Meet Mount St. Helens: USA’s historic volcano that saw a massive eruption  

There are natural disasters and then some more. Well, some of you might have read about the 2001 Bhuj earthquake in Gujarat or the 2004 tsunami that destroyed parts of Southern India to a great extent. A similar such incident called the Mount St. Helens volcanic eruption created history in the United States of America some 42 years ago on May 18, 1980. Here are some explosive facts about USA’s most powerful and devastating volcanic eruption. 

Named after a British diplomat 
Well, you might be wondering where this iconic volcanic peak gets its name from. If you pegged your guess at any saint after whom it was named, you are wrong! Historical records suggest that the name Mount St. Helens, was attributed to the volcanic peak in 1792 by British Royal Navy seafarer and explorer Captain George Vancouver. He named it after his countryman, Alleyne Fitzherbert, who bore the title 'Baron St. Helens.' Fitzherbert, in fact, was the British Ambassador to Spain at the time. Later, Vancouver also named three other Cascade volcanoes after British naval officers: Mount Baker, Mount Hood, and Mount Rainier. 

The massive eruption of 1890 
The explosive volcanic eruption took place in 1980, more than 100 years after the last major one in 1800. Several minor explosions occurred during the early 19th century until 1857, when the volcano became dormant . During this time of volcanic activity, the Goat Rocks Dome (an extinct volcano in the Cascade Mountains, USA) was formed, which was part of Mount St. Helens' unique outline until it was destroyed in the 1980 eruption. 

It is part of the Pacific Ring of Fire 
Do you know that Mount St. Helens was a part of the Cascade Volcanic Arc, a segment of the Pacific Ring of Fire? The Cascade Volcanic Arc refers to a group of volcanoes in Western North America that forms an arc of volcanoes. The Pacific Ring of Fire, on the other hand, is a 40,000 km long and 500 km wide horseshoe-shaped belt encircling much of the Pacific Ocean's rim where frequent volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur. 

Accompanied by a 5.1 magnitude earthquake 
The volcano shook the Earth early in the morning at 8: 32 am atop Mount St. Helens. The eruption, which was accompanied by a magnitude 5.1 earthquake on the Richter Scale (an instrument used for measuring the magnitude of an earthquake) and a debris avalanche, altered the future of volcanology.  Volcanology, as you might have guessed, is the study of volcanoes. So, what was the reason behind this massive earthquake? Well, an injection of magma at shallow depth beneath the volcano triggered a huge bulge and a crack system on the mountain's North Slope.  

Oh, that sounds quite destructive! But, what do you mean by magma? It is simply a mixture of molten and semi-molten rock found beneath the surface of the Earth. In other words, these melted/ semi-melted rocks below the Earth led by their own vibrations caused the earthquake. However, let us tell you that the volcanic eruption was preceded by a two-month series of earthquakes and steam-venting episodes. Finally, on Sunday, May 18, 1980, an earthquake forced the entire weakened northern part of the mountain to fall away, generating the world's greatest sub-aerial landslide!