More Geology from the West Coast where the earth's Plates collide

Mount St. Helen from tourist center february 23, sorry its hidden

Mount St. Helen 1980

More on the geology of the world.

From the mount St. Helen visitor center.

The 1980 eruption of mount St. Helen is a result of the continental plate (pacific or Ferolin) subducting (going under) the north American plate (see chart) in the late Devonian era (370 m years ago, see previous posting) . It took a few years but the results were spectacular as the side of St. Helen turned into a world class mud slide and changed the terrain for miles, and the ash from the eruption spread around the world and aided or reduced global warming (unsure which).

St. Helen’s eruptions in the past thousand years can be tracked by reading tree rings from the ancient douglas firs found in the Cascades.

Pangia is formed by the early Permian age (280 m years ago, see previous posting) and starts to break up in the late Jurassic (130 m years ago) so the dinosaurs lost their land bridges starting their extinction. Note India’s location of S. Africa (Madagascar) and its swing to the North as time evolved.

subduction begins 130m years ago

tree growth rings show volcanic activity in recent time

subduction creates volcanos all the way to New Mexico

mount St.. Helen erupts 1980
Pangia formed 370 m years ago

(Devonian era) note India in S. Africa and no Atlantic Ocean

Earth after 370m years of plate movements, dinosaurs lose land bridges, go extinct, Cape Cod becomes ocean front.