A Rocking Review

Ring of Fire

Did you catch all of that? Review the chapter with another Johnny Cash tune not sung by Johnny Cash, "Ring of Fire.", Mt. St. Helens by the subduction zone—it really is a burning thing!

Parody of Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire"
Click here for a transcript of the "Ring of Fire" parody video.

DR. RICHARD B. ALLEY: Hi. I'm not Johnny Cash. But I have been in a ring of fire.

[MUSIC- JOHNNY CASH, "RING OF FIRE]

(SINGING) Subduction is a burning thing. It feeds a fiery ring. Cold, dense ocean floor will soon retire down through the mantle for a ring of fire.

Subduction scrapes off mud 'round a burning ring of fire. Takes water down, drives the volcanoes higher. Makes light andesite from a ring of fire. A ring of fire. Basalt is born calm and dark at a spreading ridge or Hawaii's hot-spot park. Dangerous stratovolcanoes fountain higher when fed by subduction and a ring of fire. Subduction scrapes off mud 'round a burning ring of fire. Takes water down, drives the volcanoes higher. Makes light andesite and a ring of fire. A ring of fire.

Great earthquakes from the moving load, stick, slip, and plates just might implode.

Eruptions, landslides-- we require Tsunami warnings from the Ring of Fire.

Subduction scrapes off mud 'round a burning ring of fire. Takes water down, drives the volcanoes higher. Makes light andesite from the Ring of Fire. The Ring of Fire. St. Helen's blew high, others blow higher. Go in awe and fear to the Ring of Fire. The Ring of Fire. The Ring of Fire.

Credit: R. B. Alley © Penn State is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0(link is external)

Enrichment Videos

The Biggest Eruption in the Whole USA

The eruption from Mt. St. Helens in 1980 was not especially big—each of the main Yellowstone eruptions moved about 1000 times more material, for example. But, the Mt. St. Helens eruption killed more people (57; before that only 2 deaths in the US were blamed on volcanic eruptions, with none since), and did more property damage (almost $1 billion), than any other eruption in the United States since the country was formed. Novarupta, in Alaska in 1912, blasted more material than the Mt. St. Helens eruption, but was so far from most people that no one died and damages were small; also, Alaska, at that time, was a territory of the US but not yet a state.

The 1980 Mt. St. Helens eruption probably involved the largest landslide ever observed by humans, in the US or anywhere else, at least since we started writing down what we saw. So, by many measures, in 1980, Mt. St. Helens gave us "The Biggest Eruption in the Whole USA." Here's a Rock-Video parody to show you what happened. If an eruption this big happened from Mt. Rainier, which is close to many more people, the damages would be far, far greater. And, Rainier might just do it some day...

The Biggest Eruption in the Whole U.S.A.
Click Here for Transcript of The Biggest Eruption Video

[MUSIC PLAYING] PRESENTER (SINGING): Good morning, Mountain. Hello, crater. Lava dome raising its head. Cracks in their showing the molten rock glowing so hot it's orange and red. Behind the new dome, there's a glacier, fed by the massive snowfall. Fire and ice may make you think twice, either can make you feel small.

May on the mountain, 1980, the magma was coming full bore. The poison gas rising, the earthquake surprising, the north slope was bulging out more. Scientists worried, authorities hurried to save everyone if they could. Those few felt the power, but in the last hour, those few feared that everyone would.

The forces of nature dwarf us here as they shape the mighty land. But as we wonder, as we fear, we can understand. But there once was a time when we could not imagine just what it would mean to say, "We saw the biggest eruption in the whole USA."

Morning the 18th came the earthquake, the north slope went sliding to ground, uncorking the bottle that went off full-throttle. "This is it!" the most memorable sound. Almost as fast as sound came fury. 700 degrees in the blast. The forest was leveled, the landscape was beveled, 57 had breathed in their last.

Now we and the mountain live together. We both have a place on this sphere. It gives us new land, and the scenery grand, new soil for the trees and the deer. But bigger ones happened before cameras. Yellowstone was 1,000 times more. And Crater Lake's blast, not that far in the past, sent ash up to Greenland and o'er.

The forces of nature dwarf us here as they shape the mighty land. But as we wonder, as we fear, we can understand. And that helps us prepare for a bigger one coming. But until then we can say, "We saw the biggest eruption in the whole USA!"

St. Helen's will reach you, St. Helen's will teach you, and stay with you when you say, "I saw the biggest eruption in the whole USA!"

Good morning, Mountain.

Credit: R. B. Alley © Penn State is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0(link is external)