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Volcano Hazards Program

Find U.S. Volcano

There are about 170 potentially active volcanoes in the U.S. The mission of the USGS Volcano Hazards Program is to enhance public safety and minimize social and economic disruption from volcanic unrest and eruption through our National Volcano Early Warning System. We deliver forecasts, warnings, and information about volcano hazards based on a scientific understanding of volcanic behavior.

News

Volcano Watch — What’s been a movin' and a shakin' in Kīlauea’s upper East Rift Zone?

Volcano Watch — What’s been a movin' and a shakin' in Kīlauea’s upper East Rift Zone?

Volcano Watch — Measuring Volcanic Gases: The Answer is Blowin’ in the Wind

Volcano Watch — Measuring Volcanic Gases: The Answer is Blowin’ in the Wind

CVO dismantles Mount St. Helens’ VALT seismic station after 18 years in service.

CVO dismantles Mount St. Helens’ VALT seismic station after 18 years in service.

Publications

The influence of vesicularity on grain morphology in basaltic pyroclasts from Mauna Loa and Kīlauea volcanoes

Vesicularity of individual pyroclasts from airfall tephra deposits is an important parameter that is commonly measured at basaltic volcanoes. Conventional methods used to determine pyroclast vesicularity on a large number of clasts has the potential to be time consuming, particularly when rapid analysis is required. Here we propose dynamic image analysis on two-dimensional (2D) projection shapes o
Authors
Kira van Helden, Johanne Schmith, Drew T. Downs

A global assessment of SAOCOM-1 L-band stripmap data for InSAR characterization of volcanic, tectonic, cryospheric, and anthropogenic deformation

SAOCOM-1 is an L-band (23.5 cm) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) constellation made up of two satellites launched in 2018 and 2020 by Comisión Nacional de Actividades Espaciales (CONAE, Argentina). In this contribution, we present a global summary of interferometric SAR (InSAR) observations of ground deformation with SAOCOM-1 stripmap data for tracking volcanic, tectonic, glacier, and anthropogenic
Authors
Francisco Delgado, Tara Shreve, Sven Borgstrom, Pablo Le´on-Ibanez, Joaqu´ın Castillo, Michael P. Poland

Remote sensing of volcano deformation and surface change

Volcanic unrest and eruptions are associated with surface deformation and landscape change that can be detected, characterized, and tracked via remote sensing measurements. Subsurface processes, including magma accumulation, withdrawal, and transport, can cause displacements at the surface that are best tracked at subaerial volcanoes with interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) and Global
Authors
M. Poland