remember harry rtruman from earlier uh.
He was born in october of 1896and died may 18th 1980 he was an
American businessman,bootlegger and prospector.

(35:40):
He lived near Mount St Helensand was the owner and caretaker
of Mount St Helens Lodge atSpirit Lake, near the base of
the mountain.
Truman came to fame as a folkhero in the weeks leading up to
the volcano's eruption, afterrefusing to leave his home,
despite repeated orders toevacuate his home, despite
repeated orders to evacuate.
Although Truman was alreadywell known by local residents

(36:01):
for his various antics, hebecame an even bigger celebrity.
During the two months ofvolcanic activity preceding the
deadly eruption, truman gaveseveral interviews to reporters
and expressed his opinion thatthe danger of a volcanic
eruption was exaggerated.
I don't have any idea whetherit will blow, he said, but I
don't believe it to the pointthat I'm gonna pack up.
Truman displayed little concernabout the volcano and his

(36:25):
situation.
If the mountain goes, I'm goingwith it.
This area is heavily timbered.
Spirit lake is in between meand the mountain and the
mountain is a mile away.
The mountain ain't going tohurt me.

Speaker 1 (36:40):
Well, you said it probably didn't hurt.
That's true.

Speaker 2 (36:44):
I didn't say that yet .

Speaker 1 (36:47):
Oh, I didn't get that Foreshadowing.

Speaker 2 (36:52):
Spoiler alert.
Law enforcement and ForestService officials were
frustrated by his refusal toevacuate, because the media
continued to enter the volcano'srestricted zone to interview
him, endangering themselves inthe process.
Still, truman remainedsteadfast.
You couldn't pull me out withthe mule team, the mountain's

(37:12):
part of truman and truman's partof that mountain that's right.
He told reporters that he wasknocked from his bed by
precursor earthquakes, so heresponded by moving his bed to
the basement he was uh, um,what's the word?

Speaker 1 (37:28):
I'm looking for problem solver.

Speaker 2 (37:30):
I guess that was the problem solved.
Damn, your damn earthquakeskeep knocking me out of bed.
I'm gonna move my bed to thebasement under the earth.
He claimed to wear spurs to bedto cope with the earthquake.
While he slept it held him inthe back.

(37:51):
He wrote it like a.
He was quite.
You can look up a lot of hisstuff.
Yeah, he was the salt of theearth.
He scoffed at the public'sconcern for his safety,
responding to scientists' claimabout the threat of the volcano
that the mountain had shot itswad and it hadn't hurt my place

(38:11):
a bit.
But those goddamn geologistswith their hair down to their
butts wouldn't pay no attentionto old Truman.
Goddamn hippies, yep.
As a result of his defiantcommentary, truman became an
impromptu folk hero and was thesubject of many songs and poems
by children.

(38:31):
Really, this is just two months, like, literally.
It's like March to May.
Wow, he is the og influencerliterally went out in a ball of
fire.
He literally had 15 minutes ofpain yeah one group of school
children from salem oregon, senthim banners inscribed harry, we

(38:52):
love you, which moved him somuch that he took a helicopter
trip, arranged and paid for bynational national geographic, to
visit them on may 14th.
He also received many fanletters, including several
marriage proposals.
A group of fifth grade studentsfrom grand blanc, michigan,
wrote letters that brought himto tears.

(39:13):
In return, he sent them aletter and volcanic ash, which
the children later sold to sendflowers to his family after the
eruption.

Speaker 1 (39:22):
That had to have been so traumatizing for those kids.
Yes, like you just met this manfour days ago.
Yes, and he's your hero.

Speaker 2 (39:29):
Yes, and now he's gone.

Speaker 1 (39:32):
It's like the challenger, I know.

Speaker 2 (39:35):
So to that.
I don't know.
If you don't, you're not on thetickety-tock.
So there's apparently someinfluencer or someone going
around saying that we're alllying about the Challenger, that
we didn't sit in class andwatch it happen, and then they
just wheeled it out and we wenton about our day.
The whole lot of us, all ofeveryone who has the exact same

(40:00):
story.
We all must have gottentogether pre-influence do they
know?

Speaker 1 (40:06):
there's video like actual video of kids sitting
sitting in classrooms and youknow, google is your friend.

Speaker 2 (40:18):
Truman calls a media frenzy.
Appearing on the front pages ofthe New York Times and the San
Francisco Examiner andattracting the attention of
National Geographic, unitedPress International and the
Today Show.
Many major magazines composedprofiles, including Time, life,
newsweek, field and Stream, andReader's Digest.
I fucking love Reader's Digest.
I know we've talked aboutReader's Digest before.

