Dwight Raymond "Rocky" Crandell (25 January 1923 – April 6, 2009) was an Americanvolcanologist who alongside Donal R. Mullineaux correctly predicted thatMount St. Helens would erupt before the end of the 20th century.
Born inGalesburg, Illinois, Crandell fought inWorld War II as a lieutenant in an Army mortar platoon. Once the war had finished he returned to America and earned adoctorate fromYale.
He was placed at theUSGS office in Colorado where he met Donal R. Mullineaux with whom he began to work on the theory that Mount St. Helens will erupt, before the end of the century.
They proved that about 5,600 years earlier, the summit ofMount Rainier had collapsed and causeda landslide filling some valleys up to 400 feet deep. That awakened the recognition that a similar event could endanger hundreds of thousands of people living atop the ancient mudflows.
Their 1978 report claimed that Mount St. Helens is “an especially dangerous volcano” and it would more than likely erupt before the end of the 20th century.[1]
On May 18, 1980 their predictions came true when the volcano erupted killing 57 people and caused more than $1 billion worth of damage. He retired shortly after the eruption.
Crandell died in a hospice in Colorado on April 6, 2009 after suffering aheart attack.[2] He was survived by his two daughters, three grandchildren, and one great-grandchild. His wife died in 2006 and her ashes were scattered at Mount Rainier where he had worked many years before.[1] A son predeceased both parents in 1965.[3]
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