52 Volcanoes Posing a ‘Serious Threat’ to the U.S. Aren’t Being Well-Monitored

Last Friday’s eruption at Iceland’s Bardarbunga volcano had many worried about the possible impacts of a larger eruption on air travel. Another eruption at Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano has caused a state of emergency to be declared on Big Island, as lava flows from the ongoing eruption have advanced within a mile of a residential zone.

That’s just one example of how much danger volcanoes pose to the U.S. – and we aren’t doing much about it. Compared with Iceland, the U.S. is much more vulnerable to volcanic disasters – and has been failing at monitoring these risks, according to a government report.

The United States Geological Survey’s proposed National Volcano Early Warning System classifies volcanos by threat level and by how well they’re monitored.

Where Iceland has 32 active volcanoes, the United States has 169 – 55 of which are designated as serious threats by the United States Geological Survey’s Volcano Hazards Program in the report. Unfortunately, only 3 of these are being monitored with the most up-to-date instruments available.

For example, 39% of Very High Threat level volcanoes in the US, like Mount Rainier in Washington, have only limited monitoring, which means that we can monitor them for major changes in activity, but not in enough detail to model and predict their behavior in the future.

As the report states:

Waiting to deploy a proper monitoring effort until a hazardous volcano awakens and an unrest crisis begins means that scientists, civil authorities, businesses, and citizens are caught in a reactive mode of ‘playing catch up’ with the volcano, trying to get instruments and civil-defense measures in place before the unrest escalates and the situation worsens. Precious time and data are lost in the weeks it can take to deploy a response to a reawakening volcano – time and data that the public needs and should have to prepare for the hazards they may be confronted with.

Here are the areas of the US that the report highlighted:

The Cascades

Of particular concern, according to the report, are 13 Very High Threat volcanoes that are inadequately monitored, including nine volcanos in the Cascade Range. Among these are Mount Shasta in California, Crater Lake in Oregon, and Mount Rainier in Washington. As the report states, “Cascade volcanoes do not erupt frequently, but they threaten major populations and development.”

See how close they are to major cities in the Pacific Northwest:

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