QUESTION: Name the four other Holocene volcanoes in Washington State besides Mount St. Helens.
ANSWER: Mount Adams, Mount Rainier, Mount Baker and Glacier Peak. Many scientists theorize that a volcano should be considered active if it erupted in the Holocene era, a geological period that started about 12,000 years ago. There is currently no way to know which one will erupt next, and it is possible that Mount St. Helens has not finished with the activity that began in 1980.
Plant life has slowly but steadily returned to lands around Mount St. Helens over the past 30 years, as this article in The Columbian describes.
The Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife estimates that about 7,000 deer, elk, bear and other large mammals perished in the May 18, 1980, eruption, as did all birds and most smaller animal. However, burrowing rodents, frogs, salamanders, and crawfish survived because they were belowground or underwater when the volcano erupted. Today, there are signs of resurgent life everywhere you look — in both the national monument and surrounding lands. One thing we know for sure is that the landscape will never be the same.
See our Mount St. Helens information page for more information and many links about volcanoes.
See previous quiz questions and answers on DNR’s Facebook page
See more photos of Mount St. Helens before and after the May 18, 1980, eruption on DNR’s Flickr page.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
