President Jimmy Carter visited and even said the aftermath site made the moon seem more like a golf course.
This grey, ash-filled landscape, known as "The Pumice Plain," created a unique opportunity for research. No living being survived the blast in the surrounding area, so change was easier to assess.
From lupine seeds to mice -- scientists from various institutions arrived to study the aftermath -- including pioneer species or what newly arrived. Pioneer species are those first beings that are resilient enough to live and thrive in a new place after a disaster like a fire, flood, or volcanic blast. This attracted a team of UW biologists and zoologists interested in studying spiders
The 1980 blast was so impactful that it created a new zone for some spider species to land and attempt survival in the desolate area.
"We had a blank slate," said Rod Crawford, who studies spiders at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture. "We could tell what things were migrating in from a long distance away, which is something you can't very easily tell when you're in the middle of something like a forest, which already has a lot of things living there, how can you tell what's new?"