A volcano monitoring “spider” deployed to the Oso landslide

A volcano monitoring “spider” was deployed by helicopter to the Oso landslide to track ground movement and seismicity while search-and-rescue operations were ongoing.  The spider was equipped with a seismometer (mounted on the far left leg) to track ground shaking and GPS (a dome-shaped instrument on the upper mast) to track subtle ground movement.  Data was transmitted via telemetry (tall, white cylindrical antenna mounted on the steel trunk) to USGS field crews.  USGS-Cascades Volcano Observatory field crews hiked to the location three months later to retrieve the spider after the search-and-rescue operations had concluded and the landslide had partially stabilized.