Ape Cave Curves, Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument, Washington

A narrow passage of the Ape Cave gently curves in the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument in Washington state. The Ape Cave is 13,042 feet long (3,975 meters), making it the third-longest lava tube in North America. It formed during an eruption of Mount St. Helens approximately 2,000 years ago. An 8-mile-long (13-kilometer-long) lava flow poured down the southern flank of the volcano. Lava cools from the outside-in, so the flow became like a straw, allowing lava to continue to flow through a hardened crust.

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A narrow passage of the Ape Cave gently curves in the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument in Washington state. The Ape Cave is 13,042 feet long (3,975 meters), making it the third-longest lava tube in North America. It formed during an eruption of Mount St. Helens approximately 2,000 years ago. An 8-mile-long (13-kilometer-long) lava flow poured down the southern flank of the volcano. Lava cools from the outside-in, so the flow became like a straw, allowing lava to continue to flow through a hardened crust.