Mount St. Helens erupted on May 18, 1980. The volcano, located in southwestern Washington, used to be a beautiful symmetrical cone about 9,600 feet (3,000 meters) above sea level.
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Mt. St. Helens Eruption 44th Anniversary
Vancouver! Vancouver! This is it!
On March 1, 1980, a new system of seismographs at the University of Washington went into operation to monitor earthquake activity in the Cascades. On March 20, it recorded a magnitude-4.2 earthquake deep beneath Mount St. Helens, inaugurating a round-the-clock watch that was to save many lives. From March 25 to March 27, quakes of magnitude 4.0 rocked the mountain as many as three times a day, and smaller quakes occurred several times every hour.
At 8 a.m. PST on March 27, the U.S. Geological Survey issued an official Hazard Watch for Mount St. Helens; around noon, the first eruption of steam from the summit sent a column of ash and steam 6,000 feet (1,829 meters) into the air. Twin fissures opened on the mountain’s north face.
On the morning of May 18, USGS volcanologist David A. Johnston, camped on the ridge with his lasers, radioed in his regular 7 a.m. report. The changes to the bulging mountain were consistent with what had been reported several times daily since the watch began. At 8:32, a magnitude-5.1 earthquake registered on the seismographic equipment. His excited radio message, “This is it!” was followed by a stream of data. It was his last transmission; the ridge he camped on was within the direct blast zone.
Lives Lost
Damage Costs
Height Before Eruption
Height After Eruption
Homes Destroyed
Mudflows Speed
Estimated Ash
Ash Covered
Roads Destroyed
Railways Damaged
Mt. St. Helens 41st Anniversary Events
Mt. St. Helens Eruption Timeline
Painting by Paul Kane Mount St. Helens erupting at night after his 1847 visit to the area
USFS Photograph taken before 18 May 1980 by Jim Nieland, US Forest Service, Mount St Helens National Volcanic Monument.
Photo of David A. Johnston, taken by Harry Glicken on May 17, 1980 at 19:00, 13 1/2 hours before the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens
On May 18, 1980, at 8:32 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time, a magnitude 5.1 earthquake shook Mount St. Helens. The bulge and surrounding area slid away in a gigantic rockslide and debris avalanche, releasing pressure, and triggering a major pumice and ash eruption of the volcano. Thirteen-hundred feet (400 meters) of the peak collapsed or blew outwards. As a result, 24 square miles (62 square kilometers) of valley was filled by a debris avalanche, 250 square miles (650 square kilometers) of recreation, timber, and private lands were damaged by a lateral blast, and an estimated 200 million cubic yards (150 million cubic meters) of material was deposited directly by lahars (volcanic mudflows) into the river channels. Sixty-one people were killed or are still missing. USGS Photograph taken on May 18, 1980
This composite photograph of the May 18, 1980 eruption was taken from 35 miles (60 km) west in Toledo, Washington. The ash-cloud stem is 10 miles (16 km) wide, and the mushroom top is 40 miles (64 km) wide and 15 miles (24 km) high. The footprint of the cloud stem is roughly the same as the devastated area north of the mountain where the forest was knocked down and which three decades later is still relatively barren.
Steve Schilling, USGS - USGS Cascades Volcano Observatory