When the blast exploded sideways out of the mountain, it plowed through the debris avalanche and swept across the landscape, picking up and carring large chunks of rock, ice, and splintered wood.

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Mount Saint Helens (August 2006).












Look at me carefully. Notice my shattered trunk, my missing top. I once stood 150 feet tall, surrounded by a beau tif ul forest of green and growing trees. When the blast exploded sideways out of the mountain, it plowed through the debris avalanche and swept across the landscape, picking up and carring large chunks of rock, ice, and splintered wood. Within a minute, I was struck and scoured by the stone-filled wind. My bark and branches were stripped and scattered toward the edge of the blast zone, 17 miles away. As the trees that had stood for hundreds of years crashed around me, my upper trunk strained, then shattered in the nearly 700 mph winds. Only a small part of me remains.
















When Mount Saint Helens erupted on May 18, 1980, the blast killed many. 57 people were killed and 250 homes, 47 bridges, 15 miles (24 km) of railways and 185 miles (300 km) of highway were destroyed.

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