Speaker 1 (40:40):
That was my favorite, me too, from a very early age,
I know.
I think the comedic littleparagraphs were my favorite, the
funny little short stories.

Speaker 2 (40:55):
Love Reader's.

Speaker 1 (40:56):
Digest yeah.

Speaker 2 (40:58):
Historian Richard W Slata wrote that his fiery
attitude, brash speech, love ofthe outdoors and fierce
independence made him a folkhero the media could adore.
He pointed to truman'sunbendable character and
response to the force of natureas a source of his rise to fame,
and the interviews with himadded color to reports about the

(41:19):
events at Mount St Helens.
Truman was immortalized,according to Slata, with many of
the embellished qualities ofthe Western hero, and the media
spotlight created a persona thatwas in some ways quite
different from his truecharacter.
Spoiler alert he died.
Spoiler alert he died.

(41:43):
As the likelihood of a majoreruption increased, staff
officials ordered an evacuationof that area, with the exception
of a few scientists andsecurity officials.
On saturday, may 17th, locallaw enforcement made one final
attempt to persuade truman toleave his home, to no avail on
sunday, may 18th, which May 18ththis year is almost Sunday also
.

Speaker 1 (42:00):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 2 (42:01):
It's the 45th anniversary.
I don't think they call it ananniversary.
What do they call it?

Speaker 1 (42:08):
Well, what do they call 9-11?

Speaker 2 (42:11):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (42:12):
I don't remember.

Speaker 2 (42:15):
That was terrible.
That was a terrible joke.
That was awful.
Too soon 22, 34 years laterhowever long it's been anyway um
.
On sunday, may 18th, at 8 32,mount st helens erupted,
collapsing the entire northflank of the mountain.
Truman and all of his 16 catswere all presumed to have died

(42:38):
in the eruption no not the cats.
All 16 of his cats.
He had 16 cats.
I thought I put that in therebut I might have deleted it out
because I thought I don't knowwhat.
I thought Truman and his 16cats were all presumed to have
died in the eruption.
All likely died of heat shockin less than a second, too
quickly to register the pain.

(42:59):
So that's good news it is goodand he was really old.
I don't know about the cats,they probably weren't old.

Speaker 1 (43:05):
But yeah, I mean, I know it's cliche, but talk about
diane doing what you love likethat's true story.

Speaker 2 (43:11):
He had the museum and everything like, or in and he
had the end at the bottom.
Yeah, yeah, I just it's crazy.

Speaker 1 (43:19):
What else was he going to do?
Go live somewhere else, exactly.

Speaker 2 (43:23):
I think probably when you get that old you're just
like I got to die of somethingRight.
Right Sounds good to me.
It's going to go quick.
Yeah, it's better than a longdrawn out cancer like I'm gonna
have.
The largest landslide inrecorded history and pyro

(43:44):
classic flow traveling atop thelandslide engulfed the spirit
lake area almost simultaneously,destroying the lake and burying
the site of truman's lodgeunder 150 feet of volcanic
landslide debris.
Authorities never searched fortruman's remains.
Truman considered his cat'sfamily and mentioned them in
almost all public statements.
Initially, truman's friendshoped that he possibly survived,

(44:09):
as he had claimed to haveprovisioned a nearby abandoned
mine shaft with food and liquorin case of an eruption.
But the lack of any immediatewarning of the eruption would
almost certainly have preventedhim from escaping to the shaft
before the flow reached hislodge less than a minute after
the eruption began.
Even if truman had made itthere, the landslide would have

(44:31):
made any rescue impossible.
Truman's sister, geraldine, saidthat she found it hard to
accept the reality of his death.
I don't think he made it, but Ithought if they would let me
fly over and see for myself thatHarry's Lodge is gone, then
maybe I'd believe it for sure.
Truman's niece, shirley Rosen,added that her uncle thought he
could escape the volcano but wasnot expecting the lateral

(44:54):
eruption.
The lateral eruption.
She stated that her sister tookhim a bottle of bourbon whiskey
to persuade him to evacuate,but he was too afraid to drink
the alcohol at the time becausehe was unsure whether the
shaking was coming from his bodyor the earthquake so she
brought him the whiskey to tryto get him to leave.

