# How horrible was it to be killed by Mount St. Helens? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 12, 2016, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-horrible-was-it-to-be-killed-by-mount-st-helens/751975 "2016-04-12T04:19:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2016, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-horrible-was-it-to-be-killed-by-mount-st-helens/751975/41 "2016-04-14T03:14:48Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > For folks interested in Mt. St. Helens specifically I give you the official MSH volcanocams: [http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/volcanocams/msh/](http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/volcanocams/msh/) > > The uppermost pic is a static file image. The dynamic ones are down below. I check about once a week to see how the seasons are progressing. > > In the top static image there’s a rounded bulge filling most of the right-center of the wrecked crater. That lump is all new since the eruption. It’s growing slowly but more or less continuously. Which is another way of saying we’ve probably not heard the last from Mt. St. Helens. About 10 years ago, MSH hiccuped but that turned out to be a false alarm. No, it’s definitely not an extinct or even dormant volcano. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2016, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-horrible-was-it-to-be-killed-by-mount-st-helens/751975/42 "2016-04-14T03:34:58Z")
Sequential thread titles! [How horrible was it to be killed by Mount St. Helens?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=790162) [What “instantaneous/painless” deaths are not instantaneous/painless?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=790255) ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2016, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-horrible-was-it-to-be-killed-by-mount-st-helens/751975/43 "2016-04-14T11:49:47Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > Sequential thread titles! > > [How horrible was it to be killed by Mount St. Helens?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=790162) > > [What “instantaneous/painless” deaths are not instantaneous/painless?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=790255) Sorry to burst your bubble (!), but one thread was inspired by the other, so not really coincidental. ---
**Author:** ![troub](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troub/32/14802_2.png) [@troub](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/troub)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2016, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-horrible-was-it-to-be-killed-by-mount-st-helens/751975/44 "2016-04-14T14:20:24Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > About 10 years ago, MSH hiccuped but that turned out to be a false alarm. > > No, it’s definitely not an extinct or even dormant volcano. Even Ranier is an active volcano, too, right? Which is goddamn terrifying. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2016, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-horrible-was-it-to-be-killed-by-mount-st-helens/751975/45 "2016-04-14T14:46:02Z")
> [@troub](#): > > Even Ranier is an active volcano, too, right? Which is goddamn terrifying. Yep. Rainer is about a close to Seattle as Mt Hood is to Portland. Fortunately, the same precautions and I imagine better warning systems (as used for MSH) would be used today if either of them showed any signs of emerging activity. However, a lot more people in either case would need to be moved a safe distance. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2016, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-horrible-was-it-to-be-killed-by-mount-st-helens/751975/46 "2016-04-14T18:39:35Z")
> [@troub](#): > > Even Ranier is an active volcano, too, right? Which is goddamn terrifying. From my Ph.D in Geology cousin. Yes and YES!!! ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2016, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-horrible-was-it-to-be-killed-by-mount-st-helens/751975/47 "2016-04-14T20:13:43Z")
> [@snowthx](#): > > Yep. Rainer is about a close to Seattle as Mt Hood is to Portland. Fortunately, the same precautions and I imagine better warning systems (as used for MSH) would be used today if either of them showed any signs of emerging activity. However, a lot more people in either case would need to be moved a safe distance. [Rainier is problematic because:](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Rainier#Modern_activity_and_the_current_threat) -there’s a lot more ice on top than there was on MSH, so the resultant lahars will be much larger/more destructive, and -Rainier has far more people in close proximity to it than MSH did when it erupted. [This map](https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/vsc/images/image_mngr/300-399/img350_740w_500h.jpg) shows a number of cities that would be wrecked in the event of a Rainier eruption. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2016, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-horrible-was-it-to-be-killed-by-mount-st-helens/751975/48 "2016-04-15T02:38:13Z")
