Have you experienced volcano? If so, describe it. If not, would you like to? Why or why not?

While I was living in Seattle, I experienced the eruption of Mt St Helens, which was 80 miles away. On that May Sunday morning, I was mowing my lawn, when I heard the sound of the explosion - news traveled fast that the mountain had erupted, and a massive ash cloud was rising above the summit. I drove to a vantage point on Skyway hill in Renton, Washington to watch the ash cloud rising and roiling, with lightning flashing in the cloud. Because of the prevailing winds, most of the ash was headed for the cities of Yakima and Ellensburg, where they received nearly 20 cm of ash (more in other places). I had friends living in Ellensburg, and they told me of their experiences with the ash cloud blanking out the sun and the ash fall that was choking their vehicles, and their breathing. The ash was statically charged and clung to their persons and clothing. Under the microscope, the ash particles were ragged and sharp.

I had the opportunity to speak with the National Guard officer in charge of the rescue mission right after the primary eruption, and he gave me a lot of background information that was not very well known prior to the event - and that was that there was no “blast shadow” effect during the eruption. You could not hide behind a hill and feel protected, because the blast followed the topography of the land in taking out trees, rocks, and such. Several of the dead had sought shelter behind rock outcroppings, and were still killed.

The Guard officer also said that most of the people they tried to rescue had ignored the closure of the area, ignored the warnings; there was one fellow who was standing in the roof of his car when the helicopter came by to pick him up. They rescued him 30 seconds before his car was obliterated by the lahar (11 m high, moving at 100 km/h).

Mt St Helens erupted several times in short succession. On some of those, the ash cloud headed for Seattle - at one point we received 3 cm of ash.

Explanation:

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