Why Mount Rainier Is The United States' Most Dangerous Volcano

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The United States has a lot of volcanoes! But unlike the rest of the world, its volcanoes have been mostly quiet in recent years outside of Alaska's Aleutian Arc and Kilauea in Hawaii. This has left major population centers on the west coast (specifically Seattle and Portland) feeling much safer than they probably are. At some point, Mount Rainier, Mount Hood and Mount St Helens (again) will blow... and the impacts to both the Seattle and Portland metropolitan regions will be severe!
In today's video, we're going to dive into the geography of volcanoes in the United States, the history of volcanic eruptions, why Mount Rainier is considered to be the country's most dangerous volcano, and why the Rocky Mountains don't really seem to have many volcanoes despite being such a large and prominent mountain range.
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This video is a production of Sound Bight Media (soundbight.com)

[@AndyWilliams8]

*Me looking out window at Mt. Hood while this video plays. 😅

[@dizpol]

Same but insert Mt Jefferson 😄 the next door Volcano to hood, both will blow again 100% also.

[@Multipoor]

@@AndyWilliams8 lol 😂

[@johannatrahan6613]

Two words: Jet pack.

[@ShadeCandle]

Looking at Mt Baker here, sad it wasn't mentioned.

[@kf1000]

@@AndyWilliams8 Me, living on Mt. Hood while watching.

[@warlockCommitteeMeeting]

That is a lot of repeating in the first 5 minutes.

[@TheSpiritombsableye]

...got to fill up the clock.

[@gordonsmith5589]

@@TheSpiritombsableye Not really

[@torunit4620]

@@gordonsmith5589 It is the duty of a youtuber to keep viewers watching as long as possible in order to increase income. Many take to delivering the information within their content slowly and delayed. Some are good at this, this guy's editor just repeats himself as if there is no producer overseeing continuity. At least his content seems accurate when he gets around to it.

[@nedludd7622]

Yes, 3 or 4 times for some points using basically the same words.

[@markcinco8405]

Obviously on the spectrum.

[@alexmonamochamuch2652]

my mom was working in yakima washington the day of mt st helens eruption she has a full mason jar of mt st helens ash

[@jamesleyda365]

I was 6 years old living in Moses Lake WA when Helens went and had family in Yakima. I remember the ash pretty good, especially getting it in my eyes and that was not fun at all🤘

[@k.b.tidwell]

I was 10 at the time and I bet you can stick a shovel in the ground there today and get all the ash you want, huh? I was in fourth grade and I remember the teachers let us watch some of the news. I couldn't wrap my head around the scale of it.

[@johnchedsey1306]

My best friend's dad shares a birthday with the eruption (they also lived in Yakima at the time). My friend, who was maybe 8, said that they just moved everything inside as the ash starting falling and had the party inside. Her older brother was photographed for National Geographic helping the cleanup of ash in Yakima!

[@ryanh603]

I wasn’t born yet but my dad, now retired from the City of Yakima, had just started his job in February 1980 and he worked around the clock without a day off for 2 months in the cleanup effort when St. Helens blew.

[@bradlyscotunes9156]

​@@ryanh603Good overtime pay!

[@SoManyDogs]

You forget Mt Baker, one of the most frequently erupting volcanoes in the Cascade Range…and Glacier Peak, a little mentioned and not as well studied volcano between Baker and Ranier.

[@LuckyPierre789]

Glacier peak is one of the most stunning vistas I've ever seen. Such amazing rugged beauty.

[@outdoorloser4340]

I've seen some of the Lahars from Mount Bakers last eruption and they are terrifying to think about if they happened today 😳

[@Deanluvs2fly]

I see Mount Baker from my office on clear days (like today) and I often think about how awful it could be if it erupted.

[@priscillabird518]

Yup!

[@ineedcoffee0211]

I live at the base of Mount Baker. I try not to think about it for too long.

[@vivianmalhiers]

Watching this while waiting at a bus station in Seattle overlooking Mt. Rainier

[@heatherpayne1995]

In affected areas in Washington, schoolchildren have lahar drills. Of all the dangers of these volcanos, rivers of boiling mud moving at 80mph are truly terrifying.

[@taotaoliu2229]

Here's an unusual video request: the geography of ski resorts in the United States! Exploring why there are no ski resorts in Kentucky, yet there are in Tennessee, Alabama, and Rhode Island!

[@tiomoidofangle102]

People in Kentucky have better things to do with their time. It often involves branch water.

[@user-dl9bg4tj7u]

@@tiomoidofangle102They too busy doin dope in kentucky drinkin shine

[@atomicdeath10]

@@taotaoliu2229 there is a ski resort in Alabama???

