Images

The Uwīkahuna WT (water-tube) instrument is still measured today, providing one of the longest records of deformation for any volcano. The tiltmeter is read by looking into the portal on each pot and adjusting the sight until two pins appear to touch.

Coconut grove and campground on the southern shoreline of Kīlauea Volcano at Halapē before 1975 magnitude 7.7 earthquake. Halapē was a popular hiking destination in Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park.

Recent light detection and ranging (lidar) imagery has allowed us to identify and map a large number of previously unrecognized landslides, or slides, in heavily forested terrain in the western Columbia Gorge, Skamania County, Washington, and it has revealed that the few previously recognized areas of instability are actually composites of multiple smaller landslide

Shaded relief map of Kīlauea Volcano's summit with caldera bounding faults delineated.

Seismic hazard across the State of Hawaii, with high seismic hazards depicted with warm colors (red-orange) and relatively low seismic hazards depicted with cool colors (green). Engineers use these types of maps to prescribe building codes known as Seismic Design Codes (SDC) and create earthquake resistant structures.

Vectors indicate Pacific Plate motion relative to presumed fixed mantle hot spot in millimeters per year. Gray lines indicate fracture zones. Isochrons along the Emperor Seamounts chain show the age of volcanism in millions of years. Ocean floor ages from imagery available on EarthByte.

Mount Adams elevation is 3,745 m (12, 286 ft). Mount St. Helens was the smallest of five major volcanic peaks in Washington State.

CVO Open House

Block diagram showing subduction of the Juan de Fuca Plate beneath the North American Plate along the Cascadia Trench, which is the western edge of the Cascadia subduction zone. Oceanic crust forms by eruptions along the Juan de Fuca Ridge.

Mount Jefferson viewed from Highway 26, Oregon.

InSAR (Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar) is a technique for mapping subtle ground deformation using radar images from Earth-orbiting satellites. With its global coverage and all-weather imaging capability, InSAR has become an increasingly important technique for studying volcanoes in remote regions such as the Aleutian Islands.

May is Volcano Preparedness Month in Washington State.

During the cleanup after the 18 August 1992 eruption of Mt Spurr volcano, Alaska. The population of Anchorage used mostly wet methods to clean up the ash, creating a peak water demand which resulted in water shortages and loss of pressure in some parts of the city due to bottlenecks in the distribution system.

Early on the morning of May 18, 1980, the landslide swept into the upper North Fork Toutle River valley and came to rest within about 22 km of the volcano. The landslide deposit, however, was saturated with water, and contained snow and ice blocks from the volcano's former glaciers.

Join us July 25-29, 2016, for a 5-day educator workshop at Mount Rainier. The workshop features informative talks on Cascade volcanoes and volcanic processes, ideas for classroom activities, hikes into the field, and tips for organizing school field trips to visit the volcano. There is no charge for this workshop and camping is available to participants.

Ash buries cars and buildings after the 1984 eruption of Rabaul, Papua New Guinea.

Featured speaker from Colombia discusses lahars at Orting, Washington, event.

Mount Rainier 2018 Teacher Workshop

The USGS-Cascades Volcano Observatory opens its doors to the public on Saturday, May 12, for a one-day open house. Scientists will be on-hand from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm to share the results of their research and talk about volcano hazards. Hands-on activities and equipment demonstrations will be featured.

Sideromelane and tachylite shards collected 12 km from source at Mount Etna, 2002. The width of view is 1 mm

Aerial view of Mount St. Helens, taken from the southwest.