When I moved back to the PNW 20 years ago, my mom sent me with all of her old hiking books. She figured they’d still be useful. Not so much.

The new, hundreds-of-feet-higher shore of Spirit Lake, stripped and ash-gray, in summer 1980. A U.S. Army UH-1H Huey sits as the waters behind it are choked with drift logs—remnants of a forest now gone. Mount St. Helens’ new crater steams in the distance as windblown ash rises from the gap.

Previously, the dam prevented 80% of sediment from the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption from flowing past it, and into the rivers downstream of the North Fork of the Toutle River. Now, 80% of the sediment, which continues to flow…

Before, during, and after 1980. The three faces of Mount St. Helens.

me in ancient pompeii seeing vesuvius erupt: ah man i BET this is gonna give me a fuckin migraine

#MSH45 | May/June 1980 After May 18, pockets of buried ice and groundwater flashed to steam beneath hot debris, triggering sudden phreatic blasts. This USGS footage shows violent steam eruptions near Spirit Lake and the buried North Fork Toutle River valley.

#MSH45 | May 1980 North Fork Toutle River valley, downstream of Elk Rock. A river once ran here, surrounded by trees and wildlife. In minutes, it's all gone—buried by a mass that once made up the inside of Mount St. Helens. Where observers like Klaus Zimmerman once stood is now buried under 150ft.

On what would have been his 76th birthday, we remember USGS volcanologist Dr. David A. Johnston.

On what would have been his 76th birthday, we remember USGS volcanologist Dr. David A. Johnston.

December 18, 1949, birthday of USGS volcanologist David Alexander Johnston. He famously announced the eruption of St. Helens with his last recorded words: "Vancouver! Vancouver! This Is It!," in the early morning hours of May 18, 1980. ...

At 20 miles, it’s “look at that.” At 14 miles, it’s “it’s coming over the ridge.” Mike Moore, camping by the Green River near Independence Mine with his family, raised his camera and kept shooting — 12 quick frames — as the cloud rolled in and swallowed the view. The four Moores would survive.

Forty-five years later, the effects of the 1980 eruption are still felt by the communities downriver from Mount St. Helens. Earlier today, KGW in Portland reported on sediment from the volcano continuing to fill river channels, raising flood risks, as made all too real these last few days.

At 20 miles, it’s “look at that.” At 14 miles, it’s “it’s coming over the ridge.” Mike Moore, camping by the Green River near Independence Mine with his family, raised his camera and kept shooting — 12 quick frames — as the cloud rolled in and swallowed the view. The four Moores would survive.

And this wasn't even the worst of the lahars that came down the North Fork Toutle River valley that day. Wild footage.

It began as just a post with these photos from the Washington Geological Survey, but then a rabbit hole pulled me in, and it's a thread. Not the worst way to spend a Monday night.

With wife Carolyn and their three kids, their attention turns to the river only 500 ft from their home of two years—the North Fork Toutle. Indeed, within hours, a catastrophic lahar would nearly take out the valley, including homes across the street. The Braults, though, had evacuated long before.

May 18, 1980 | ~ 8:45 a.m. At their Maple Flats home along Spirit Lake Highway, some 20 mi. from Mount St. Helens, Gary Brault and family notice the sky above and to the east being swallowed by a boiling cloud of ash. Breakfast interrupted, Gary runs outside and photographs the rising monstrosity.

Easily one of the eeriest scenes I've seen of the May 18th aftermath... so, of course, I slowed it down and turned it into a GIF.

The mashup you never saw coming.

Watching updates about ongoing activity on Mount St. Helens in 1980 on this absolutely perfect contraption.

Are you surprised that David Lynch found inspiration from Mount St. Helens? King.

Easily one of the eeriest scenes I've seen of the May 18th aftermath... so, of course, I slowed it down and turned it into a GIF.

For my friends in #WA and #OR who are looking for #earthquake information - see the newly designed Pacific Northwest Seismic Network (PNSN) website: pnsn.org With information on earthquakes, volcanoes and much more. A great site for those of us in southern #BritishColumbia and northern #CA also! ⚒️🧪

#MSH45 | USGS Scenes from 1980 At the end of the Dec. 12 clip uploaded by the USGS in their film dataset were two unrelated scenes. Voila. First, an aerial pass over stream channels and lakes after May 18, including the stark sight of a fallen tree ablaze. Then, a winter stop at the forest's edge.

#MSH45 | Dec. 12, 1980 Circle the lava dome. Watch it vent. Land anyway. Inside the crater of Mount St. Helens, USGS scientists treat the dome like a living instrument panel. Measure gas fumaroles, check temperatures at the hottest reachable spots, and lay tape across cracks to track growth.

#MSH45 | Dec. 12, 1980 Circle the lava dome. Watch it vent. Land anyway. Inside the crater of Mount St. Helens, USGS scientists treat the dome like a living instrument panel. Measure gas fumaroles, check temperatures at the hottest reachable spots, and lay tape across cracks to track growth.

#MSH45 | A Changed Profile Sure, Mount St. Helens’ new form would take getting used to. But where reactions were once because of its ice cream cone-like slopes, now it was the ripped-open top that did the talking — snow gray with ash, the crater rim, steam drifting out under the moon.

April 6, 1980, and it’s the Easter Bunny’s turn in The Seattle Times. It seems no one is safe—not even one hippity hoppitying across the forests of the Pacific Northwest—from the mountain's (potential) reach. The bunny's fine, relax.

