Mount St. Helens is one of the Pacific Northwest’s many volcanic peaks. Part of what is known as the Pacific Rim or the Pacific Ring of Fire, Mount St. Helens is famous because of its recent and continuing activity. Mount St. Helens is part of the Cascade Mountain Range in the state of Washington, about midway between Seattle and Portland.
It remains the United States’ most powerful, and the world’s fifth most destructive, volcanic event in recent history.
It was 36 years ago that Mount St. Helens erupted.
The blast took more than 1,300 feet off the top and rained volcanic ash for miles around. Eastern Washington was covered in volcanic ash, and the cloud drifted east across the United States in 3 days and encircled Earth in 15 days.
Here are 10 Amazing Facts About Mount St. Helens.
1. 3,600 years ago, Native Americans abandoned hunting grounds devastated by an enormous eruption four times larger than the May 18, 1980 eruption.
2. Most of Mount St. Helens is younger than 3,000 years old (younger than the pyramids of Egypt).
3. Mount St. Helens isn’t named after a saint—it was named by George Vancouver, the British naval explorer who charted the Pacific Northwest in the 1790s, for his friend, Baron St Helens. The baron, the whose given name was Alleyne Fitzherbert, served as a diplomat for the British government in Brussels, Paris, Russia, Spain, and elsewhere.
4. Small plants and trees beneath the winter snow, and roots protected by soil, survived the May 18, 1980 eruption and now thrive.
5. Mount Baker, Mount Shasta, Mount Rainier, Mount Hood, Glacier Peak, and Lassen Peak are also active volcanoes in the Cascades, but the most recent activity among them was at Lassen Peak in the early 1900s. Mount St. Helens is the youngest among the Cascade volcanoes, too, which is why it shows fewer signs of erosion than neighbors like Mount Rainier or Mount Hood.
6. During the 1980 to 1986 and the 2004 to 2008 eruptions—Lava oozed onto the crater floor, building domes taller than the Empire State Building and restoring 7 percent of the volume lost in 1980.
7. Lahars (volcanic mudflows) filled rivers with rocks, sand, and mud, damaging 27 bridges and 200 homes and forcing 31 ships to remain in ports upstream.
8. A 1982 survey measured the summit of the volcano at 8365 feet tall. As of 2009, it measured 8330 feet. The shrinkage is probably the result of erosion and collapses of crater walls.
9. The Global Positioning System (GPS) instrument that detected the settling of Mount St. Helens can detect movement of as little as 1/16 of an inch and uses less power than a refrigerator lightbulb.
10. During the 1980 to 1986 and the 2004 to 2008 eruptions—Lava oozed onto the crater floor, building domes taller than the Empire State Building and restoring 7 percent of the volume lost in 1980.
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