Progress made in understanding Mount Rainier's hazards

Abstract

At 4392 m high, glacier-clad Mount Rainier dominates the skyline of the southern Puget Sound region and is the centerpiece of Mount Rainier National Park. About 2.5 million people of the greater Seattle-Tacoma metropolitan area can see Mount Rainier on clear days, and 150,000 live in areas swept by lahars and floods that emanated from the volcano during the last 6,000 years (Figure 1). These lahars include the voluminous Osceola Mudflow that floors the lowlands south of Seattle and east of Tacoma, and which was generated by massive volcano flank-collapse. Mount Rainier's last eruption was a light dusting of ash in 1894; minor pumice last erupted between 1820 and 1854; and the most recent large eruptions we know of were about 1100 and 2300 years ago, according to reports from the U.S. Geological Survey.