All volcano eruptions are caused by little earthquakes underneath the volcano.  Many small earthquakes had shaken the mountain, but none big enough to make it erupt.   In July of 1971, the first big earthquake made Mount St. Helen's erupt.  The earthquake had a magnitude of 5.1.   This July earthquake was too much for Mount St. Helen's; it erupted suddenly without much warning to the people.  The lava melted the ice on the top of the mountain and made the rapids of Toutle River change from relaxing rapids to a speed of one hundered seventy miles per hour.  All the lava had wiped out the whole north side of the mountain  causing the largest landslide ever.  This caused Mount St. Helen's to go from the ninth largest mountain to the thirtieth largest mountain.  Its height, before the eruption, was nine thousand six hundred seventy seven feet; it shrank to eight thousand three hundered sixty-five feet.  Mount St. Helen's was a very calamitous disaster.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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