Virginia Dale
Oak Ridge National Laboratories

Mount St. Helens, 1980: From Catastrophe Came Insight:
Out of the Ash: Survival & Recolonization

The 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens created six types of disturbances each with a unique survival and recovery pattern. Virtually no organisms survived in the newly formed crater, pyroclastic area, and debris avalanche; and recovery has been determined by the presence of "safe sites" and organisms moving back into these areas. In the blow down zone, pockets of survival occurred in sites protected by snow or by topography from the blast. Also, plant and animals survived underground in sites where the ash deposit was not too deep. The singe perimeter was damaged by the scorching wind from the eruption that killed conifer trees, but the survival of deciduous plants and many animals has hastened recovery there. On the several mudflows from the volcano, buried organisms died; yet recovery has been rapid because surviving forests are so close. Thus the diversity of geologic events during the eruption has lead to a diversity of recovery patterns across the landscape.

Virginia Dale is a senior scientist in the Environmental Sciences Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. She is also an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Tennessee. She received her Ph.D. in 1980 in mathematical ecology from the University of Washington (she gave her thesis defense on the day that Mount St. Helens began its eruptive sequence). She joined the first team of biological scientists to enter the Red Zone at Mount St. Helens after the eruption and has been studying recovery processes since then.

Walter Dudley
Marine Science Department
University of Hawaii at Hilo

This presentation on tsunamis will cover the mechanisms that create these disastrous waves, how they can travel across entire ocean basins, and the terrible destruction and death they inflict when they surge ashore. Examples of tsunamis created by volcanic eruptions and landslides will be discussed but particular focus will be given to tsunamis produced by earthquakes, especially the Pacific-wide tsunamis of 1946 and 1960. Graphic photographs of tsunami destruction in Hawaii and around the Pacific basin will illustrate the power of these monstrous waves. True stories of heroism in the face of enormous danger and miraculous survival in spite of the odds will bring to life the threat posed by these giant waves. Finally, the deadly tsunamis of the 1990s will be described including the killer tsunami of 1998 which ravaged the coast of Papua New Guinea.

Walter C. Dudley is Professor of Oceanography and Director of the Kalakaua Marine Education Center at the University of Hawaii at Hilo. He is a recipient of the Board of Regents Medal for Excellence in Teaching and the Matsuda Research Fellowship. He has been a shipboard scientist on more than a dozen major oceanographic research expeditions including submersible dives and deep sea drilling aboard the Glomar Challenger. Dudley is the author of more than 75 research or education publications and presentations at scientific meetings, including the marine science entries in the Cambridge General Encyclopedia. He is author of the booklet, Tsunamis in Hawaii and co-author of the books, Tsunami! and Kohol and the Giant Waves, a children's book about tsunamis. Dr. Dudley has been an on-screen expert on tsunamis for PBS, National Geographic Explorer, the Discovery Channel, the History Channel, and the Learning Channel, is a consultant for the United Nations Disaster Preparedness Program, and the International Tsunami Information Center, and is Chair of the Scientific Advisory Council for the Pacific Tsunami Museum. 

Bruce Houghton
New Zealand Institute of Geological & Nuclear Sciences and Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii

Each volcanic crisis since the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens has provided new insights that help scientists to respond more effectively to subsequent eruptions. These experiences supply (1) improved understanding of fundamental causes of the timing, style, and intensity of eruptions, (2) better knowledge of impacts of volcanic eruptions, and (3) improvements in monitoring technology and hazard-mitigation practices. All three are needed to fine-tune eruption responses in the 21^st century. In this presentation, we explore these themes by telling the scientific and human stories of several well-documented eruptions since 1980 and outlining resulting advances in our understanding. The examples we have chosen are Mount St. Helens (1980-86), Mount Pinatubo, Philippines (1991-92), Redoubt Volcano, Alaska (1989-90), Soufriere Hills, Montserrat (1995 and continuing), and Mount Ruapehu, New Zealand (1996).

