Mount St. Helens

thumb|300px|alt=A large conical volcano.|Mount St. Helens the day before the 1980 eruption, which removed much of the northern face of the mountain, leaving a large [[crater]]

Mount St. Helens is an active stratovolcano located in Skamania County, Washington, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is 96 mi south of Seattle and 50 mi northeast of Portland, Oregon. Mount St. Helens takes its English name from the British diplomat Lord St Helens, a friend of explorer George Vancouver who made a survey of the area in the late 18th century. The volcano is located in the Cascade Range and is part of the Cascade Volcanic Arc, a segment of the Pacific Ring of Fire that includes over 160 active volcanoes. This volcano is well known for its ash explosions and pyroclastic flows.

Mount St. Helens is most famous for its catastrophic eruption on May 18, 1980, at 8:32 am PDT which was the deadliest and most economically destructive volcanic event in the history of the United States. Fifty-seven people were killed; 250 homes, 47 bridges, 15 mi of railways, and 185 mi of highway were destroyed. The eruption caused a massive debris avalanche, reducing the elevation of the mountain's summit from 9677 ft to 8365 ft and replacing it with a 1 mi wide horseshoe-shaped crater. The debris avalanche was up to 0.7 mi3 in volume. The Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument was created to preserve the volcano and allow for its aftermath to be scientifically studied.