Toutle River
by Jon Burch Photography
Title
Toutle River
Artist
Jon Burch Photography
Medium
Photograph - Digital Capture
Description
The Toutle river was altered by the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens along with subsequent flows of ash and other debris. It was further altered by dredging to remove sediment and by construction of the Sediment Retention Structure on the river's north fork.
The eruption of Mount St. Helens and subsequent lahars poured vast amounts of sediment into the Toutle. The United States Army Corps of Engineers dredged sediment from the river and built the $65 million Sediment Retention Structure on the North Fork Toutle River to prevent debris from continuing downstream. Part of the same engineering works is a tunnel to drain Spirit Lake, on the north side of the volcano, after the eruption blocked the lake's natural outlet.
Mount St. Helens is an active stratovolcano located in Skamania County, Washington, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is 96 miles south of Seattle, Washington, and 50 miles northeast of Portland, Oregon. Mount St. Helens takes its English name from the British diplomat Lord St Helens, a friend of explorer George Vancouver who made a survey of the area in the late 18th century. The volcano is located in the Cascade Range and is part of the Cascade Volcanic Arc, a segment of the Pacific Ring of Fire that includes over 160 active volcanoes. This volcano is well known for its ash explosions and pyroclastic flows.
Mount St. Helens is most notorious for its catastrophic eruption on May 18, 1980, the deadliest and most economically destructive volcanic event in the history of the United States. Fifty-seven people were killed; 250 homes, 47 bridges, 15 miles of railways, and 185 miles of highway were destroyed. A massive debris avalanche triggered by an earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale caused an eruption that reduced the elevation of the mountain's summit from 9,677 feet to 8,365 feet, replacing it with a 1 mile wide horseshoe-shaped crater. The debris avalanche was up to 0.7 cubic miles in volume. The Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument was created to preserve the volcano and allow for its aftermath to be scientifically studied.
As with most other volcanoes in the Cascade Range, Mount St. Helens is a large eruptive cone consisting of lava rock interlayered with ash, pumice, and other deposits. The mountain includes layers of basalt and andesite through which several domes of dacite lava have erupted. The largest of the dacite domes formed the previous summit, and off its northern flank sat the smaller Goat Rocks dome. Both were destroyed in the 1980 eruption.
Some digital effects were applied to this original image after the photograph was made. No electrons were harmed during the transition. Ordered images will not contain the FAA watermark.
Image copyright 2013 Jon Burch Photography
Uploaded
January 1st, 2014
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