[@jordanabendroth6458]

​@@atomicdeath10 I wouldn't call it a resort but technically yes, but all the snow is artificial and there is 1 run, but yes you can ski in Alabama, it's called cloudmount ski resort

[@montemasterson9588]

Kentucky doesn't have the elevation of east TN or northeast AL and the highest points in KY are in very poor and low population areas. Rhode Island has colder New England winters which sometimes include nor'easters that can dump feet of snow.

[@ExzaktVid]

I live in an area that is expected to have a magnitude 9 earthquake, the US’s most dangerous volcano, and in the area of a major volcano that erupted 45 years ago. _Feeling good_

[@comment8767]

You forgot about a few thousand nuclear warheads stored at Bangor and the Jim Creek Naval Radio station in Snohomish County.... guess what Jim Creek is for.

[@ExzaktVid]

@@comment8767 why would they store nukes somewhat near a major city, the radiation could force millions of people to leave/

[@comment8767]

@@ExzaktVid The nukes are not radioactive until they explode. If the storage site is attached with nuclear weapons, the people in the city will be dead anyway, so no worries.

[@bigsmiler5101]

​@@comment8767 I used to work at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming. It has the most nuclear warheads of anywhere on Earth, and it does not have a few thousand. BUT when this video is about VOLCANOS, I am certain that no one forgot about RELATIVELY insignificant manmade things that go Pop.

[@robertmarmaduke186]

​@@ExzaktVidThey built a MTTW experimental liquid sodium reactor in S.CA within 25 miles of LA. It was partially destroyed by '84 earthquake, got dismantled and records purged. Can't use on resume, because 'no records found'' Literally never happened.

[@ScooterWeibels]

Crater Lake is also volcanic as well as Mt. Shasta.

[@orangeflaws8088]

@@ScooterWeibels yes but it is considered dormant, though it still has geothermal activity

[@danwebber9494]

Timely video. I flew home from California last week and entertained myself by volcano spotting all the way up the cascades.

[@dadskrej5226]

No mention of Mount Baker in northern Washington state. It's been steaming for as long as I can remember. If it should erupt, the city of Bellingham, Washington might be in trouble.

[@davidcooke8005]

All 5 WA volcanoes have steam vents at the top. There is even a lake on top of Mt Rainier, in the caldera bowl, under the ice/ snow. A few brave folks have spelunked those steam vents to the lake, kept liquid by the warm rock of the active volcano.

[@shaynewhite1]

Also Vancouver, BC would likely be impacted as well.

[@robertboyes2505]

@@shaynewhite1 because, Mt. Garibaldi is in the Cascade mountain range, and the Cascade mountain range is 800 miles long, with some very active volcanoes. I grew up in Longview, Washington, and on clear days, I was able to Mt. St. Helens, from Longview. On clear days in Longview, looking to the East towards Mt. St. Helens, you actually have look for it. Now, you have hunt for it on clear days in Longview. Now, I live in Vancouver, Washington, and on clear days, I can see these 3 Cascade mountain volcanoes, Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Adams to the East of Vancouver, and Mt. Hood Oregon, which lets off steam every once in awhile, and I can see it happen on clear days. I still remember the day, Mt. St. Helens erupted on May 18, 1980, and what it felt like. It's something, I will never forget.

[@CharlesGorby]

Interesting content and nice graphics, but why do you keep repeating yourself every 20 seconds? I must have heard you say "there are a lot of volcanoes but they're relatively quiet" like six times. Happens with many other pieces of info in the video too. Other than that thank you for the good content!

[@Yormsane]

Anywhere there are hot springs, mud pots or geysers, you've got volcanic potential, even if there hasn't been an actual eruption for millenia. Many examples of these throughout the South Western states.

[@bigsmiler5101]

Interesting, since there are hot springs west of Phoenix.

[@louisfriend1]

Incorrect. That's NOT true about hot springs whatsoever. In many places there are hot springs without any seismic or volcanic influences. In your earth science class, do you remember learning that it gets hotter as you go deeper below the surface? In the case of hot springs, the heating is caused through the increase in pressure on rock as water travels further beneath the surface. Once it goes far enough, it reaches boiling point. In the right topography it can be ejected back to the surface into ponds/lakes... hot springs. Look up Hot Springs National Park as a reference.

[@louisfriend1]

@@bigsmiler5101 The poster is incorrect. The hot springs in Arizona are not volcanic in origin. They're from water passing deep enough into Earth being heated by the natural process of pressure and then returned to the surface into the mineral pools people use. The same idea is used with geothermic water heaters, where they drill a hole deep into the ground, run water down far enough to heat up and send it back up an exit pipe.

