At 8:32 Sunday morning, May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted, shaken by an earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale, the north face of this tall symmetrical mountain collapsed in a massive rock debris avalanche. In a few moments this slab of rock and ice slammed into Spirit Lake, crossed a ridge 1,300 feet high, and roared 14 miles down the Toutle River.

The avalanche rapidly released pressurized gases within the volcano. A tremendous lateral explosion ripped through the avalanche and developed into a turbulent, stone-filled wind that swept over ridges and toppled trees. Nearly 150 square miles of forest was blown over or left dead and standing.

At the same time a mushroom-shaped column of ash rose thousands of feet skyward and drifted downwind, turning day into night as dark, gray ash fell over eastern Washington and beyond. Wet, cement-like slurries of rock and mud scoured all sides of the volcano. Searing flows of pumice poured from the crater. The eruption lasted 9 hours, but Mount St. Helens and the surrounding landscape were dramatically changed within moments.

A vast, gray landscape lay where once the forested slopes of Mount St. Helens grew. In 1982 the President and Congress created the 110,000-acre National Volcanic Monument for research, recreation, and education. Inside the Monument, the environment is left to respond naturally to the disturbance.

Source: USFS Website (May 2023)

Establishment Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument — August 26, 1982

For More Information Please Visit The OFFICIAL USFS WEBSITE

A Volcano Rekindled: the Renewed Eruption of Mount St. Helens, 2004-2006 U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1750 (David R. Sherrod, William E. Scott and Peter H. Stauffer, eds., 2008)

Comprehensive Management Plan (1985)

Dark Noon: Eyewitness to the Cataclysmic Eruption of Mount St. Helens (Richard Waitt, extract from Columbia: The Magazine of Northwest History, Vol. 29 No. 1, Spring 2015; ©Washington State Historical Society)

Effects of persistent volcanic ash on Douglas-fir in northern Idaho (David E. Bilderback and Clinton E. Carlson, 1987)

Enabling Legislation—Establishment of Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument (Public Law 94-243, 96 Stat. 301, 97th Congress, August 26, 1982)

Eruptions of Mount St. Helens: Past, Present, and Future U.S. Geological Survey (Robert I. Tilling, 1990, rev. 2002)

Inside the Red Zone: Remembering the Eruption of Mount St. Helens (Jeff Renner, extract from Columbia: The Magazine of Northwest History, Vol. 34 No. 1, Spring 2020; ©Washington State Historical Society)

lawilátɬa—Mount St. Helens—Land in transformation U.S. Geological Survey General Information Product 220 (Carolyn L. Driedger, Alysa Adams, Michael A. Clynne, Kristi Cochrane, Abi Groskopf, Emma Johnson, Heather Monti and Elizabeth Westby, 2023)

Mount St. Helens, 1980 to Now—What's Going On? USGS Fact Sheet 2013-3014 (Daniel Dzurisin, Carolyn L. Driedger and Lisa M. Faust, 2013)

Mount St. Helens ash and mud: chemical properties and effects on germination and establishment of trees and wildlife browse plants (M.A. Radwan and Dan L. Campbell, 1981)

Mount St. Helens Erupts Again: Activity from September 2004 through March 2005 USGS Fact Sheet 2005-3036 (Jon J. Major, William E. Scott, Carolyn Driedger and Dan Dzurisin, 2005)

Mount St. Helens — From the 1980 Eruption to 2000 USGS Fact Sheet 036-00 (Steve Brantley and Bobbie Myers, 2000)

Mount St. Helens Geological Area (January 1981)

Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument Trail Guide (1994)

Nutrient release from Mount St. Helens volcanic ash and retention by western Montana soil (Nellie Stark and Don A. Essig, 1985)

Park Newspaper (Volcano Review): Summer 1987 • Summer/Fall 1989 • Winter/Spring 1990 • Summer/Fall 1990 • Summer/Fall 1993 • Summer/Fall 1994 • Summer/Fall 1995 • Summer/Fall 1996 • Winter 1997 • Summer/Fall 1998 • Summer/Fall 2000 • 2002 • 2005 • 2007 • 2008 • 2009 • 2010 • 2011 • 2012 • 2013 • 2014 • 2015 • 2016 • 2017 • 2018 • 2019 • 2021 • 2023

Pine Creek Volcanic Assemblage at Mount St. Helens, Washington USGS Bulletin 1383-A (Dwight Raymond Crandell and Donal Ray Mullineaux, 1973)

Potential Hazards from Future Eruptions of Mount St. Helens Volcano, Washington USGS Bulletin 1383-C (Dwight Raymond Crandell and Donal Ray Mullineaux, 1978)

Pre-1980 Eruptive History of Mount St. Helens, Washington USGS Fact Sheet 2005-3045 (Michael A. Clynne, David W. Ramsey and Edward W. Wolfe, 2005)

Roadside Geology of Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument and Vicinity Washington Division of Geology and Earth Resources Information Circular 88 (Patrick T. Pringle, 1993, rev. ed. 2002)

Roadside Guide to Volcanic Deposits of Mount St. Helens and Vicinity, Washington U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1859 (Michael P. Doukas, 1990)

Spirit Lake Tunnel Intake Gate Replacement and Geotechnical Drilling Project Environmental Assessment, Gifford Pinchot National Forest, Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument, Skamania County, Washington (April 2020)

The Guardians of the Columbia, Mount Hood, Mount Adams and Mount St. Helens (John H. Williams, 1912)

The Eruption of Mount St. Helens: Entering the Era of Real-Time Geology (Robert L. Wesson, Reprint from U.S. Geological Survey Yearbook Fiscal Year 1980, 1982)

The First Ascent of Mt. St. Helens (extract from Columbia: The Magazine of Northwest History, Vol. 2 No. 1, Spring 1988; ©Washington State Historical Society)

The Volcanic Activity of Mount St. Helens and Mount Hood in Historical Time (Willard Rouse Jillson, excerpt from Geographical Review, Vol. 3 No. 6, June 1, 1917)

Upper Pleistocene Pyroclastic-Flow Deposits and Lahars, South of Mount St. Helens Volcano, Washington USGS Bulletin 1383-B (Jack H. Hyde, 1975)

Volcanic Eruptions of 1980 at Mount St. Helens: The First 100 Days U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1249 (Bruce L. Foxworthy and Mary Hill, 1982)

Volcaniclastic Sedimentation in the Lewis River Valley, Mount St. Helens, Washington--Processes, Extent, and Hazards USGS Bulletin 1383-D (Jon J. Major and Kevin M. Scott, 1988)

Widespread Late Glacial and Postglacial Tephra Deposits from Mount St. Helens Volcano, Washington Journal of Research of the U.S. Geological Survey (Donal R. Mullineaux, Jack H. Hyde and Meyer Rubin, Vol. 3 No. 3, May-June 1975)

Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument