Mount Rainier, Washington
If you were looking for one of the oldest volcanoes in our country, it may happen that you mistakenly looked toward Hawaii. Despite the volcanoes there being very old as well, the one that has been known to be active for the last half a million if not one million years is actually located in Washington!
Also called a stratovolcano, Mount Rainier is 14,410 feet tall, and it has been studied extensively over the years. Researchers discovered that this volcano has always oscillated between periods of low and high volume eruptions, with lava flows capable of reaching up to 1,000 feet into the air past the mountain’s impressive summit.
Despite it being such a big and ancient volcano, the last eruption took place around 1,000 years ago. The reason why we haven’t seen any in our time is that it is located in a subduction zone. Even so, because of the tectonic plates under it and its position, it is probably the cause of around 20 tiny earthquakes a year.
Why is Mount Rainier considered so dangerous? Not only has it been a long time since its last eruption, but if it were to erupt again, the results would be catastrophic for more than just the people in the surrounding area.
The 3.3 million people that are currently residing in the Seattle-Tacoma area would be the first impacted, and given the size of the volcano, the Columbia River drainage system would be severely impacted.
And while we have been talking volcanoes and magma, we shouldn’t forget how devastating the water can be too! Here are the biggest U.S. floods in the last 50 years that have devastated entire cities!
