In harmony with earlier posts on man's inability to destroy the planet, I took a trip (again) today. I live right near a very active volcano that exploded when I was a child and covered our city with ash and destroyed rivers and bridges and killed quite a few people. The blast left very little intact in the immediate area as entire lakes disappeared, new ones formed, entire rivers turned into mountain ridges and new rivers were made. It's called Mt. Saint Helens.
Thirty years ago on the 18th, Mt. Saint Helens erupted violently and much of our world here even turned from day into night with the ash covering the streets like snow. It looked like Christmas in may!
In the photos below, except for road building for research, outside the blast zone, everything is natural. Nothing has been replanted, everything has been left as it is. The one thing I can see that's different is the dome in the middle of the crater was not there last year so large and is filling the crater. Last year and the year before that the crater was nearly empty but that dome keeps growing and has been shooting off ash and steam lately. The tree stumps are blasted out by the force (the dark side...no I mean of the blast), they were not burned because there was no oxygen in the blast so they just go superheated but did not catch fire.
So, I took some photos for the folks around the world who may not have lived through a volcanic blast or been near one or ever had a chance to go see what's left of one. In thirty years, natures ravages on its self still remain and there are miles and miles and miles of land where little still grows due to the devastation. Trees by the thousands still lay where they were blasted over by the 300+ mile per hour explosions and mud flows, mostly pointing in the direction of the crater. Ash and sand still cover much. And wildlife is very scarce in the area still. This is nature its self. I've been to the atomic bomb blast sites in Japan and seen some ravaged battlefields and man's destruction pales in comparision to nature's fury unleashed. I hope you enjoy the photos.
