I could be here talking eternally about changes that happened in my life. How I moved to a different country, how my life changed when I had my first kid. Then how it changed when I had my second kid! All the changes in jobs, including the many that happen on my current one (a new one, seemingly HUGE is about to happen again next month…).

But instead, I’ll show a change on something that’s external to me. One I have no say or control about. One that all I have to do about it is to observe.

I live in Washington state, USA, which is one of the states in the region we call the Pacific Northwest. Well… the PNW runs right along part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, meaning we have several active volcanos in the area. In our little piece of the world, most of the volcanos are quiet.

Except one!

Mt. St. Helens is the one that had the most recent eruption, in May 18th, 1980.

After the 1980 eruption, part of the area around the crater was preserved so scientists could study how nature recover itself from such a blast on its own.

Then, in 2005 and 2006, some increased activity was observed, releasing some pressure and creating a new dome at the crater.

The 2 pictures below were taken on visits I did to the mountain, in 2002 and then again in 2015, both in June, so same season.

In 2002 you could see some green showing up, but the dome was still pretty small.

13 years later, the scenery is still mostly brown and gray, but you can see much more greens and a much bigger dome.

In other areas of the National Park, we could see the difference in greenery even better, but unfortunately I didn’t have similar pictures from those areas to show.

😉

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In response to The Daily Post’s weekly photo challenge: “Change.”