Mount St. Helens Before and After 1980: 1,314 Feet Lost
The May 18, 1980 eruption lowered Mount St. Helens from 9,677 feet to 8,363 feet, removing 1,314 feet of its summit. The figures are from the U.S. Geological Survey.
The numbers
- Summit before the eruption: 9,677 feet
- Summit after the eruption: 8,363 feet
- Summit removed: 1,314 feet
- New crater: 1.2 miles east-west, 1.8 miles north-south, 2,084 feet deep
- Material removed: 0.67 cubic miles (3.7 billion cubic yards)
- Time: May 18, 1980, 8:32 a.m.
Source: USGS Fact Sheet 036-00.
The height has been measured again since
USGS reports later surveys: 8,365 feet (2,549.7 meters) in 1982 and 8,330 feet (2,539 meters) in a 2009 lidar survey. The 8,363-foot figure above comes from the fact sheet, so later surveys give slightly different values. USGS also states that the upper 400 meters (1,300 feet) of the summit was removed. Source: USGS, Mount St. Helens.
How we draw it
Our two Mount St. Helens editions show the post-1980 mountain as contour lines every 200 feet, drawn by hand from USGS 3DEP elevation data (10 m DEM). The Archive IDs are HE-EA-26-011-MSH-SQR and HE-EA-26-011-MSH-SIL; check them on the data page. Nothing is generated.
Questions
How tall was Mount St. Helens before 1980? 9,677 feet, according to USGS Fact Sheet 036-00.
How tall is it now? USGS lists 8,330 feet from a 2009 lidar survey.
The map
Mount St. Helens poster · Mount St. Helens tee · Complete Edition (tee + print).
Figures checked against the sources above on October 2, 2026.