For a long time, because he was the famous holdout, I thought that Harry “I’m not leaving” Truman was the only person killed when Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980. Turns out that about 57 people died that day.
My question:
How horrible a death was it for those people killed by and in the immediate aftermath of the big eruption?
Several relatives have commented that “they died doing what they loved” or “where they loved,” but I can’t imagine that being killed by pyroclastic flows is a good death —or is it so quick and overwhelming that it’s not bad? Did Mr. Truman have time and circumstance to regret his stubbornness, or was it over pretty quick?
Basically, how awful is it to be killed by a volcano?
This article says that most people died from asphyxiation from hot ashes. That might be painful but quick. Harry Truman himself was buried in an avalanche of snow and mud. I would think it was probable he died of the force of the impact but he might have suffocated after having been buried.
See Herculaneum, the city buried by hot ash from Mt Vesuvius in AD 79:
The study of victims’ postures and the effects on their skeletons indicate that the first surge caused instant death as a result of fulminant shock due to a temperature of about 500 °C (932 °F). The intense heat caused contraction of hands and feet and possibly fracture of bones and teeth.
And…
*In contrast to Pompeii, where casts resembling the body features of the victims were produced by filling the body imprints in the ash deposit with plaster, the shape of corpses at Herculaneum could not be preserved, due to the rapid vaporization and replacement of the flesh of the victims by the hot ash (ca. 500 °C). *
Quick, unpleasant death. However, I imagine the expectation and anticipation was much worse to bear.
Here is another article from National Geographic suggesting the extreme heat caused death too fast for suffocation at Pompeii:
*About three-quarters of the known Pompeii victims are “frozen in suspended actions” and show evidence of sudden muscle contractions, such as curled toes, the study says.
“Heretofore archaeologists misinterpreted them as people struggling to breathe and believed they died suffocated by ashes,” Mastrolorenzo said. “Now we know that couldn’t be.”
Because of the extreme heat, “when the pyroclastic surge hit Pompeii, there was no time to suffocate,” he said. “The contorted postures are not the effects of a long agony, but of the cadaveric spasm, a consequence of heat shock on corpses.”*
David Johnston was the volcanologist who witnessed the 1980 eruption of St. Helens and was shortly thereafter killed by it. He died pretty much as you describe, as did Harry R. Truman; my guess is they didn’t suffer much.
Death need not happen so quickly. After the 2014 eruption of Mount Ontake, authorities recovered numerous dead bodies, but they also recovered one live (albeit unconscious) person who had been buried in ash. The recovery of a live, ash-covered person suggests (to me at least) that the deaths of the others were probably not instantaneous. They may have been asphyxiated or poisoned by gases emitted by the volcano, or had their lungs wrecked with ash. Likely not pleasant.
This just goes to show you, and it will show once again … A mountain is something / you don’t want to fuck with / don’t want to fuck with / don’t fuck around
Reading this thread reminded me about the whole volcano making a person’s head explode thing. Is it true that this happened to some of the residents of Herculaneum?
Interesting list of the ways a volcano can kill you, some seem very insidious indeed, I would just stay away.
The skull is not a sealed vessel. There are large passages for things like optic nerves, spinal cord, etc. If you heat a head to the point that the water inside it boils, the steam will exit through these passages. It may extrude some gray matter and flesh in the process, but it seems unlikely to me that the tissue occluding these holes would be strong enough to allow the buildup of pressure to the point that a BLEVE event would cause violent rupture of the brain case.
Another vote that the anticipation was the worst part for most folks. For most of them once the consequences arrived wherever they were it hurt like heck, but only for a second or so. If that long.
It’s statistically pretty certain somebody was close enough to the lethal perimeter that they died a more gradual death. E.g suffocated by their damaged lungs or simply crushed badly enough to be eventually fatal, but not quickly fatal.
As with most accidents / weapons / forces of nature the two best places to be are far away and right in the middle. It’s the in-between zone that holds all the horror.
Here’s a map of the locations of Mt. St. Helens fatalities. Almost all of them were within the direct blast zone, and experienced temperatures of more than 300 F. Their deaths were probably as nearly instantaneous as possible.
I remember–and I hope I remember correctly–joking with a Con Ed crewman in a hole in the street and he said that if there’s a leak as we speak, an explosion from a tossed lit cigarette (mine, perhaps) would blow me up up but not him.
Does that sound right?
His punchline/point was exactly the opposite as LSLGuy’s here–which is why I bring it up–and since that time (years) I think of it whenever I see a guy in a narrow pipe-access in a street, and always wish I could remember exactly what he said.
This is guesswork, but he may have meant that where he was half in the underground chamber the mixture would be too rich in gas to ignite. Whereas you, out in the open air, would be in the area of correct mixture. So the explosion would happen where you are, not where he is. IOW you’re in the middle and he’s far away (by his thinking).
If that’s what he meant, it’s sorta true. But probably not true enough to save him. Once the mixture gets too rich in gas it also gets unbreathable. So instead of being blown up he asphyxiates. Not an obvious improvement in my book.
Further, as between standing 1 foot or 6 feet from a large natural gas explosion I don’t think there’s too much difference. Either way it won’t hurt for long.
To be more clinical about it, the heat shock would be all the more with a steam component in comparison/addition at the same temperature of heated gas or radiative.
My understanding is that inhalation at temps like that will sear the gas exchange membranes in your lungs, effectively halting oxygen transfer to your blood, rendering you unconscious in probably less than 20 seconds. Mercifully, it wouldn’t be the unpleasant sensation you get from holding your breath for five minutes, it would be the relatively painless sensation you get from sucking on a helium-filled balloon.
That’s all separate from any pain you’d experience due to the high temperatures on your skin and in your respiratory tract, and any physical bombardment with volcanic missiles.
