Harry Glicken

St. Helens, dormant since the 1840s and 1850s, resumed activity in March 1980.

As seismic and volcanic activity increased, volcanologists working for the USGS in its Vancouver branch prepared to observe any impending eruption.

Harry Glicken (March 7, 1958 – June 3, 1991) was an American volcanologist.

Glicken was born in 1958 to Milton and Ida Glicken.

He researched Mount St. Helens in the United States before and after its 1980 eruption, and was very distraught about the death of volcanologist David A. Johnston, who was Glicken's mentor and supervisor in Spring 1980 at Mount St. Helens.

Glicken was initially assigned to the USGS observation post in the weeks leading up to the eruption but was called away the night before the eruption.

He also wrote several major publications on the topic, including his doctoral dissertation based on his research at Mount St. Helens titled "Rockslide-debris Avalanche of May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens Volcano, Washington" that initiated widespread interest in the phenomenon.

He graduated from Stanford University in 1980.

Later that year, while a graduate student at the University of California, Santa Barbara, he was temporarily hired by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) to help monitor the volcano Mount St. Helens in Washington state.

Geologist Don Swanson and others placed reflectors on and around the growing lava domes, and, on May 1, 1980, established the Coldwater I and II observation posts to use laser ranging to measure how the distances to these reflectors changed over time as the domes deformed.

Glicken monitored the volcano for two weeks, taking shelter in a trailer at the Coldwater II site located a little more than 5 mi northwest of the volcano.

On May 18, 1980, after working for six days straight, Glicken took the day off to attend an interview for his graduate work with his professor, Richard V. Fisher, in Mammoth Lakes, California.

His research adviser and mentor David A. Johnston replaced him at his post, despite expressing concerns about its safety given indications of mobile magma within the volcano.

After a magnitude 5.1 earthquake centered directly below the north slope triggered that part of the volcano to slide at 8:32 a.m., Mount St. Helens erupted.

Johnston was killed after he was enveloped by swift pyroclastic flows that accelerated down the mountain's flanks traveling at least 300 miles per hour (480 kilometers).

After the eruption, Glicken went to Toutle High School, the center for relief efforts, where he joined Air Force Reserve Rescue Squadron officials in a helicopter to look for Johnston or any sign of his post.

Despite searching with three separate crews over a span of nearly six hours, Glicken found no trace.

He attempted to enlist a fourth helicopter crew to aid his search, but they declined, fearing dangerous conditions.

In his distraught state, Glicken refused to accept Johnston's death, and had to be comforted by Swanson before calming down.

In mid-1980, after the May eruption, USGS Survey scientists decided to establish the David A. Johnston Cascades Volcano Observatory (CVO) in Vancouver, intending to closely monitor volcanoes in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho.

Glicken returned to St. Helens hoping to join the 'autopsy' team.

However, every aspect of the eruption had been claimed by different survey scientists, and as a doctoral student at UC Santa Barbara studying with Richard Fisher, Glicken was not a survey employee.

Instead, he found work with newly appointed Survey employee Barry Voight, a specialist in landslides.

Under Voight's guidance, Glicken absorbed himself in his work, motivated to earn a job at the Survey, and to relieve some of his anguish over Johnston's death.

Glicken and a team of geologists mapped the debris field left over from St. Helens's structural collapse, which consisted of roughly a quarter of the mass of the volcano.

Through extensive, meticulous analysis, the team traced the origins and the means of movement of each piece of debris, ranging from blocks 100 yard in width to mere fragments.

With his group, Glicken compiled a landmark study in the field of volcanic landslides, establishing the principle that tall volcanoes have a tendency to collapse.

The study garnered praise for its unique conclusions and attention to detail, inspiring volcanologists to identify similar deposit mounds at volcanoes around the world.

After the findings from his dissertation were published in several shorter articles throughout the 1980s, Glicken earned recognition as the first geologist to explain the creation of hummock fields near tall volcanoes.

In the years following the eruption, activity at Mount St. Helens diminished, prompting USGS to reduce CVO's budget and contemplate closing the station.

Glicken continued helping the Survey until 1989, also serving as an assistant researcher at the University of California at Santa Barbara.

From 1989 to 1991, Glicken continued his volcanological studies in Japan as a postdoctoral fellow at the Earthquake Research Institute of the University of Tokyo, supported by grants from the U.S. National Science Foundation.

Later, while a research professor and translator at Tokyo Metropolitan University, Glicken became involved with research at Mount Unzen.

The volcano had recently resumed eruptive activity in November 1990, after being dormant for 198 years.

In 1991, while conducting avalanche research on Mount Unzen in Japan, Glicken and fellow volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft were killed by a pyroclastic flow.

His remains were found four days later and were cremated in accordance with his parents' request.

Glicken and Johnston remain the only American volcanologists known to have died in volcanic eruptions.

Despite a long-term interest in working for the United States Geological Survey, Glicken never received a permanent post there because there was a hiring freeze for federal agencies when he graduated with his PhD. While conducting research from sponsorships granted by the National Science Foundation and other organizations, Glicken accrued expertise in the field of volcanic debris avalanches.

Since being published posthumously by Glicken's colleagues in 1996, the report has been acknowledged by many other publications on debris avalanches.

Following his death, Glicken was praised by associates for his love of volcanoes and commitment to his field.