High-resolution digital elevation model of Mount St. Helens and upper North Fork Toutle River basin, based on airborne lidar surveys of August-September, 2017

The lateral blast, debris avalanche, and lahars of the May 18th, 1980, eruption of Mount St. Helens, Washington, dramatically altered the surrounding landscape. Lava domes were extruded during the subsequent eruptive periods of 1980-1986 and 2004-2008. During 2017, U.S. Forest Service contracted the acquisitions of airborne lidar surveys of Mount St. Helens and upper North Fork Toutle River basin, part of a larger 2017-2018 survey of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. The U.S. Geological Survey combined and reprojected 81 raster datasets, provided by the U.S. Forest Service in October 2018, into a single digital elevation model (DEM) of the ground surface, including beneath forest cover (that is, 'bare earth'). This USGS data release contains digital elevation data as a 1-meter resolution raster dataset (.tif file). This DEM can support a variety of earth science investigations.