[image removed pending permission from ICR]

Today is the 30th anniversary of the eruption of Mount St. Helens. But what has that got to do with a blog dedicated to defending a Christian world view? Well, quite a lot actually.

On May 18, 1980 when Mount St. Helens in Washington State erupted, melted snow mixed with the volcanic debris and formed huge mud flows. The flows reached speeds of 90mph, picked up sediment and rock, and, in addition to the original steam explosion, devastated a huge area, including some 150 square miles of forest in only six minutes!

These mud flows laid down enormous amounts of sediment, covering the area like a stack of pancakes, and resulting in a sediment pile up to 600-feet think in places. In some areas, thousands of individual layers formed within those sediments.

Then another eruption occurred on March 19, 1982, which created even more mud flows. They eroded large canyons as they scoured the countryside. One of these canyons is now called the “Little Grand Canyon,” and is almost like a smaller model of the Grand Canyon in Arizona. This new canyon even has side canyons, carved by catastrophic water and mud actions.

Catastrophism was a meaningful way of trying to interpret the strata in the early days of geology and this is well attested by the likes of Dr. Terry Mortensen in his writings on the scriptural geologists of the 19th century. However the uniformitarian view of geology popularized by Charles Lyell (and now becoming less popular in the midst of the “second coming” of catastrophism) compelled us to understand that the Colorado river carved the Grand Canyon over millions of years. Yet the canyons that resulted from the eruption of Mount St. Helens were witnessed to form in mere hours. As the caption in an image from this article says, “…  the stream did not form the canyon, the canyon came first and is responsible for the stream being there!” So perhaps the Grand Canyon formed in a similar fashion?

In fact, Creation scientists believe the Grand Canyon was formed in a similar fashion, probably carved out by the drainage of the enormous lakes that formed after the worldwide catastrophic flood and volcanic upheavals of Noah’s day (Gen 6-8).

See, it doesn’t take long for layered sediments or canyons to form from sediments, as proven by the Mount St. Helens eruption. It just takes the right conditions. Mount St. Helens demonstrated what creationists had been saying for centuries. Not only is Noah’s flood an historical event, but it is a plausible way (the best way?) to understand the geological record.

[Main reference: Answers in Genesis Flood Card Set]

Aren’t Millions of Years Required for Geological Processes?
‘I got excited at Mount St Helens!’