Photos show Mount St. Helens historic eruption: Cars sunk in volcanic ash, people wearing masks
Forty years ago, Mount St. Helens erupted in southwest Washington killing 57 people in one of the most destructive volcanic eruptions in U.S. history.
At 8:32 a.m. on May 18, 1980, a 5.1 magnitude earthquake hit and within minutes the volcano’s north flank collapsed, creating the largest landslide in recorded history, according to the US Geological Survey.
That landslide triggered powerful explosions that sent ash, steam, rocks and volcanic gas upward and outward. The lateral blast scorched and flattened about 230 square miles of dense forest, blanketing the area in hot debris.
Within 15 minutes, a plume of volcanic ash rose over 80,000 feet. Over the next few days, winds blew the 520 million tons of ash east across the U.S. causing complete darkness 250 miles away in Spokane. The ash circled the globe in 15 days.
In the four decades since the explosion, the volcano has become a living laboratory for the study of volcanoes and ecosystems and a major recreational destination.
Here is a look back at photos from the day Mount St. Helens erupted.