Mount St. Helens

Today was my 5th visit Mount St. Helens. It is perhaps the most active volcano in continental North America.

The last major eruption occurred during May 1980. This eruption completely changed the landscape, converting the once richly forested region into a lunar like dead surface. Life has since begun to return to the mountain. But the mountain is very much active even today. St Helens remained pretty much dormant from 1980 until about 2004 when once again it shook to life, this time with steam and ash eruptions. Today the mountain is highly active with sporadic ash eruptions and almost continuous steam eruptions.

I had visited the mountain last year during the eruptions, in fact I was at the Johnston observatory when it was evacuated and closed. It has recently been reopened again. I visited St. Helens again this January and it was still steaming. In fact today morning there was a small ash eruption and steam eruptions continued throughout the day. We went to the windy ridge viewpoint today. You can also see the live Mount St. Helens web-cam here.

The photographs showing the comparison before and after the 1980 eruption have been taken from USGS/CVO archives.