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Pedestrian evacuation time maps and population exposure estimates for Mount Rainier Lahar Zones

August 5, 2026

Data supporting the journal article titled "Influence of modeling assumptions on pedestrian evacuation success for non-eruptive lahar hazards at Mount Rainier, Washington" as described in the abstract: Previous efforts to characterize lahar threats posed to communities downstream of volcanoes have focused primarily on delineating hazard zones that lack information on lahar-arrival times and exposure estimates that implicitly treat threats to be the same regardless of distance from the volcano. Estimated lahar-arrival times, travel times for individuals to leave hazard zones, and possible evacuation delays related to event identification, warning dissemination, and evacuee behavior are important, but often overlooked, aspects of understanding the societal threats posed by lahars. These temporal considerations are especially important for unexpected lahars that could occur due to slope failure in the absence of precursory volcanic unrest or eruption. This case study examines the role of time in lahar evacuations by quantifying population exposure and evacuation potential for non-eruptive lahar hazards associated with Mount Rainier, Washington. Lahars could directly affect tens of thousands of residents and employees, thousands of students at primary and secondary schools, and hundreds of individuals at long-term residential care facilities. Geospatial path-distance modeling quantified evacuation potential for 736 scenarios that represent combinations of lahar sources, evacuation destinations, pedestrian travel speeds, and a range of departure-delay assumptions. 

Publication Year 2026
Title Pedestrian evacuation time maps and population exposure estimates for Mount Rainier Lahar Zones
DOI 10.5066/P14J8LWF
Authors Jeff Peters, Nathan J Wood, Jamie L Jones
Product Type Data Release
Record Source USGS Asset Identifier Service (AIS)
USGS Organization Western Geographic Science Center - Main Office
Rights This work is marked with CC0 1.0 Universal
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