Speaker 1 (45:11):
Yes, but then she just left the whiskey there with
him, like why didn't she holdit and walk backwards?
Towards the car and be likecome and get it little shots on
the throw it in the car.

Speaker 2 (45:23):
When he jumps in for it, just lock the door.
No, we're just going to theliquor store.
Truman owned a second homelocated between washagow and
steson Washington.

Speaker 1 (45:36):
Sorry if.

Speaker 2 (45:37):
I just fucked that up .
Washagow and his possessionswere auctioned off there as
keepsakes to admirers inSeptember of 1980.

Speaker 1 (45:47):
All right, I didn't know that he had another house.
Mm-hmm, all right, I'm going tosay he was ready to go.

Speaker 2 (45:55):
He was ready to go.

Speaker 1 (45:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (45:59):
Truman's friend, john Garrity, added the mountain and
the lake were his life.
If he'd left and saw what themountain did to his lake, it
would have killed him anyway,Yep, he always said he wanted to
die at Spirit Lake.
He went the way he wanted to go.

Speaker 1 (46:12):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (46:12):
Yeah Good.
Truman's niece, shirley, statedhe used to say that's my
mountain and my lake.
And he would say those are myarms and my legs.
And she also said if he wouldhave seen it the way it is now,
I don't think he would havesurvived.
And his cousin, richard ice,commented that truman's short
period as a celebrity was thepeak of his life.

(46:32):
Truman was the subject of thebooks truman of saint helens,
the man and his mountain,written by his niece, and and
the Legend of Harry Truman,written by his sister.
He was portrayed by Art Carney,his favorite actor in the 1981
docudrama St Helens.
Memorabilia was sold in thearea surrounding Mount St Helens

(46:55):
, including Harry Truman hats,pictures, posters and postcards.
Because capitalism?

Speaker 1 (47:01):
rules, man, they didn't waste any time getting
that docuseries out either.

Speaker 2 (47:04):
No, I know, I thought when I was like, I was like,
really it was that fucking fast.

Speaker 1 (47:10):
Damn, that's like Netflix speed Right.

Speaker 2 (47:14):
A restaurant named after him was opened in
Anchorage, alaska, servingthemed dishes such as Harry's
Hot Molten Chili.
According to the WashingtonStar, more than 100 songs had
been composed in Truman's honorby 1981.
A hundred A hundredcommemorative album entitled the

(47:35):
Musical Legend of Harry Trumana very special collection of
Mount St Helens volcanic songs,which seems like so long of a
title of an album.
It really is.
Lulabelle Garland wrote theLegend of Harry and the Mountain
, which was recorded in 1980 byRon Shaw and the Desert Wind
Band.
Musicians Ron Allen and StephenAsplen wrote a country rock

(47:59):
song in 1980 called Harry Truman, your Spirit Still Lives On.
One of the major charactersfrom the first two seasons of
the TV show Twin Peaks was namedSheriff Harry S Truman.
In his honor, billy Jonasincluded Truman's narrative in
his song Old St Helen in 1993,and he is the subject of the

(48:20):
2007 song Harry Truman, writtenand recorded by Irish band
Headgear Interesting.

Speaker 1 (48:27):
Now you know the rest of the story.

Speaker 2 (48:31):
Truman Trail and Harry's Ridge in the Mount St
Helens region were named afterhim.
Mount St Helens region werenamed after him.
The Harry R Truman MemorialPark was named in his honor in
Castle Rock, Washington, thoughit later was named Castle Rock
Lions Club Volunteer Park.
St Helens is a 1981 May.
Oh, so I didn't push that down.
So, yeah, I think it's greatthat this Harry R Truman guy got

(48:54):
like.
I mean it's kind of sad that's56 other people to not get this
much recognition but I'm suretheir name is on a plaque
somewhere um, it sounds like hedeserved it I think so it's just

(49:16):
you gotta look.
It's a great story.
It is so the 1981, made forcable HBO television film, which
I guess was the Netflix of the1980s yes, directed by Ernest
Pintoff and starred DavidHuffman, art Carney, cassie
Yates and Albert Salmi.

