Images

From February 1 to June 17, 2024, approximately 350 earthquakes were located at Mount St. Helens by the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network. Over 95% of the earthquakes were less than a magnitude 1.0 and too small to be felt at the surface. The number of earthquakes located per week appears to have reached a peak in early June, at 38 events per week. USGS graphic.

Comparison of February-June 2024 seismicity to previous seismic swarms (1987-2004). Upper left: Map of Mount St. Helens with a grayscale representing a digital elevation model. Earthquakes interpreted as recharge between 1987 and 2004 are plotted as a heatmap of earthquake density.

Earthquakes located at Mount St. Helens from 2008-2024, a non-eruptive period. This activity is consistent with normal, background levels. Top: Earthquake events located per week. The orange color at the far right denotes earthquakes from February to June 2024. Bottom: Earthquake depths below sea level (bsl) in kilometers.

Aerial photo of Mount St. Helens (center), with Mount Hood (in the distance, far left), Spirit Lake (on left with floating log mat), and St. Helens Lake with a little ice cover (lower left). USGS image taken by K. Spicer on June 6, 2024. 

Mount St. Helens: Land of Transformation video shows the changes to the landscape from before the May 18, 1980 eruption to today (2024).

Mount St. Helens by A. Mosbrucker. Looking SE towards the volcano up the valley. 

Monitoring station VALT, in the crater of Mount St. Helens, in 2023. Anxious about damage to the station from the advancing Crater Glacier (the rock and snow-covered cliff) and hazards to people working at the site, a CVO field team dismantled VALT on June 6, 2024 after 18 years in service. It will be rebuilt farther from the glacier. 

USGS Cascades Volcano Observatory Physical Science Technician Brian Meyers installs a data telemetry antenna on a volcano monitoring station at Mount St. Helens. A DOAS scanner is mounted above the flat-panel antenna at the top of the mast.

USGS scientist Laura Clor performing maintenance on the SNIF multi-GAS station on Mount St. Helens, Washington.

Interior of the SNIF multi-GAS enclosure on Mount St. Helens, Washington

This photo shows an outcrop of pyroclastic flow deposits near Willow Creek on the Pumice Plain at Mount St. Helens. The dramatic lines crossing the outcrop indicate contacts between different layers of pyroclastic flow deposits. Two participants of the 2019 GeoGirls program are shown studying the outcrop, using it to understand the eruptive history of the volcano.

The GeoGirls hike the Pumice Plain at Mount St. Helens, examining lava outcrops and volcanic sediment.

The GeoGirls create field drawings of 1980 pyroclastic flow deposits on Mount St. Helens’ Pumice Plain.

GeoGirls hike to Willow Creek, on Mount St. Helens’ Pumice Plain, to learn more about the ecology of the blast zone and how the area has recovered since the catastrophic May 18, 1980, eruption. Here, they look at stream characteristics and how it has influenced the return of life to the area.

The GeoGirls visit a volcano monitoring station on the east side of Mount St. Helens, finding out how scientists use different monitoring methods (seismic, GPS, tiltmeter) to understand more about the volcano.

GeoGirls 2019 group photo, with Mount St. Helens in the background.

GeoGirls venture into Ape Cave, a 2,000-year-old lava tube on the south flank of Mount St. Helens, as they learn about Mount St. Helens’ eruptive history and lava flows.

GeoGirls venture into Ape Cave, a 2,000-year-old lava tube on the south flank of Mount St. Helens, as they learn about Mount St. Helens’ eruptive history and lava flows.

A field team from the USGS Cascades Volcano Observatory discuss station maintenance plans on the north side of Mount St. Helens, Washington. Pictured in the center of the crater is a steaming lava dome from the 2004-08 eruption, and the fractured surface of Crater Glacier emerging from the gap on the north flank.  

The sun rises at Mount St. Helens (pictured in the distance), with low-level clouds covering Coldwater Lake. The view is from the Coldwater Science and Learning Center, the site of the 2018 GeoGirls field camp program.

Mount St. Helens erupted 38 years ago, May 18, 1980