A Dangerous Glacier Grows Inside Mount St. Helens' Crater | OPB 

Thanks I was running out of things to worry about.

Charlie's determination to die on that volcano is astounding.

"You're just a visitor, and hopefully you're welcome." The absolute respect for nature in that statement - perfect. I was 10 and living in WA state when this blew. Several hours away and still heard it. Had ash coating everything - the sky, the ground, everything, for 2 solid weeks.

My wife and I were driving north on I5 to Kent, south of Seattle, when it blew. We couldn't comprehend what we were looking at. It was surrealistic. I had to turn on the radio to figure out what was happening. The blast was in full view. We drove around for weeks with a nylon on the air cleaner to protect the engine. Eastern Washington took the brunt of the ash, but it was a mess on our side too.

I enjoy outdoor thrill seeking activities but ice caving on an active volcano might be my limit.

*1:44** The Volkswagen is an official unit of measure.*

I remember anticipating the eruption Mt. Helens several weeks before it occurred. And I vividly remember the morning it actually erupted 42 years ago on 5-18-80! My spouse was watching TV in the family room and I was watching TV in the bedroom when it came over the news around 8:40 a.m.! People had been evacuating for a while before the eruption, but it was still amazing though expected, as no one knew exactly when it would happen. I had family in Washington, and visited up there a while after the eruption, when all had quieted down again. I still have the little "lava" dog that I bought in a souvenir shop up there. I remember seeing Mt. Rainier and being in awe about how beautiful it was, an innocent-looking snow-covered mountain, which COULD erupt same as all those other mountains I used to ski on in the Cascade Range! But you wouldn't find me hiking in the crater on Mt. St. Helens, for any amount of money! Our Planet Earth is VERY active and although I know that today, there are sensors on all the mountains in the "Ring of Fire" -- I'm not taking chances of half a mountain coming down on me, like it did that one man who said "Vancouver, Vancouver -- this is it, this is it!" as he was watching the mountain erupt. He lost his life. I'll never forget that! It's bad enough that I live within about 180 miles of Yellowstone, and if that massive crater ever goes, I'm toast! But you can't live in fear, so if it blows, it blows! Scientists say it could erupt tomorrow or 100 years from now, but that it WILL erupt some day. As long as Old Faithful and all the mud puddles keep bubbling, I know the pressure probably won't build up, but I've stopped keeping track of it! It's not worth living in fear, what will be, will be!

Thank you to the curious folks who need to know why. They do the hard part and all we have to do is pay attention when they tell us what they found. This was fascinating. I was in Salem, OR when the mountain blew her top. A light coating of ash was on everything outdoors. It was gritty and you had to rinse the cars off--sweeping or brushing it off would scratch terribly. It clung to windows and window screens. Our skies didn't go dark like some places in Washington did. Friends in Yakima said it was like midnight at noon. Seeing the little green shoots coming up, seeing the tracks of wildlife in the deep ash and then spotting the first small herd of elk, rabbit tracks, too--it was so welcome! There was such great speculation that pretty much all wildlife was gone and it would be a long, long time before anything green would be spotted. Mother Nature surprised us and it was such a relief. There were tears of joy in those first signs of life. I still have a tiny vial of ash from the event. Ugly stuff, really. Cinder-y. Medium-dark grey. I hope it stays calm. I've moved closer to it.

"big as a volkswagon". I've heard that expression a thousand times. It should officially be a unit of measure.

'Independent Geologist' essentially means 'Local Eccentric' and I love it!

As someone who grew up in the plains, the size of even just the volcanic crater is almost unfathomable. I'm trying to imagine how many city blocks this area would cover lol definitely a lot..

I visited this place and the crater is astoundingly large...much bigger than any photos or videos I've ever seen. I've never been anywhere that made me realize that the power of nature is so large. When it blew, my mom lived to the west of it, in Montana, about 500 miles away. She said that the ash at her place was 4-inches deep.

This blowing in 2020 would be very fitting for how things have been so far this year.

