Volcanic-Hazard Zonation for Glacier Peak Volcano, Washington

Introduction

Glacier Peak, unlike other Cascade volcanoes in Washington, does not stand as a prominent backdrop to metropolitan centers. Glacier Peak’s attractions, as well as its hazards, thus tend to be overlooked. Yet like most other Cascade volcanoes, Glacier Peak has erupted several times since the Ice-age glaciers retreated 15,000 years ago—most recently around the eighteenth century. Since glacial times Glacier Peak has had larger and more explosive eruptions than any Washington volcano except Mount St. Helens. If similar eruptions took place today, they could place nearby communities at serious risk. This report describes hazards that would accompany future activity at Glacier Peak and shows areas that would most likely be affected.

Volcanic hazards at Glacier Peak result from several different phenomena: tephra fall, pyroclastic flows, pyroclastic surges, ballistic ejection, debris avalanches, lahars, and floods. Lahars represent the greatest hazard, followed by tephra fall. We describe each of these phenomena, the damage it can cause, its history of occurrence at Glacier Peak (if known), and where around Glacier Peak that damage is most likely to occur.

Link to the Data

• Digital Data Set of Volcano Hazards for Active Cascade Volcanoes, Washington (Schilling, 1996),

Links to the Other Hazard Assessments

• Mount Adams (Scott and others, 1995)
• Mount Baker (Gardner and others, 1995)
• Mount Rainier (Hoblitt and others, 1995)
• Mount St. Helens (Wolfe and Pierson, 1995)

First posted December 22, 2010
Revised September 18, 2013