I recently visited Mt. St. Helens. I flipped through some newspaper articles at a visitor center and I couldn't understand how an explosion from a volcano could leave such barren land for so many miles. One photo that was taken was of a little boy lying in the back of a destroyed pick-up. Why was it that the truck was destroyed and the only remains of trees were snags lying in ash but the little boy 'looked' alive? Were all of the victims found?

Karrie

I don't know the exact details of how damage to various structures occurred. I suppose that the strong horizontal blast could have had a bigger effect on tall trees than it would have had on a pickup truck and a little boy. You can sit in a car on a very windy day and not be blown around very much whereas trees nearby are being blown pretty badly. Of course it was a very hot and gas-charged and ash-laden horizontal blast at the Mt. St. Helens eruption, so that even if it didn't blow the boy away it was bad enough to kill him.

Sincerely,
Scott Rowland

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