to monitor volcanic activity has detected short bursts of tiny earthquakes across a 12-mile area where the ground has been lifting at a faster pace.
Jon Major, scientist in charge at the Cascades Volcano Observatory, said the activity is likely coming from pulses of magma moving about four miles underground.
鈥淭here鈥檚 no imminent threat,鈥� he said. 鈥淥ur interpretation is it鈥檚 probably related to ongoing small inputs of magma deep underground.鈥�
If the volcano were close to erupting, Major said, the magma would be breaking more rock, generating bigger earthquakes, releasing gases and lifting the ground at a much faster pace.
鈥淭here would be a lot more signs that magma was making its way to the surface and poised for an eruption,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e not seeing any of that right now.鈥�
The last time Three Sisters erupted was about 2,200 years ago. Major said it is likely to erupt again, but the latest activity is minimal compared to what scientists expect to see before an eruption.
Over a 14-month period between June 2020 and August 2021, advanced satellite technology measured the ground lifting up a little less than an inch across a 12-mile area west of South Sister.
鈥淲hich is pretty amazing to think about,鈥� Major said. 鈥淭his is not the kind of change in the surface of the ground that you and I would stand out there and detect at all.鈥�
Major said the recent rate of uplift is not as fast as scientists saw in the region in the 1990s, when the ground lifted several inches, but it is faster than they鈥檝e seen in the past two decades. And it鈥檚 all happening in the same general location.
鈥淲e have been monitoring volcanoes up and down the Cascades to take the pulse of anything that鈥檚 abnormal,鈥� Major said. 鈥淭hat way, if we detect any abnormalities that a volcano is going into a state of unrest we pick it up as early as possible.鈥�
New technology has allowed scientists to detect miniscule changes in the ground level and nearly undetectable seismic activity, Major said.
鈥淭hese satellites are sensitive enough that they can detect very small differences between satellite and ground surfaces,鈥� he said.
USGS also has very sensitive seismometers that detected very small earthquakes in the same area in October, December and earlier this month.
鈥淭he magnitudes are well below magnitude 1,鈥� Major said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e very small earthquakes 鈥� barely detectable.鈥�
This kind of activity might just be normal background noise for the Three Sisters Volcanic Complex, and it might be that scientists are now able to measure because of new technology, he said.
鈥淭his process has probably been going on for a long time but we haven鈥檛 necessarily had the technology to detect this kind of thing before,鈥� Major said.
Scientists say periods of uplift in the Three Sisters volcanic cluster are likely a continuation of episodic movements of magma that have been occurring regularly for centuries or millennia.
The 鈥� North Sister, Middle Sister and South Sister 鈥� were constructed between 120,000 and 50,000 years ago.
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