# Series of photos of Mt St Helens exploding/erupting in background with people in foreground **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 17, 2010, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-of-photos-of-mt-st-helens-exploding-erupting-in-background-with-people-in-foreground/539783 "2010-05-17T17:04:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-of-photos-of-mt-st-helens-exploding-erupting-in-background-with-people-in-foreground/539783/1 "2010-05-17T17:04:36Z")
I seem to recall a series of photos taken just as the big explosion was happening that caused the massive rock slide. There were people (maybe 2) posing with the mountain in the background, and I think they were on another nearby mountain, dressed in cold-weather gear. It looked as if they set up the camera for some shots of the people, and got lucky to take several showing the mountain’s initial explosion. The people _may_ have been knocked over, but I strongly suspect that’s a false memory on my part. I have failed in my Googling to find these pics. Anybody else remember them, or better still have better search skills and can find them? ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-of-photos-of-mt-st-helens-exploding-erupting-in-background-with-people-in-foreground/539783/2 "2010-05-17T17:08:29Z")
I remember the pic. One person was on the ground (snow of an adjacent peak) but it was from the sheer awesomeness of what they were experiencing as opposed to any actual physical force. I believe their ice axe began to hum from all the static electricity in the air caused by the tremendous ash cloud. Off to look for pic… ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-of-photos-of-mt-st-helens-exploding-erupting-in-background-with-people-in-foreground/539783/3 "2010-05-17T17:11:15Z")
> [@lieu](#): > > One person was on the ground (snow of an adjacent peak) but it was from the sheer awesomeness of what they were experiencing as opposed to any actual physical force. Ah, that makes sense. The reason I thought it was a false memory was because if they were knocked down from the force of the explosion, surely they would been obliterated and the camera destroyed. Good hunting! ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-of-photos-of-mt-st-helens-exploding-erupting-in-background-with-people-in-foreground/539783/4 "2010-05-17T17:11:31Z")
It’s from National Geographic. I have scans of the pictures, and will see if I can find the Issue #. . ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-of-photos-of-mt-st-helens-exploding-erupting-in-background-with-people-in-foreground/539783/5 "2010-05-17T17:13:23Z")
> [@TreacherousCretin](#): > > It’s from National Geographic. I have scans of the pictures, and will see if I can find the Issue #. > > . That would be awesome. I have “The Complete National Geographic” but I’m at work now when this crossed my mind. I might have been able to find it with that, but maybe not, the damn Nat Geo software is buggy as hell. ---
**Author:** ![Yossarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/9de0a6/32.png) [@Yossarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yossarian)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-of-photos-of-mt-st-helens-exploding-erupting-in-background-with-people-in-foreground/539783/6 "2010-05-17T17:22:17Z")
They (I believe there were a party of four–a family, IIRC) were posing from the summit of nearby Mt. Adams. The series of photos are on display at the Johnston Ridge Observatory. They weren’t knocked down, but they did soon find themselves enveloped in darkness… ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-of-photos-of-mt-st-helens-exploding-erupting-in-background-with-people-in-foreground/539783/7 "2010-05-17T17:25:56Z")
I think it’s the January 1981 issue. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-of-photos-of-mt-st-helens-exploding-erupting-in-background-with-people-in-foreground/539783/8 "2010-05-17T17:28:34Z")
> [@Revtim](#): > > That would be awesome. I have “The Complete National Geographic” but I’m at work now when this crossed my mind. I might have been able to find it with that, but maybe not, the damn Nat Geo software is buggy as hell. Worse still, only the early editions of the software had all the photos; later editions omitted numerous pictures because of a court ruling about photographer’s royalties. I know that the pictures in question were among those deleted. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-of-photos-of-mt-st-helens-exploding-erupting-in-background-with-people-in-foreground/539783/9 "2010-05-17T17:31:12Z")
> [@Yossarian](#): > > They (I believe there were a party of four–a family, IIRC) were posing from the summit of nearby Mt. Adams. The series of photos are on display at the Johnston Ridge Observatory. > > They weren’t knocked down, but they did soon find themselves enveloped in darkness… The second of the NatGeo photos shows a hiker seemingly knocked backwards off his feet, but it’s from shock-amazement. I think. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-of-photos-of-mt-st-helens-exploding-erupting-in-background-with-people-in-foreground/539783/10 "2010-05-17T17:41:35Z")
FWIW, here’s the caption that runs with the photos. “An eyewitness to the unimaginable, Suzanne Christiansen drops awestruck on Mount Adams as the blast, 35 miles away, quickly spreads to a 20-mile halo of death.” ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-of-photos-of-mt-st-helens-exploding-erupting-in-background-with-people-in-foreground/539783/11 "2010-05-17T17:43:07Z")
> [@TreacherousCretin](#): > > The second of the NatGeo photos shows a hiker seemingly knocked backwards off his feet, but it’s from shock-amazement. I think. I bet these two series of photos got conflated in my mind in the 30 years since. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-of-photos-of-mt-st-helens-exploding-erupting-in-background-with-people-in-foreground/539783/12 "2010-05-17T17:43:13Z")
