Worries about another eruption have grown as scientists have detected a swarm of earthquakes under the mountain. A new study indicates that there has been a swarm of earthquakes underneath Mount St. Helens since March, but scientists have said they don’t think this is an indication an eruption is imminent — and that’s a good thing, considering what happened during the eruption of 1980.
Mount St. Helens blew its top almost exactly 36 years ago to the day, killing 57 people and flattening 250 homes, sending a huge debris avalanche that registered 5.1 on the Richter scale. It also wiped out 47 bridges, 15 miles of railways, and 185 miles of highway. The height of the mountain itself shrunk from 9,677 to 8,363 feet, and was left with a horseshoe-shaped crater.
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