Bruce Houghton was recently named Gordon A Macdonald Professor of Volcanology in the Department of Geology & Geophysics at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. For the previous 25 years, Bruce was a research geologist and program leader with the Institute of Geological & Nuclear Sciences and its predecessors in Taupo, New Zealand. His current research is focused on quantifying the processes involved in explosive volcanic eruptions, and understanding the patterns of behavior of cone and caldera volcanoes. This work involves assembling detailed field-based case studies, supported by laboratory studies of particle size, shape, vesicularity and crystallinity. Other research interests, which have taken Bruce to Alaska, Central America, and Europe, include understanding the complex proximal deposition processes of explosive volcanism, dynamics of the ascent, degassing, cooling and eruption of magma, catastrophic flooding and sedimentation following large explosive eruptions, time-space-volume relationships for volcanism in central Taupo Volcanic Zone, magma-water interaction, and volcanoes and society. 

Fire, floods, and landslides have been powerful forces shaping the forests and rivers of the Northwest for millions of years. These processes both compete with and complement one another. Many species in the Northwest have evolved in concert with these agents of change.

Julia Jones is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geosciences at Oregon State University. She received her Ph.D. degree at The John Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland and gained tenure at the University of California at Santa Barbara before coming to OSU. Her primary area of study is in hydrologic responses to disturbance and spatial variability/landscape ecology. Dr. Jones' research interests include landscape studies; spatial statistics; disturbance ecology; long-term streamflow records; and Geographic Information System (GIS). Her current programs are inter-site comparisons of long-term streamflow records; text on spatial statistics; reconstructing  fire and wind disturbance in Oregon; and pattern-process interactions in stream networks.

Mount St. Helens, 1980: From Catastrophe Came Insight:
Applying the Lessons from Mount St. Helens

A discussion of how lessons learned at Mount St. Helens can be applied to human problems and how they have helped to shape and inform ecological theory.

James MacMahon is a Professor of Biology and Dean of the College of Science at Utah State University. He has studied Mount St. Helens since 1980. His research is directed, in part, to applying ecological theory to problems of ecosystem restoration. 

Fred Mackenzie
University of Hawaii at Manoa

From the Ice Age to the Greenhouse:
Global Carbon Cycle: Past, Present and Future

The natural carbon cycle involves the cycling of carbon through reservoirs of the lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere and biosphere over a wide range of time and space scales. This cycling has gone on throughout the history of the planet has remained reasonably in balance. One result of the world's reliance on fossil fuels and the destruction of its forests has been the rapid accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, particularly during the last half of the 20th century. This accumulation may lead to an enhanced greenhouse effect and climatic change. The carbon system of earth is currently difficult to balance and there is a problem as to where all of the carbon that has been emitted to the atmosphere by humans activities is going. This talk will focus on research which has addressed the global carbon cycle in the recent past, the present, and potential consequences for the future. 

Fred T. Mackenzie is a geologist and oceanographer with 40 years of experience in studies of the biogeochemistry of the environment and environmental change at various time and space scales. He is currently Professor of Oceanography and Geology & Geophysics in the School of Ocean and Earth Science at the University of Hawaii. He received his B. S. degree in geology and physics at Upsala College and his M. S. and Ph. D. degrees in geology and geochemistry from Lehigh University. His background includes teaching and research experience at various universities and research groups, including Shell Oil Company, the Bermuda Biological Station for Research (where he served as Staff Geochemist and Assistant Director and helped maintain oceanographic operations at Station S), West Indies Laboratory of Fairleigh Dickinson University, Harvard University, John Hopkins University, Northwestern University, the Universite Libre de Bruxelles, and the Stareso Marine Laboratory. Dr. Mackenzie is the author or co-author of more than 175 scholarly publications including 7 books and 7 edited volumes. His latest book, Our Changing Planet, is an introductory text in earth system science and global change. He has received a number of research and teaching awards during his career.

C. Dan Miller
United States Geological Survey
Cascades Volcano Observatory

Each volcanic crisis since the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens has provided new insights that help scientists to respond more effectively to subsequent eruptions. These experiences supply (1) improved understanding of fundamental causes of the timing, style, and intensity of eruptions, (2) better knowledge of impacts of volcanic eruptions, and (3) improvements in monitoring technology and hazard-mitigation practices. All three are needed to fine-tune eruption responses in the 21^st century. In this presentation, we explore these themes by telling the scientific and human stories of several well-documented eruptions since 1980 and outlining resulting advances in our understanding. The examples we have chosen are Mount St. Helens (1980-86), Mount Pinatubo, Philippines (1991-92), Redoubt Volcano, Alaska (1989-90), Soufriere Hills, Montserrat (1995 and continuing), and Mount Ruapehu, New Zealand (1996).

