• infinitesunrise@slrpnk.net
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    18 hours ago

    Really great interactive google map cataloging victims, survivors, and historic files of the St Helens eruption: https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=1CchUgw_ngpBJ14-X8Ecza5I2D8HwQ9YE

    And some more context for OP’s meme, specifically: https://thatoregonlife.com/2022/05/mt-st-helens-eruption-images/

    Basically, there were a handful of geologists and volcanologists scattered around Mount St Helens when it erupted in May of 1980, who knew full well the danger and were ready to document the event in person right up to and including their final moments. Stashing their cameras into bags and glove boxes in the last seconds as they were enveloped by ash waves and pyroclastic clouds.

    • snoons@lemmy.ca
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      21 hours ago

      I think it’s the Mt. St. Helens eruption. A camper/vulcanologist/geographer(??) realized he wasn’t going to make it and spent the last few minutes of his life recording the eruption and tried to make sure the footage would survive. He succeeded.

        • JayDee@lemmy.world
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          18 hours ago

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reid_Blackburn

          Photographs by Blackburn did not survive the eruption, though some footage he took weeks prior to the eruption was discovered later.

          Landsburg is the one everyone talks about, though, since his photos survived.

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Landsburg

          In the weeks leading up to the eruption of Mount St. Helens, Landsburg visited the area many times in order to photographically document the changing volcano.[6] On the morning of May 18, 1980, he was within a few miles of the summit. When the mountain erupted, Landsburg retreated to his car while taking photos of the rapidly approaching ash cloud.[7] Before he was engulfed by the pyroclastic flow, he rewound the film back into its case, put his camera in his backpack, and then laid himself on top of the backpack to protect its contents. His body was found 17 days later, buried in the ash with his backpack underneath.[8][9] The film was developed and has provided geologists with valuable documentation of the historic eruption.[10]

            • Railcar8095@lemmy.world
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              8 hours ago

              Only metal because he was, at least at some level, OK with it.

              Many MANY have died for science without consent or even options.

              • fireweed@lemmy.world
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                1 hour ago

                And then there are those who died for “science”

                https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731

                The potential value to the Americans of Japanese-provided data, encompassing human research subjects, delivery system theories, and successful field trials, was immense. However, historian Sheldon H. Harris concluded that the Japanese data failed to meet American standards, suggesting instead that the findings from the unit were of minor importance at best. Harris characterized the research results from the Japanese camp as disappointing, concurring with the assessment of Murray Sanders, who characterized the experiments as “crude” and “ineffective”.