I spent a couple years planting trees in the blast zone, beginning the year after the blast. It was an unreal place, with earthquakes and loud booms coming from the mountain, intermittently.

Lived in Vancouver WA in the early '60's. As kids we would ride our bikes up to Mill Plain Ave and then being over the ridge we could see Mt. St. Helens. It was a perfectly symmetrical rounded snowcapped mountain at the time.

I've been to Mt. St. Helen's a couple times, in 2001 and 2015. It's fascinating. The surrounding area got greener over the years.

“If it went off like it did in 1980, we wouldn’t be alive” and that is why he's the expert volcano dude.

"And uh, a hardhat wouldn't do yah any good." I love scientists.

I am always fascinated that volcanoes build themselves back to what they looked like before and that is what she is doing.. building her slope. Rainier did that, Vesuvius did that and Mt. St. Helens did that before when she erupted the last time before 1980. They all do it. It's like they are living mountains breathing and growing warning us that we are not in control of anything. But in reality only God is in control of everything including this entire planet and its volcanoes.

I was 8 when it blew up. I was obsessed with it as a kid. I would draw the mountain religiously. Recently - in the past 10 years - I went to MSH. Once on Feb 25th and I couldn't see anything. The overlook was closed. Never having been there before I had no idea where I was on the mountain and I couldn't tell where the crater was. I returned on July 4 and was able to go to get overlook this time. It was breathtaking. Even at 50 miles away it was impressive.

I was under the impression that a hard hat would protect me from VW size boulder, glad I watched this video.

"Today we'll be visiting a volcano." "Okay" "An active volcano" "Okay" "That blew up in 1980" "Okay" "We'll stand on a growing glacier" "Okay" "Then we'll go under the glacier...into caves" "Are you sure?" "Yes, the earthquakes don't happen all the time.." "Earthquakes? While we're under a glacier....on a active volcano? "It's fine....the gas will suffocate you first."

I love how the video shows the depth and magnitude of the crater, and glacier. Absolutely mind boggling how much of the mountain exploded out!! Millions of tons of rock and earth!! Epic!

I was living in Victoria BC when Mt Saint Helen's blew in the '80's. The townhouse we were living in were built in adjoined rows of 6 each. I heard a series of loud, deep, booms, and thought someone at the other end of our row, was slamming their front door several times. The next day I took the ash out of our BBQ and sprinkled it over our teeny tiny backyard, then I called my mum down and she was amazed! There was a lot of news about the eruption, and one of the reports was of ash coming back down. That's a fun memory for me.

You can see Mount St. Helens from my grandpa's house. I always love walking out in his yard and looking at Mount St. Helens and the top of Mount Rainier whenever I visit him. It's beautiful 😍

I thought this was from 10 months ago, but it's nearly 17 years old. It would be great if they did the trip again, just to see how things have moved on.

Petition to officially name the glacier the Anderson glacier! Charlie deserves that honor.

I was 8.5 yo in 1980 when she erupted. Our family was on MT Spokane with the local Jeep club, on the back side where there was no radio signals, so we (all the parents) had no idea what was happening. Once we were closer to the top we all could see the dark clouds over the whole Spokane area, but still no radio signal. All of us kids were piled in to one Willy’s Wagon so we didn’t get “wet” from the huge “rain storm.” What an eye 👁️ opening experience once we got down the mountain 😮.

I remember the morning it erupted. I heard two large blasts and wondered what it was. I was living on Whidbey Island and long distance away. Many got ash dumped all over the areas they lived but we were lucky and none landed on the Island. There was a crusty old codger living on the mountain and he refused to go saying he'd have no life without his beloved cabin there so if it goes he wanted to go with it. He was indeed on the side that went and perished that day along with fifty some odd who also lost their lives. I talked to one guy who was racing over a hundred miles per hour to escape the pyroclastic cloud heading his way. He past others in campers and such, he made it, they didn't. Mother nature is like being on the ocean; it's not forgiving and doesn't care who you are. If your in the wrong place at the wrong time it's over. Being the owner of a small fishing vessel I came to know that very well and was lucky to escape a few unpredicted storms. Water up to my knees, my deck hand tied to the drum bailing as fast as he could with a five gallon bucket. Once we ready safe haven that guy hit the road and stuck out his thumb after accusing me of being insane for doing such a job, lol. I'm 70 now and wonder how I made it this far but my thrill seeking adventures are just about over, I did say just about so we'll see what happens. God willing and the creek don't rise I'll be here next year to enjoy my kids and grandkids.

