41st Anniversary of Mt. St. Helens Eruption (say what?!) and Random Funnies: Random Tuesday Thoughts

Hello Tuesday! Today is the 41st anniversary of Mount St. Helens eruption. 41 years, people! Hard to fathom that many years has passed since the big eruption that covered this area in ash. It’s weird to think we have quite a few volcanoes here in the Pacific Northwest – this image shows 5 in Washington and Oregon:

Isn’t that an awesome picture? It was taken from a plane flying over Oregon heading North – so the forefront mountain is Mt. Jefferson, the next one up from that is Mt. Hood (both are in Oregon), the next one upper far right is Mt. Adams, the middle back is Mt. Rainier, and the far left is Mt. St. Helens (those three are here in Washington). The Cascade Volcanic Arc at its best.

Mt. St. Helens sure was a pretty mountain pre-eruption:

The history of its discovery is interesting – Royal Navy Commander George Vancouver and the officers of HMS Discovery made the Europeans’ first recorded sighting of Mount St. Helens on May 19, 1792, while surveying the northern Pacific Ocean coast. Notice the ‘discovery’ date? Kind of eerie if you ask me.

Commander Vancouver named the mountain for British diplomat Alleyne Fitzherbert, 1st Baron St Helens on October 20, 1792, as it came into view when the Discovery passed into the mouth of the Columbia River.

Years later, explorers, traders, and missionaries heard reports of an erupting volcano in the area. Geologists and historians determined much later that the eruption took place in 1800, marking the beginning of the 57-year-long Goat Rocks Eruptive Period. Alarmed by the “dry snow,” the Nespelem tribe of northeastern Washington danced and prayed rather than collecting food and suffered during that winter from starvation.

In late 1805 and early 1806, members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition spotted Mount St. Helens from the Columbia River but did not report either an ongoing eruption or recent evidence of one. 

Fast forward to 1980, and the biggest eruption ever happened:

When they discovered Mount St. Helens in 1792, bet they never imagined 188 years and a day later it would practically obliterate itself. 57 people sadly perished during the eruption that blew out the whole side of the mountain and destroyed multitudes of forest trees, land, and homes. My sister and I drove there over the summer that year to take it all in – very sobering for sure, especially the houses and cars buried in deep mud, and the mountain and area surrounding looking so barren:

All these years later, it’s finally looking better:

Crazy how different (and much smaller) it looks now. And thus ends your history lesson for the day (heh!) time to move on to the funnies!

This is kind of creepy but funny:

This is funny (and so true):

I love this:

This is funny (and amen to that!):

This is hilarious:

This cracked me up:

This is hilarious:

This is clever:

I love this:

And I’m just going to leave this right here for you:

That’s a wrap for this week – you know the drill, link up and join in the fun, everyone is welcome. Please stay healthy and safe!

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Link up your Random (or not) here:

Keeping the random alive (barely) – feel free to snag a badge and play along – one for my wino friends:

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And one for my non-wino friends:

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