Heart shaped lake in Washington has a deadly history behind it

Not long has the spirit of Valentine's Day been behind us, this heart-shaped structure looks to keep the romance alive.

However, it's got a darker meaning behind its romantic gesture.

NASA's OLI (Operational Land Imager) on Landsat 8 captured these images of Spirit Lake on April 26, 2023 showing the heart-like formation of the lake, with snow contrasting against the dark-blue water.

From the 1920s through the 1970s, Spirit Lake in Skamania Country, Washington, US was a popular tourist destination, drawing in swimmers, sailors, and fishers who stayed in the cabins and lodges surrounding the lake.

Heart-shaped lake in Washington has a dark history behind its formation / NASA Earth Observatory

Initially, the lake located north of Mount St Helens didn't look like the full heart shape we see today in satellite images. It was more like the top half of a heart with narrow connections on the east and west sides.

A devastating eruption of Mount St Helens took place on May 18, 1980. Triggered by a 5.1 magnitude earthquake, the geographical event resulted in the largest landslide in history. The eruption raised the lake's surface elevation by nearly 60 metres (200 feet) and the falling debris forced its waters out onto nearby land.

Some of the landslide debris formed a blockage, or natural dam, on the lake’s southwest side, until engineers stepped in to construct a drainage tunnel in 1985.

Over time, water has flowed back in on top of the debris, creating a 'new' heart-shaped lake that we can observe today. Spirit Lake now serves as a reminder of the catastrophic events from nearly 45 years ago.

The brown line is believed to be tree roots that are still floating in the lake / NASA Earth Observatory

Access to the site is now limited to a designated viewpoint that’s open when conditions allow. Fishing and swimming activities are no longer permitted.

Instead, Spirit Lake now resides as a natural laboratory for studying the recovery of landscapes after volcanic eruptions. Its undisturbed log mat remains of particular interest to researchers.

Environmental engineer Jim Gawel, who studies the lake, spoke to NASA’s Earth Observatory: 'More lakes would have log mats, but often logs are removed for recreation and timber harvest. We would love to learn of other lakes in the world with large numbers of floating logs for comparison to Spirit Lake.'

Scientists believe that the trees, uprooted by the volcanic explosion and now floating in the lake, have become important to the lake's ecosystem - these are visible as the brown line in the OLI image.