Mount St. Helens

Mount St. Helens, a volcano in the Cascade Range of southwestern Washington, is famous for its catastrophic eruption on May 18, 1980 — the deadliest and most destructive volcanic event in U.S. history. The blast tore away the entire north face of the mountain, dropping its summit from 9,677 feet to its present 8,363 feet (2,549 m), flattening forests for miles, and killing 57 people. A column of ash rose miles into the sky and fell across the region.

Before 1980 St. Helens was a near-perfect snow-capped cone, sometimes called the "Fuji of America." The eruption left a gaping horseshoe crater, and a lava dome has slowly been rebuilding inside it ever since, a reminder that the volcano is very much alive. The blast zone, preserved as a national volcanic monument, has become a living laboratory for watching how life returns to a devastated landscape.

• Washington
  The Evergreen State, the wet and dry sides of the Cascades located in
• The Cascade Range
  A chain of volcanoes in the Pacific Northwest part of