So when it squeezes out of the volcano, it piles up. Most of the dome-building eruptions have lasted a few days, but one lasted a whole year. The result of these eruptions is a towering mass of rock called the lava dome. If the mountain has been slow to rebuild, the land around it has responded more quickly. Animals, plants and the elements are working together to regenerate the landscape.
Pocket gophers dig through the ash and kick original soil to the surface.
Deer and elk droppings fertilize sterile soils. New plants attract web-spinning spiders, which flow in on the wind. Even gases from the volcano produced acid rain that helped break down the soil into something plants can use. Biologists are expecting the cloak of green to expand dramatically throughout the blast zone over the next few years. Humankind is doing its part.