Dec. 19, 2022 on The Story: The eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980 is one of those indelible events that people who were alive to experience it will remember and talk about for the rest of their lives — a dramatic demonstration of nature's power. But that's just the tip of the iceberg (or more appropriately, the crater of the volcano). In 2005, the U.S. Geological Survey assigned a "threat level" to all 169 of the potentially active volcanoes in the country. They labeled 18 of them "very high" threat. And 10 out of those 18 are here in the Pacific Northwest. Scientists at Western Washington University up in Bellingham, Wash. are working to map the inner workings of these sleeping giants, trying to figure out how we can best prepare for future eruptions. Watch more The Story videos: http://bit.ly/watchTheStory Follow The Story on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheStoryKGW Follow The Story on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thestorykgw