Monitoring of Oregon and Washington’s Cascade Volcanoes: In light of NVEWS

Session: Regional Earthquake Centers: Highlights and Challenges [Poster]
Type: Poster
Date: 4/28/2020
Time: 08:00 AM
Room: Ballroom
Description: 

The National Volcano Early Warning System (NVEWS) was first proposed in 2005 as a national-scale effort to ensure that volcanoes within the United States are monitored at a level commensurate with the threats they pose. Out of the 169 U.S. volcanic systems evaluated, a NVEWS threat assessment published in 2005 identified 55 high- to very-high threat volcanoes in the U.S., most of which were (and still are) under-monitored. Of the volcanoes within the Cascade Range in Washington and Oregon, nine volcanoes are classified as high- or very-high-threat by NVEWS. NVEWS instrumentation recommendations for monitoring, published in 2008, are currently being updated to reflect modern scientific and technological advances in volcano hazard monitoring.

The U.S. Geological Survey’s Cascades Volcano Observatory (CVO) is responsible for monitoring Washington and Oregon volcanoes. Since 2001, CVO has operated a regional volcano monitoring network (the “CC” network) and has monitored these volcanoes in collaboration with the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network (PNSN). Over the last 10 years CVO has significantly expanded the CC network and its monitoring capabilities, adding over 50 stations. The regional CC network of real-time stations includes a broad spectrum of stand-alone and co-located monitoring instrumentation (seismic, deformation, gas and infrasound) with data shared publicly. However, at present only Mount St. Helens meets the 2008 NVEWS monitoring recommendations. CVO is continuously developing more reliable and robust station design and infrastructure while also focusing on the expansion of the network to under-monitored volcanoes. The goal of volcano monitoring is to detect and correctly interpret geophysical and geochemical phenomena to provide early and accurate warnings of impending eruptions. Expanding the CVO monitoring network to meet NVEWS recommendations will allow CVO to better provide these accurate and timely forecasts and alerts.

Presenting Author: Amberlee P. Darold

Authors