Mount St. Helens — volcano
Image by 12019 from Pixabay

Mount St. Helens

  • Elevation2,549 m
  • 2 min read
  • 46.200° N 122.189° W

Interesting facts

  • The 1980 eruption released about 24 megatons of thermal energy and blew down forests across some 230 square miles.
  • The Cowlitz called the mountain Lawetlat'la, the smoker, and the Klickitat knew it as Loowit, names that reflect its long record of activity.
  • Volcanologist David Johnston, 30, radioed his last words from his post on Coldwater Ridge moments before the blast, and his body was never found.
  • Ash from the eruption reached Idaho by noon and was detected in Edmonton, Alberta, by the next morning.
  • The eruption also pumped more than 1.5 million tonnes of sulphur dioxide into the atmosphere.
  • George Vancouver's crew first sighted the peak on 19 May 1792, almost exactly 188 years before the great eruption.
  • An eruption around 1800 probably rivalled the 1980 event in size, and the 1842 outburst was long remembered as the Great Eruption.
  • Crater Glacier, born in the winter of 1980–81, thickened by about 14 feet a year and by 2004 covered roughly 0.36 square miles.
  • During the 2004–2008 eruption a smooth lava spine nicknamed the whaleback pushed out of the crater floor, at times by about six feet a day.
  • Trees killed by the 1980 blast were still standing upright two decades later across parts of the devastated zone.

Why it is worth it

Mount St. Helens, known to the Cowlitz people as Lawetlat'la, is an active volcano in the Cascade Range of southwestern Washington, about 83 km northeast of Portland, Oregon. Before 1980 its smooth, snow-covered cone was so regular that some called it the Fujiyama of America. Geologically it is young, formed within the past 40,000 years, and it has been the most active volcano in the Cascades over the past ten thousand. The English name honours a British diplomat, Baron St Helens, a friend of the explorer George Vancouver.

On the morning of 18 May 1980, after the north side of the mountain had been bulging outward for weeks, a magnitude 5.1 earthquake set off the collapse of the entire north side of the mountain. The debris avalanche released a sideways, lateral eruption, and the summit dropped from 9,677 feet to 8,363 feet (from about 2,950 to 2,549 metres), leaving a horseshoe-shaped crater about a mile wide open to the north. Fifty-seven people were killed, among them the lodge owner Harry R. Truman, who had refused to leave Spirit Lake. The eruption destroyed 200 homes and 47 bridges and remains the most economically destructive volcanic event in US history.

The mountain has kept building since. Lava domes grew in the crater through the 1980s, and from 2004 to 2008 a new eruption pushed up another dome, extruding tall spines of solid lava. In the shadow of the crater walls a new glacier formed in the winter of 1980–81, now named Crater Glacier, which grew rapidly in the years that followed. In 1982 Congress created the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument around the volcano, and the devastated area was left to return to its natural state on its own, a slow recovery visitors can follow on the ground.

There are several ways to see it. Windy Ridge, on the northeast side, is the closest viewpoint open to the public, about 4 miles (6 km) from the crater and overlooking Spirit Lake. On the south side, Ape Cave is a lava tube about 2.5 miles (4 km) long, the longest continuous lava tube in the continental United States, walked by some 170,000 people a year. The summit itself can be climbed year-round with a permit, required for anyone going above 4,800 feet; the summer Monitor Ridge route from Climbers Bivouac gains about 4,600 feet to the crater rim and takes most people 7 to 12 hours round trip.

Getting there

Portland International Airport (PDX) is about 75 km away, and the nearest sizeable town is Battle Ground, Washington, about 54 km away. From Interstate 5, State Route 504, the Spirit Lake Memorial Highway, leaves at Exit 49 near Castle Rock and leads towards the north side; the Mount St. Helens Visitor Center at Silver Lake, run by Washington State Parks, is about 5 miles off the interstate. The community nearest the volcano is Cougar, in the Lewis River valley about 11 miles (18 km) south-southwest of the peak.

On these lists

The Most Beautiful Places in Washington State 8The Most Beautiful Places in the United States 228The Most Beautiful Volcanoes in the United States 5The Most Beautiful Mountains in the United States 9The Most Beautiful Volcanoes 61The Most Beautiful Natural Wonders in the United States 68The Most Beautiful Mountains 91The Most Beautiful Natural Wonders 580

46.20028, -122.18944per Wikidata