America's deadliest volcano enters unprecedented 72-hour tremor phase as eruption threat looms over millions

Daily Mail UK ^ | November 19, 2025 | CHRIS MELORE, US ASSISTANT SCIENCE EDITOR

[Red Badger]

Washington's Mount Rainier has suddenly awoken and is buzzing with almost nonstop activity for days, stoking fears that an eruption could come soon.

This towering stratovolcano looms over more than 3.3 million people across the Seattle-Tacoma metro area, threatening to cripple entire communities with ashfall, flooding, and catastrophic mudflows if it erupts.

Since Saturday, Mount Rainier has been experiencing constant vibrations beneath the surface, thousands of tiny tremors blending into one another.

The constant seismic rumblings were detected by the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network (PNSN), where seismometers on Mount Rainier have recorded three straight days of nearly nonstop, high-energy seismic signals across the west flank of the volcano.

Unlike the seismic activity tied to major earthquakes, the patterns being seen in Washington look more like a volcanic tremor, a type of nonstop hum or roar that begins when magma, hot water, and gas move around inside a volcano.

It doesn't mean Mount Rainier is going to erupt at any moment, but it is a warning sign that volcanic activity could eventually build towards a critical level.

Geologists will be watching for key signs of this volcanic tremor escalating, including its severity increasing in the coming days, actual earthquakes starting inside the volcano, and the ground at Mount Rainier beginning to swell.

When this volcano eventually explodes, it won't be scorching lava flows or choking clouds of ash that threaten Americans, but the lahars: violent, fast-moving mudflows that can tear across entire communities in mere minutes.

Large lahars can crush, bury, or carry away almost anything in their paths, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS).

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TOPICS: History; Outdoors; Travel; Weather
KEYWORDS: mountrainier; volcano

[logi_cal869]

Prayers up

(you know what I mean).

[Red Badger]

Wrong volcano...............

[Red Badger]

Different volcano............

[blackdog]

We were in Seattle last week. My daughter was driving at night and several times something struck the car undercarriage. The next day I checked it out and the street sewer access stacks-covers, are either rising upward or the street pavements are sinking down.

Of course they are blaming "large box stores" and their parking lots for the problem. I'm not sure how that thinking goes but I can't entirely dismiss that?

All new construction utilizes vertical steel spines structures with steel siding, over wood-brick-masonry construction due to earthquake considerations in the building codes. That makes for very ugly residential homes.

Brick and block structures are the least resistant to earthquake damage and tend to make more injury and death in such an event.

[Red Badger]

“Of course they are blaming “large box stores” and their parking lots for the problem. I’m not sure how that thinking goes but I can’t entirely dismiss that?”

When in doubt, blame Capitalism................

[BBB333]

Wild Rainier’s loose in the PNW:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CE4MCFewtQI&list=PL4hkrePf0QtmjO_spC74SHR62LTtzWj7B&index=22

If the mountain blows the entire population could be wiped out!

[Getready]

Well...anti-”climate change” Trump causes more draught, draught causes people to pump water from the ground, pumping water from the ground causes stress on the earths surface, and voila,a magma stream opens up, and kaboom..
But it could be that massive mining for Lithium has the same effect on earths structure..so maybe it’s the anti hydrocarbon efforts causing the vulcanism at Mt. Rainier

[Big Red Badger]

I Know...
It Could Do some Massive Damage
Even to Portland!
.
Adios Pantifa

[Red Badger]

That would not make me want to buy that brand of beer, even when I was a young beer drinker................

[Red Badger]

150+ miles away?........

[Getready]

A small lesson to be learned and forgotten after 50 or so years have passed..

[9YearLurker]

Having conversations with your bigger half, I see...

[BBB333]

The Yellowstone caldera is much larger than a volcano...

I have a softball sized piece of ‘lava rock’ from the last time the YNP caldera blew — it weighs about 15 pounds and flew about 70 miles. It was unearthed from a construction site during a deep dig (25 feet or so below the surface).

It took a lot of energy to through it that far, St Helens did not do anything like that.

[dljordan]

“I thought the Yellowstone volcano was the one that would kill everyone when it finally blows.”

It’s not a volcano.

[John Milner]

Headline says “deadliest.”

How many have died from eruptions from it? I don’t claim to be an expert, but it sounds like a click-bait title.

Maybe if they’d said “Potentially Deadliest?”

[libertylover]

It will interesting to watch as property value diminishes.

Not as interesting as the press blaming President Trump.

[SMARTY]

Sits on the fault line...right?

[SaxxonWoods]

I don’t know
I don’t know
I don’t know
Where I’m gonna go
When the volcano blows

[hoagy62]

I live about 60 miles from the mountain. I’ve done lots of research into what could happen. If Rainier should erupt, the lahars would indeed destroy a lot of communities around the area. If we get as big a lahar as the Osceola Mudflow back a few thousand years ago, it could reach all the way to Seattle by way of the Duwamish River valley. The major city more likely to be affected by a Rainier eruption would be Tacoma. It’s very likely that the port of Tacoma would be pretty much destroyed.
The towns that could be wiped out or at least severely damaged would be small places, like Orting, Sumner, Enumclaw, and a good chunk of downtown Puyallup. Lahars could also go up as far as Kent and Auburn. But Seattle or Portland being destroyed? Not much of a chance of that.

Another thing to consider is ashfall. Back in 1980, I lived in Spokane which was 250 miles away from Mount Saint helens. Even there, we got a couple of inches of ash. If Rainier were to go, I almost expect that places closer to Rainier could see ashfall measured in feet.

No doubt, if Rainier erupted, the devastation would be catastrophic, I’m pretty sure that hundreds if not thousands of people would end up being killed. But, major cities like Seattle and Portland wouldn’t be damaged as badly as some people think. Rainier’s big, but not that big.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

Smithsonian current list of erupting volcanoes:

https://volcano.si.edu/gvp_currenteruptions.cfm

“Overall, 44 volcanoes were in continuing eruption status as of 19 September 2025. An eruption marked as “continuing” does not always mean persistent daily activity, but indicates at least intermittent eruptive events without a break of 3 months or more. There are typically 40-50 continuing eruptions, and out of those generally around 20 will be actively erupting on any particular day.”