(49:38):
The film centers on the eventsleading up to the cataclysmic
eruption, with the storybeginning on the day volcanic
activity started, on march 20th,and ending on the day of the
eruption.
The film premiered on may 18th1981, on the first anniversary
of the eruption.
United states geological Surveyvolcanist David Jackson a

(49:59):
fictionalized version of David AJohnson arrives to investigate
the activity.
Spoiler alert he dies.
So what I remember?
The main thing that sticks outfrom this I think we had HBO
then maybe we were fancy and hadhbo um, I remember them telling

(50:25):
him he had to leave and he wastrying the mostly what I
remember, and I meant to find itso I could watch it and I
didn't.
Um, he's trying to geteverybody to leave and they
don't want to leave, which Ithink is what made me think that
it was not just 57.
Not that it's not just 57people that died, but way bigger
of an issue than it was.

(50:47):
And I just remember like acabin and he was in this cabin?
I don't know, I meant to watchit again, but I didn't.
Anyway, that's the summer, okay.
So now it's all done.
Bada boom, bada bang.
Now we're going to go through.

(51:08):
Since the eruption.

Speaker 1 (51:10):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (51:10):
Summer of 1980.
Small eruptive activitycontinues through October as
geologists get the chance tostudy a major eruption firsthand
.
Used through october, asgeologists get the chance to
study a major eruption firsthand, a few visiting the volcano hot
spot.
Visiting from volcano hot spot,hawaii.
Roast a pig on the pyro, let'stake flow the scorching hot gas
emissions.

(51:31):
That's a very hawaiian thing todo.
The annual barbecue traditionstill continues.
Among the usgs cascades volcanoobservatory.
Scientists, albeit in someone'sbackyard.
June to october 1980, umcontinuing eruptions destroy a
lava dome inside the creator anda new dome forms.

(51:51):
September of 1980, weyerhaeuserCompany begins salvaging some
of the 62,000 acres of timberand young plantation damaged by
the blast.
1982, congress designates MountSt Helens as America's first
national volcanic monument.
I know that seems like Amonument.

(52:14):
Shouldn't Hawaii have the first?
I'm saying they have a lot more.
And they're all volcano, aren'tthey?

Speaker 1 (52:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (52:24):
Okay, sorry, hawaii, screw you, I guess.
2004 to 2008.
A four-year eruption serieslooks markedly different from
its famous 1980 predecessor.
Four-year eruption series looksmarkedly different from its
famous 1980 predecessor, thoughless intense, intensely dramatic
.
These events included plumes ofash and lava extrusions that

(52:45):
eventually build a dome athousand feet high.
I remember that.
Do you remember that in theearly aughts?

Speaker 1 (52:53):
remember early when I was like I don't think, so I
put this out of order too, goddamn it.

Speaker 2 (53:02):
So we're going to go back a bit.
1987, volcano Summit reopenedto recreational climbing and the
US Army Corps of Engineersbuilds a dam to hold back
sediment carried downstream bythe north face of the Tuttle
River.
In 1994, the reconstructed52-mile-long Spirit Lake
Memorial Highway opens totraffic, connecting Castle Rock

(53:25):
to stunning viewpoints in theblast zone.
September 23, 2004,.
The mountain stirs with aflurry of earthquakes.
October 2, 2004, sustainedtremors inside the mountain
indicate movement of magma.
The Forest Service evacuates.

(53:49):
Visitor from the Johnson RidgeObservatory.
Wow.
January 16th 2005.
A 17-minute explosion eruptiondestroys instruments inside the
creator.
Creator.
Creator.
March 8th 2005.

Speaker 1 (54:07):
Hey that's my birthday.
Yes, the mountains.
You know, when I was writingthat, I was like, hey, that's
Nicole's birthday, oh, and, bythe way, I did say when I drove
past Cursor oh, it's still there.
I did say when I drove pastCursor I was like, oh, there's
where what used to be whereHeather was born, that's the sad
bones of where Heather was bornthat's what you use as a

(54:29):
skeleton man.

Speaker 2 (54:33):
I'm surprised it didn't close the day after I was
born no, it's closed.
I know I'm saying.
I sucked the soul straight outof it.
When I was born no, it's closed.
I know I'm saying I suck thesoul when I was born they were
like oh man, some kind of portalfrom hell opened up in this
bitch.
We better shut it down.
I don't have a portal to hellyet march 8, 2005, nicole's

(54:56):
birthday.
The mountain sends ash and steamto an altitude of 3600 36 000
feet wowing spectators justbefore sunset that I remember
that.
I can't believe you don'tremember it because it was on
your birthday.
I mean, if a volcano erupted onmy birthday, I would be like,
oh God, yeah, that's the portalto hell.

