PHOTO NOTE:
All photos, unless noted, are public domain courtesy of the USGS: Mount St. Helens.

May 18th Eruption
St. Helens 20 Years After The Eruption (including a couple of our photos)
2004-present--New Eruptive Phase
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On May 18th, 1980, Mt. St. Helens in southwest Washington State erupted in an explosive pyroclastic flow, devastating the area.  According to the USGS: over 1300 feet of mountain-top disappeared.  230 square miles were affected by the lateral blast--up to 17 miles away from the crater itself.  The North Fork Toutle River was buried under a deluge of debris.  Spirit Lake was filled in by so many trees and so much debris that they first thought it had vaporized.  4 billion board-feet of timber was shredded like toothpicks.  Lahars destroyed and/or damaged 27 bridges, 200 homes, more than 185 miles of highways and roads and 15 miles of railways.  The eruption cloud reached 80,000 feet.
 
 

Casualties included: an estimated 7,000 big-game animals; 12 million Chinook & Coho salmon fingerlings when hatcheries were destroyed, 40,000 young salmon and 57 people.
 
 

The land is bouncing back, as is wildlife.  Ash proved to be a wonderful fertilizer and the areas around the mountain are rebounding.  Tourism thrives.  Over 16,000 permits are given out during peak months to climbers hoping to try their hand ascending the still-active volcano.  The new Johnston Ridge Observatory, named for volcanologist David Johnston who lost his life during the eruption, makes for a wonderful day visit.

St. Helens remains a brooding presence over the landscape.  When we took a trip there in 1998, one of the things that immediately struck me was that all the trees seemed about the same height--young...that was when I realized we were driving through the blast zone--where replanting efforts are being made.

Our photos of the area in 1998:
 

On September 23, 2004, a swarm of earthquakes hinted that St. Helens might be waking up again.  The earthquakes continued, prompting scientists to issue a notice of volcanic unrest.  Within a week--on October 1st--she erupted.  Though far, far smaller than the May 18, 1980 eruption, St. Helens has continued to wake, growing a new lava dome behind the old one that's called the Whaleback because it resembles a fin.  Warnings for the area around St. Helens were taken to a code Red, then lowered to a Code Orange, where they remain due to eruptive and lahar dangers.

On March 8, 2005, she let loose with an ash and steam plume that traveled 30,000 feet in the air.  When the 25th annviersary of St. Helens eruption was celebrated this month (May 2005), the mountain was awake and active for it.  Scientists don't expect her to sleep any time soon.

Update August 2006: She's still erupting, still building her cone back.