Mount St. Helens & Steam Photo

A scenic picture taken of Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument on a sunny day. In this picture you can see the volcano is active and letting out some steam. On this day there was a warning of 2 out of 3 and later this evening there was a 3.2 earthquake which the volcano let out even more steam. The last time Mount St. Helens really erupted was at 8:32 Sunday morning, May 18, 1980. Today, 25 years later, you can still see the destruction left from that blast, but you can also see a lot more green as things are starting to grow back. Back on May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens was shaken by an earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale. Nearly 230 square miles of forest was blown over or left dead and standing. The eruption lasted 9 hours, but Mount St. Helens and the surrounding landscape were dramatically changed within moments.