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Overlay represents area within CVO's jurisdiction.
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Cascade Range Weekly Update
Friday, February 10, 2017 11:27 AM US/Pacific
Current Volcano Alert Level: NORMAL
Current Aviation Color Code: GREEN
 
Cascades Volcano Observatory's mission
The U.S. Geological Survey's Cascades Volcano Observatory strives to serve the national interest by helping people to live knowledgeably and safely with volcanoes in WA, OR, and ID.

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Young Volcanoes in WA, OR & ID1

Small magnitude earthquake swarms detected beneath Mount St. Helens.
December 12, 2016

Four swarms of small magnitude earthquakes were detected beneath Mount St. Helens beginning November 21, 2016. No anomalous gases or increases in ground inflation have been detected and there are no signs of an imminent eruption.

During a week's time, there have been over 120 tiny earthquakes, most too small to be formally located by the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network. The earthquakes are magnitudes 0.3 or less; the largest has been a magnitude 0.5. Most of the earthquakes are occurring in the shallow volcano plumbing system about 1-2 miles below sea level. These earthquakes are too small to be felt at the surface.

The current pattern of seismicity is similar to swarms most recently seen at Mount St. Helens in March-May 2016, and in 2014 and 2013. The magmatic system is likely imparting its own stresses on the crust around and above it, as the system slowly recharges. The stresses drive fluids through cracks, producing the small quakes. Subtle evidence of recharge has been observed since 2008 and can continue for many years. It is a sign that Mount St. Helens remains an active volcano.

For more information, see the Activity Updates for Volcanoes in CVO Area of Responsibility and Earthquake Monitoring at Mount St. Helens.


Lidar allows researchers to identify over 200 landslides in the western Columbia Gorge.
November 04, 2016

The western Columbia Gorge has been long recognized as an area susceptible to landslides. Abundant rainfall, steep terrain, geologic structure and erosion by the Columbia River combine to create topography capable of ground movement. Yet dense forests have hampered efforts to accurately map old and currently active landslides and to fully understand the scope of this hazard.

A new study uses lidar to map and characterize known and previously unrecognized landslides in the western Columbia Gorge, Washington. Lidar is a remote-sensing technique that provides images of terrain from which vegetation and structures can be digitally "erased" to show the underlying bare ground. Formerly hidden by forest, lidar reveals telltale landslide indicators such as scarps, cracks and ridges, slope depressions, bulges and toes.

The imagery shows that landslides cover about two thirds of the 222 square km (86 square mi) map area. Two of the largest landslides in the map area—the Bonneville and Red Bluffs landslides, averaging about 75 m (250 ft) thick with runouts of 6-7 km (~4 mi)—failed catastrophically and slid rapidly to the river within the last 600 years; the Bonneville landslide temporarily dammed the Columbia River and formed the "Bridge of the Gods" known from Native American legends.

Research shows that these landslides have complex movement histories and have been active over thousands of years; some have moved recently or are currently moving. Another such landslide rapidly sliding into the Columbia River today could have a catastrophic impact on downstream communities and on the transportation and energy-distribution infrastructure of the Pacific Northwest.

The publication, Landslides in the western Columbia Gorge, Skamania County, Washington, is available online.


Study finds deep magmatic system beneath Mount St. Helens too cold to generate much magma.
November 02, 2016

Much is known about the shallow magmatic system beneath Mount St. Helens. But as you go deeper, the picture is less clear. New research suggests that temperatures 40-50 miles beneath the volcano are too cold to generate magma. Yet, Mount St. Helens is the most active in the Cascade Range, erupting catastrophically on May 18, 1980 and producing two dome-building pulses from 1980-86 and 2004-08. So where does the magma come from?

In a recent article from researchers at the University of New Mexico, Rice, University of Washington, Cornell and University of Arizona, the dataset from seismic experiments conducted in 2014 for the collaborative iMUSH program (Imaging Magma Under St. Helens) show that Mount St. Helens sits atop a cold hydrated mantle wedge (less than 1300 degrees F) produced by subduction of the oceanic plate. The temperature of the wedge is too cold to be part of the process that forms magma to feed Mount St. Helens. A primary conclusion of this article is that magma is generated somewhere to the east of the volcano, with magma at some point moving west into Mount St. Helens' magmatic system. More studies are needed to determine the lateral pathway(s) necessary for the magma to reach the shallow reservoir beneath the crater floor. Additional iMUSH results are expected to be published in the coming months.

Follow the link for more information on the eruptive history of Mount St. Helens.


Geologic landscape of Newberry Volcano revealed in high-resolution lidar.
September 29, 2016

Newberry is a broad shield-shaped volcano in central Oregon that rises a mile above sea level. It has been constructed by thousands of eruptions, including at least 25 in the last 12,000 years.

To better understand Newberry's past and assess future hazards, the USGS worked with the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries and Oregon Lidar Consortium to obtain 500 square miles of high-precision airborne lidar (Light Detection and Ranging) data at and around Newberry. These data provide a digital map of the ground surface beneath forest cover, revealing landforms with astounding clarity. The lidar-derived Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of the area also includes bathymetric surveys of East Lake and Paulina Lake.

The DEM dataset, High-resolution digital elevation dataset for Newberry Volcano and vicinity, Oregon, based on lidar survey of August-September, 2010 and bathymetric survey of June, 2001, is available online. The individual DEMs must be opened by software that can read and process GIS data. The hillshades zip file includes tifs that can be opened by an image viewer.


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