The Strange Time Mount St Helens Became Nonexplosive; The Ape Cave Lava Tube

[@GeologyHub]

It is a bit weird to learn that Mount Saint Helens once (albeit for a brief time) produced effusive or only moderately explosive basaltic eruptions. Sources/Citations: [1] Hopson, Clifford A., 2008, Geologic map of Mount St. Helens, Washington prior to the 1980 eruption: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 02-468, 2 sheets, scale 1:31,250 [pubs.usgs.gov/of/2002/of02-468/]. All of the outlines of specific basalt, andesite, and dacite lava flows were traced from this paper for usage in this video. [2] U.S. Geological Survey [3] USGS Denver Library Photographic Collection [4] Ape Cave Interpretive Site, www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/giffordpinchot/recarea/?recid=40393 [5] Extreme Pursuit

[@AllTheHappySquirrels]

I love visiting the Ape Caves! Hooray for lava tubes!

[@LadyAnuB]

Is there a phase diagram for lava?

[@GladDestronger]

Too bad it doesn't do them all the time. They'd a bit easier to study upclose.

[@pierreetienneschneider6731]

In fact, this is not that weird.... Hekla in Iceland does that same composition change in a time span of 1-2 hours at every eruption. It starts plinian, producing sometimes even rhyolitic pumice. Then it becomes more and more mixed style as andesite is tapped from the system. The main phase is often a marathon Strombolian eruption of basaltic andesite, with tall lava fountains and abundant effusive activity. The end of the eruption is usually a few days of very calm effusion of de gassed basalt then it goes back to dormancy.

[@nickyjohn2389]

I hiked the ape caves back in 1977. Back then, it wasn't really a designated tourist area, which made it a much better place to hike and visit. Why a lot of the "outdoorsy" city types leave their hiking and camping trash wherever it lands throughout our back country baffles me.

[@GhostOfJulesVerne]

Right next to Ape Cave is the Trail of Two Forests. A lava flow covered a bunch of trees, and now there are log-sized holes in the rock that you can crawl through. It's really cool.

[@Fusako8]

Yup! Brought a girlscout troop there last summer, just prior to visiting Ape Cave. I also brought along both a 395 and a 365nm UV light, and unfortunately there aren't many fluorescent features in either.

[@WestCoastWheelman]

I've been to both when I was young and it was SO MUCH FUN climbing through the Swiss cheese ground. The miniature lava tubes are the best!

[@maritasue5067]

My Jack Russell terrier wanted explore all the lava casts of the trees (you never know where those ground squirrels may be hiding). Fortunately, he was on a leash.

[@lethrbear32]

@@maritasue5067 My dachshunds tried that too. They would've been gone if they were off leash. They love chasing critters and will follow a scent trail until it ends.

[@jcee2259]

Also the parking for Lake Cave. Begins with downward crawl. Take 9mm to 12mm non-static for a 3 meter belay or hand- line. I've done it minus rope. Expect a long dark walk to rear. Wet extent may be larger or smaller than expected. Exit if any lava tremors occur. The volcano has killed people.

[@johnbaldwin9688]

I’ll always remember mount Saint Helens as a beautiful snowy cone reflected in a perfectly calm Spirit Lake while canoeing with my Mom.

[@danielleknight7411]

I went on a trip with my older sister years ago in a sort of self imposed "in field study" to learn more about the Cascade volcanoes and Mt. St. Helens was the first one we camped at for a weekend. Ape Cave was on my list of things to check out and it was AWESOME. We went in late spring and there were not a ton of people, and she and I ventured all the way to the very back of the lava tube, where it narrows into a very small hole in the wall, too small for a person to get through. It wasn't a cave in, just a natural part of the lava tube itself. It was amazing to see the features of the tube up close and personal. If anyone is thinking about checking out Mt. St. Helens I highly recommend checking out Ape Cave!!

[@phobosthemage260]

1:59 Thank you for this video. CAVEMAN HIKES has done a lot of videos in these underground lava tubes around mt st helens but now I can actually picture how they were formed.

[@AndisweatherCenter]

Wow! This is so cool. I had no idea that there was any effusive eruption from Mount Saint Helens. Your channel is absolutely awesome

[@angusmcnaughton4570]

I am pretty sure the ape caves are some of the longest in the world, called ape caves because of a myriad of Sasquatch/ Sabe sightings and accounts

[@cacogenicist]

There are many basalt and basaltic andesite flows in the Cascade arc. If one goes over the hwy 242 McKenzie Pass in Oregon, you can see the very young and fresh Belknap Crater Complex flows. Looks like you're in Hawaii, if you ignore the stratovolcanoes. :-)

[@AtomicCoyote161]

Eastern Idaho has a pretty significant amount of lava tubes, not just the ones in Craters of the Moon but also 17 mile Cave (near Idaho Falls) and the Civil Defense Caves (near Rexburg). Unfortunately the last two aren't on protected land and have been pretty heavily graffitied over time.

