David A. Johnston

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David A. Johnston, about 13 hours before Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980

David Alexander Johnston (born December 18, 1949 in Chicago , Illinois, † May 18, 1980 in Toutle, Washington) was an American volcanologist who worked for the United States Geological Survey (USGS). He is one of the most famous victims of the Mount St. Helens eruption on May 18, 1980.

Johnston received his PhD from the University of Washington in 1978 with a dissertation on the magma evolution of the Saint Augustine volcano in Alaska , which led to a huge eruption in 1976. In the spring of 1980 he occupied an observation post about 10 kilometers away from the volcano Mount St. Helens until the end , when the volcano, which had been troubled for weeks, erupted.

On March 30, 1956, an unstable flank of the Besymjanny volcano on the Russian Kamchatka Peninsula broke off and triggered a horizontally directed explosion that blew away the top of the mountain, creating a crater 1.9 kilometers in diameter and an eruption column 34 kilometers high caused. Within a radius of 34 kilometers, the area was devastated and almost four cubic kilometers of smoking ashes and debris were expelled. The volcanologist was well aware that something similar could happen on Mount St. Helens.

David A. Johnston stayed at the volcano mainly because he wanted to measure the gases from the fumarole . His observation point was a little over nine kilometers north of Mount St. Helens on the Coldwater Ridge, 460 meters above the valley floor. The USGS was certain that a pyroclastic flow would not reach this height. However, as the bulge on the north flank of Mount St. Helens continued to grow, the safety of Coldwater Ridge became increasingly questionable. At the time when the entire north flank actually slipped and a huge explosion destroyed the summit of Mount St. Helens, the USGS was considering providing the scientists on Coldwater Ridge with an armored vehicle in which they could possibly carry a pyroclastic flow could survive.

On May 18, 1980 at 8:32 a.m. (local time) the north flank finally slipped and Johnston was the first to start the eruption with the famous words “Vancouver! Vancouver! This is it! ”Reported by radio. Shortly afterwards it was swept away by the cloud of volcanic ash, lava and overheated gases. His body was never found.

Johnston's ongoing appeals to the authorities around Mount St. Helens to evacuate the area around the volcano and to keep it evacuated even after many wanted to give the all-clear, it is ultimately thanks to the fact that relatively few people were left with the eruption died, as opposed to the potentially thousands of deaths that would have occurred had the evacuation been lifted prematurely.

In his honor, the visitor center of today's Mount St. Helens Volcanic Monument was renamed the Johnston Ridge Observatory . In 2015 an asteroid was named after him: (8663) Davidjohnston .

Web links

Commons : David A. Johnston  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The 1980 Eruptions of Mount St. Helens, Washington . In: United States Government Printing Office (Ed.): Geological Survey Professional Paper . No. 1250 . Washington, DC
personal data
SURNAME Johnston, David A.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Johnston, David Alexander
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American volcanologist
DATE OF BIRTH December 18, 1949
PLACE OF BIRTH Chicago , Illinois
DATE OF DEATH May 18, 1980
Place of death Toutle, Washington