Mount St Helens Volcano

Summary
A lesson on the Mount St. Helens volcano. The reading is accompanied by true/false questions.

Objectives
• To introduce students to the history of the Mount St. Helens volcano.

Suggested Grades
4th Grade
5th Grade
6th Grade

Excerpt
Washington State is home to the Cascade Mountains, a range of mountains that extends from the Canadian province of British Columbia to northern California. Many of these mountains are actually volcanoes, part of the volcanoes on land that circle the Pacific Ocean and are called the Ring of Fire. Volcanoes in Washington State that have been active in the last 200 years include Mount Rainier and Mount St. Helens as well as Mount Hood in Oregon. A huge eruption of Mount St. Helens began on March 20, 1980 with an earthquake and finally the mountain exploded on May 18 and the destruction covered about 230 square miles.

Residents of the area knew that Mount St. Helens was a volcano but no one was particularly concerned. Scientists and historians knew that Mount St. Helens had experienced a few small eruptions between 1832 and 1857, but there had not been any volcanic activity there since then.

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