[@debiconner6377]

@@Yormsane There are hot springs in the Olympic Mountain range, up in the hills bordering both ends of Lake Crescent.

[@Yormsane]

@@debiconner6377 We've got some here in Central Colorado too, nature's year-round hot tubs!

[@MichaelMoorePDX]

St. Helen's erupted just as I graduated high school. We lived in Hillsboro, just west of Portland, and had a view of the mountain until the top blew off. We got fallout about a week after the eruption, and the ash stuck around for 2-3 years. That stuff doesn't wash away easily.

[@higgs923]

Did you know that the US Navy names its ammunition ships after volcanos?

[@wk8219]

Eruption for Mt. Rainier is not the real problem, it’s the Lahar or mudflows and these can happen even without a ‘boom’. There are areas down stream in the Lahar flow paths such as Puyallup River valley that have warning systems similar to how many costal regions have tsunami warning systems.

[@montemasterson9588]

Hawaii's volcanos are nothing like the potentially explosive ones in Cascadia. Has to do with gas content within the magma.

[@frogmantoad8110]

But will anyone miss the hippies of Portlandia? I doubt it.

[@magellanicspaceclouds]

Yup, shield volcanoes.

[@Atlasworkinprogress]

Kilauea has a long history of major explosive eruptions. Any time it's caldera drops below the water table it can cause magma to mix with water, causing large phreato-mamatic eruptions. This is part of why Kilauea is considered by the USGS to be the most dangerous volcano in the US.

[@donaldcarey114]

You left out Kamaʻehuakanaloa Seamount, an active submarine volcano about 22 mi off the southeast coast of the island of Hawaii.

[@huberthumphry280]

@@magellanicspaceclouds Hawaii's volcanoes are shield, most of cascadia's are stratovolcanoes, also known as a composite volcanoes, including all 3 he mentioned

[@Honey-Sanchez]

I can look out my upstairs window and see "Big Old Mt Rainier" whenever it's clear. It's so close.

[@rogaineablar5608]

I'm more worried about a cascadia quake than I am a volcanic event.

[@kf1000]

Smart

[@huberthumphry280]

This. It will be far more devastating and deadly than any eruption since there will be no warning and the large amount of buildings that weren't built for a 7 let alone a 9

[@jediknight5600]

You may unfortunately get them both simultaneously one day.....

[@huberthumphry280]

@@jediknight5600 not likely. Even if the quake "triggered" an eruption it would most likely take over a year for any magma to rise through the 3+ miles of rock- the magma from these volcanoes is the consistency of tooth paste which is why their vents are all clogged up and why they often blow the whole mountain up

[@steveallwine1443]

On the flip, a Cascadia earthquake has a high likelihood of causing extremely damaging lahars, especially around Mt Rainier and into the Puyallup Valley.

[@lastempire7302]

Mt. Baker: "Hold my beer..."

[@lightreign8021]

Mt. Baker “ hold my beer” , kisses your women, takes his beer back and rips a hole in the mantle. 😳

[@BearPlane747]

Glacier peak is actually the one that threatens the most population

[@rocketsurgeon11]

The beer is a Rainier...

[@stickynorth]

Mt. Baker juuuuuuust south of the Canadian border threatens the fast growing Fraser Valley region of greater Metro Vancouver... Even the ABC Country Kitchen Restaurant chain around Western Canada used to feature the "Mt. Baker Explosion" Ice Cream/Brownie Sundae as a tacky/kitschy reminder of what will happen eventually... Delicious too!

[@herschelwright4663]

Mount Garibaldi in the Coast Mountains could also pose a threat to the Vancouver area.

[@SoManyDogs]

@@stickynorth *Looks out the window at Mount Baker* Yup.

[@forrest3384]

I'm general maintenance in Mt Rainier National Park. Just letting you know there's a lot of close monitoring systems spread throughout the whole park. They will know about a week in advance before it blows.

[@thomassecurename3152]

I still have Mt. St. Helens a nice sample from Missoula, Montana. Shared recently with son & daughter now in their 50’s. Interesting in texture.

[@sidneyvandykeii3169]

Almost like baby powder in texture. Not quite, but almost.

[@jonwhisler6967]

you are missing a couple of major active cascade peaks. mt baker near Bellingham, and glacier peak just north of Seattle, the other big reason the cascades are active vs the rockies, is the amount of water carried by the oceanic crust in the Juan de Fuca plate.

[@CO84trucker]

Yellowstone: Am I a joke to you?

[@kosjeyr]

When that goes we'll all be dead.

