Presented by the Geological Society of America

Other GSA Geoscience Programs:
Hawaii June 2005
Hawaii July 2005
Costa Rica
Iceland

Due to recent volcanic activity, this program will be re-scheduled. If you are interested in this program, please contact us so that we can keep you updated on our programming developments!

Shaken by a massive eruption in the early morning hours of May 18, 1980 and most recently a minor eruption on October 1st, 2004, the landscape and environment around the volcano is instantly changed. In response, as an effort to allow the ecosystem of the area to naturally regenerate and to form a protected research and recreation site, the President and Congress declared 110,000 acres as the Mt. St. Helen's National Volcanic Monument. During your field explorations, you will enjoy a full detailed and experiential investigation of the influence that Mt. St Helen's has played within the Northern Cascades Mountain Range and within the local communities surrounding the volcano.

During our journey we will spend a day along the south side of the park. Mt. St. Helen's south side provides you with an ideal location to explore past lava flows and mudflows that are of a more recent nature. Our focus will be older eruptive deposits, 1980 tephra and blast deposits, and pyroclastic flows. We will also take a look at islands of survivors, both plant and animal, that speeded recovery in this part of the Monument. We will continue our explorations with a visit to the Ape Cave. Over several weeks, the lava from one of Mt. St. Helen's eruptions over 1,900 years ago began to cool and solidify around the surface, while the interior continued to flow with molten magma. After the eruption ended, the lava flowed completely from the created tube, leaving behind the tunnel known today as Ape Cave. Ape Cave is the longest such tunnel in the United States and the second longest in the world. We will continue our exploration of Mount St Helens with a short hike in lava canyon before continuing on to stratigraphy viewpoint, all to look at older eruptive deposits from the volcano. We will then continue our exploration with a stop at Windy Ridge for a great view of the blast deposit as well as several thousand years of tephra that blanket the ridges east of the volcano.

Additionally, we will focus equally on the west side, to experience unmatched views of the volcanic landscape and observe native plant regeneration. We will stop at the world class Johnston Ridge Observatory dedicated to the memory of David Johnston, US Geological Survey vulcanologist who died in this location during the 1980 eruption. Here we will learn about the geologic impacts of the eruption and volcano monitoring on-going today. If weather permits, we will take a short walk out on the Boundary Trail to see the spillover, an area where the landslide swept up and over Johnston Ridge. Time permitting we will visit the Coldwater Ridge Visitor Center, and the Mount St Helens Interpretive Center at Silver Lake, all at the heart of the 1980 eruptions blast zone.

This adventure will prove to be a dynamic experience of real-life volcanology in North America. We anticipate a full group and look forward to having you join us. Extensions for nearby opportunities in Seattle and Portland are also available. We look forward to sharing further information with you on the program!

Contact Sandy Doss for information
about this exciting learning opportunity.