My searches aren’t panning out. I’ll PM **Duckster**. Believe he’s an expert on the place and event. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-of-photos-of-mt-st-helens-exploding-erupting-in-background-with-people-in-foreground/539783/13 "2010-05-17T17:44:40Z")
> [@TreacherousCretin](#): > > Worse still, only the early editions of the software had all the photos; later editions omitted numerous pictures because of a court ruling about photographer’s royalties. I know that the pictures in question were among those deleted. Well, I have both the first (or one of the 1st) editions, plus the latest, so hopefully it’ll at least be on my earlier set. Thanks for finding this! ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-of-photos-of-mt-st-helens-exploding-erupting-in-background-with-people-in-foreground/539783/14 "2010-05-17T17:57:12Z")
Here’s NG’s online copy of the article. The photo isn’t shown. > **[National Geographic Magazine](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/)** > > National Geographic stories take you on a journey that’s always enlightening, often surprising, and unfailingly fascinating. Over and out. ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-of-photos-of-mt-st-helens-exploding-erupting-in-background-with-people-in-foreground/539783/15 "2010-05-17T18:56:46Z")
This Youtube video on this page is what I remember most strongly from that issue (I believe) of National Geographic. > **[Rosenquist Mt. St. Helens Video](http://www.mountsthelens.com/video/rosenquist-video.html)** > > Gary Rosenquist's famous photo of Mount St. Helens lateral blast in 1980. It was set up in the magazine as a flip book series. I remember another flipbook of Jupiter taken by the Voyagers around that same time. ---
**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:** [May 18, 2010, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-of-photos-of-mt-st-helens-exploding-erupting-in-background-with-people-in-foreground/539783/16 "2010-05-18T01:09:15Z")
The photograph was indeed part of the display at the Johnston Ridge Observatory. I say was because the JRO displays had a $350,000 makeover, the first since the visitor center opened back in 1997. If I recall when I was up there last week (the JRO reopened for the season just yesterday) that photo is no longer part of the display. They do have a [huge wall photo taken with two 8x10 negatives and then spliced together](http://www.columbian.com/news/2010/may/14/new-exhibits-detail-story-of-volcanos-reawakening/) that is something behold. If you look real closely at the rim you can make out a dozen or so black dots which are really hikers who scaled the back of the volcano the day the image was taken. FWIW, there is no film or video of the actual 1980 eruption. The [sequence of photos many have illegally used](http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/msh/catastrophic.html) to create their own video moments has been used legally for the very first (and only) time with one of the new exhibits at the JRO. From what I was told it’s a special one-off copyright allowance by the copyright owner. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-of-photos-of-mt-st-helens-exploding-erupting-in-background-with-people-in-foreground/539783/17 "2010-05-18T03:44:11Z")
The spectacular sequence I remember was a sequence of still shots from a photographer who was WAY too fucking close to the thing and dove under a car as the ash layer reached him (and died there but his camera was protected by his body + the car, if I recall correctly). ---
**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:** [May 18, 2010, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-of-photos-of-mt-st-helens-exploding-erupting-in-background-with-people-in-foreground/539783/18 "2010-05-18T04:16:04Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > The spectacular sequence I remember was a sequence of still shots from a photographer who was WAY too fucking close to the thing and dove under a car as the ash layer reached him (and died there but his camera was protected by his body + the car, if I recall correctly). You might be thinking about [Reid Blackburn](http://www.columbian.com/news/2010/apr/01/victims-volcanos-toll-hits-home/). ---
**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:** [May 18, 2010, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-of-photos-of-mt-st-helens-exploding-erupting-in-background-with-people-in-foreground/539783/19 "2010-05-18T04:24:43Z")
FYI , [known victims list](http://www.olywa.net/radu/valerie/mshvictims.html). ---
**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:** [May 18, 2010, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-of-photos-of-mt-st-helens-exploding-erupting-in-background-with-people-in-foreground/539783/20 "2010-05-18T04:31:57Z")
> [@Duckster](#): > > You might be thinking about [Reid Blackburn](http://www.columbian.com/news/2010/apr/01/victims-volcanos-toll-hits-home/). Or maybe not … > [@](#): > > But later came word that her brother William P. Parker and his wife, Jeanne, were missing. An air search located the truck and the couple on an ash-covered spur of Coldwater Ridge. “It’s the picture on pages 32 and 33 of your [January 1981](http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/store/) GEOGRAPHIC,” Donna said. A roll of film from inside the truck miraculously printed. “It shows my brother sitting on the stump in the foreground. It was taken the day before he died.” [National Geographic Magazine | National Geographic](http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0005/fngm/index.html) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-of-photos-of-mt-st-helens-exploding-erupting-in-background-with-people-in-foreground/539783.md?page=2)