[@CO84trucker]

@@kosjeyr Yeah. Anyone between the Rockies and Mississippi River is screwed... things will be pretty uncomfortable for everyone else for sometime!

[@aratay3117]

Yellowstone isn't likely to go off. There's a lot "oh we're gonna die" nonsense articles and videos because it's free clicks and views

[@timothyvanhoeck233]

Yellowstone likely won't erupt for quite some time. Even if it does, that doesn't necessarily mean it will be as large as Huckleberry Ridge, Mesa Falls or Lava Creek.

[@MichaelMyers-pj2uk]

@@timothyvanhoeck233 there is still that slight chance and it worries me because it erupts every 600-800 thousand years and the last time it erupted was 640 thousand years ago.

[@cleokatra]

so there actually are a couple volcanoes in Colorado and NM that are either "technically" active or just outside the window where they would be considered active. Yellowstone isn't the only one. but as they are relatively unknown, even in geography circles, and pose little threat (as of now), I'm not surprised to see them being omitted

[@victorgray8230]

@@cleokatra the Rockies also host the largest known eruption in North America (I think 2nd in the planet) with La Garita. Lots is still Unkown about the Rockies and their potential for volcanism. Just look at Dotsero and the cinders of New Mexico

[@DomoGenisis976]

@cleokatra . I know about Dotsero, but what other volcanoes are in Colorado?

[@cleokatra]

@@DomoGenisis976 it's not just CO that I'm talking about, it's both CO and NM... there are other volcanic formations that have erupted in the recent past in northern NM, and then also further south from the area we consider the Rockies

[@hollybyrd6186]

I used to live in northeastern Arizona. Everywhere you look, there's old volcanic fields. New Mexico last eruption was only five thousand tears ago. Which is only a blink in geological time.

[@thorn2497]

🤔💭Yellowstone(Wy), Long Valley(Cal), Valles caldera(NM)

[@kc7brj]

Good video. One widely overlooked and ignored mountain is, Mt Adams in Washington state just north of the Oregon border. It is very active and dangerous, there are not even any sensors there.

[@ColumbiaB]

Seriously? The USGS considers Mount Adams “one of the most seismically •quiet• volcanoes in the Washington and Oregon Cascades,” and it last erupted over a thousand years ago. Nevertheless, it is hardly ignored: the USGS and its Cascades Volcano Observatory monitor seismicity at Mount Adams via the nearby station ASR, within 10 km of the summit, and the broader regional Pacific Northwest Seismic Network (PNSN). (See .)

[@heatherpayne1995]

According to the USGS they have one station on Mt Adams and it's been there since 1982.

[@berserkley]

No sensors to speak of near Glacier Peak, either. It's fairly isolated (no roads leading to it), the easiest way to get to it is over the Sitkum Glacier. 300 years overdue for an eruption.

[@bradlyscotunes9156]

I grew up looking at the Mt. St. Helens perfect cone from Mission Ridge ski area, 100 miles North.w 2 months after it blew, I flew directly over it on a major airline; pilot dipped the wing,(which i don't think is approved by FAA) & i stared down into that massive crater; Awe-inspiring! 1 cubic mile of material was displaced, either incinerated & rose 40,000 ft.as ash, which circled the globe, or slid down into lakes & rivers as a lahar; flattened 60+ square miles of trees! Killed 67 people. 😢 Few weeks later, 1 of many subsequent ash eruptions dumped ash on us at Lake Chelan, 100 miles away. Because volcano now 1300 ft.shorter, its peak is not visible from Mission Ridge.

[@keithmiller2714]

Thank you for having accurate graphics and video of the PNW volcanos. I appreciate that.

[@JacobHollis96]

Don't get me wrong, this video about the cascades is interesting. However, I did want to point out that you do say the same information repeatedly. Even I dealt with that with writing in general.

[@kstreet7438]

Makes the video longer. More ads There ya go

[@louisfriend1]

@@kstreet7438 Ad blockers are a wonderful thing.

[@bkbk3400]

Fun fact: Mt. Hood and Mt. St. Helens volcanic bulges are expanding rapidly. As far as rocks are rapid.

[@fireguyCO]

The Dotsero Crater in Colorado. That erupted in the last 10,000 years and could erupt again so I wouldn't declare the Rockies confidently safe.

[@louisfriend1]

They've rated that one as more of a threat to air travel than human life. It would certainly be annoying to anyone in Denver though.

[@estraume]

Great video! You should make a video about the risk of tsunami in the Pacific Northwest. Less time to react, more large population centers be flooded. Can the government do something about this like encouraging housing developments in higher elevation areas, like 100 ft and higher over sea level (or whatever is higher than predicted max tsunami wave)?