> [@Duckster](#): > > Had the eruption occurred an hour later, the death toll might have been in the thousands. Why? ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2016, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-horrible-was-it-to-be-killed-by-mount-st-helens/751975/49 "2016-04-15T03:33:50Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > Why? A lot of loggers would have been in the danger zone by then. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2016, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-horrible-was-it-to-be-killed-by-mount-st-helens/751975/50 "2016-04-15T03:43:34Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > About 10 years ago, MSH hiccuped but that turned out to be a false alarm. > > No, it’s definitely not an extinct or even dormant volcano. The hiccup was a bit more than that. I was up there on a Saturday when there was a harmonic tremor. Imagine staring at something so crystal clear one moment and the next moment it got all fuzzy. It was a bit scary. The USGS believes the late 2004 event was actually a delayed continuation of the larger 1980 event. [In July 2014](http://imush.org/), scientists set off a series of explosive charges in 23 bore holes around the volcano. Each bore hole was about 80 feet deep and contained 1,000-2,000 pounds of explosives. It was a massive ultrasound to determine just how big the magma chamber is below the volcano. They found there are [two large chambers](http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/11/deep-magma-chambers-seen-beneath-mount-st-helens) under the volcano. > [@troub](#): > > Even Ranier is an active volcano, too, right? Which is goddamn terrifying. Actually, the [Three Sisters area](http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/volcanoes/three_sisters/three_sisters_geo_hist_129.html) of central Oregon had most scientists worried, until recently. I wouldn’t want to be in the path of a lahar flow if Mount Rainier blew. > [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > Why? Local and state authorities had bowed to public pressure to allow loggers back into the area. Even on a Sunday, it was expected several thousand people could have been working in the larger blast area the day of the eruption, had it occurred an hour or two later. ---
**Author:** ![Enter\_the\_Flagon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Enter\_the\_Flagon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enter_the_Flagon)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2016, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-horrible-was-it-to-be-killed-by-mount-st-helens/751975/51 "2016-04-15T04:13:00Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > Maybe an experiment is warranted. The next time you roast a lamb head, turn the temp up to “Hades” and leave the head in the oven for a few hours. A time-lapse video posted to YouTube would be great, thanks; maybe it’ll even end up in a “GoPro Hero” compilation. It’s been done, only not with lambs: [Body burners: The forensics of fire](http://www.sott.net/article/185067-Body-burners-The-forensics-of-fire) > [@](#): > > Some of the group’s studies tested common beliefs about how bodies burn. For example, many textbooks state that if a skull is initially intact, the brains will boil and cause the skull to explode into small fragments. Investigators may therefore see the lack of such an explosion as a sign of foul play. Pope’s team tested this theory by systematically burning 40 human heads - some injured, others intact. They found that skulls do not explode, burning in broadly the same way regardless of trauma (see image). The team also showed that a skull may look like it has exploded if debris falls on it once the heat has made it brittle (Journal of Forensic Sciences, vol 49, p 431). ---
**Author:** ![Patch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Patch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patch)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2016, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-horrible-was-it-to-be-killed-by-mount-st-helens/751975/52 "2016-04-15T04:36:11Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Here’s a [map](http://www.columbian.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Picture_14.png) 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. No idea how accurate it was, but way back in the 80s I remember watching a documentary on the eruption and the camera showed a destroyed station wagon. I still remember the narrator stating something along the lines of, “These victims of the eruption perished while fleeing the eruption at 80 mph. Their speed was estimated by survivors who passed them at over 100 mph.” Brings to mind aerial video from the Japanese tsunami and you can see people running from the wall of water and debris, and you know they’re not going to make it. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2016, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-horrible-was-it-to-be-killed-by-mount-st-helens/751975/53 "2016-04-15T18:51:35Z")
> [@TroutMan](#): > > A lot of loggers would have been in the danger zone by then. Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2016, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-horrible-was-it-to-be-killed-by-mount-st-helens/751975/54 "2016-04-15T20:14:57Z")
Regarding just Harry Truman alone, let me consider 3 possibilities: 1. He was out in the open. 2. He was inside the lodge. 3. He somehow managed to make it to a secret hiding place he said he had. Perhaps a hole or some such, he wasn’t clear about it IIRC. 4. He’d see the flow coming. Once it hit him it wouldn’t take many seconds before he was unconscious. Perhaps a very big ow from the blast hitting him and then nothing. 5. This might be pretty bad. The lodge would have been flattened with him under the the rubble. If was still alive after the collapse, we would have a very short time before the heat and gases reached him. From seconds to a couple minutes. 6. Part depends on how secure the opening is. If it couldn’t withstand the initial shock, it’s much like part 2. If it could (unlikely), then he might have been conscious for several minutes. How many? Ideally 5-10 I’m guessing based on how well sealed it was. But, again, it was probably _far_ from ideal. Also, for part 3, he had to get to his hiding place and close off the opening before the blast hit. There really wasn’t time to do that unless he was already in it or essentially standing near the opening. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-horrible-was-it-to-be-killed-by-mount-st-helens/751975.md?page=2)