(55:18):
I speak of Early 2008,.
Dome building slows to a haltand seismic activity drops.
July 13, 2008, scientistsdeclare that the 2004 to 2008
eruption has ended.
After building a new 125million cubic yard lava dome

(55:42):
2020, mount St Helens hasrebuilt about 7% of the mass it
lost in the explosive 80eruption.
So fun facts, I know.

Speaker 1 (55:53):
I know you love them, I love them.
It was really hard to find funfacts and this story has been
fun facts the whole way throughFun fact.

Speaker 2 (56:02):
I'm going to name it fun fact.
I'm going to have to startcalling.
You know, when I was doing it Iwas like I should start calling
it.
Not so fun facts.
When it's a disaster, althoughthese are anyway.
The volcanic ash cloud driftedeast across the United States in

(56:23):
three days and encircled Earthin 15 days.
Get out.
You would think we wouldremember that, because we get
the goddamn smoke from NewJersey all the time and the
smoke from Canada all the time.

Speaker 1 (56:31):
You would think so, would people have seen it as it
passed?

Speaker 2 (56:34):
Would they have been like oh, there it goes.
No, I think it would have justno Okay.

Speaker 1 (56:38):
I think it as it passed.

Speaker 2 (56:39):
Would they have been like oh, there it goes.
No, I think it would have, justno, okay, I think it's probably
way up there.
Yeah, it's just, I don't, Imean I don't know, I don't
remember that's a little.
Um so la hares, volcanic mudflows filled rivers with rock,
sand and mud, damaging 27bridges and 200 homes and
forcing 31 ships to remain inport upstream.

(57:01):
Wow, permanently, permanently, Icut them off oh, wow um it is
was the most economicallydestructive volcanic event in us
history.
Small plants and trees, beneathwinter snow and roots protected

(57:22):
by soil, survived the eruptionand now thrive.
Thousands of birds, mammals,reptiles, amphibians and
millions of hatcheringfingerlings perished in the
eruption.
Yeah, of course.
Yeah, that's going to happen.
That's a not so fun fact.
That's a not so fun fact.
That's a not so fun fact.
In late May, wind dispersed,spiders and scavenging beetles

(57:44):
were among the first animals toreturn to the Mount St Helens
area.
Of course, which is what is likethe most crazy thing, like okay
, we know I don't believe in God, right, whatever you want to
believe in with the mothernature.
I don't know how much of it,but goddamn wind was blowing

(58:05):
spiders and scavenging beetlesto the area.
It's just like insane.
How like there I don't rememberwhat plant it is, it's some
plant that grows in, like forest, fiery areas.
The only way it reproduces isby fire.
Yeah, like the pod has to belit on fire for it to pop to

(58:28):
make more.
So it's like earth is crazy.
Right, it's just insane.
Yeah, so the wind blows inspiders and beetles and then,
boom, life begins again.
It's just it's.
I don't know.
That's that part Like.

Speaker 1 (58:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (58:46):
If you don't believe in any of that, that's the one
where you're just like.
I mean, obviously somebodyknows what they're doing here.
Yes, for that crazy.
Yeah, yeah.
The landscape devastated by theeruption has evolved into a
rich and diverse habitat forplants and animals.
Effects of the eruption continue.
Today, biologists help wildsalmon and steelhead by giving

(59:10):
them a tank truck ride to thepristine clear creeks above
sediment choked rivers.
I know Now I need to go atwhenever salmon run.
Yeah, I guess that's that's notso much like, but they would
have found a way without seehere's what's what.
So would they have found a wayaround on their own, or did

(59:31):
mother nature make people to doit as their way wearing very
interesting.
She's probably like that was afailed experiment they're
burning more gas than they'resaving anything in their tanker
trucks.
These poor fish have no ideawhat is happening.

(59:54):
I feel like they got abductedby aliens.
Since 1986, snow and rockaccumulating in the deep shaded
crater formed Crater Glacier,the youngest glacier on Earth.
October 2004 to January 2008,.

(01:00:23):
Growing lava domes displacedand then divided Crater into
east and west lobes.
The ice lobes moved downslopeas fast as six feet per day,
converging below the lava dome alittle more than three years
later, during the 2004 to 2008eruptions, mount st helens
settled one half inch due tomagma withdrawing beneath the
volcano.
The Global Positioning SystemGPS instrument that detected the

(01:00:49):
settling of Mount St Helens candetect movement of as little as
one sixteenth of an inch anduses less power than a
refrigerator light bulb.

Speaker 1 (01:00:55):
I was thinking that it's nuts that they have an
instrument like where are youeven measuring from to say it
was half an inch?
Like where is the bottom right?
I?

