The Mount St. Helens Eruption

One of the highlights of a trip that my wife and I took to the Pacific Northwest was our stop at Mount St. Helens, the volcano in Washington State that erupted on May 18, 1980. The eruption was notable in itself for the 57 people who were killed by the blast, for the hundreds of acres of forest that were destroyed, and for the alteration of the landscape surrounding the blast area. The Mount St. Helens event was one more proof-as if we needed any more-that human beings are helpless against the massive forces of nature. Whether tornadoes, earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis, or volcanoes, we can only do our best to protect ourselves when such events take place.

There is another lesson to be learned from Mount St. Helens, however, and it deals with the shaping of the earth itself. Scientists have long believed in a concept called "uniformitarianism," which basically says that the natural processes that operated in the past are the same ones that are operating today. A key principle of uniformitarianism is that "the present is the key to the past." The implication of uniformitarianism is that nature has continued to operate in a smooth, slow, and unbroken process since the beginning of the world. The geological features that we observe today are the result of that process operating over thousands if not millions of years. Wikipedia has a helpful article about uniformitarianism.

The formation of the Grand Canyon has traditionally been attributed to uniformitarianism-the slow, steady eroding power of the Colorado River operating over a vast period of time. Scientists are beginning to see that that may not be the best explanation. An article in the September 30, 2000 issue of Science News and cited on the creationism.org website reports that geologists are seeing evidence that the Grand Canyon is much younger than had previously been thought and that it was formed by the rapid movement of water. While this does not support the creationist claim that the Grand Canyon was formed by Noah's Flood, it does indicate the uniformitarianism may not be the most helpful explanation for the shaping of the earth's surface.

That brings me to Mount St. Helens. The geologic results of the Mount St. Helens eruption further call into question the basic assumption of uniformitarianism: that catastrophism (the theory that the earth has been affected and shaped by sudden, violent, and relatively short-lived events) had no role in the shaping of the earth. For Bible believers, Noah's Flood would be an example of a catastrophic event that did affect the earth.

Mount St. Helens showed that geological features that were formerly assumed to take thousands or millions of year to form could be accomplished in a matter of minutes or hours or days. One example is the formation of stratified or sedimentary layers. It was previously thought that each layer represented one year or more of natural processes acting on the earth. Mount St. Helens proved that stratified layers-multiple layers-can form within minutes or hours. The long periods of time posited and needed by uniformitarianism are not required. While this does not prove the existence of a divine creator, it does open up the field of discussion regarding the existence of the world to some alternative theories. See the Institute for Creation Research's article on Mount St. Helens for more information.

If you happen to make the trip to Mount St. Helens, consider stopping at the Mount St. Helens Creation Information Center, 4749 Spirit Lake Highway, Silverlake, WA, for some interesting displays and an array of books and other materials related to the creationist alternative. They can provide you with an informative brochure, "7 Wonders of Mount St. Helens," by Lloyd Anderson. It details some of the results of the eruption, results which challenge traditional scientific thinking. Here is a list of the headings in the brochure:

1. Mountains rearranged beyond recognition in minutes
2. Canyons formed in five months
3. Badlands formed in five days
4. Layered strata formed in three hours
5. River system formed in nine hours
6. Sinking logs look like many aged forests in just ten years
7. A new model for quicker coal formation

You may not agree with the conclusions of the brochure, but it makes for interesting reading and may open you to see the world in a new way.

Sources:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniformitarianism_(science)
www.creationism.org/caesar/grandcanyon.htm
www.icr.org/article/mt-st-helens-catastrophism/