#TBT Young hikers at the Spirit Lake Ranger Station circa 1950.

May 29 | USGS Footage

A trip down the North Fork Toutle River with scientists as they traverse the debris avalanche in bright fluorescent-colored jumpsuits.

Chunks of glacial ice pockmark the avalanche's surface, which is surrounded on both sides by hills with blown-down trees.

That's cute

Views from the devastated area by USGS scientists from May 28, 1980. No sound.

May 28
St. Helens remains quiet.

🌋 USGS scientists squash rumors of a bulge on the south slope. 'There is no evidence of a bulge. There never has been any evidence,' says a geologist.
🌋Two moderate earthquakes hit the Mt. Margaret area eight miles north of the volcano.

44 years ago today on May 20, 1980, WA Gov. Dixy Lee Ray requests federal assistance following the eruption of Mount St. Helens. President Jimmy Carter arrived the next day to survey the damage and declared Washington a disaster area.

We continue working through the minute-by-minute reports that were coming into the Department of Emergency Services following the May 18, 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens.
Two days after the blast, a 100-car convoy ran through a WA State Patrol road block heading to #Spokane .

USGS scientists begin to document their journeys into the devastated area on film.