While relatively small EQ's, it is showing that under the surface, Mt Rainier is moving.

This huge, active stratovolcano towers over millions of people in major cities such as Seattle, Tacoma, and Yakima in Washington, as well as Portland, Oregon.

Just 240 miles away in the Pacific Ocean, the Axial Seamount may be only days away from a massive underwater eruption.

*****************************

Chris Melore – Daily Mail July 28, 2025

Over 1,000 earthquakes have rocked Washington’s Mount Rainier in the largest ever seismic swarm recorded at this active volcano, waiting to erupt.

Experts from the US Geological Survey (USGS) revealed that this record-breaking earthquake swarm started on July 8 and has continued ever since.

As of July 25, geologists have recorded at least 1,010 small earthquakes around the mountain, which is one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the US.

While the agency said that even more tremors will likely be added to this total, they’ll be too small to cause any damage and likely won’t even be felt by locals.

These kinds of swarms can occur once or twice a year, but they normally only last a few days, leaving USGS researchers with a concerning mystery right now.

‘Most swarms at Mount Rainier (there are 1-2 annually) last less than a week. That being said, we do not have a good estimate for how long this swarm may last, and whether it will intensify or peter out,’ the agency admitted on Friday.

Although USGS added that an eruption doesn’t seem imminent, Mount Rainier remains one of the most active volcanoes in the Pacific Northwest’s Cascade Range, and a devastating eruption remains a real possibility in the near future.

Experts have warned that Mount Rainier would be an extremely major threat to the public during an eruption due to its volcanic mudflows known as lahars, ash fall, and pyroclastic flows.

‘Based on our observations, we think the most likely cause of the earthquakes is water moving around the crust above the magma chamber,’ researchers with the USGS Cascades Volcano Observatory (CVO) wrote in a statement. If the water reaches the lava, it could cause, what we call, a hydro-thermic explosion.

This latest swarm easily surpassed the last large string of earthquakes at Mount Rainier, which came in 2009.

That earthquake swarm only lasted three days and produced around 120 earthquakes.

The swarm, which started during the morning of July 8 saw up to 41 minor earthquakes registering every hour.

Since then, the seismic activity has cooled down to just a few each hour, but the tremors still haven’t stopped altogether.