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topicnews · July 15, 2025

Volcanoes that rumble in Alaska, Washington State, Oregon and Hawaii

Volcanoes that rumble in Alaska, Washington State, Oregon and Hawaii


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The volcanoes in Alaska, Washington State, Oregon and Hawaii cracked lava and even spit out, enough to trigger a swarm of messages. But despite the bumps and temples, geologists say that there is no reason for alarm.

“Volcanoes can be unpredictable, and there is always the possibility that something bad will happen, but these recent seismic events along the Pacific fire ring from Alaska to Washington to Offshore Oregon are probably not directly connected,” said Natalia Ruppert, a seismologist at the Earthquake Science Center of the US -GEARACAL REARDS EARTSQUACH Center in Seattle.

“Volcanoes do that,” she said. “You are brought to life for a while; sometimes the earthquake activity leads to an outbreak and sometimes not.”

Most of the US volcanoes that have been woke up since spring shook off and then fell back to sleep.

Two, one in Hawaii and one in Alaska, are in the middle of active – but relatively small and not threatening – outbreaks.

Although everything may seem threatening, it is not the case. It is simply part of life on a dynamic, seismic planet.

There is no direct connection between these, said Ruppert. “The distance between these (seismic) activity centers is thousands of miles.”

Youngest US volcanic activity

Although volcanoes have always been part of the geography of the west coast, this seems to be a particularly busy time for these mountains, which are caused by cracks in the earth's crust that go down to the coat.

But they carefully keep an eye on seismologists and volcanologists, said Ruppert. “For this reason, the Federal Government finances earthquakes and volcanic monitoring efforts by the Ministry of the Interior and USGs.”

Consider these events:

  • More than 300 earthquakes met the mountain Rainier in Washington at the beginning of July, the largest swarm of earthquake that was ever recorded in the volcano. The swarm, a group of earthquakes in the same area in the fast, began on July 8th. Within two days, 334 earthquakes were identified by the Pacific northwestern seismic network. But for the majestic volcano, about 70 miles southeast of Seattle is not very unusual, which registered a similar swarm of quake in 2009. However, Rainier's last outbreak was about 1,000 years ago, said Ruppert.
  • North of the state of Washington, Alaska has three volcanoes that feel right now.
    • From July 10th, Alaska's great Sitkin volcano was on the Aleuten on a waking warning, with Lava broke out in the summit crater. The seismicity was low with occasional little earthquakes, reports the USGS. This outbreak started in May 2021. Lava has broken out at the summit since July 2021.
    • A flood of small earthquakes trembled the Iliamna volcano on June 15th on Alaska's Kenaai. However, no surface activity was observed, and on July 1, the volcano was set to a normal warning code.
    • North of Iliamna, another Alaskan volcano, Mount Spurr, has been experiencing flashes of flatter earthquakes since February. It is now at a normal advisory level. There are few concerns at the moment, said Ruppert.
  • Seismologists that walk along the west coast also monitor the axial Seamount, a massive underwater volcano 300 miles in front of Oregon. It has been drawing attention to itself for months because scientists are preparing for a break that they would expect at some point in 2025. Since it is previously under water, only scientists who use a number of instruments will know about the outbreak.

The volcanoes are located along the so-called Ring of Fire, a 25,000 miles long horseshoe shape series of volcanoes and seismic areas that extend from the southern tip of South America on the west coast of the United States to Alaska to New Zealand.

It is generated by the Pacific Tectonic plate, which sinks under the North American plate and, according to the US Geological Survey, is the seismest and vulkish -active zone in the world.

Eruptions in Hawaii

Mount Kilauea breaks out far west in Hawaii, but from July 11th the fountain from Lava did not issue it earlier a month. On July 9, the USGS said that the latest outbreak had ended.

Hawaiis volcanoes are not part of the fire ring. The island chain was (and is still) formed by a volcanic hotspot on which 15 volcanoes were generated, which extend 3,800 miles over the Pacific.

In Hawaii's case, the volcanoes are the result of a heat source deep in the ground mantle. The magma cloud that comes from this hot spot in the sea floor remains inpatient because the Pacific plate slowly moves over the top – 2 to 4 inches per year.

That is why Hawaiis are the oldest volcanoes on Kauai 5.5 million years old, while the latest on Big Island are “only” 700,000 years old and are still growing.

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