The Summit

On March 15, 1980 the US Geological Survey (USGS) detected low level seismic disturbances beneath Mount St. Helen, located in southwest Washington State. Dominating the news on March 20, 1980 was the announcement by President Jimmy Carter that the United States would boycott the Moscow Olympics; the earthquake beneath Mount St. Helen didn’t make the news.

Two weeks later MSH made the news on its own by bellowing ash, rock, and ice on a daily basis.This geological phenomenon opened the floodgate of curious onlookers seeking to get a closer peek of the volcanic wonder. For safety reasons, a red zone (no public access) and a blue zone (restricted access) were established around MSH. This did not, however, deter the curiosity seekers from bypassing the blockades to areas assessed as dangerous.

By late April, a noticeable bulge appeared on the north face of MSH due to the mounting pressure of hot gases and rising magma. All through the early part of May the bulge was growing at a rate of 5 feet per day.

Residents were tired of the disruption to their lives and wanted the blockades to be lifted. The zones remained in place. In spite of the danger lurking inside MSH, homeowners in the red zone were still being escorted to retrieve personal belongings up to May 17th, the day before the eruption! Another trip was scheduled for the following day.... The northern flank gave way on May 18, 1980 at 08:32 (PDT) due to a magnitude 5.1 earthquake about one mile beneath the volcano.

Within moments of the lateral blast a column of ash and steam erupted. In less than 10 minutes, the ash column reached an altitude of more than 12 miles. 540 million tons of ash fell over an area of more than 22,000 square miles. The once symmetrical cone shape of MSH, described as the “Fujiyama of America,” was forever disfigured in our lifetime. The summit lost 1,313 feet of its former elevation of 9,677 feet.


Triggered by the earthquake, the sudden removal of the upper part of MSH released the bottled up pressure, discharging a super heated subsonic lateral blast, loaded with rock, ash, and hot gases. Exceeding 600 miles an hour, the lateral blast easily overtook the slower moving avalanche of volcanic debris, glacial ice, and water (110 – 155 mph). This lateral blast traveled northward 19 miles from the volcano, covering an area of approximately 230 square miles.

This produced the largest debris avalanche in recorded history. The avalanche of volcanic debris and glacial ice moved down the slopes at speeds reaching 155 miles an hour, covering an area of approximately 24 square miles. The landslide filled the valley below to an average depth of 150 feet. 
 

Virtually, everything natural or man-made was obliterated or removed within an 8-mile radius from the northern side of MSH. Everything was flattened beyond that to the 19-mile radius. On the outer fringes of the 19-mile radius were the singed trees, from the hot gases, standing between the toppled zone and the unaffected forest.


The lateral blast, the debris avalanche, and associated mudflows (lahars), and flooding caused the deaths of 57 people and extensive damage to land and civil works. The eruption of MSH is considered to be the most destructive in the recorded history of the United States. (Source: http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/msh//preface.html)



After looking at some of the pictures of the devastation by the Mount St. Helen eruption, it reminded me of a passage in the book of Micah, particularly chapter 1:3-4,


For behold, the LORD is coming out of His place; He will come down and tread on the high places of the earth. (4) The mountains will melt under Him, and the valleys will split like wax before the fire, like waters poured down a steep place.


God’s people had a terrible time with idolatry. Their sins were polluting the whole nation. Micah warned that the day would come when God would destroy the idols of the people (Micah 1:6-7). How is that relevant to us, we don’t bow down to gods of wood or stone? We don’t carve out statues and worship them! Or do we?


The problem we have today is whenever we serve and sacrifice for things such as, cars, clothes, houses, money, careers, titles, prestige and for whatever else, that is worshiping the works of our own hands (Micah 5:13). These things are not wrong in and of themselves; but when the things we manufacture compete for the will of God for our lives, it becomes idolatry. In this case we are merely changing the construction of our gods and calling it “success.” He who dies with the most toys wins,” right?


Jesus warned against such an insatiable desire for things (cf. Micah 2:1) in Luke 12:15, Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.


The people were not only covetous, they used any means necessary to obtain what they wanted even though it was in violation of His Word (Micah 2:2). Micah warned the people to look for God coming in judgment from heaven because of sin. He pictured God as a gigantic person stepping on one mountain peak after another to illustrate God’s unstoppable power.


Just as no one could do anything to stop Mount St. Helen from releasing its fury, no one will be able to prevent the awesome power of God when it erupts because of sin. As with MSH, it is not a matter of if but of when. MSH pales in power to the omnipotence of God Almighty when His fury is unleashed.


Saved sinners and lost sinners alike due well to take heed the warning of sinful behavior and quit trying to circumvent the blockades that warns us to turn back from our evil ways. The sum of all fears is not the threat of a global natural disaster or a nuclear holocaust but that hell is more than an imagination. 


Paul warns in Galatians 6:7, Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.


You know, it might just do us all some good to look at the pictures above again. Can you envision the footprint below? <><