Thirty years ago, on May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens roared back into major activity with a massive eruption that leveled surrounding forest, blasted away over a thousand feet of the mountain's summit, and claimed 57 human lives.

This short video shows the catastrophic eruption - and the amazing recovery of the surrounding ecosystem - through the eyes of the Landsat satellites, which have been imaging our planet for almost forty years.

See the images and read more, visit NASA's "World of Change" site: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/WorldOfChange/sthelens.php

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