MOUNT RAINIER NATIONAL PARK – There’s been a swarm of earthquakes at Mount Rainier, with more than 330 temblors detected at the namesake peak of the Washington state national park this week. However, there’s no sign of an imminent volcanic eruption or indication that the spike in earthquake activity is cause for concern, officials say.
The earthquake swarm started at about 1:30 a.m. on July 8, according to the Cascades Volcano Observatory and the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network at the University of Washington. The most powerful quake was measured at magnitude 2.3, too small to feel at the surface.
With as many as 26 quakes in a single hour on its first day, this swarm is now larger than the last big swarm on record back in 2009, which lasted three days.
“Earthquakes are a common phenomenon beneath volcanoes because there are often lots of water and heat beneath the volcano. Swarms, or clusters of earthquakes that are close in time and location, are also common at volcanoes,” the USGS said on its website.
Mount Rainier is monitored by a network of seismic, infrared, GPS and web cameras.
Click here to read the full USGS report on the recent earthquake swarm.
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