The May 18, 1980, eruption of Mount St. Helens killed 57 people, according to the USGS. Most people died from asphyxiation or trauma from pyroclastic flows, a mix of rocks, ash, and gas, the USGS ...

UPDATED: May 19, 2025 at 11:04 AM PDT Forty-five years ago on May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens in the state of Washington violently erupted. Here’s a look at volcanoes, then and now.

Why it matters: For centuries, people lived in the shadow of Mount St. Helens, but the threat of an eruption had always been theoretical until May 18, 1980.

The last time Mount St. Helens erupted was in 2008. Now it's recharging. — -- Mount St. Helens erupted on May 18, 1980, after two months of increasing volcanic activity. Since its most recent ...

Mount St. Helens environment recovering 45 years after eruption With most plants and animals now back, scientists are shifting their observation focus.

ST HELENS, Wash — Engineers who spent the days and years following the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens working on the recovery of the region, returned Tuesday to check in on some of their work.

The eruption produced a massive ash cloud that circled the Earth for 15 days. While volcanic eruptions can have a long-lasting impact on Earth’s temperature, Mount St. Helens’ eruption didn’t.

Researchers released a few garden pests into a barren landscape destroyed by a volcanic eruption in 1980s. It is now brimming ...

Everybody saw the eruption coming. Nobody could have predicted how bad it would be. The devastating eruption of Mount St. Helens on May 18, 1980, was a global event in more ways than one: As ash ...

Beginning July 8, a swarm of earthquakes hit Mount Rainier. According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Cascades ...

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, Mount St. Helens was formed during four eruptive stages beginning about 275,000 years ago and has been the most active volcano in the Cascade Range.