Shoestring Glacier

Aerial view, Shoestring Glacier, southeast side of Mount St. Helens
-- USGS Photo by Lyn Topinka, August 14, 1981

The conspicuous notch in the east rim of Mount St. Helens is the truncated valley cut by the Shoestring Glacier. This glacier formerly was fed by an ice and snow field at the summit of Mount St. Helens. The eruption of May 18, 1980, decapitated the glacier and removed approximately three-quarters of its original volume.

Excerpts from: Doukas, 1990, Road Guide to Volcanic Deposits of Mount St. Helens and Vicinity, Washington: U. S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1859, 53p.

Shoestring Glacier - May 18, 1980

The May 18, 1980, pyroclastic flow scoured the surface of Shoestring Glacier and incorporated its water, snow, and ice to form the lahars that swept down across Muddy fan. Shoestring Glacier was beheaded, and most of the glacier's snow and ice accumulation zone was removed when the upper parts of the mountain collapsed during the early moments of the eruption.

Excerpt from: Pringle, 1993, Roadside Geology of Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument and Vicinity: Washington Department of Natural Resources, Division of Geology and Earth Resources Information Circular 88.