Glacier Peak

Overview

Glacier Peak is the most remote of the five major volcanoes in Washington State, and is located 70 km NE of Seattle, WA. It is not prominently visible from any major population center, and so its attractions, as well as its hazards, tend to be over-looked.

Glacier Peak has produced some of the largest and most explosive eruptions in the state. The most recent eruption was about 300 years ago. A little more than 13,000 years ago, a sequence of nine tephra eruptions occurred within a period of less than a few hundred years. The largest of these eruptions ejected more than five times as much tephra as the May 18, 1980, eruption of Mount St. Helens, and was one of the largest in the Cascade Range since the end of the last ice age.

More background information on Glacier Peak

Background Seismicity

The PNSN operates only one seismometer on Glacier Peak. Thus, this potentially dangerous volcano is not well monitored. While there are plans to improve the coverage its remote location in a designated wilderness area makes it a very challenging task.  

On average, we locate only one earthquake within 10 km of the volcano per decade.  See installation pictures of the one monitoring station, GPW.