Mt. St. Helens

Book excerpt: Experience the exhilaration and terror of the Mt. St. Helens eruption through this amazing eyewitness account. Renowned volcanologist Dr. Catherine Hickson vividly portrays one of the most spectacular geological events of the 20th century. As a young geology student at the time of the eruption on May 18, 1980, she watched from only 9 miles away as the dramatic explosion created a "stone wind" of molten rock and ash. Traveling at more than 300 miles an hour, in 3 short minutes it redefined the lives of many people and flattened 230 square miles of forest in Washington State. The devastation stopped 2 miles short of the author's location and claimed 57 lives. Some of the victims were found as far as 13 miles from the crater. Based on a letter written to a close friend immediately after the eruption, the author's personal narrative also chronicles the volcano's formation, destruction, and rebirth, and is augmented by many diagrams and photographs that have never before been published.