Mount St. Helens’ Blast Zone
Mount St. Helens' blast zone nearly thirty years later.
Mount St. Helens on the north face, the side of the most intense pyroclastic explosion that occurred on May 18, 1980. Nearly thirty years have past and the blast is obviously still evident, although new vegetation tenuously gaining a toehold.
On the day of the blast in 1980, I was in Spokane, over two hundred miles away. When the ash reached my location, the sky became black as night and the city street lights turned on. For many months we were plagued with a “putty” colored fine ash surrounding the entire area. It has never completely vanished. Closer to the mountain, the remaining ash is much more pronounced.