[@graygreysangui]

Oregon might have an issue but more of the population of the Washington peninsula is in Puget Sound. The Olympics and the blue hills would block most of the damage, if it manages to make it past them.

[@gordonsmith5589]

Seattle and Portland can get wiped out, but Mt. Baker blowing would be a big problem.

[@BearPlane747]

The eruption of glacier peak would actually threaten just as many homes as rainier, if not more. Surprised you didnt mention it in the video but yet you mentioned st helens which at thie point doesnt really threat anything, other than tourists in the forbiden zone in the case of an eruption.

[@socket_error1000]

People keep forgetting about Mt. Baker. While relatively quiet now, in the 70s when I was a kid, it was the mountain everyone thought was going to erupt. Steam vent eruptions were a common occurrence and despite this we still went camping in the forests up there. It was likely this complacency of years of mild activity on Baker that amounted to nothing that led to so many people not taking the danger posed by the activity at Mt. St. Helens serious.

[@GardenerEarthGuy]

Baker is more active than Rainier- and is more likely to cook off before Flat Top.

[@davidpnewton]

Yes. However Rainier is far more dangerous. Its lahars would go into much more populated areas than those of either Baker or Glacier Peak.

[@generalbystander1631]

Thanks for the info but please stop with the repetition .. i

[@randoir1863]

Mt Baker would like a word with you Geoff !!!

[@kenjiboy27]

Love your videos! FYI Mauna Kea is pronounced Mauna ‘Kay-uh’ NOT Mauna ‘key’

[@bizichyld]

I remember when St. Helens erupted. I was standing on the peak. I jumped onto a Douglas fir tree and surfed the lahar all the way down to safety. I received several high fives.

[@ShonnMorris]

I think the Rockies were formed not so much by the Pacific Plate subducting but by the ancient Farallon Plate. The remnants of it today are the Juan De Fuca and Gorda plates.

[@BlackCeII]

@@ShonnMorris neither, really

[@ShonnMorris]

@@BlackCeII What? Your response makes no sense.

[@BlackCeII]

@@ShonnMorris look up renowned geologist Nick zentner explaining how the Rockies form. Your presuppositions are a very small part of the pie if at all

[@demijones7873]

Torfino, CA just had two big quakes this morning. A magnitude 6.5, and a magnitude 6.6 (which was removed from the USGS website) and at least 3 tsunami byoys activated. Awesome timing and amazing video! Thank you.

[@mojodojo1697]

So no tornados or hurricanes flattening the PNW, but we're all playing the lottery that the volcano eruptions and 9.0 earthquakes won't happen in our life times.

[@WrathOfTheGoth]

Rainier Lahar flows "unlikely to reach Seattle" and inference that the Seattle metro area "including Tacoma" might be affected are slightly odd statements. Seattle may be the most famous city in the region, but if Rainier blows the only impact in Seattle will be to the view. If you look up the USGS lahar flow maps, there is no way anything is making it anywhere near Seattle. Folks living in Seattle need to worry more about the fault near them, earthquakes, and problems stemming from liquefaction of the soil they are sitting on. The South Sound area is the one that has to watch out for Rainier (as well as tidal waves from the Seattle area faults and earthquakes from the Tacoma area faults). The most likely lahar flows from Rainier would wind up following the Puyallup river basin doing a lot of damage to Orting, Puyallup, and the working harbor area of Tacoma. Less likely, but still pretty catastrophic, flows would follow the Nisqually or Cowlitz rivers and affect the small towns situated along them as well as the city of Yelm. If the eruption is big enough, a blanket of ash will also get dumped on Yakima and other towns east of the cascades. If you really wanted to simplify it, you could just note that there are hundreds of thousands of people in the area presently living on top of prior historic lahar flows and therefore at extreme risk in the event of another eruption.

[@Yeetly]

Btw the carbon glacier is also connected so that means it'll come down the carbon river

[@ColumbiaB]

Not bad, despite some repetitiveness. This at least avoids many common clickbait exaggerations. It would also be helpful to note that, with the prevailing winds blowing west to east, it’s not likely that Seattle or Portland will be seriously affected by ash fall from any of the currently active volcanoes. Lahars, in contrast, could be a significant problem for the big metropolitan areas. Even so, it should be made clear that even the largest potential lahars from Mt. Rainier would be unlikely to bury significant populated portions of Tacoma or Seattle by the time they reached those cities. Instead, their primary hazard to the great cities on Puget Sound would be to port facilities, especially with the clogging of shipping channels in the Puyallup and Duwamish estuaries. The greatest risk to human life from big Mt. Rainier lahars would be in areas closer to the mountain that have been deeply buried in recent geologic history, such as Enumclaw, Sumner, and Puyallup. Those sites were, for example, inundated in the Osceola Mudflow off Mt. Rainier some 5,600 years ago.

