SEATTLE — Mount St. Helens stood silent for over a century in Washington’s Cascade Range, but that all changed 45 years ago when the sleeping giant woke up and erupted into Pacific Northwest history.
At 8:32 a.m. on May 18, 1980, a 5.1 magnitude earthquake rattled Mount St. Helens and the north side of the volcano’s summit began to slide down the mountain. The landslide of rock and ice was the largest in recorded history, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
PHOTOS | 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption seen from no-fly zone…