Glacier Peak in eastern Snohomish County isn’t smoking and shaking or exhibiting any signs that it will erupt, but it could reawaken at any time, scientists say.
It’s an active volcano, even though it’s not exhibiting any signs that it’s about to erupt, said Seth Moran, a seismologist with the U.S. Geological Survey’s Volcano Observatory in Vancouver.
“It’s out in the wilderness,” Moran said. “It’s a very tough volcano to monitor.”
Glacier Peak last erupted about 300 years ago. The last major eruption was about 13,000 years ago.
The only seismograph on Glacier Peak stopped working in the spring, so scientists don’t know for sure that the mountain is not active. But don’t worry that activity at Mount St. Helens will set it off, Moran said, because it’s not connected to the same underground magma flows.
If it goes, it probably would be less dangerous than Mount St. Helens was in 1980 or an eruption of Mount Rainier, because far fewer people live near it.
Nevertheless, Darrington and other rural communities would be in the path of a mudflow if Glacier Peak were to erupt and debris rushed down the Sauk River.
Glacier Peak facts
* It is the state’s fifth-highest mountain, at 10,539 feet. It’s 50 miles east of Everett. The closest town is Darrington, with 1,300 residents.
* The peak has had some of the most explosive eruptions of any of the five large volcanoes in the state, most recently about 300 years ago.
* Along with Mount St. Helens, it is the only volcano in the state that has experienced large eruptions in the past 15,000 years. The violent behavior comes from the molten rock the Cascade volcanoes produce. It is too viscous to flow easily out of the volcano’s chimney, and is therefore forced out under high pressure.
* Past eruptions have melted snow and ice that inundated downstream valleys with rocks, mud and debris.
* It erupted 13,100 years ago, ejecting five times more rock fragments than the Mount St. Helens eruption of 1980. The flow left about 7 feet of sediment in the Stillaguamish River valley near Arlington, more than 60 miles downstream.
* An eruption within the next 100 years or so is unlikely, scientists say.
-Source: USGS Web site
Herald reporter Steve Powell contributed to this report.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
