Mount St. Helens National Monument, Washington

On March 20, 1980 a 4.1 magnitude earthquake shook the Mount St. Helens volcano in Washington, sending a plumb of ash 7,000 feet high.  The eruption was so intense the blast was heard from as far away as Vancouver, Canada and Redding, California, and set off a wave of volcanic activity that lasted for months. Trees were blown down, strewn haphazardly all over the mountain, and forever changed the landscape, that has yet to recover.

By the end of April Mount  St. Helens, a once perfectly shaped volcano, now had a one mile long and half mile wide bulge that was 320 feet high.  Debris avalanches fell half a mile down the mountainside.

Another eruption on May 18, 1980 sent pumice and ash northward into the valley below and caused 57 fatalities, including a U.S. Geological Survey scientist.  It was one of the largest ever recorded.  Satellite images show the 1980 eruptions blast zone affected 230 square miles of forest.  Old trees were ripped out by the 650-mile per hour blast leaving splintered remnants behind resembling toothpicks littering the mountainside.  At the base of the volcano is the ash that was deposited more than three feet from the 15-mile high eruption plume that lasted nine hours killing all vegetation for 100 miles.

Thirty years later the ash covering the mountain that once stripped all life now benefits the land by serving as mulch in the harsh blast zone and aiding foliage recovery and growth.  Trees and colored flowers now fill the open landscape, demonstrating the eventual transformation to normalcy in the pumice filled forest.  Prairie lupine and Lodgepole pines now dot the land.

We went there two years ago and you could still see an occasional puff of smoke from Mount St. Helens.  Though now passive and quiet, the volcano is not shy to show she is still very much alive.  Follow us, the DeLucia’s, as we tour Mount St. Helens Volcanic National Monument.

Let’s go !