Speaker 2 (01:01:09):
don't know, but but so that gps can tell if it's 1
16th of an inch.
Meanwhile, google maps can'tfigure out that there's not a
street that I can't drivethrough and off the side of the
bridge, which is what it wantedme to do for the longest time.

(01:01:29):
Anytime I went over the baybridge, just in the middle of it
would be like turn left and I'mlike like no, that's maybe.
Maybe it was just reading my,my, uh, because that's my issue
with bridges.

Speaker 1 (01:01:48):
Like I feel, like I'm just gonna jump off one, or it
was that portal to hell you weretalking about.
That's where it was thingthough.

Speaker 2 (01:01:52):
Um, oh, what do they call it?
It's called the call of thevoid, and people actually have.
It is an actual thing, becauseI looked it up or I saw it
somewhere, and then I was likehold on, wait, like I have an
overwhelming urge.
I had it just the other day.
Normally I don't have it on theIndian River Bridge, but the
other day I was like like myintrusive thoughts trying to

(01:02:12):
take over, and I was like oh myGod, I'm going to drive off the
side of this bridge.
I got off the side of thisbridge, I got into the left lane
, so that that didn't happen.
Plus, I don't think I wouldmake it over the side, but right
either way, I got dizzy, thinklike it's like a whole thing
comes over me and I get like mytunnel vision and it's just like
just go over the side.

(01:02:32):
And it's not depression oranything, it's not like suicidal
, it's called the call of thecall of the void I I have like
that is.

Speaker 1 (01:02:40):
My fear is that, for whatever reason, I'm going to
drive off the side of the bridgeyou're just gonna yeah and it's
gonna be like a tick, likewe're like my arm jerks and
that's called normal peopledon't have that I don't know
that yeah, that's not aneverybody thing that's so funny.
Before I got put on lexapro andI was telling my doctor all my

(01:03:01):
intrusive thoughts, sheliterally said that to me.
Um, you know, normal peopledon't think like that right like
when I told her that I feellike every single car driving in
the other lane but towards meis gonna, I'm gonna be in a
head-on collision like every oneof them.
That's when she was like youknow, normal people don't think
that, right, not a normal thing.

(01:03:21):
I'm like no, I didn't know that.
Thanks, are you sure?
But yeah, I had speaking ofhorrible bridges, though I had
to drive that philly bridgeyesterday.
The double decker that one.

Speaker 2 (01:03:32):
I don't feel like I'm going to drive off of it, but I
just know that top's comingdown yeah yeah, and that's it.

Speaker 1 (01:03:37):
That's.
The scary part is being on thatbottom one, because the top one
is so high that even you can'tsee over.
So it's you can.
You can convince yourself,you're just on a road, it's plus
it's like what?
Three lanes, four lanes, yes soyou can just act like you're on
a highway yeah but thensomewhere once I don't know if

(01:03:58):
it's right at the peak, but theyput that very little bit of
bridge over top of it.

Speaker 2 (01:04:03):
Yeah, and I'm like why?
Because now?

Speaker 1 (01:04:05):
I feel like I'm on a bridge, like I was okay until
that.
That's right.

Speaker 2 (01:04:13):
I know there are shows, there are services, the
Chesapeake Bay Bridge it is awell-known fact that people are
petrified of that bridge it'sthe curve for me a it's too high
, it's just.
Why is it so high?
Because, boats under it.
Why don't you build a tunnel?
Anyway it is, it's like it'sthree miles long.

Speaker 1 (01:04:35):
Bridges should not be , I mean I get and literally the
railing is like knee high, likeit's not holding anything going
west is the worst, coming backto eat.

Speaker 2 (01:04:45):
Coming back east isn't as bad because well and
then when they, when you'regoing over and it's busy coming
back the other way, and you gottwo lanes going one way and the
one lane coming the other wayand you're like this is just
gonna I, this is terrible, thatis awful like, because you're
definitely going over yes, likeit's so scary, and it really is.

Speaker 1 (01:05:05):
And and I almost wonder, like, is that
intentional?
Because cars go, especiallytractor trailers go over the
side of this more often thanthey should yeah and is it
because they don't want to haveto deal with like closing it
down and getting cars off?
So just go ahead and go off theside, like gravity working
about it.
We can just sweep a little bitand keep people moving.

Speaker 2 (01:05:25):
Nothing to see here, but coming back is not as bad.
I can deal with it coming back.