[@beeryye]

Graphical error at 4:31. "Nearby" Portland, Oregon probably shouldn't be marked as Portland, WA. I'm guessing the script merely confused the graphic designer.

[@jeffreychandler8418]

this entire video should be saved in a playlist called "why you need editors." The script and visuals are an absolute mess

[@davidkimball2827]

I like the content this guy provides but Portland Washington? Really. He is not in an obscure part of the planet.

[@rogermichaelwillis6425]

I can clearly see Mt Hood and Mt St Helens from my boat.

[@AngelaVEdwards]

Mt. Rainier is one of the most breathtakingly beautiful sights on earth. I was born here. I am now 58 years old and Mt. Rainier has never changed. St. Helens did but not Rainier. I’m not going to spend my time worrying about it.

[@MW-ob3wq]

Your enunciation & pronunciation of Hawaiian words is quite impressive. Thanks for the info

[@benniebarnett9944]

I directly in the Lahar path. Major Pompeii vibes

[@Ogt92]

Yep Sumner on the Puyallup river..lol

[@Jamesthegiantpeachlover]

Aloha from Kailua Kona. Kilauea did erupt in 2022. It went off during Mauna Loa eruption in November- December.

[@Michael-m6i3j]

Great job

[@Hatzmcdoof]

i live in WA, and I am personally proud that you said Puget Sound correctly. thank you.

[@rad4924]

Could be worse. Could be Auckland, New Zealand which is built on top of 55 dormant volcanos, at least one of which is overdue for a major eruptuon.

[@Jubbable]

You could include Mount Baker which is also in Washington state but that would threaten Vancouver and you are only worried about American cities.

[@gordonsmith5589]

It wouldn’t reach Vancouver.

[@surfingisfun001]

Great video Geoff! Thanks for sharing this information with us!

[@jameshaxby5434]

Mount Baker is more active than Rainier or Hood. Baker puts up steam plumes fairly often.

[@stevenlott8103]

why does everyone not include Mt. Baker?

[@tastyfrzz1]

Just finished the Michael Crichton and James patterson book Eruption, very good.

[@jakeschubert9105]

YES!!!! I read that shortly after it came out. It was excellent!

[@GG-ut9ms]

Cool to see a vid on this. I’m a local radio news reporter in SW Washington and grew up in one of the closest towns to St. Helen’s.

[@taotaoliu2229]

I always feared that Mount Rainier would erupt and destroy Seattle before I could visit the city, and I don't even live on the US West Coast!

[@Killswitch1411]

Very little chance it destroys Seattle. Its about as far as St. Helens was from Portland, Or . What Seattle has to worry about is earthquakes and maybe a tsunami. I live near on the edge of the cascades in Oregon.

[@HeavyTopspin]

No need to worry, Seattle's doing just fine at destroying itself.

[@lindsiria]

Seattle is fine. Tacoma is the city in it's path.

[@Killswitch1411]

@@HeavyTopspin very true

[@HeavyTopspin]

@@matthewmoore7447 You mean sane people? I know, we definitely wouldn't fit in.

[@Phrancis5]

My dad's a geology professor and was concerned when I moved to Portland yrs ago and while I've toured Pompeii and saw the level of destruction, It's the catastrophic earthquakes that will really wreck the PNW.

[@MisteryMan2000]

I always thought the super volcano under Yellowstone was the most dangerous volcano in N. America. Although Geoff didn't mention it, I have the Glacier Peak volcano in Washington in my backyard - which is also listed as very high danger level. That's the one I try not to think about.

[@johnchedsey1306]

Glacier Peak really goes under the radar in volcano discussions. Isn't it also prone to just general landslides as well. Mt Meager up in BC has caused a few of those, including a pretty big one back in 2010, which threatened the town of Pemberton with potential flooding (thankfully didn't happen)

[@kennethloki7011]

The whole Yellowstone thing is always blown out of proportion. Historically, the major eruptions happened when the hot spot was under much thinner crust. And people like to portray it as one major eruption happening from a single vent. It's really a lot of smaller vents opening up. Still massive out put, but not the same. Also in order for magma to erupt it needs to be over 50% melt. The magma in the current chamber is 5-7% melt. In other words, it'll be harmless for a long long time.

[@liberty-matrix]

At this point if Mount Rainier took out Seattle, it would be biblical.

