USGS Volcano Hazards Program

USGS Volcano Hazards Program
Name	USGS Volcano Hazards Program
Formed	1982
Headquarters	Reston, Virginia
Jurisdiction	United States
Parent agency	United States Geological Survey

USGS Volcano Hazards Program is a federal initiative dedicated to reducing volcanic risk through monitoring, research, hazard assessment, and public outreach. The Program coordinates with national and international institutions to detect unrest at volcanoes, issue alerts, and support emergency management for communities affected by eruptions. It conducts multidisciplinary science combining geology, geophysics, geochemistry, remote sensing, and modeling to inform decision makers across the United States and its territories.

Overview

The Program operates within the United States Geological Survey and collaborates with partners such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Smithsonian Institution, Department of the Interior, and the Department of Defense. It focuses on active volcanic regions including the Aleutian Islands, Hawaiian Islands, the Cascade Range, Alaska Peninsula, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The effort interfaces with scholarly organizations like the American Geophysical Union, Geological Society of America, Seismological Society of America, and the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior. The Program contributes to initiatives linked to the National Volcano Early Warning System, Tsunami Warning Centers, and regional hazard mitigation plans such as those used by the State of Alaska and State of Hawaii.

Organizational Structure and Funding

Administrative oversight is provided by the United States Geological Survey headquarters and the USGS National Research Program, with operational offices in centers such as the Alaska Volcano Observatory, California Volcano Observatory, Cascades Volcano Observatory, Hawaii Volcano Observatory, and the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. Funding streams include congressional appropriations through the United States Congress, cooperative agreements with the National Science Foundation, grants from the National Institute of Standards and Technology for instrumentation standards, and emergency supplemental funds post-eruption authorized by legislation like appropriations acts debated in the United States Senate and United States House of Representatives. The Program engages with state agencies including the Alaska Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys and the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency for cost-sharing and operational support.

Monitoring and Research Programs

Monitoring networks combine seismic arrays, global positioning system stations, gas sensors, and satellite remote sensing coordinated with platforms from Landsat, Sentinel-1, TerraSAR-X, and missions of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration including Aqua and Terra. Research themes link to projects funded by the National Science Foundation and collaborations with academic centers such as the University of Alaska Fairbanks, University of Hawaii at Manoa, University of California, Berkeley, University of Washington, and Cornell University. The Program publishes findings in venues like the Bulletin of Volcanology, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research, and Geophysical Research Letters while contributing data to initiatives including the Global Seismographic Network and the International Seismological Centre. It partners with observatories such as the Icelandic Meteorological Office, Italian National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, and the Instituto Geofísico del Perú for comparative studies.

Hazard Assessment and Warning Systems

The Program develops volcano alert levels and notices that interface with the Federal Aviation Administration and the International Civil Aviation Organization to mitigate ash hazards to aviation observed during events like eruptions of Mount St. Helens, Eyjafjallajökull, and Kasatochi. It maintains ash dispersal models and probabilistic hazard assessments that draw on case histories from Mount Rainier, Kīlauea, Mauna Loa, Mount Hood, Mount Shasta, and Mount Baker. The Program’s products inform land-management agencies such as the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, and U.S. Forest Service for emergency response planning in areas affected by lahars, pyroclastic flows, and lava flows. Coordination with the Federal Aviation Administration ensures real-time volcanic ash advisories, while engagement with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention addresses public health implications of ash fall.

Outreach, Education, and Partnerships

Education and community preparedness efforts include partnerships with institutions such as the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, Alaska Volcano Observatory Education Program, Hawaii Volcano Observatory Visitor Center, and university extension programs at the University of Hawaii. The Program works with local emergency managers in jurisdictions including the City and County of Honolulu, Anchorage Municipality, and territorial governments of Guam and Puerto Rico to produce hazard maps, evacuation routes, and school curricula. It collaborates with nonprofit organizations like the American Red Cross, scientific societies including the American Geophysical Union and the Geological Society of America, and international aid agencies during transboundary crises. Public-facing resources and alerts are coordinated with media partners including the Associated Press and national broadcasters.

Notable Events and Case Studies

Key case studies encompass the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, the 2018 eruption of Kīlauea, eruptions of Mount Redoubt and Mount Cleveland in the Aleutian Islands, and ash-producing events such as Mount Pinatubo and Eyjafjallajökull that affected aviation and global ash dispersal. The Program’s response to explosive eruptions at Mount St. Helens involved seismic monitoring, deformation studies, and gas-measurement campaigns that informed evacuation orders coordinated with the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Field campaigns following eruptions at Mauna Loa and Mount Rainier generated advances in lahar detection using acoustic-flow monitors and real-time GPS, applied in collaboration with the U.S. Geological Survey science centers, state emergency offices, and international partners such as the Geological Survey of Japan.

Technology and Instrumentation Development

Instrument development spans seismometers, infrasound arrays, differential GPS networks, gas analyzers, and remote sensing tools integrating data from MODIS and interferometric synthetic-aperture radar missions like Sentinel-1. The Program collaborates with manufacturers and labs at institutions such as the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory, and the US Naval Research Laboratory to prototype ruggedized field instruments for harsh volcanic environments. Software and modeling tools include ash-transport models, seismic-event detection algorithms shared with the Global Seismographic Network, and geodetic inversion packages used by researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, California Institute of Technology, and Stanford University.

Category:United States Geological Survey Category:Volcanology Category:Disaster preparedness