Space and Time Warps
Mt. St. Helens Ash Events
Total Running Time: 2:42

In March of 1980, after about a week of harmonic tremors, Mt. St. Helens, known as Loowit, or "Fire Mountain" to the locals, sprang to life with a series of small ash eruptions. Over the course of the next month and a half, the volcano continued with these small events, as the North face of the mountain continued to expand. The "bubble popped" on the morning of May 18, when about a third of the mountain was elevated to great heights.

The small events featured in these clips were shot a month prior to the main event of May 18, the weekend of April 19 and 20, 1980. The location was a clear-cut hill several miles South of Kalama Springs. The footage was Kodachrome Super 8mm shot with a Canon 1014E. Interval for the "slow" views was one frame every 2 seconds. The "fast" scenes were one frame every 20 seconds. An automotive intermittant windshield wiper delay was used as an intervelometer. The time-lapse community owes a great debt to Robert Kearns!