We usually complain about glaciers diseappearing, not growing.

Visited this place 3 years ago amazing!

I lived in southern BC when it erupted in 1980, just incredible to see from so far away!

I flew over St Helen's in 09 for a funeral and it looked beautiful on one side and destruction on the other

I climbed Mt. Saint Helens back in 1974 with a fellow surveyor John Smolich. I lived in Spokane in 1980 and was heading with my family to an airshow at Fairchild AFB. We were almost there and it was announced that it had been cancelled because the mountain had erupted. Thought that was kind of silly because of the distances involved but by the time we got back to our place, ash was falling and it was completely dark at about 11 am. Like a lot of people from the PNW, I won't ever forget this experience.

I used to go to girl scout camp at Spirit Lake. The power of that eruption was incomprehensible.

I saw an intense orange display in the skies of northern Maine a few years back. It was spectacular; the sky was a bed of embers simmering in a fire. I have not seen anything like it since.

“Mt. Rainer’s glaciers are visible from almost everywhere“. I am unable to see them from my house in Texas.

Fortunately enough on a nice day I’m able to see Mt St Helens and Mt Hood pretty much out my backyard

I lived in Kennewick Washington. Other known as the Tri-Cities I was working at the local mall and our city went dark with these really weird luminous clouds. Ash came down. I remember driving home and it was slick on the roads like black ice. My dad was building a screened in porch onto our home and was painting it when this started. The whole porch had to be sanded down and redone!!!!!!

Mt St. Helens is magnificent. I saw it then in July of 2003.

45 years ago Mt St Helens was an "inactive" volcano too

When did Volkswagen become a scientific standard for measuring boulders. I wonder what model volkswagen. :)

I lived in Bellingham Washington then, was just a kid . I remember driving through a nearby town several days later heading somewhere and seeing ash everywhere , my Dad still has a specimen jar filled with the ash from the eruption.

One thing that amazes me is how huge the mountain is when you can see ppl walking around on the slopes or better yet how tiny we are in comparison. 👍🏻😊

"but we were warned." "bro its totally knarlly up there, like whoooosh and radical bro.."

This brought me back to 1995, my first trip flying across the pond to the US. I so fell in love with the Cascades and have come back to visit many times since. The views of mount Rainier from Seattle though are still my favorite ❤️. Is mount St Helen's creating some sort of micro-climate ? The growing glacier reminds me of the Teide volcano in the Canary Islands, where the ice never melts totally while you can plant and harvest bananas and mangos just around the corner. Fascinating!

I was on USS BARBOUR COUNTY (LST-1195), in Portland for a port visit during the Rose Festival when Mt. St. Helen erupted the second time. Other ships in port got underway and got the hell out of Dodge (Portland, actually 🙂), but a "T" has a shallow draft and we stayed. The harbor didn't silt up that badly, but the next morning was an unreal sight. Everything was covered in a light beige ash the consistency of talcum powder, about half an inch deep. All of Portland. I'll never forget that. We could still find ash on the ship six months later.

It's just so humbling to see the power of nature to completely modify a landscape that size in a few decades. This is a less active period of volcanos on the Earth. I can't imagine what 100 years of highly active looks like. Probably a dark and cold 100 years.

My sister was living in Portland in 1980. I wrote this limerick for her: A snow-covered mountain, St. Helens, After various rumblin's and swellin's, Spewed forth, with a crash, Indiscriminate ash Upon bystanders, victims, and felons.

