Ground swelling is occurring in the Three Sisters volcanic region in central Oregon.

According to a statement from the U.S., the rate of uplift in an area measuring 12 miles across (approximately 19 km) increased by more than an inch between June 2020 and August 2021. geographic survey

However, after around 25 years of effort, this most recent improvement appears. Scientists claim that it is happening as lava fills a vacuum beneath the earth.

According to Emily Montgomery-Brown, a research geophysicist at the Cascades Volcano Observatory in Vancouver, Washington, the total is thought to be around 30 cm, or about the size of a two-liter soda bottle. The previous several months have seen all of that unfold. "When this happens with volcanoes, there are frequently these spurts of lava, and they sort of extrude the volcano's summit, making it hardly exist.

Is this a sign of the coming eruption? That's not what Montgomery-Brown anticipates, according to her. Not every clue is like the uplift, though.

Early eruptive activity frequently consists of an escalating barrage of small earthquakes, the release of volcanic gasses, or both. The raised area has experienced a few fleeting mild earthquake explosions, according to the Geological Survey.

The Pacific Northwest Seismic Network at the University of Washington in Seattle, which began following Mount St. Helens' 1980 eruption, keeps track of these seismic waves across the Cascades. The Seismic Network's director, Harold Tobin, claims that the earthquake activity nearby the Sisters is not concerning.

But if Sisters is showing signs of activity, what does it mean for the other Cascade volcanoes?

According to Tobin, all of the individual volcanoes make up the Cascade chain. It doesn't necessarily follow that Mount Rainier's activity will change just because something is happening in Sisters, Oregon, as they are all different volcanoes with their own distinct magma plumbing systems.