Volcanologists say Mt. Rainier’s appearance of venting not ‘anomalous activity’
Sep 7, 2022, 11:02 AM | Updated: 4:23 pm
An image of Mt. Rainier from Camp Schurman (National Park Service).
(National Park Service)
Wednesday morning a video of Mt. Rainier appeared to show emissions from the active volcano.
After a video of the event surfaced on social media, the United States Geological Survey quickly squashed rumors that the appearance of smoke from Mt. Rainier was anything other than normal activity from an active volcano.
“Mount Rainier is not erupting – the sort of behavior seen in this video is not unusual,” a spokesperson for the scientific agency wrote on Twitter.
“And in fact, there are a number of USGS volcanologists at the volcano this week working on installing new monitoring equipment, so Cascades Volcano Observatory folks are on-site to confirm!”
MyNorthwest has reached out to the Mt. Rainier National Park, the USGS, and seismologists with the University of Washington for clarity on the nature of the apparent emissions.
In 2019, Mt. Baker emitted steam, gas that occurs daily. The visibility of the gas is enhanced based on atmospheric conditions, and because the gas sprung forth from the mountain during the winter, the colder temperatures contrasted with the steam, increasing its visibility.
