For example, the rapid outflow from the volcano caused massive amounts of sediment to fill in the entire valley adjacent to the mountain.
The mountain also provided a clear reason to distrust the reliability of radiometric dating.
A new rock cap atop the mountain that formed after the 1980 eruption should have shown it to be on the order of tens of years.
But standard analysis gave the totally incorrect date of 350,000 years.
What other rocks have been dated incorrectly by following those standard dating protocols? Helens offered a significant new interpretation of coal deposits.
On May 18, 1980, a tremendous landslide on the northern side of Mount St.
Helens in Washington state uncapped a violent volcanic eruption, completely altering the surrounding landscape.
It is the most studied volcano in history and has reshaped thinking regarding catastrophic earth processes.
The Institute for Creation Research has studied the volcano over the past three decades, conducting research that has provided a suite of informative lessons with broad-ranging implications.
Many logs were transported by the blast to nearby Spirit Lake.
As they jostled and shifted in the water, the bark rubbed off and sank to the bottom of the lake to form a sheet of waterlogged bark.
Elsewhere, extensive masses of coalified deposits are also made of tree bark.