Freshman Seminar: Volcanoes and Civilization

Responding to a crises: Mt. St. Helens May 18, 1980

In May 1980 the US experienced one of its great disasters of the 20-th century.

Using the list of compiled attributes we are interested in investigating about volcanoes, search the internet and use the library to get information about the volcano and its historic eruptions. Try to get as much information you can about the volcano prior to coming to class. Use the internet, the library and news reports. See if you can address the following points:

• How many months before the eruption did scientists know about the pending disaster?
• What is the tectonic setting?
• What kind of eruption occurred?
• What were the products?
• What is the history of eruptions at Mt. St. Helens?
• What are the Cascade Mountains, how are they formed?
• How did the output of the volcano affect the environment?
• How were people hurt by Mt. St. Helens?
• How does this volcano compare to the disaster at Nyirangongo and Mt. Etna?
• How did the local population respond to the disaster? Was there a difference in the response to that in Goma?

Write your responses down to hand in and be prepared for a group discussion.