“Originally broadcast in 2004” I wonder if it’s still happening or not

St Helens seems like the only place noise doesn't matter to somebody nowadays. Ill probably get hollered at , but I think this is the perfect area for offroading / riding. No worries of environmental damage, no worries of sound or dust, just miles of challenges and fun ...Away from everyone else.

I climbed Arenal in Costa Rica in '91. I'd heard of people getting killed by rocks from the top but there were no warnings on the mountain. I hid behind a rock and was protected from harm but when the ground started to shake I had to run through the fog on a slope of ash until I found a rock. I sensed God's protection throughout the trip and wouldn't have gone without it.

I remember trips as a kid up on the top of Helen's and swimming in the lake. I also remember when it blew and I still have some ash we scooped off of our car.

I still remember before Mt St. Helens erupted. It looked a lot like Mt Fuji in Japan. Easy to remember the date of eruption. Happened on my Birthday.

Thank you for all you do. I have ptst from it from 1980. I lived and still live close. Never trust mother nature. True respect 🙏 I grew up on that mountain camping, fishing. I knew Harry as a child so did my dad we would rent fishing boats. Prayers Mr Harry and his dog.🙏🐾🐾

I remember waking up to the sounds of loud rumbling in the Dalles, Oregon when Mt. St. Helens erupted in the summer of 1980.

A minute ago the glaciers were melting, now a dangerous one is growing

The scale of this is hard to imagine. I know from experience in the Backcountry that even when you're there it's sometimes hard to fathom.

St Helen’s reminds me of my Marapi, with its lava dome acting like slow growing toothpaste slowly being squeezed out. It’s also similar in shape to Marapi. Rockfalls and movement happening in spits an starts. Lahars are regular with Marapi until a eruption an the they are devastatingly violent along with the eruptions. Huge geo thermal steam an activity with both of these monsters. Mabe one day you guys could invite Dr Valentine Troll from La Palma eruption 2021 an Chris Horten of tv,s exploring Volcanoes an between them being a new European audience to the conversation. So until the next show, be safe be lucky an be well guys. Thanks for sharing Paul 21.49 gmt Uk cheers

Mount St. Helens erupted on my cousin's 24th birthday in 1980.

"It was 40 years ago today..." I remember the eruption. I was living in Brown's Point, Tacoma. We could walk down the street to the bluff overlooking the Tide Flats and port, and in the direction of the then under-construction Tacoma Dome, there was this stupendous grey mushroom cloud. It seems hard to fathom, but eastern WA had days with no sunlight, and so much ash the freeways had to be bulldozed. Today you'd never know it happened. Nature is insistent on her persistence.

I love seeing all this info on Mount Saint Helens! Fascinating

I remember that day arrived early to work just about 30 miles from the mountain in Longview Washington I was born, and raised in Cathlamet Washington. When she blew her top off it was a speechless moment in time remembering spirit lake that we used to swim in, and the lodge that was there. Then there was the massive destruction all along the river.

Very interesting piece from 2004. At the time, the inner lava dome was from small eruptions between 1980-1986. Soon after this documentary was made, a four year eruptive period began forming another higher lava dome behind the 80s lava dome back up near the south rim. Crazy cool to see in real time the mountain rebuilding itself.

I’ll never understand the downvotes on videos like this 🤷‍♂️

" They build their home on a volcano and then wonder why there is lava in the livingroom" - George Carlin

Geology seems to be such a relaxing and fascinating area of study.

Oh this was originally in 2004 I was wondering why the time frames they were using seemed so weird lol

Lived in Trout Lake, Washington in the early 1980's and watched Mt. St. Helen's blow from our front picture window. If only computers were the norm as they are today, we could've LIVE STREAMED the event. Either way, the birds in the area left about a week before the eruption and at you could hear the "clacking" of basalt rock...like when you bang two stones together.

“I don’t think anyone in the world has see a glacier grown from nothing this fast before.” I don’t think anyone has ever seen a glacier grow from nothing before either.

Very interesting. But scary. Charlie is brave. God bless him and his crew.

It struck me that volcanoes are just pimples on the face of the earth....

