Monitor seismic activity in Cascades
Washingtonians can rest easy knowing that high-level technology is monitoring the volcano’s rumblings.
VANCOUVER, Washington. – Living in the Ring of Fire, Washington State residents are no strangers to the possibility of volcanic activity. With five active volcanoes, including Mount St. Helens, the threat of another eruption looms large on many minds. Scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Cascades Volcano Observatory want to allay fears by sharing the seismic monitoring process and explaining how this cutting-edge technology works.
At the Observatory Vancouver warehouse, scientists spend months painstakingly testing their seismometers before deploying them in the mountains.
“We don’t want to put something on the landscape and find out two weeks later that it doesn’t work,” noted Jon Major, lead scientist at the Cascades Volcano Observatory. “Especially at a place like Glacier Peak, you have to hike two and a half days to replace it.”
During this testing phase, sensitive instruments are placed for weeks in what is essentially a sandbox. Major and his team want to ensure that the sensors detect even minor vibrations such as the movement of passers-by.
“We measure local earthquakes, very small movements, anything that causes vibrations in the ground,” he explained.
The Observatory’s seismometers are adapted to detect the slightest ground movements. Major showed how a simple stomping on the ground was enough to generate a detectable signal.
“When I walk on the ground, the vibration causes a signal that causes the seismometer to shake, and those shakes are what we see on the seismograms,” he said.
But these sensors have limits. While they can detect tremors underground, they cannot always pick up activity on the surface, such as the ash clouds that erupted from Mount St. Helens in 1980. To monitor such events, the Observatory relies on complementary technology: infrasound sensors.
Infrasound sensors can pick up sound waves that are undetectable to the human ear. These waves, like those created by landslides, can provide crucial data on volcanic activity.
All of this high-tech equipment requires a reliable power source and base. The Observatory’s remote monitoring stations are equipped with solar panels, cameras and antennas that transmit data to the main facility. These stations, powered by 200-watt solar panels and equipped with batteries, ensure that any signs of unusual activity are quickly reported to researchers.
“In order for it to be read, we need to convert it to a digital signal,” Major explained. “Then there is a radio transmitter that transmits that data to us here at the observatory.”
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