00:00hidden beneath some of America's most beautiful landscapes.
00:03A catastrophic threat is quietly building and most people in its path have no idea.
00:08The USGS Volcano Hazards Program monitors more than a dozen potentially active volcanoes along the Cascade Range.
00:15From Northern California all the way through Oregon and Washington,
00:20Mount Rainier, rising 14,400 feet above Seattle's skyline, is among the most dangerous.
00:25Not because of lava, but because of what scientists call lahars.
00:31Volcanic mudflows that travel at 40 miles per hour and can reach communities with over 150,000 residents within hours
00:38of an eruption.
00:39Mount Hood in Oregon. Mount Shasta in California. Lassen Peak.
00:44All of them sit near densely populated American cities.
00:48The USGS warns that unlike earthquakes and hurricanes, volcanic disasters give very little advanced warning.
00:55And evacuation windows can be measured in hours, not days.
00:59The Pacific Northwest is one of the most seismically and volcanically active regions on the continent.
01:04And the question scientists are no longer asking is if one of these systems erupts.
01:09The Pacific Northwest has a decent force of effort.
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