which cascade volcano is most likely to erupt

Full Answer

What type of volcanoes are in the Cascade Range?

Eruptions in the Cascade Range. The regions lacking new eruptions keep in touch to positions of fracture zones that offset the Gorda Ridge, Explorer Ridge and the Juan de Fuca Ridge. The volcanoes with historical eruptions include: Mount Rainier, Glacier Peak, Mount Baker, Mount Hood, Lassen Peak, and Mount Shasta .

Will Cascade Volcanoes erupt again?

Cascade volcanoes have erupted in the recent past and will erupt again. The time between eruptions is usually measured in decades or centuries, so eruptions are not a part of our everyday experience. However, recent eruptions at Mount St. Helens vividly demonstrate the power and impacts that Cascade volcanoes can unleash when they do erupt.

What are the most dangerous volcanoes in the United States?

Among the 18 "very high threat volcanoes," 11 are along the Cascade Range in three states (Alaska and Hawaii have the others): California: Lassen Volcanic Center, Long Valley Caldera, Mount Shasta Oregon: Crater Lake, Mount Hood, Newberry, South Sister of The Three Sisters Washington: Baker, Glacier Peak, Rainier, St. Helens

Why are Cascade volcanoes so misshapen?

* Note: Because Cascade volcanoes are young and active, most of them are still well-formed. Mount St. Helens is misshapen because of volcanism, of course.

Which volcano is most likely to erupt in the Cascade Mountains?

How dangerous is Mount Rainier? Although Mount Rainier has not produced a significant eruption in the past 500 years, it is potentially the most dangerous volcano in the Cascade Range because of its great height, frequent earthquakes, active hydrothermal system, and extensive glacier mantle.

Which volcano is most likely to erupt?

We know that Mount St. Helens is the volcano in the Cascades most likely to erupt again in our lifetimes.

Which Cascade volcano is most active?

Mount St HelensBy far the most active and best known of the Cascades volcanoes is Mount St Helens - a stratovolcano in Washington state. The most recent eruption was in 1980 - a major eruption classified as VEI 5. The VEI is the Volcanic Explosivity Index.

Will the Cascades erupt?

Scientists are forecasting that the Pacific Northwest's most active volcano will erupt sometime between 2020 and 2024. The volcano isn't one you'll see driving along the Cascade Range, instead you'd have to look 1.5 miles deep in the ocean to find it.

Where will the next volcano erupt 2022?

It was the largest volcanic eruption since the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo, and the most powerful eruption since the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa....2022 Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha'apai eruption and tsunamiEnd date15 January 2022TypeSurtseyan, PlinianLocationPacific Ocean, Tonga20.550°S 175.385°WVEI54 more rows

What volcanoes will erupt in 2022?

The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai eruption on January 15, 2022, sent shock waves rippling through Earth's oceans and atmosphere.

How often do Cascade volcanoes erupt?

one to two per centuryEruptions in the Cascades have occurred at an average rate of one to two per century during the last 4,000 years. Future eruptions are certain. Learn more: Eruptions in the Cascade Range During the Past 4,000 Years.

Is Mount Hood going to erupt?

It is the highest point in Oregon and the fourth highest in the Cascade Range. Mount Hood is considered the Oregon volcano most likely to erupt, though based on its history, an explosive eruption is unlikely.

What is the oldest volcano in the Cascades?

Mount Rainier's current volcanic cone began building around 500,000 years ago.

Is Mount Rainier due to erupt?

Mount Rainier is behaving about as it has over the last half-million years, so all evidence suggests that the volcano will continue to erupt, grow, and collapse. Sources/Usage: Public Domain.

How long until the Yellowstone volcano erupts?

Will the Yellowstone volcano erupt soon? Another caldera-forming eruption is theoretically possible, but it is very unlikely in the next thousand or even 10,000 years. Scientists have also found no indication of an imminent smaller eruption of lava in more than 30 years of monitoring.

When was the last volcanic eruption in the Cascades?

1980The two most recent were Lassen Peak in 1914 to 1921 and a major eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980. Minor eruptions of Mount St. Helens have also occurred, most recently in 2008.

Which volcano will destroy the world?

Yellowstone Super VolcanoScientist: Yellowstone Super Volcano Will Erupt Again And Likely Destroy U.S. – Sheridan Media.

What volcano is going to erupt in 2021?