[@perceivedvelocity9914]

I grew up in the Seattle/Tacoma area. My very first memory is the Mt St Helens eruption. I vividly remember going into our backyard and everything being covered in ash. I was really little so I thought that it was snow.

[@wendellbrownbrown5968]

I know yellow stone had'nt erupeted in a very long time , but if it does, the experts say we'll all be in trouble!

[@megmcguigan3857]

I love Mt. Lassen. I climbed it three times over 30 years ago. Great hike because you can see the boiling mud and steam coming out of the caldera.

[@rocketsurgeon11]

You forgot Mt. Baker. That one is actually more scary than Rainier. Especially because it isn't instrumented as well as the other major peaks.

[@Querencia7779]

This is B.S. Here’s why: as a lifelong native, with family that goes back generations upon generations in Washington state, and having geologists and volcanologists in the family. Listen up, All of the volcanoes in the Cascade range are connected underground by a root system. Literally the magma moves underneath the crust of the Earth flowing freely: if an eruption were to happen, as it did in 1980, it chooses the path of least resistance. The path of least resistance is the youngest volcano in the chain, which is Mt. Saint Helens. ANY pressure of eruption, will always vent from where it can break through and relieve the pressure - and that my friends, is Mt. Saint Helens. It ain’t Rainier. It would take a major earthquake (along the subduction Cascadia fault) to shake and rattle Mt. Rainier. IF the subduction zone along the Cascadia fault, slips enough to cause Rainier to erupt? That’ll be just one of all catastrophes.

[@graygreysangui]

I grew up on the peninsula. They told us as early as elementary school that we were overdue by 50 years for a bad quake. Mt. St. Helens wasn't enough. So the longer it went without mid-sized quakes, the more danger we would be in. Add in how much military activity we have and have always been in the top ten areas in the US to be bombed, it is hard to determine what will doom us first. I love the geography, don't get me wrong. But I find it important to tell new transplants it would be a good idea to have a plan to flee.

[@zeushighlights5891]

I live on the peninsula, we’ve been having small quakes off the coast. Worrying some people but my guess would be it’s just relieving pressure, which seems like a good thing

[@benaya_huasca]

Here's a scary fact: If Mt. Rainier erupts with the same magnitude as Mt. St. Helens, the entire Puyallup Valley would have less than 30 minutes to evacuate. If we aren't fully prepared when it erupts, the loss of life could potentially exceed 30,000 people.

[@murraytown4]

I’m old enough to remember Mt. St. Helens

[@user-lh5fp7bf2c]

Most likely St. Helens . I personally think clear lake volcano is next most likely to erupt after St Helens . But nobody really knows. It could be a volcano in Idaho or New Mexico cause that's just how unpredictable volcanoes are.

[@garyechols9458]

He lists 3 of the 17 Cascade volcanos, 13 are in the US.

[@westcoastwonderers1060]

I'm from Washington State. I was 7 years old when Mount St. Helens blew. I remember it like it was yesterday. No one knows when these volcanos are going to blow.

[@troycoulter291]

8:49. Thats when he starts talking about the title of the video.

[@russcrawford3310]

It's something of an urban legend that there's an active volcano within Portland City limits ... technically, it's a cinder cone and isn't expected to erupt again ...and very much like the celebrated Parícutin in Mexico ...

[@mathewjones7663]

That first 4 minutes could have been condensed to 1. I was about to leave if you repeated yourself one more time

[@jaykanuck1638]

I was always fascinated with this stuff. I lived in Montreal,Canada as a kid and after watching a movie about a a new hotel built near a dormant Volcano, since it was a disaster film. It wasn’t dormant for long. I always had this scary dream that Mount Royal would erupt. And let me tell you it was vivid. Ever since I’ve been interested in geology and volcanology as a casual hobby. That would make a good disaster film Mount Royal erupting,despite its geological status. 😮

[@carriesilveria-kirby9155]

Mt St Helen's erupted on my 8th birthday, it was a Saturday morning and we canceled my birthday that day at Ferralls as we had to go get my grandparents in Yakima.