[@BrilliantDesignOnline]

I have been all through APE cave, and highly recommend taking the time to visit and go through it. When you get far in and no one else is around, be sure and turn your light out: super dark 🙂

[@JulesUS8386]

It was very awesome to hike in the basalt tube that seemed huge. Loved hiking up the North Side of St Helens as well. Still visible damage from the 1980 eruption along with beautiful new life along side. Such an amazing place to visit!

[@erfquake1]

Thank you for covering Ape Cave! It's a family favorite.

[@LVNorthWest]

The honestly crazy thing about this video for me is that I visited ape caves last Friday on a school field trip.

[@RonnDon]

There's so much volcanic history in the Cascade range, and each volcanic feature is very unique. However, the cascade range has been strangely quiet since the 20th century. Only two volcanoes have erupted since 1900 (Lassen Peak and St Helens). Why do you think that the Cascade Range is producing very little activity? @geologyhub

[@lethrbear32]

Ape Caves and Trail of Two Forests is so fascinating. I've spent a lot of time there.

[@ZebaKnight]

Thanks for detailing this very complex process/history in a way that a non-geophysicist can understand.

[@tthappyrock368]

Ape Caves is awesome! I hiked the upper tube with one of my son's classes. We also went to the other set of caves that you could crawl through --that was cool too!

[@sifarren]

The recent activity in Iceland has my attention as I'm sure it does yours. Are you familiar with the guy that has the "Just Icelandic" channel? He seems like a great man. I really like the output he creates. Would you have any updates on the situation on Iceland please. I note a variety of activities both on the island and offshore. Thanks. Love your work.

[@maritasue5067]

Most tourists just visit the main visitor center at Mt. St. Helens, on the north side, but the south and eastern portions of the mountain are super fascinating. Ape Cave and the Trail of Two Forests are on the south side, but also other very interesting features. Here’s a suggestion, and also a warning to anyone planning a visit to Mt. St. Helens. Plan on two days, if you have time; one day for the north and west sides and one day for the south and east (with different access roads). The warning is that people have driven over cliffs and died because they were so in awe of the scenery on this mountain, others died because they weren’t cautious of hazards and went off hiking trails.

[@bluemoon3264]

The Kazumura lava tube cave located on the big island of Hawaii is the longest in the world 🌎 at 40 + miles long .

[@SAOS451316]

Interestingly lava tubes on the moon are a livable temperature and well insulated from radiation and micrometeorites. They're also much bigger than the ones on Earth, and are potential sites for large lunar settlements.

[@PunaSquirrel]

There are 2 more lovely caves in the Ape cave area- Oli's cave which is about 1 1/4 mi long and also Lake cave which is about 3/4 mi long and is located at the Trail of two Forrest. But Indian Heaven caves??? We need a video on this.

[@jasondavis4385]

Ape cave is one the coolest hikes around!

[@chefmike4414]

Battle Ground Lake State Park. I think geology fans would find it interesting that people swim in a volcanic maar, which is now a crater lake. The boring Oregon lava field is full of interesting geologic oddities.

[@matthewwelsh294]

Lived like a mile away from Battle Ground Lake State Park growing up. Very neat park. Used to walk from my house to the lake often

[@chefmike4414]

@@matthewwelsh294 That's cool. There's something special about that place but most people don't even know it's not your everyday lake, it's also fed by a spring. There's some great drone shots someone posted on KZbin. I lived in Vancouver for a year. I'm from Auburn originally.

[@Airplanegirl0288]

Cool, I didn’t know Mount St. Helens used to erupt effusively like Kīlauea, I will like to visit Ape Cave someday.🌋😻

[@patricknorton5788]

Abother good video! I've been through Ape Cave, really cool (and cold). Takes a bit of scrambling, so be prepared for that. Also, two or three light sources per person is a very good idea in any cave.

[@edwardlulofs444]

That answered my questions, thanks.

[@iain3411]

Very interesting, as a resident of Oregon for over 25 years this is one place I'd would have liked to check out. Thanks for posting this.

[@just_kos99]

Wow, learned something new about Mt St Helens! And I thought I knew it all! I heard that fateful eruption back in the day, when I was 18 yo.

[@guardianangel9517]

👍🏻Thank you

[@WitmanClan]

Thank you 🙏 🌋 🙏

[@Gizathecat2]

I visited Ape Caves a few years ago. The south side of Mount St Helens is so different compared to its north side.

