The US Geological Survey will use Recovery Act funding to improve its ability to monitor volcanoes and to predict their eruptions. Some of the funds will be used to modernize instrumentation and information systems to state-of-the-art, providing the necessary tools to communicate hazard information quickly to those who need it. The United States and its territories contain 169 volcanoes considered capable of erupting. One, Kilauea in Hawaii, has been erupting continuously for the past 26 years, at times inundating residential areas with lava and at other times requiring national park closures due to explosions and toxic gas.
The US Geological Survey will use Recovery Act funding to improve its ability to monitor volcanoes and to predict their eruptions. Some of the funds will be used to modernize instrumentation and information systems to state-of-the-art, providing the necessary tools to communicate hazard information quickly to those who need it.
The United States and its territories contain 169 volcanoes considered capable of erupting. One, Kilauea in Hawaii, has been erupting continuously for the past 26 years, at times inundating residential areas with lava and at other times requiring national park closures due to explosions and toxic gas.
Another, Redoubt Volcano in Alaska, shot ash clouds to heights of more than 50,000 feet several times this year. The three-month long eruption appears to have paused and may have ended, but not before severely disrupting aviation operations, repeatedly dusting Alaskan communities with ash, and forcing an oil storage facility to suspend operations. Photo shows Mt Redoubt eruption.
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Residents and critical infrastructure in the nation's six highest-risk volcanic areas—including the Yellowstone region-- will benefit from increased monitoring and analysis as a result of Recovery Act funds being channeled into volcano monitoring, Secretary Salazar announced today.
The U.S. Geological Survey is planning to use $15.2 million of its American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds to upgrade volcano monitoring and the analysis and distribution of eruption information at the five volcano observatories that cover Wyoming, Alaska, Hawaii, the Northwest, California, as well as the network that covers the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
"These stimulus funds will not only create or preserve jobs, but also could very well preserve lives," said Secretary Salazar. "The funds help protect both people on the ground as well as airline passengers flying over the eruption-prone regions. At the same time that the funds are helping public safety, they are also spurring scientific innovation with economic benefits."
The Yellowstone Volcano Observatory in Wyoming, jointly operated by the USGS, Yellowstone National Park, and the University of Utah, will coordinate the expenditure of $950,000 in USGS recovery funds for two primary purposes: (1) upgrade seismic and other monitoring systems within Yellowstone National Park, and (2) create a variety of software tools, alarming capabilities and display systems for use by partners and collaborating state agencies.
Although the last volcanic eruption in Yellowstone was prehistoric, the Yellowstone volcano is the largest and perhaps most persistently restless volcano in the United States. Rock-hurling steam explosions are relatively frequent and the intense seismic activity around New Year's 2009 highlighted flaws within the existing monitoring network as well as the extent of public concern about the Yellowstone Volcano. Yellowstone National Park experienced an intense swarm of earthquakes around New Year's Day that attracted concern nationwide.
Work to be conducted with ARRA funds is divided into six projects, coinciding with the six high-risk volcanic areas in the United States. In addition to $950,000 for Yellowstone, these allocations are $7.56 million for the Alaska Volcano Observatory, $2.4 million for the Cascades Volcano Observatory in Washington state, $3.3 million for the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, $200,000 for the Long Valley Observatory in California and $800,000 for upgrading networks in the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas.
For more information: http://www.doi.gov/news/09_News_Releases/081309.html
