PER KIMA:
Today marks the anniversary of the historical Mount St. Helens eruption. At 8:32 a.m. on May 18, 1980, a 5.1 earthquake shook the mountain. The mountain didn’t erupt straight up; it erupted out to the side. The mountain went from 9,677 to 8,364 feet tall in moments. The smoke plume climbed 60,000 feet in the air, visible from satellites in orbit around the Earth.