Mount Saint Helens (current elevation 8,366 feet) is an active explosive dacite stratovolcano in southwestern Washington. Its latest eruption was on Jan. 16, 2008, but its eruption on May 18, 1980 was of considerable size, and, obviously, got the attention of inhabitants in that area and the rest of the world!
A magnitude 5.1 earthquake on May 18, 1980 initiated the collapse of part of the mountain-top of Mount St. Helens. The collapsed material ended up in a massive debris avalanche that released pressured gas, leading to a powerful lateral blast that that flattened 230 square miles of evergreen-tree forest! The eruption also caused a towering ash cloud (thousands of feet tall).
Mount St. Helens was 9600 feet tall before the eruption, which lasted 9 hours. After the eruption, the mountain was 1300 feet shorter! It is now 8300 feet tall. The eruption lasted nine hours, killed 57 people, and permanently altered the landscape.
The area is now a National Volcanic Monument.
I made a trip to the area several months after the eruption, and that is when I took pictures (some shown here, below) of the mountain and its surroundings. The area was open then to the public and still is, as far as I know. One of the most memorable features was the huge amount of flattened trees. I had never seen anything like it before.
The following four images sum up most of the results of the massive eruption. I took the pictures from the paved highway that traverses through the Mt. St. Helens area:
overview of Mt. St. Helens
a tree trunk still standing after the horrific" blow down"
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