05-18-2015, 09:39 PM
![[Image: 319px-MSH80_eruption_mount_st_helens_05-...c-edit.jpg]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d1/MSH80_eruption_mount_st_helens_05-18-80-dramatic-edit.jpg/319px-MSH80_eruption_mount_st_helens_05-18-80-dramatic-edit.jpg)
35 years ago today, those were the last words radioed by David Johnston, USGS volcanologist, who was stationed on Coldwater Ridge only about 5 miles from Mount St. Helens when a 5.1 magnitude earthquake triggered the bulging side of the mountain to collapse in a nearly 3 cubic kilometer landslide followed by a lateral blast and pyroclastic flow. Johnston was in the direct path.
The ridge has been renamed Johnston Ridge and is now the location of the David A. Johnston Cascades Volcano Observatory.
52 other people also died as a direct result of this eruption.
Brian