VolcanoCountryEruption Start DateKilaueaUnited States2021 Sep 29PavlofUnited States2021 Aug 5Rincon de la ViejaCosta Rica2021 Jun 28Great SitkinUnited States2021 May 2544 more rows

Which volcanoes are most likely to explode and why?

Composite volcanoes are some of the most dangerous volcanoes on the planet. They tend to occur along oceanic-to-oceanic or oceanic-to-continental boundaries because of subduction zones. They tend to be made of felsic to intermediate rock and the viscosity of the lava means that eruptions tend to be explosive.

What volcano could destroy the world?

the Yellowstone CalderaEffects of a major eruption: When the Yellowstone Caldera, or "supervolcano," in Yellowstone National erupts again, it will render a huge swath of North America, from Vancouver to Oklahoma City, uninhabitable. It would have incalculable human and economic consequences.

How long have volcanoes been erupting in the Cascade Range?

Eruptions in the Cascade Range during the past 4,000 years. Volcanoes have been erupting in the Cascade Range for over 500,000 years. During the past 4,000 years eruptions have occurred at an average rate of about 2 per century. This chart shows 13 volcanoes on a map of Washington, Oregon, and northern California and time lines for each showing ...

Why is Mount Rainier the most dangerous volcano in the Cascade Range?

Although Mount Rainier has not produced a significant eruption in the past 500 years, it is potentially the most dangerous volcano in the Cascade Range because of its great height, frequent earthquakes , active hydrothermal system , and extensive glacier mantle.

How long did it take for the Kilauea eruption to occur?

An estimated 15 cubic kilometers of magma was explosively erupted during 60 hours beginning on June 6th. This volume is equivalent to 230 years of eruption at Kilauea (Hawaii) or about 30 times the volume erupted by Mount St. Helens (Washington...

What geologic forces caused the eruption of volcanoes in the eastern United States?

The geologic forces that generated volcanoes in the eastern United States millions of years ago no longer exist. Through plate tectonics, the eastern U.S. has been isolated from the global tectonic features (tectonic plate boundaries and hot spots in the mantle), that cause volcanic activity.

How often do volcanoes erupt?

Volcanoes in the Cascade Range erupt twice per century on average, with eruptions often lasting for years. Although eruptions are generally not as high-consequence as large earthquakes, they are still. Attribution: Natural Hazards. April 18, 2016.

What are the risks of volcanoes?

When the violent energy of a volcano is unleashed, the results are often catastrophic. The risks to life, property, and infrastructure from volcanoes are escalating as more and more people live, work, play, and travel in volcanic regions.

When did Lassen Peak erupt?

A sight "fearfully grand": eruptions of Lassen Peak, California, 1914 to 1917. On May 22, 1915, a large explosive eruption at the summit of Lassen Peak, California, the southernmost active volcano in the Cascade Range, devastated nearby areas and rained volcanic ash as far away as 280 miles to the east.

How many cascade volcanoes have erupted?

Seven Cascade volcanoes have erupted since the beginning of the eighteenth century. Some of those eruptions would have caused considerable property damage, economic disruption, and loss of life if they had occurred today without warning: Mount Baker– 1843, steam blast, ash fall, debris avalanche.

What is the Cascade Range?

The familiar snow-clad peaks of the Cascade Range are part of a 1,300 km (800 mi) chain of volcanoes, which extends from northern California to southern British Columbia. The volcanoes are the result of the slow slide of dense oceanic crust as it sinks beneath North America ( subduction ), which releases water and melts overlying rock.

What is the National Volcanic Threat Assessment?

National volcanic threat assessment identifies risks to populated areas. Volcanic threat is the combination of hazards (the dangerous or destructive natural phenomena produced by a volcano) and exposure (the people and property at risk from the volcanic phenomena).

Is ash dangerous to aircraft?

Lahars (volcanic mudflows) can destroy buildings and infrastructure. Eruptions that include volcanic ash can be especially dangerous for aircraft, even at long distances from the volcano, because volcanic ash can clog and shut down their engines. To learn more, read about volcanic hazards on this website.

Where is Mount Hood?

Mount Hood dominates the skyline outside of Portland, Oregon on a clear day. An major eruption of Mount Hood would pose a great hazard to the regional economy.

Will cascade volcanoes erupt again?

Cascade volcanoes have erupted in the recent past and will erupt again. The time between eruptions is usually measured in decades or centuries, so eruptions are not a part of our everyday experience.

