page_title: Barry Voight
section_title: Early assignments
hierarchical_section_title: Barry Voight / Volcanological work and research / Early assignments
caption_attribution_description: English: On May 18, 1980, at 8:32 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time, a magnitude 5.1 earthquake shook Mount St. Helens. The bulge and surrounding area slid away in a gigantic rockslide and debris avalanche, releasing pressure, and triggering a major pumice and ash eruption of the volcano. Thirteen-hundred feet (400 meters) of the peak collapsed or blew outwards. As a result, 24 square miles (62 square kilometers) of valley was filled by a debris avalanche, 250 square miles (650 square kilometers) of recreation, timber, and private lands were damaged by a lateral blast, and an estimated 200 million cubic yards (150 million cubic meters) of material was deposited directly by lahars (volcanic mudflows) into the river channels. Sixty-one people were killed or are still missing. USGS Photograph taken on May 18, 1980, by Austin Post. Català: El 18 de maig, a les 8:32 a. m. Temps del Pacífic, un terratrèmol de una magnitud de 5,1 va fer trontollar la muntanya St. Helens. La protuberància l'àrea circumdant relliscà en una gegantina esllavissada de roques i un allau de rocam, alliberant la pressió, desencadenà una erupció de pedra tosca i cendra del volcà. 400 metres del puig van col·lapsar o van sortir volant. Com a resultat 62 quilometres quadrats de la vall van ser emplenats per la runa, 650 quilometres quadrats de llocs d'esbarjo, bosc, i finques privades van ser damnificades per una ràfega lateral, i una quantitat estimada en 150 milions de metres cúbics de material van ser dipositats per corrents de fang volcànic en els canals del riu. Cinquanta set persones van morir o han desaparegut (18 de Maig de 1980, Austin Post, USGS) Español: Erupción del Monte Santa Helena Français&#160;: Le 18 mai 1980, à 8h32 minutes (heure du Pacifique), un tremblement de terre de 5,1 sur l'échelle de Richter secoue le Mont Saint Helens, marquant le début de l'éruption du mont Saint Helens en 1980.
context_page_description: Barry Voight is an American geologist, volcanologist, author, and engineer. After earning his Ph.D. at Columbia University, Voight worked as a professor of geology at several universities, including Pennsylvania State University, where he taught from 1964 until his retirement in 2005. He remains an emeritus professor there and still conducts research, focusing on rock mechanics, plate tectonics, disaster prevention, and geotechnical engineering.
  In April 1980, Voight's publications on landslides, avalanches, and other mass movements attracted the attention of Rocky Crandell of the United States Geological Survey, who asked him to look at a growing bulge on the Mount St. Helens volcano in the state of Washington. Voight foresaw the collapse of the mountain's north flank as well as a powerful eruption. His predictions came true when St. Helens erupted in May 1980; Voight was then hired by the USGS to investigate the debris avalanche that initiated the eruption. After his work at Mount St.
context_section_description: Voight performed work in 1971–1973 for the United States Bureau of Mines. In 1978, he published the first volume of a treatise on avalanches, titled Rockslides and Avalanches. After the second volume was released in 1980, the work became a benchmark in studying avalanches and other forms of mass movement.
  A month prior to the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, Voight was contacted by Rocky Crandell, a United States Geological Survey (USGS) employee working in the Vancouver office near the mountain. Crandell sought Voight's expertise in landslides, hoping Voight would opine on a growing bulge, 270 feet (82 m) long, which had emerged on the mountain's north face. In his reporting to Crandell and his associates, Voight said that the bulge could fail and collapse the volcano's entire north sector. He suggested they begin monitoring the rate of movement of the bulge, worried that the collapse could trigger an eruption. He also advised hiring a local surveyor to take measurements, offending several of the geologists. Shortly after, Voight left the mountain and returned to teaching classes at Penn State. Before the eruption, he had sent his full report to the USGS, summarizing his predictions, depicting the failure of the bulge and the collapse of the mountain's north side followed by a violent eruption. After a magnitude 5.1 earthquake centered directly below the north slope caused that part of the volcano to slide, Mount St. Helens erupted, causing $1.1 billion in damage and killing 57 people.
  After the eruption, Voight accepted a position as a consultant for the USGS. He led the investigation into the volcano debris avalanche which had occurred during the eruption, guiding other volcanologists including Harry Glicken, who built upon Voight's preliminary research to create his report "Rockslide-Debris Avalanche of May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens Volcano, Washington" (1996). Voight's work won him international renown, and he later cited his experiences there as "career-changing". Although Voight already had a burgeoning interest in volcanology, the eruption at Mount St. Helens propelled him to dedicate himself to the field. His work helped reinvigorate widespread interest in landslides and other phenomena at volcanoes that potentially pose a threat to life. After completing his research at Mount St. Helens, Voight began analyzing the volcanic hazards from several other active volcanoes.
  In 1985, Voight blamed human error for the Armero tragedy in Colombia, where more than 23,000 died from an eruption from the Nevado del Ruiz volcano. He stated that while categorically accurate predictions of volcanic eruptions were impossible, unpreparedness for the disaster exacerbated the death toll. In January 1986, Voight visited Nevado del Ruiz responding to concerns from the Colombian government that the northeastern section of the volcano might cave in, causing another eruption. He established a monitoring network of reflectors and used laser ranging to track how the distances to these reflectors changed over time.
  When one reflector indicated significant movement, and large cracks became visible from the air, Voight contemplated initiating an evacuation, but waited. By March 1986, he realized the widening cracks were caused by the creep, or gradual shifting, of one of the volcano's glaciers, rather than rock movement. After leaving Colombia, Voight compiled the 14-page report "Countdown to Catastrophe" (1988), which analyzed how volcanic hazard management had failed at Armero.
caption: Voight correctly predicted a bulge collapse that caused Mount St. Helens to erupt on May 18, 1980.
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