© Geography ReviewAn aerial view of the crater
He was describing the volcanic eruption that occurred at Mount St. Helens 37 years ago in May 1980. During that event, an eruption column rose into the sky, ultimately impacting 11 states in the U.S. But it wasn't just the people who live in the area that were affected by the eruption: the glaciers of Mount St. Helens melted into nearby rivers, causing several mudslides.
Cascades Volcano Observatory indicates that before the 1980 eruption, extensive glaciers had covered Mount St. Helens for several hundred thousand years. About 3,900 years ago, Mount St. Helens began to grow to its pre-eruption elevation and a high cone developed, allowing for substantial glacial formation. There were 11 major glaciers and several unnamed glaciers by May 18, 1980, according to the United States Geological Survey. But after the eruption and resultant landslide, about 70 percent of the glacier mass was removed from the mountainside. It was during the winter of 1980 to 1981, following the catastrophic eruption, that a new glacier, Crater Glacier, first emerged.
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Comment: Scientists have also discovered a large crack on the Larsen C ice shelf and thousands of blue lakes of melt water have formed on the surface of Antarctica's glaciers over the past decade. Yet a recent study indicates that the Antarctic peninsula has actually been cooling not warming. See also:
Antarctica, is it melting or not? Man-made global warming can't explain this climate paradox