What is the Cascade volcano?

The Cascade Volcanoes are part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, the ring of volcanoes and associated mountains around the Pacific Ocean. The Cascade Volcanoes have erupted several times in recorded history. Two most recent were Lassen Peak in 1914 to 1921 and a major eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980. It is also the site of Canada's most recent major eruption about 2,350 years ago at the Mount Meager massif.

Where are the Cascade volcanoes located?

The Cascade Volcanoes (also known as the Cascade Volcanic Arc or the Cascade Arc) are a number of volcanoes in a volcanic arc in western North America, extending from southwestern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California, a distance of well over 700 miles (1,100 km). The arc formed due to subduction along ...

What are the dangers of the Cascade volcanoes?

Some of the major cities along the length of the arc include Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver, and the population in the region exceeds 10 million. All could be potentially affected by volcanic activity and great subduction-zone earthquakes along the arc. Because the population of the Pacific Northwest is rapidly increasing, the Cascade volcanoes are some of the most dangerous, due to their eruptive history and potential for future eruptions, and because they are underlain by weak, hydrothermally altered volcanic rocks that are susceptible to failure. Consequently, Mount Rainier is one of the Decade Volcanoes identified by the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior (IAVCEI) as being worthy of particular study, due to the danger it poses to Seattle and Tacoma. Many large, long-runout landslides originating on Cascade volcanoes have engulfed valleys tens of kilometers from their sources, and some of the areas affected now support large populations.

Why are cascade volcanoes dangerous?

Because the population of the Pacific Northwest is rapidly increasing, the Cascade volcanoes are some of the most dangerous, due to their eruptive history and potential for future eruptions, and because they are underlain by weak, hydrothermally altered volcanic rocks that are susceptible to failure.

How long has the Cascade Arc been active?

Over the last 37 million years, the Cascade Arc has been erupting a chain of volcanoes along the Pacific Northwest. Several of the volcanoes in the arc are frequently active. The volcanoes of the Cascade Arc share some general characteristics, but each has its own unique geological traits and history.

How many volcanoes are there in the Cascade Arc?

The Cascade Arc includes nearly 20 major volcanoes, among a total of over 4,000 separate volcanic vents including numerous stratovolcanoes, shield volcanoes, lava domes, and cinder cones, along with a few isolated examples of rarer volcanic forms such as tuyas.

Which volcanoes have erupted?

The volcanoes with historical eruptions include: Mount Rainier, Glacier Peak, Mount Baker, Mount Hood, Lassen Peak, and Mount Shasta . Renewed volcanic activity in the Cascade Arc, such as the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, has offered a great deal of evidence about the structure of the Cascade Arc.

Which volcano is the most active in the Pacific Northwest?

The Axial Seamount is the most active volcano in the Pacific Northwest. “One of the ways that volcanoes are monitored around the world is to look for changes in their shape, like if the ground is being uplifted or subsiding,” Chadwick said.

When will the Pacific Northwest volcano erupt?

Scientists are forecasting that the Pacific Northwest’s most active volcano will erupt sometime between 2020 and 2024. The volcano isn’t one you’ll see driving along the Cascade Range, instead you’d have to look 1.5 miles deep in the ocean to find it.

Who studies earthquakes at Axial Seamount?

University of Washington’s William Wilcock studies earthquakes at Axial Seamount. The seismic activity gives indications of what’s happening inside the volcano.

Is the forecast eruption a unique opportunity scientifically?

But the forecast eruption does provide a unique opportunity scientifically.

Is the Axial Seamount a volcano?

Chadwick says the Axial Seamount is a relatively simple volcano in terms of where it occurs and how it behaves. And being able to study the volcano at such close range as it erupts could provide insight to the behavior and forecasting of volcanoes on land.

What is the highest mountain in the Cascade Range?

The Cascade Range's highest peak is a volcano loaded with the most glacier ice of any mountain in the contiguous U.S. This poses a threat to Seattle-Tacoma, over which Mount Rainier looms, if—or when—the stratovolcano erupts. As Mount St. Helens demonstrated in 1980, volcanoes that erupt through ice can create lahars, volcanic mudflows containing hot gas, rocks, lava, and melted ice. Two lahars from Mount Rainier made it all the way to Puget Sound following a catastrophic eruption about 5,600 years ago .