Speaker 1 (01:05:32):
The walls are higher yeah yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:05:34):
yeah, it's only two lanes and it's not as high.

Speaker 1 (01:05:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:05:37):
Yeah, it's only two lanes and it's not as high.
Yeah, yeah, it's much better.
Yeah, if you ever travel to theEast Coast and you need to go
from the Eastern Shore ofMaryland over to don't, don't.

Speaker 1 (01:05:46):
Yeah, it's awful.

Speaker 2 (01:05:47):
Yeah, they have a.
They literally, you canliterally pay someone to drive
you.
Yeah, I have not done that butI've, and they should have a
ferry terminal there.
It should be an option.
Well, that's the problem.

Speaker 1 (01:06:05):
They used to have a ferry and I guess it wasn't.
I don't know why they got ridof the ferry, but I would
definitely take a ferry.
Oh yeah, I would 100.

Speaker 2 (01:06:08):
Oh yeah, just count in an extra hour for your trip,
yeah, and then every time yousee a boat there, and now with
after the the bridge collapse.
We went over.
What bridge did I go over that?
There was, oh you know whatother bridge I don't like the
Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel.
I will not go in that tunnel.
If there's a boat coming, I'lljust wait.
I'm not doing it.

Speaker 1 (01:06:28):
My mom is terrified of tunnels and we took that
bridge down when we went toVirginia Beach in March and yeah
, it's a little unnerving, likeyou just can't think about it.
But then you think about movieswhere you've seen movies where
boats hit the side of a tunnel.
My father is the reason.

Speaker 2 (01:06:50):
I am.
I know this is going to come asa huge surprise.
But my father is the reason Ihate that Every time.
So we would have to take itevery time to go to Florida.
Every fucking time we would gothrough it, and when we were
older we would leave to go todisney and florida and stuff we
would leave at like nine o'clockat night.
It only takes two hours to getright to the tunnel so we'd

(01:07:13):
still be awake because I guessthey didn't drug us enough.
And um, the whole fucking timein the tunnel he'd be like, you
see that water dripping, is thatwater?
Is that a crack?
And I'd be like, just get usout.
And it's.
It's just two lanes in thereand it's oh god, I will not go

(01:07:35):
over it.
If there's a boat, I'll wait,I'll pull over, fuck that shit.
And if it's storming and thewaves, wait, it crashes right up
onto it.
Have you ever been in it whenit's?

Speaker 1 (01:07:47):
I don't think I've ever been on that bridge in a
storm.

Speaker 2 (01:07:49):
I feel like anytime I've ever gone, it's always
sunny I've been in it one timewhere we were one of the last
groups over my shut it downbehind them and the water.
It's not so much.
The water is not coming, but Iguess the wind is blowing it up,
and so it's like spraying yourcar the whole oh my god.

Speaker 1 (01:08:11):
It is super cool, though, when you're on the
bridge and you look out and thenthere's bridge, and then
there's no bridge, and thenthere's bridge again.

Speaker 2 (01:08:16):
It's not a terrible bridge because it's short it's
not very tall bridge becauseit's short, it's not very tall.
Correct and it has proper sidesand it has proper sides and it's
not tall, it just has tunnels.
It just has tunnels and it'svery long.
It's 14 miles.
Yeah, so you're on it foreverEver, yeah, okay, not Okay, not

(01:08:40):
so much.
We're going back to the WestCoast here.
No-transcript.

(01:09:01):
Mount St Helens remains aworld-famous natural laboratory
for the study of Earth'sprocesses and also nature's
response to catastrophe.
Mount St Helens and itsneighbor, mount Adams are known
as brother and sister mountains.
The two volcanoes are 34 milesapart.
Before the 80 eruption, mountst helens had 11 named glaciers

(01:09:24):
lewitt, wishbone, leshy, forsyth, ape, shoestring, ape,
shoestring, nelson, tuttle,talus, swift and dryer.

Speaker 1 (01:09:33):
After the eruption, only shoestring partially
survived I thought you weregonna say ape shit, shit.

Speaker 2 (01:09:39):
I thought I was going to too.
I didn't.

Speaker 1 (01:09:42):
Got it out.
Without it, that would be anawesome volcano name though.

Speaker 2 (01:09:47):
When Mount St Helens erupted, the resulting lava, ash
and debris turned the landscapebarren for miles around.
It was clear the land wouldtake a long time to recover from
the eruption.
Here's my favorite fun fact Iknow.
I didn't know we had more funfacts.
I told her I wasn't going tokeep one.

