Along with that, a plume of the volcano was blown 80,000 feet in air and rained down 250 miles away in Spokane. The winds blew 520 million tons of ash eastward 2,200 miles across the U.S. in seven states and caused complete darkness in Spokane, Washington, which was 250 miles from the volcano. The blast also wiped out 230 square miles of forestland. With the accumulation of airborne debris, the ash cloud encircled the globe in 15 days. In the end, along with the total land area destroyed, a total of 57 human lives were lost, along with about 7,000 big game animals and 12 million salmon fingerlings in hatcheries (Mount St. Helens – From the 1980 Eruption to 2000).…