CVO Monitoring Program: Keeping an Eye on Cascade Volcanoes

The good news is that volcanoes usually change behavior before they erupt, in ways that are detectable by monitoring instruments. During times of relative quiet, scientists use different sensors and instruments to help visualize and quantify the structures and processes that are occurring beneath a volcano so they can provide a better estimate of what might happen when a volcano changes behavior. Every volcano and every eruption is different, so the tools and techniques that help forecast an eruption in one situation may differ from the ones that are most useful in another time and place. In this presentation, USGS Cascades Volcano Observatory geophysicist Rebecca Kramer describes her work to plan for, install, and maintain monitoring stations on the volcanoes in Oregon and Washington, focusing on three main monitoring techniques—seismology, gas geochemistry, and geodesy. This talk was presented as part of the Sno-Isle Libraries’ 2021 Whidbey Reads program.