Geologists - "Takes millions and billions of years to make mountains and glaciers and canyons" Mt. St. Helen's - "says who numb-nuts?"

I think it's remarkable that glaciers are growing anywhere - let alone here. They're slowly disappearing elsewhere. On Saint Helens, in spite of the north-facing crater, the glacier is growing in what amounts to a solar oven - large basin with no shade.

Perhaps the still unnamed glacier ought to be called "Blackburn Glacier", after 27 year old photojournalist Reid Blackburn, who documented events leading up to the eruption. He died while trying to escape in his car on May 18,1980. 56 other people were also killed that day in the eruption.

Mount St. Helens: starts flexing Yellowstone: ok thats it, hold my magma!

I've hiked through Mt. Haleakala on Maui several times and even explored some of the lava tubes - while that volcano is dormant, the landscape is like being in another world and gives you tremendous respect for the power of nature.

Back some years ago, before the 2nd set of eruptions you could walk into the creator. Many did and me and some friends drove up there to see it. The most epic moment of my life was putting my gloved hand on that lava dome and feeling the heartbeat of the Earth. It Was Awe Inspiring to feel the sheer power of creation rumbling beneath my touch.

I fly this are a lot in Microsoft Flight Simulator. The scenery is spectacular and about as close as I want to get.

This appears to have been filmed in 2003. Little did those scientists know that the very next year it would erupt again.

Wish I could have heard what the professor said about the rock he was holding.

I heard that blast from 250 miles away. Remember it like it was yesterday.

Thank you for footage. 👍 I learned a lot today.

I wouldn't get in those ice caves for love nor money

I have Mason jars full of ash from the Mt. ST Hellens eruption. I grew up in St. Marie's Idaho. Ash hit the Jetstream and covered St. Marie's with 8 -10 in of ash. Today you can dig down in the soil and find a compressed layer of ash. Pray it never happens again.

That is so amazing. New place on the planet, still at the infancy of sculpting itself (from the body of the old).

I have ash from Mount St. HELENS from when it blew back in day my ash is in a jar and never has been open . Got it from my grand MA as she lived in area . ❤

The 19 tourists and 2 guides that lost their lives last December during an eruption (and latter on in hospital) of White Island, NZ, is a good example why you shouldn’t go walking in a volcanic crater.

I remember when St Helens was steaming when I was a kid, looking at it every day for years in awe & how amazing a sight it must have been to see the actual eruption & mom telling me she saw it happen on a date with my dad at Rocky Butte In Portland OR the pics they took are wonderful & terrifying even from nearly 50 miles away. I still live within sight of St Helens Mt Hood & Mt Rainier our little corner of America is beautiful I couldn't imagine living anywhere else.

It's one thing to see pictures and videos, but god damn I bet its magical to see a volcano in person

Charlie rocks! :) He deserves to have his full name featured in the vid info. Thanks OPB for this outstanding video!

It’s building up once again. It’s been 40 years. I recall that event. We were on the East coast, and the days following, the sky was eerily overcast with a dull, haze. Mother Nature is all powerful.

Go straight to the Comments Section and see what The Experts have to say about this video.

Just climbed that last month. Was awesome. It was alive and had a lot of movement.

I remember the day it exploded, we were on Gamble Bay near Port Gamble, Washington. The earth shook and I heard a loud bang, running outside because I thought a truck had crashed on a nearby road. In the pictures, it looked like a nuclear blast site... but the smoke plume never came over this area of Puget Sound. People died because they ignored the warnings to stay away and underestimated the power of the mountain. The Earth doesn't care about politics, and denying what's happening isn't going to change what's happening. We better pay attention to the warning signs.

This is definitely the best post-eruption footage I've seen of the area - really awe-inspiring to see all that cavernous space that used to be occupied by mountain.

You don't have to tell me twice not to go to a place even the plants know not to go 😂

I remember seeing it on TV, in 1980...

I'll never forget that summer, in Chicago, the tempeture never got above 60⁰ thanks to all the ash in the upper atmosphere.🌋

I wish they still made documentaries like these.