Speaker 1 (01:10:06):
I had a really good one I was saving it.

Speaker 2 (01:10:09):
I refused to tell her what it was.
Yes, one team of scientists hadan idea about how they could
help speed up the processSending a few gophers there on a
day trip.
Help speed up the processSending a few gophers there on a
day trip on a destroyedlandscape, scientists wondered
how life could be restored, sothey brought in gophers to dig

(01:10:30):
around in specific areas for onesingle day.
Now, more than four decadeslater, the benefits from those
24 hours remain visible.
Allen and others published apaper in early November in
Frontiers in Microbiomessuggesting the gophers played a
key role in restoring fungi andbacteria in the soil, and the
health of the gopher-inhabitedareas stood in stark contrast to

(01:10:51):
areas where the gophers hadnever been.
In 1983, when Allen and otherscientists flew in by helicopter
to an area devastated by lava,they found only about a dozen
plants surviving there.
Even the seeds that birds haddropped in the area were
struggling to grow.
In the experiment, theyairlifted local gophers, known

(01:11:17):
as northern pocket go gophers,to two enclosed pumice plots for
just one day.
The scientists only plan totest short term chain reaction
of the stocky rodents activities.
Oh, I put the should put thisfirst because this is Michael
Allen.
I'm an idiot.
This is the guy he would have.

(01:11:39):
Who would have predicted youcould toss a gopher in for a day
and see residual effects?
40 years later, plant lifestruggled to return to the area
around Mount St Helens, nowunder a layer of pumice
fragments.
While the top layers of soilwere destroyed by the eruption
in lava flow, the soilunderneath could still be rich
in bacteria and fungi.
Bringing them there was likebringing a mini ecosystem just

(01:12:01):
for a short time.
The eruption in lava flow, thesoil underneath could still be
rich in bacteria and fungi.
Bringing them there was likebringing a mini ecosystem just
for a short time, said a soilmicrobiologist from University
of Connecticut.
The scientists hoped thegophers would help restore the
ecosystem with their naturaldigging activities and
defecation, which wouldfertilize and aerate the soil

(01:12:29):
and bring in microorganisms likethe bacteria.
And that is so cool.
Microorganisms regulatenutrient cycling, interact with
many other organisms andtherefore may support successful
pathways and complementaryecosystem functions, even in
harsh conditions.

Speaker 1 (01:12:47):
That is really, really cool.

Speaker 2 (01:12:48):
They were like big hairy earthworms With the
exception of a few weeds, thereis no way most plant roots are
efficient enough to get all ofthe nutrients and water they
need by themselves.
The fungi transport thesethings to the plant and get the
carbon they need for their owngrowth in exchange.
Six years after the gopherswere brought in, the land they

(01:13:09):
hadn't touched remained largelybarren, while four thousand
plant four hundred fortythousand plants grew and thrived
in the gopher plots, accordingto the statement.
What that is the ultimate funfact that is one day just
mind-blowing.
The gophers were there one daythat and they, they, you know 40

(01:13:30):
40 years later.

Speaker 1 (01:13:32):
Yeah, you just needed to break through that surface
just one day go Gophers who knew?

Speaker 2 (01:13:38):
So that's all I had, that's it.
That's my Mount, st Helens.

Speaker 1 (01:13:44):
That was just amazing , thanks, yeah, I love learning
those things that I would nevereven it's.
You know the you don't knowwhat you don't know things, yeah
.
So when that comes up, it allmakes perfect sense.

Speaker 2 (01:14:01):
When you say it, I know, because they turned over
the land and brought all thatyeah that's crazy yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:14:10):
Gophers Cute little gophers.

Speaker 2 (01:14:13):
Yeah, okay, so that's it.
You can well first thanks forlistening, because I have the
script and she does not.
Not, she didn't do her part atthe top.
I didn't even though shedoesn't have the script.
That doesn't have it on there,correct?
So thanks for listening.
You can like share rate reviewplease, and thank you.

(01:14:35):
Find us where you listen topodcasts and there's a little
like share rate reveal littlebutton on all of those things.
So thumbs up it.
Please.
Follow us on all the socials atlike whatever pod.
Go to those, follow it, andthen you can just an email about

(01:14:59):
why gophers are awesome tolikewhateverpod at gmailcom or
don't like whatever.

Speaker 1 (01:15:07):
Whatever, bye.