On May 18, 1980, the eruption of Mount St. Helens emitted 1.5 million metric tons of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere while its pyroclastic lava flow incinerated virtually everything within a ...

Mount St Helens, Washington viewed from Portland, Oregon. Source: Ilan Kelman The volcano Mount St. Helens in Washington state exploded at 8:32 a.m. on May 18th, 1980, exactly 40 years ago.

It was a quiet Sunday morning, at 8:32 a.m., 38 years ago when Mount St. Helens blew its top, sending tons of ash into the sky. The volcano had been quiet since the 1850s, but in 1980, geologists were ...

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American I'm still going through the USGS image ...