[@bewareofsasquatch]

I get to see Mt. Rainier every day. It’s beautiful

[@ironman4do]

The video is titled "Mount Rainier", but it really isn't about Rainer. (he spends less than 2 minutes talking about Rainer) Here's what he should have said: The first thing to note is that Mount Rainer hasn't actually erupted in a long, long time. Its last major eruption was over 500 years ago, and the last time there was even any activity seen (just a bit of smoke coming out) was in the mid 1800s. That's actually part of the reason WHY it's now so dangerous. People don't (generally) build big cities right next to actively erupting volcanoes, but the last time this one erupted was before the USA was even a country. A bunch of people have since built cities & towns near it, and a bunch of those cities/towns are right in the path geological records show the flows coming off it will go... In the video he did mention Lahars, and those are what would cause the big problems with Rainer. See...Rainer is big. It's the 5th tallest point in the contiguous US, and it's absolutely massive. And on top of it sits about 2 dozen major glaciers, that have many times more ice in them than all the other Cascade volcanoes do combined. If/when Rainer does erupt, a whole lot of that ice is going to melt...and records show its path of least resistance is going to send a lot of it toward the Puget Sound. Seattle won't really be affected, comparatively, because it's too far north. Tacoma (250k pop) and Puyallup (50k pop) however, as well as a bunch of other small towns, are smack dab in the flow zones. Hundreds of thousands of people live in potential lahar flow zones. It won't be lava or ash that will cause the devastation. It's going to be a dozen glaciers worth of ice melting causing trees to get crushed, mud and rocks to get swept up along with all manner of debris, and sending it all screaming down one of the largest mountains in the US and into some very urban areas. Lahars coming off Rainer could reach 50-100 feet in height and be moving upwards of 50mph. Now imagine something like that just rolling into (onto?) your town... Mt. Rainer is actually considered one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world, not just the US. It's what's known as a Decade Volcano, because it's on a list of the 16 most potentially devastating volcanoes being studied in the world. The only other one in the US is Mauna Loa, in HI. The good news is it's not showing any signs it's going to erupt next week or something. The bad news is it's acting much like it's acted for many thousands of years, which means that it's really more a "when" it erupts again than an "if". How devastating it will end up being will probably depend a lot on how many more people move into the danger zones for it before it does...

[@CannibalSheepQc]

wth

[@tessmoore3762]

I watched Mt St Helens erupt on May 18th, 1980. I was driving through Portland with my mother and my sister. As we headed east I could see the black ash billowing up above the smog from the factories along the river and below the clouds.

[@joesutherland225]

Missed one mt baker also active today

[@07Giddyup]

You didn’t mention Mt Baker which I had always thought was considered active

[@gordonsmith5589]

It is, this guy decided to repeat the same stuff instead of including Baker.

[@fzleadventures173]

I’m 1/4 Aleut Alaskan native on my moms side but haven’t got to visit the region yet I can’t wait to someday

[@samuelrimmer5381]

St Helens also erupted for 3+ years from 2004 to 2008, it was spewing smoke daily, the vent grew a bunch too en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004%E2%80%932008_volcanic_activity_of_Mount_St._Helens

[@notsparks]

I am watching this, looking directly out at Mt. Ranier. Most of us in Seattle and Portland are familiar with our volcanic neighbors and the risks living nearby them. Areas most at risk from the volcanoes have well established and marked evacuation routes. Many of us have risks from tsunamis as well and have well marked tsunami evacuation routes. A major part of downtown Seattle is below sea level, so there's always risks.

[@markwhitis]

"Kea" in "Mauna Kea" is two syllables. I pronounce it kay-uh. I have spent several months of my life in total on the summit of Mauna Kea (and sleeping down at the 9000ft level), professionally. Also, I have always heard Haleakala pronounced differently. It starts out like "Hall"

[@jaggerbushOG]

Ive stayed in an A frame on Rainier - skied for the first time on Mt Hood and spent my birthday on MSH. I love all three of those volcanoes/mountains and im not even from those parts. Im from Pittsburgh.

[@SpaceyGracie_]

Surprising that there's no mention of the Three Sisters considering how active that region is and it's proximity to the Bend area

[@murpheyslaw2778]

I've watched a bunch of your videos and i think this is the best one yet. Very entertaining.

[@redbarchetta8782]

Rainier is dangerous because of lahars, and they can happen without an eruption. Think of Rainier as a large pile of gravel and mud, that's pretty close to what it is.

[@Saxxonknight]

Less repetition please.

[@iancanuckistan2244]

What's with Mount Baker? Extinct?

[@deasvail99]

Nope, she's active. 😊

[@LikaLaruku]

Lassen county locals are less worried about the volcano & just dreading the annual forest fires every summer.

[@bocain812]

I thought Mt. Saint Helens was the next major volcano to go off.

[@cnutwycliffesson]

like, you think it's going to be the next to go off? My bet is Baker/Koma Kulshan

[@audibjornsson6107]

Thank you! I live at the base of Mt. Rainer! Subscribed!!

[@kellypotts3212]

Mt Rainier 40 miles away as the crow flies from home