Visiting scientists from the country of Colombia have a warning for people living in the valleys below our Northwest volcanoes. Get educated about a rare but dangerous phenomenon called a lahar. Colombia was destroyed by a lahar on November 13, 1985. More than 23,000 people were killed when lahars (volcanic debris flows) swept down from the erupting Nevado del Ruiz volcano.
The volcano that geologists consider the most dangerous in the Northwest is not Mount St. Helens even though an eruption there killed 57 people in our lifetime. it is Mount Rainier that is of most concern, chiefly because of the hazard posed by volcanic mudflows, also known as lahars. In terms of stakes, Mount Rainier is of greatest(relative) danger, suggests John Ewert, the geoscientist-in-charge at the USGS Cascades Volcano Observatory. He notes over 100,000 people now live on historic lahar deposits in the Puyallup and Carbon River valleys below Mount Rainier.
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