C. Dan Miller has been a volcanologist with the U.S. Geological Survey for the past 25 years. Currently he is chief of the Volcano Disaster Assistance Program (VDAP), which is a joint USGS-U.S. Agency for International Development/Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance program whose mission is to assist foreign governments to mitigate effects of volcanic eruptions by providing rapid-response volcano monitoring and hazard-assessment assistance, monitoring equipment, and training. VDAP acts as authoritative consultants on volcanic-hazards issues to national and international organizations, agencies, and governments including: U.S. State Department, USAID, U.S. Military, U.S. Department of Defense, and the United Nations. Dan's research in the western U.S., Latin America, southwestern Pacific, Japan, and Kamchatka has focused on eruptive behavior and the geologic record at explosive volcanoes, volcanic-hazard assessment, hazard-zonation maps, and volcano-crisis response. He has played a major role in crisis responses at Mount St. Helens, Redoubt Volcano, Alaska, El Reventador, Guagua Pichincha, and Tungurahua volcanoes in Ecuador, Popocatepetl, Mexico, and Soufriere Hills, Montserrat.

Don Swanson
United States Geological Survey
Hawaiian Volcano Observatory

Mount St. Helens, 1980: From Catastrophe Came Insight:
Personal Memories and Volcanic Legacies

Donald A. Swanson is Scientist-in-Charge at the U.S. Geological Survey, Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. He is a native of western Washington, born in Tacoma, raised in Eatonville and Centralia. Dr Swanson has a B.S. in Geology, Washington State University, 1960; PhD in Geology, Johns Hopkins University, 1964. He studied eruptive activity and led the geodetic monitoring and prediction effort at Mount St. Helens during the 1980s. He was a charter member of Cascades Volcano Observatory, and Scientist-in-Charge 1986-1989.

Fred Swanson
USDA Forest Service
Pacific NW Research Station

Forest fires have been an integral part of most Pacific Northwest forests throughout their histories. Studies of pollen and charcoal in lakes, tree rings, and written records reveal interesting aspects of this long, complex history. The frequency and severity of fires, and human influences on them, have varied over time and across the geography of the Northwest. Our approaches to managing fire-prone ecosystems are in transition from focusing on suppressing fire to incorporating it in management systems. 

Fred Swanson is a Research Geologist and Ecosystem Team Leader with the USDA Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station. For 30 years he has studied physical processes that disturb forest and stream ecosystems -- fire, wind, flood, landslides. He has been a student of Mount St. Helens since the 1980 eruption.

Cathy Whitlock
Department of Geography
University of Oregon

From the Ice Age to the Greenhouse:
Changing Forests of the Pacific Northwest: Past Records and Future Projections

To evaluate the significance of current and projected changes in forest ecosystems, it is helpful to compare them with environmental changes in the past, prior to the influence of Euro-Americans. A network of pollen and charcoal records from the Pacific Northwest describes the history of vegetation, fire, and climate over the last 20,000 years. These records disclose the dynamic nature of ecosystems and show how forests have responded to large-scale changes in climate and fire regime in the past. For example, the data indicate that current "old-growth forests" and the modern fire regime have been present for about 3000 years; prior to that time the vegetation was more open and fires were more frequent. Computer model simulations suggest even greater ecological adjustments in the next century as a result of climate changes caused by rising carbon dioxide and other "greenhouse gasses" in the atmosphere. Just as the past provides a key to the present, paleoecological data highlight the unprecedented nature of the future and the need for climate change to be considered in ecosystem management plans.

Cathy Whitlock has been a Professor in Geography at the University of  Oregon since 1990, and she currently serves as President-elect of the American Quaternary Association. She received a Ph.D. in Geological Sciences from the University of Washington in 1983, and has held research and teaching positions at Trinity College Dublin, Carnegie Institute, and University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Whitlock's research focuses on the vegetation history during and since the last ice age and how vegetation patterns will be affected by future climate change. She has conducted research in Europe, China, and the Pacific islands, but her primary interests have been in the western U.S. Currently, she and her students are examining the prehistoric record of climate change, vegetation, and fire in the Pacific Northwest, northern Rockies, and Yellowstone region by looking at pollen and charcoal data preserved in lake sediments. Her research has been published in over 60 scientific papers and books, and she is co-editor of a volume on the Quaternary environments  of the former Soviet Union.