Mount St Helens

In May 1980, the volcano in Washington that had been active blew its top and made headline news. The eruption caused the top of the mountain to explode and cause the largest avalanche ever recorded. It flatted hundreds of acres of trees and lava to boil out. The heat reached over 500 degrees and melted the glaciers on the mountain resulting in a mud slide that buried the valley in more than 300 feet on debris which remains today.

Today a new lava cone is building and is currently higher than the Empire State Building. It is growing at a rate of a dump truck full of lava every three minutes. We saw two excellent movies about the eruption and got to listen to a ranger talk given by a guy who was camping in the area when the volcano blew.