[@matthewwelsh294]

The south side is basically what the north side looked like before the 1980 eruption

[@johnthomas2485]

A few years ago, Nick Zenter of Central Washington University did a series of public lectures on the geology of the Pacific Northwest. A couple things he spoke about was the Basalt Floods and the Hotspot under Yellowstone. 1. Is a basalt flood POSSIBLE, not likely or even probable, but still possible? Or has playe tectonics changed so it can't happen? 2 He said there are several calderas trailing westward from Yellowstone. Do you think it likely that the Hotspot will not cause another cataclysmic eruption until the crust has drifted enough for pressure to buod up? That tge current area in Yellowstone releases enough pressure to prevent such an eruption.

[@lh3540]

The only lava tube I've been in was near Lassen in northern California. I think it was Subway Cave? It was pretty wide with sunlight. Ape Cave looks more like a proper adventure.

[@thesledgehammerblog]

I've done the upper Ape Cave hike before, it was one of the more difficult ones I've done. Lots of climbing over huge rock piles, some very narrow passages, and a sheer rock wall around 8 feet tall that you would be hard pressed to get over unassisted. All this in the dark. The upper cave itself is only around 1.5 miles long (3 miles total), but it took me and the people I was with around 2 hours to complete.

[@teemusid]

I went through either 39 or 42 years ago. I can't remember which roadtrip we were on. Two hours is what it took for us. It was one of those things that I was glad i did it, but didn't feel a need for a second time.

[@dinoflame9696]

I know you're mostly focused on volcanoes, but could you please do some videos on European geology too? it's not as explosive but we have fun stuff too i promise! :(

[@stargazer5784]

Don't sell Europe short. There are several pretty nasty volcanoes over there. Vesuvius, Santorini, etc.

[@pickle_boyee1177]

Can you do a video on diamond peak in Oregon?

[@outlawbillionairez9780]

Add yet another video to Washington 😉. We have an embarrassment of geological riches in the Pacific Northwest!😊

[@M167A1]

Visit if you get a chance and while you are up here... Do a video on The Tieton Andicite.. the worlds longest lava flow (to my knowledge) and the goat rocks

[@AllTheHappySquirrels]

I think he's done a video on the Tieton andesite flow. Goat rocks would be great! I love that area.

[@erwinrommel839]

The new rift valley in Turkey after that earthquake. It appears that a significant land movement happened. It would be interesting to use GPS to determine how far and which side moved the most

[@guimotors7250]

How do I know what type of lava a certain volcano usually erupts? For example Krakatoa, St Helens, Vesuvius?

[@Neloish]

I went through Ape Cave, it is scary because some parts of the ceiling have collapsed and I was thinking I have really bad luck the rest will fall on me, its also pitch black.

[@RiddleBoxBree]

have you done a video on Morro Rock in Central CA?

[@duncanwallace7760]

There are long lava tubes in Australia in the Undara Volcanic National Park, which might make an interesting video.

[@_MikeJon_]

The ape cave can be stupid busy. There's a bottleneck at the lava fall. Had to wait 45+ mins for an entire group of dozens and dozens of kids go through.

[@DivorcedGooseRat]

Does anyone know the coordinates of the Indian Heaven Volcanic Field lava tube and the one in Idaho he had mentioned?

[@mistysowards7365]

Very strange volcano once again, bimodal, I didn't know this. I also wonder if this has anything to do with its extremely western location on the volcanic arc.

[@leofisher407]

This is very interesting! Something I've always wondered about is why we don't see large, hawaiian-type shield volcanoes at subducting plates?

[@sigisoltau6073]

Because normally the magma has a high silica content making it very viscous. This means that gas in the magma can only escape by blowing the magma apart once the pressure is low enough, producing ash. Once that phase is over and slightly more fluid magma comes up could a volcano produce lava flows.

[@Dragrath1]

So part of this has to do with temperature the magma at hotspots and mid ocean ridges is higher temperature than that rising from subduction zones as subduction melts arise from the separation of water and sediment from a subducting plate being incorporated into and saturating the overlying mantle wedge causing the melting point for rock to lower. This means that the low viscosity minerals which have a higher precipitation point temperature tend to get separated out much more easily if they were present in the source melt at all and thus you are starting with a more silica rich material which as a bonus is also enriched in volatiles. You can technically see shield volcanoes form at subduction zones if the magma can rise up through the crust quickly enough that these minerals haven't been able to separate out yet. However these tend to be a very brief stage in a volcanoes history as further melts will be to enriched in more viscous silicate minerals in fractionalized material causing them to start to build a more viscous and thus tall stratovolcanoes. One example of a stratovolcano which has relatively geologically recently undergone such a transition is mount Etna which still erupts primarily basaltic material but is building a steep stratovolcano cone within an older shield volcano base. With time and continued volcanic activity and the associated erosional instabilities increasing amounts of pyroclastic deposition and potentially eventually caldera collapse events this will likely change erasing the signature of this early phase of eruptive activity. For volcanoes where material took longer to reach the surface and build an edifice you skip right ahead to more viscous material and thus skip the shield phase altogether.

