Mt. St. Helens 10-15-09

Here is a photo from the Mt. St. Helens Visitor Center. We never did see the actual mountain. Most days we only saw clouds and rain.
The photo shows the 1980 eruption- the north side of the mountain blew off, rather than blowing up the top. The debris slid down the mountain, filling up Spirit Lake. Spirit lake was the site for the Boy Scout/Girl scout and other youth camps, so its demise impacted so many folks, besides the ones that lived there.Despite the huge amount of debris and the ash seen and felt around the world, the amount of debris and ash was very small compared to other volcanos