Cloud's Kiss for Mount Rainier

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Cloud's Kiss for Mount Rainier

On September 6, 1982, a cloud is seen kissing the southwestern slopes of Mt. Rainier in Washington's Pierce County. In August 1967, South Tahoma Glacier was the site of a spectacular glacial event. According to witnesses, water stored inside the glacier burst through the glacier's surface at the 7,000-foot level. A current of water swiftly severed the lower glacier into two halves. But what began as a jokulhlaup soon became a lahar. The mixture of rocks, trees, mud and water resembled concrete. Imagine the surprise of Park Rangers as the slurry swept over picnic tables and roads in the former Tahoma Creek Campground - and their relief that the area had been evacuated the evening before because of high forest fire hazard! No human lives were lost, but the campground and the glacier's terminus were devastated. And all this happened approximately 13 years BEFORE the significant May 1980 eruption of Mount Saint Helens. -Source by Carolyn Driedger, 1986 -Photo by lcarreau on Pyramid Peak, 1982