#MSH45 | Hijackers, Easter Eggs and a Volcano April 2, 1980, Seattle Post-Intelligencer. An editorial cartoon has hijacker D.B. Cooper hiding in a cabin in trademark shades, sporting a tropical shirt, while Mount St. Helens pelts “the law” outside with falling rocks. Anything's possible, you know.

#MSH45 | Hijackers, Easter Eggs and a Volcano April 2, 1980, Seattle Post-Intelligencer. An editorial cartoon has hijacker D.B. Cooper hiding in a cabin in trademark shades, sporting a tropical shirt, while Mount St. Helens pelts “the law” outside with falling rocks. Anything's possible, you know.

This one's coming home to me!

#MSH45 | May 7, 1980 Exploring the U.S. Geological Survey archives, we revisit the first week of May 1980, with a flight over quiet Mount St. Helens. Later that afternoon, before 6 p.m., the volcano erupted after two weeks of quiet, releasing a small column of steam and ash.

#MSH45 | Watercolors One of the most powerful “before and afters” of Mount St. Helens isn’t a photo at all, it’s this watercolor. Legendary PNW mountaineer Dee Molenaar painted the graceful pre-1980 cone and Spirit Lake basin alongside the torn-open crater and devastated landscape that followed.

Great paintings, huh? Well, here are two more Molenaar watercolors, including a post-eruption view from above Johnston Ridge and an annotated look at the recently changed mountain.

#MSH45 | Watercolors One of the most powerful “before and afters” of Mount St. Helens isn’t a photo at all, it’s this watercolor. Legendary PNW mountaineer Dee Molenaar painted the graceful pre-1980 cone and Spirit Lake basin alongside the torn-open crater and devastated landscape that followed.

*This* is what the people of Pompeii, and Herculaneum, and many other hapless souls saw—this is what a pyroclastic density current looks coming RIGHT at you. Filmed from a CCTV camera during the Mount Semeru eruption on Java, Indonesia on 4 December 2022. Video credit: PT United Tractors Tbk

🧪🌋⚒️ Beautiful Kilauea volcano in #eruption again, with an unusual very high mass flux, near-lateral #lava fountain, next to a vertical fountain in episode 38, now, 6 Dec 2025, as seen live on the K2 usgs webcam. See video clip of usgs livestream at ~10 am hst youtube.com/clip/Ugkx-lk... #hawaii

#MSH45 | May 7, 1980 Exploring the U.S. Geological Survey archives, we revisit the first week of May 1980, with a flight over quiet Mount St. Helens. Later that afternoon, before 6 p.m., the volcano erupted after two weeks of quiet, releasing a small column of steam and ash.

#MSH45 | May 18, 1980 Driving the Green River Valley, Dale & Leslie Davis and Al Brooks slow for an albino deer. Moments later, a boiling black cloud appears. “Get in the truck!” Dale yells. 30s later, the blast hits—glass shatters, the cab rocks. “We knew we were gonna die,” Leslie reflects.

#MSH45 | May 18, 1980 — UW Seismology Lab KOMO’s Steve Pool interviews USGS’s Craig Weaver. The 8:32 quake shows up as a 5.0 on tape—but nearby seismic stations have gone dark. Weaver admits the uncertainty: “As to what is going to happen, I don’t think any of us here know.” @pnsn1.bsky.social

#MSH45 | March 30, 1980 For 52 days, the mountain plays the geyser—so to speak. Steam rises in pulses as we orbit the summit. All phreatic. No fresh magma.

#MSH45 | October 1980 It's the spooky season, so here’s USGS footage from a helicopter flight into the steam-filled crater of Mount St. Helens during its last major eruption in 1980. Perhaps, the ghosts of lava domes past? #PNW #WashingtonState #Science

#MSH45 | The Film: Sieber's Folly Pays Off Along with Harry Truman's family, among others, "St. Helens" executive producer Michael Murphy also struck a deal with one Otto Sieber. This is the Seattle filmmaker whose May trip into the devastated area nearly cost him and his team their lives.

My other very nerdy topic, for a moment. Gemini’s the hipster pick for the best American crewed spacecraft program. Armstrong: Origins. The 6 7 mission (HI IM REAL HIP). Ed White’s EVA. The personalities, alone. The Titan II. From the Earth to the Moon, that old HBO series, does the era justice.

#MSH45 | #GivingTuesday It’s wild that we’re already in the home stretch of this 45th anniversary year. If you’ve learned something here about Mount St. Helens or the science behind it, today’s a good time to support the people and programs keeping that work going. Links to give in bio! #PNW

ARCHIVES: Roger del Moral: Retired UW Professor shapes regrowth in the face of destruction on Mount St. Helens (via @abbyheinicke.bsky.social) www.dailyuw.com/article/roge...

Lenticular clouds over Mt. St. Helens. #wawx #landscapephotography

Speaking of May 18, here's a photo from Nancy Nammi Nord, taken 13 miles WSW that day, late afternoon/early evening. Standing nearby to her and Jerry King was Ray Atkeson, 73, the foremost photographer of the Pacific Northwest, Oregon’s Photographer Laureate. What a spot to be standing in.

Back to July 22. Here's a photo from Diane Kovacs Morin on the St. Johns Bridge showing one of the eruptive pulses from St. Helens.

Standing order: St. Helens memories are always welcome. Share them early, share them now, share them often. We're open for listening business.