Lahar Detection · Seismic · Stream Gauges · USGS · IRIS
🌋 lahar-watch
Real-time monitoring dashboard tracking the sensor network standing between Mount Rainier and the communities in its lahar hazard zones. Live seismic waveforms from 8 PNSN stations, stream gauges across 4 river drainages, USGS volcano alert level, and an interactive lahar travel-time calculator.
"Most lahars from Mount Rainier have started with eruptions — but one of them didn't. The Electron Mudflow came without warning, without fire, without any sign at all. It just came."
The pipeline runs twice daily via GitHub Actions, pulling from USGS HANS, USGS NWIS water services, USGS Earthquake Hazards, and IRIS FDSN — all public APIs, no authentication required. Pure static HTML/JS, no server, no backend.
| Community | Drainage | Distance | Warning Time | Population |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ashford | Puyallup / Nisqually | 8 km | ~8 min ⚠ | 1,200 |
| Orting | Puyallup / Carbon | 56 km | ~33 min ⚡ | 8,000 |
| Buckley | Carbon / White | 72 km | ~44 min ⚡ | 4,800 |
| Enumclaw | White River | 48 km | ~38 min ⚡ | 12,000 |
| Bonney Lake | Puyallup | 80 km | ~55 min ⚡ | 21,000 |
| Auburn | White River | 78 km | ~62 min ✓ | 87,000 |
| Puyallup City | Puyallup | 98 km | ~82 min ✓ | 43,000 |
Kīlauea · HVO · Episodic Lava Fountaining · Birthday Trip
🌋 PELE — Hawai'i Volcanoes Observatory Dashboard
Live monitoring dashboard for the six volcanoes of Hawai'i, built for a birthday trip to Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park in May 2026. Real-time earthquake catalog, HVO webcam feeds (V1/V2/V3 auto-discovered via YouTube Data API), alert levels, and a complete log of all 43 episodic lava fountaining episodes since December 23, 2024.
"The USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory has been monitoring Kīlauea for over a century — longer than any other volcano observatory on Earth. They've calibrated their tiltmeters. They know exactly how much microradian tilt means tomorrow versus next week."
Updated every 6 hours via GitHub Actions. Episode 44 forecast April 6–14. The south vent started precursory overflows April 3. Pele is warming up.
What Is a Lahar
A lahar is a volcanic mudflow — a fast-moving slurry of volcanic debris, rock, ash, and water that can travel over 100 mph on steep slopes and still move at 15–20 mph when it reaches the valley floor. They bury everything: roads, bridges, neighborhoods, ports.
Rainier has buried the Puget Lowlands at least 11 times in the last 6,000 years. The Osceola Mudflow — 5,600 years ago — sent 3.8 cubic kilometers of material all the way to Commencement Bay in Tacoma. Enumclaw, Buckley, Bonney Lake, Sumner, and Auburn are built on top of it.
The most recent large lahar, the Electron Mudflow (~1507 AD), came from a landslide on Rainier's weakened west flank. No eruption. No warning. The city of Orting sits directly in its path — with roughly 30 minutes of warning time today.
The Sensor Network
The lahar detection system has been operating since 1998, when Pierce County Emergency Management and the USGS Cascades Volcano Observatory installed the first Acoustic Flow Monitors in the Carbon and Puyallup River valleys.
Since 2017, modern Lahar Monitoring Stations feature broadband seismometers, infrasound arrays, tripwire sensors, webcams, and GPS receivers. Data transmits to Washington State Emergency Operations Center within 10 seconds. Automated algorithms trigger AHAB sirens across the valley — over 40 sirens strategically placed through the communities.
In October 2025, the NPS approved 9 new monitoring stations on the southwest flank — including two deliberately placed in the path of potential lahars. When those stations go dark, scientists calculate the lahar's speed from the time elapsed between failures.