[@leofisher407]

@@Dragrath1 That makes sense. Thanks!

[@stevejohnson3357]

It's only a theory but I would suggest that it wasn't called Mt St Helens at the time

[@AllTheHappySquirrels]

Loowit ❤️

[@AllTheHappySquirrels]

@@vesuviussoloshumans True, it's Tahoma.

[@eloisesmith6467]

The Native American name is Louwala-Clough, meaning smoking mountain.

[@jblob5764]

I love the ape cave, really fun to adventure though. But i believe they are still in a closed/limited access status currently

[@allenlong3690]

You need reservations to visit between May and October.

[@TT-dx4ez]

Have you had a look into the slow sinking of some of the Mentawai Islands (Indonesia) since the last earthquake/tsunami? Iv noticed in recent years that even at low tide some land is below the tide line when only a few years ago it would become a foot or so high and dry. my understanding is that this zone sits on a subduction zone and the land my be getting pulled down? Also, could this be similar but opposite to why there is no water in the Venice canals?

[@Dovietail]

Oh damn! I thought for a minute this was happening now! I 😁

[@jayjaynella4539]

What does CE mean? Only seen this term recently and only on this channel. Thank you.

[@pauloostdijck4730]

Ce = common or current Era or as I know it AD = Anno Domini or after year 0. It all means the same

[@TheDanEdwards]

It's the commonly accepted term for dividing eras first divided by the Gregorian calendar. Common Era is use instead of "AD" because 1) "AD" implies something that the Gregorian calendar got wrong, and 2) "AD" is a religious term implying a kind of cultural hegemony. If you read or watch any scholarly history or archeology presentations the terms used are CE and BCE (before common era.)

[@pauloostdijck4730]

@@TheDanEdwards your Google search wins!

[@creforce]

I have a question for you @gealogyhub As an hobby nerd of vulcanoes, all the juice "not so famous and talked about vulcanoes" I need to ask you what you thought about the white island vulcano eruption that took 22 lives? in my own opinion that would never have happened cause.... sending tourists to an active vulcano... yeah

[@sifarren]

Particularly the Askja complex

[@gr84all]

Is/was Wake Island a volcano?

[@d.l.hemmingway3758]

If Mt. St. Helens did this in 105 CE (A.D.) will it do it again? Or will we witness another explosive eruption like the 1980 event?

[@shlby69m]

Is Pacific'Ring of Fire'over JASON?

[@StephenGillie]

Which Catholic Saint is this mountain named after? Is it St Helen, through the abbey? The etymology seems unclear in my historical research.

[@maritasue5067]

When the English Captain Vancouver first spotted the volcano in 1792 he named it after his fellow countryman Baron St. Helens. The original people in the area had their own name and story.

[@StephenGillie]

@@maritasue5067 But what saint is this Baron named after?

[@maritasue5067]

The barony is named after a village but, like you, I am not an expert on Catholic saints. I did once see a copy of a book a Catholic friend owned that listed and briefly told about saints. Maybe you can find such a book.

[@SJR_Media_Group]

*_Ape Cave is known to the locals as a place where Bigfoot lived. He moved out when all the out of town tourists came to check out his cave. This is an unsubstantiated claim because Ape Cave was named before all the tourists came. The story is that in 1924 several locals said they saw 'ape-men' in the woods near the cave and the name was given after that. Does Bigfoot really live in the forests around Mt Saint Helen's... it's anyone's guess._*

[@KTTV84]

Ok masoook

[@whiskeymonk4085]

Ok we get it. You live in the PNW. Thanks for the info!

[@Mike-tg7dj]

What was the origin of the name Ape Cave? Are there apes in Washington state?

[@broadcastmyballs]

Yes. The famous Sasquatch.

[@tkhanxrelaxation1122]

Dude

[@DogSerious]

CE? It's AD, and don't let anyone tell you different.

[@Aquatarkus96]

It really doesn't matter

[@DogSerious]

@@Aquatarkus96 It does matter, tell it to the Lord in judgment! In fact, tell it to satan when you see him, he's the one who has benefited from it more than any one else!

[@TheDanEdwards]

Religious hegemony is not something that scholars wish to push. You wish to push it but you're not about advancing understanding around the globe. The Gregorian calendar is notorious for wrongfully dating the main character in the canonical Gospel story.

[@DogSerious]

@@TheDanEdwards Say it to the Lord in judgment, but don't dare complain about it when you get rejected. The Scholars say it's not real, tell it to the hoards of hell that you don't believe any of it is real!

[@bushmatt]

What in hell is CD and CE. And who keeps inventing words.

[@SkepticalRaptor]

Maybe someday you can do a scientific review of volcano movies. That could be fun.