There She
Blows…Again!
IMNH and ISU Geosciences Department Sponsoring Mount St.
Helens Presentation
The Idaho Museum of Natural History and the Idaho State
University Department of Geosciences are co-sponsoring “Mount St. Helens:
Natural History in Action,” a free presentation on the well-known volcano in
Washington state and its volatile history. The presentation will take place on
Thursday, October 28, from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m., in the Chemistry Lecture Hall
(Room 140 in the Physical Sciences Building) near the corner of Custer and 8th
Street.
Dr. Mike McCurry will start the evening with a brief
introduction to Mount St. Helens and the Cascades volcanic arc, along with
information on the climactic 1980 eruption and its aftermath. McCurry is a
professor in the Geosciences department at ISU who received his Ph.D in Geology
from UCLA and who was involved in research on the volcano during its 1980
eruption and again in 1996.
Dr. Glenn Thackray, an associate professor in the
department, will discuss the volcano’s recent activities. Thackray is also a
Ph.D. in geology, having received his degree from the University of Washington.
Thackray was in the Mount St. Helens area a few weeks ago on a geology field
trip and has witnessed some of the volcano’s recent activity
first-hand.
Dr. Scott Hughes will share personal experiences he has
from the 1980 eruption. Hughes, the geosciences department chair, received his
Ph.D. from Oregon State University.
Following the presentation, there will be a Q & A
session for the audience, followed by refreshments and time for informal
discussions with the presenters.
McCurry believes this information will be of great
interest to area residents. “Idaho has its own regions of ‘active’ and ‘dormant’
volcanism, although radically different from Mount St. Helens,” McCurry says.
“Yellowstone is a volcano so big that it is hard to recognize as such. Eruptions
occur there at intervals of roughly 600,000 years with a magnitude and violence
never witnessed historically. They have completely devastated regions up to a
hundred kilometers from the volcano with pyroclastic flows, covered more of the
Western U.S. with ash and probably affected the climate of the entire planet for
brief periods of time.” McCurry also mentions Craters of the Moon as another
site, having erupted at roughly 2,000-year intervals over at least 15,000
years.
The Idaho Museum of Natural History is located on the
campus of Idaho State University, in Pocatello, at South 5th Avenue and Dillon
Street. For more information, contact the Museum at (208) 282-3317.