Which volcano has the most lava domes?

The southernmost active volcano in the Cascades, Lassen Peak has one of the most massive lava domes on Earth, totaling half a cubic mile. It's the largest of more than 30 volcanic domes in Lassen Volcanic National Park to erupt in the last 300,000 years.

How many times has Kilauea erupted?

Kilauea is the most active of the five volcanoes that form the Big Island of Hawaii. Located on the southeastern part of the island, the shield volcano has erupted 34 times since 1952. The most recent eruption lasted almost three decades, from 1983 to 2018.

What is the name of the volcano in Washington?

Glacier Peak (Washington) Justinreznick / Getty Images. Glacier Peak in the Cascades is one of only two volcanoes in Washington that have generated big, explosive eruptions in the last 15,000 years (the other is, of course, Mount St. Helens).

How many times has the Redoubt volcano erupted?

Redoubt has erupted at least 30 times in the last 10,000 years, with the most recent eruptions occurring in 1902, 1966, 1989, and 2009. During the 1966 eruption, melted ice from the mountain's summit crater caused a type of glacial outburst flood called jokulhlaup, Icelandic for "glacial run." Forty years later, the volcano lurched to life again for several months. It sent ash clouds as high as 65,000 feet above sea level and triggered up to 30 earthquakes per second just before erupting.

How big is the Newberry volcano?

Oregon's Newberry Volcano covers about 617 square miles —roughly the size of Rhode Island—in the eastern Cascades, making it one of the largest volcanoes in the contiguous U.S. The shield volcano has a large summit caldera spanning 17 square miles, which contains two lakes, Paulina Lake and East Lake.

How many years ago did the Three Sisters volcano erupt?

Neither the North nor the Middle Sister has erupted in about 14,000 years, but the South Sister last erupted about 2,000 years ago and is considered the most likely of the three to erupt again.

Which Cascade volcano is the most dangerous?

Of all Cascade volcanoes, Mount Rainier is the most dangerous. Click through to learn the many ways you can be killed by a volcano. Mount Rainier, a dormant volcano located near Seattle, is viewed on takeoff from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on November 28, 2013.

What is the most likely way volcanic activity on Mount Rainier, and other volcanoes, is likely to challenge human?

The most likely way volcanic activity on Mount Rainier, and other volcanoes, is likely to challenge human life very directly are the lahars, or debris and mud flows cause by rapid melting of snow and ice or the dislodging of material from the side of a volcano during activity.

How many miles from the volcano did the lava avalanche hit?

First and foremost has to be the huge, powerful explosions that can devastate huge tracts of forest and kill people miles from the volcanic source. For instance, when Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980 it chalked up "the largest debris avalanche on Earth in recorded history," a subsequent lateral blast devastated an area nearly 19 miles from west to east and more than 12.5 miles northward from the former summit, and blew 520 million tons of ash eastward across the United States, according to the USGS. The eruption killed 57 people.

What are the hazards of Mount Rainier?

USGS hazard map of Mount Rainier illustrating the potential for ground-based volcanic impacts—lava flows, hot rocks, volcanic gases, and more far-reaching hazards ( primarily lahars) in valleys that drain the volcano.

What happened to the last person buried in the ash of Mount Versuvius?

Buried beneath huge amounts of toxic material this person was suffocated and crushed from falling debris . Preserved in a shell of volcanic material it is to be removed from this site on top of a villa roof where, it is calculated, this citizen was one of the last to die, having climbed 4 metres above ground level to await its fate.

Can volcanic activity cause earthquakes?

Some quakes caused by volcanic action can be life-threatening ... “Volcanically triggered earthquakes have the potential to cause cracks, ground deformation, and damage to manmade structures,” reports the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network. “They typically are much smaller than earthquakes caused by non-volcanic sources. The largest felt volcanic earthquake in the Cascades was a magnitude 5.5 in 1981, under Mount St. Helens.”

Is Mount Rainier a dormant volcano?

Mount Rainier, a dormant volcano located near Seattle, is viewed on takeoff from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on November 28, 2013. Though all of the volcanos in the Pacific Northwest are classified as dormant, all pose a threat to large population centers in Washington State and Oregon -- but Mount Rainier's threat is by far the biggest. (Photo by George Rose/Getty Images)

Overview

Major catastrophic eruptions

Geology

Human history

Cascadia subduction zone

List of volcanoes

See also

External links