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In the United States, 18 volcanoes pose a significant threat to life and livelihood, including Kilauea in Hawaii.
Credit: Shutterstock
In the United States, there are 161 known active volcanoes and 18 of them constitute a "very great threat" of death and destruction for Americans living nearby, according to a new report on volcanic hazards published by the US Geological Survey (USGS).
The Kilauea volcano, which rained down destruction on the Big Island of Hawaii this summer, and forced the evacuation of some 1,700 people, ranked first in the list because of its recent eruptive history and its proximity to densely populated areas.
The St. Helens and Rainier Mountains in Washington, Alaska's Redoute Volcano and Mount Shasta in California complete the five major volcanoes at greatest risk. [History’s Most Destructive Volcanoes]
The new USGS report, published online Monday, Oct. 22, is an update of a similar report released in 2005. According to the authors, the ranking of threats in the report is "neither a forecast nor a [an] Indicate which volcanoes are most likely to result in an upcoming eruption ", but rather an indicator of the" potential severity of impacts "that may result from future eruptions on a given volcano.The higher a volcano landed on the list, the greater an eruption can be catastrophic.For people, cities and US infrastructure, predict the most destructive volcanoes in the country should help guide research, monitoring and preparedness for emergencies, wrote the authors .
To calculate a threat score for each volcanic region, the authors of the report weighed the combined effects of 24 risk factors. These include the type of volcano, its explosive potential, recent activity, the number of people living nearby and the potential disruption of air traffic following an eruption. The scores obtained were then used to separate the volcanoes into five risk categories: very low threat (21 volcanoes), low threat (34), moderate threat (49), high threat (38) and very high threat (18).
The complete list of "very high threat" volcanoes includes:
1. Kilauea (Hawaii)
2. Mount St. Helens (Wash.)
3. Mount Rainier (Wash.)
4. Redoute volcano (Alaska)
5. Mount Shasta (Calif.)
6. Mount Hood (ore)
7. Three sisters (ore)
8. Akutan Island (Alaska)
9. Makushin Volcano (Alaska)
10. Mount Spur (Alaska)
11. Lassen Volcanic Center (California)
12. Augustine volcano (Alaska)
13. Newberry Volcano (Ore)
14. Mount Baker (Wash.)
15. Peak Glacier (Wash.)
16. Mauna Loa (Hawaii)
17. Crater Lake (Ore)
18. Long Valley Caldera (Calif.)
That these 18 volcanoes pose particular dangers to the surrounding communities is not news for volcanologists; the same group is at the top of the USGS 2005 report.
Several volcanoes have been added to the main list on the basis of new information collected since 2005, including a new "high-risk" volcano (the Salton Buttes lava domes in Southern California). Overall, however, the list of 161 known active sites includes eight fewer volcanoes than the 2005 report.
"This report may surprise a lot of people, but not volcanologists," Janine Krippner, volcano expert at Concordia University in West Virginia, told The Guardian. "The United States is one of the most active countries in the world in terms of development [volcanoes]. "
According to the new report, there have been 120 volcanic eruptions in the United States since 1980.
Originally posted on Live Science.
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