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Mount St Helens, April 1980
Mount St Helens with an intact summit. Photograph of Mount St Helen on 10th April 1980, prior to its devastating eruption on 18th May 1980. This eruption was one of the largest eruptions in the USA, destroying the summit (peak) of the volcano, leaving a large caldera (crater). The lahars (volcanic mud flows) covered distances of nearly 30 kilometres at speeds of several kilometres per hour and flowed down valleys in the surrounding area, demolishing trees, bridges and houses, and then solidifying like concrete. They consisted of material from the collapse of the northern flank of the volcano, mixed with glacier ice, snow and meltwater from the eruption.
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