At 8:32 a.m. PDT on May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens, a volcanic
peak in southwestern Washington, suffered a massive eruption,
killing 57 people and devastating some 210 square miles of
wilderness.

Called Louwala-Clough, or “the Smoking Mountain,” by Native 
Americans, Mount St. Helens is located in the Cascade Range 
and stood 9,680 feet before its eruption.

ED DANAHUE

Photograph during the eruption in 1883.

An 1888 lithograph of the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa.

The 1883 eruption of Krakatoa in the Sunda Strait occurred
from 20 May until 21 October 1883, peaking in the late
morning hours of 27 August when over 70% of the island
of Krakatoa and its surrounding archipelago were destroyed
as it collapsed into a caldera.

The eruption was one of the deadliest and most destructive
volcanic events in recorded history.

At 8:32 a.m. PDT on May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens, a
volcanic peak in southwestern Washington, suffered
a massive eruption, killing 57 people and devastating
some 210 square miles of wilderness.

   
A  lithograph of 1883 eruption of Krakatoa.

One of the most powerful volcanic eruptions in recorded history occurred on Krakatoa (also called Krakatau), a small, uninhabited volcanic island east of Sumatra and west of Java, on August 27,
1883. Heard 3,000 miles away, the explosions threw five cubic
miles of earth 50 miles into the air, created 120-foot tsunamis
and killed 36,000 people.

Illustration of volcanic island of Krakatoa before it blew. 

CAMILLE BOHANNON