I believe this was not an e-mail sent around the globe via chain e-mail but from a friend of my mothers who lives about 30 miles from Mount St. Helens. From the explanation below, I can't quite tell when the picture was taken but it seems it was taken soon after the May 18, 1980 explosion of Mount Saint Helens. All I have to say is - wow, the aliens have landed and are in the center of the earth.
Photo by Brent and Jan LeBaron. Their explanation follows:
When the active volcano blew some years ago, I happened to be flying a trip from Atlanta to Seattle to Portland and returning over the same route the next day. The "to" trip was just after dark and the "return" trip was by day. We had to rely on Center radar to keep us clear of the ash cloud during darkness. Volcanic ash is very fine and will actually clog jet engines causing shut down.On return, the Center would allow us to fly directly over the crater. It was amazing to see one entire face of the mountain blown away. Also, tree damage was such as they were blown down for many miles from the crater. The volcano was still smoking and had started to build a dome in the bottom of the crater. The crater continued to smoke and the dome increased with each trip. We banked steeply to let the passengers get a good look. While this was very interesting, I am amazed by the photo shown in the attachment. Mother Nature certainly creates strange wonders. Your grandchildren might like to show this picture and explanation to their science class.
Mt. St. Helens, which sits about 30 miles from our house as the crow flies, continues to spew ash, while it is forming a lava dome in the crater and still having minor tremors. Here, in this sunrise shot,
she appears to be blowing smoke rings (and anything so benign is welcomed, given recent history.)Continued on the next page Page 1 — Page 2
Article comments
1 - swingingpuss
Wow, that picture is truely amazing.
2 - james mclafferty
Anybody know what the current warnings are for mt st helens,i'm glad i live in britain we don't have half the natural disasters you lot have,we have the "odd" tornado but that's it.
3 - Don
I can’t believe you boneheads fell for this one!
The picture above is of Mt. Rainier!!! Not St. Helens!
The first clue should have been… this mountain has a TOP??? Duh!
The ‘Smoke rings’, are just condensed water vapor from the rising air blowing up the mountain slopes. Us locals see this effect every now & then. (At least whenever the rain clouds part enough for us to actually SEE the mountain!
4 - Aaman
Editor! The Blogosphere did not fact-check this piece!
Or perhaps they did
5 - Temple Stark
The description of the effect is at the end of the original post.
Don have you seen this photo elsewhere - probably, so. It could be from the other side of Mt. St. Helens, though - and as I said, it could have been before the eruption.
I will correct following your response or my time to look further. It did come via e-mail, which I noted.
If it is a hoax, someone has way too much time on their hands.
Either way, the main point was the beauty of the shot, but I will correct if needed.
Thanks Don for the heads up. I used to live in Kent (and Bellevue, Grand Coulee, Ellensburg, Gig Harbor, Port Orchard) WA and have taken many photos of Mt. Rainier. But I did not look closely on this one. I will look further. My mom is usually a reliable source :-)
6 - Temple Stark
UPDATED: Snopes has a page on this - says it's undetermined but that the LeBarons say they did not take the photo - merely passed it on by e-mail.
Still a beautiful shot.
7 - tamara
hi there could you tell me more about the mount snt helens [Personal contact info deleted]
8 - michael
it is BIG
9 - Kelly
My husband took this picture. It is not a hoax and it IS Mt St Helens!