Looking back at the Mount St. Helens eruption

VOLCANO was released 29 years ago today.The volcanic ash effects were made from ground-up newspaper, which you can see clinging to the actors’ hair and clothes throughout the film.​

This dramatic scene depicts spiraling columns of volcanic ash rising into the atmosphere — a stylized representation inspired by real phenomena such as pyrocumulus clouds and volcanic vortices. These formations develop when intense heat from an eruption creates powerful upward convection, lifting ash and gas into rotating structures that resemble towering funnels. The glowing colors suggest enhanced or artistic rendering, yet they echo real physical processes observed during major eruptions: tur

Giant ash clouds hang over roads during volcanic eruption