Professor warns of possible disaster at Mount Rainier due to global warming

University of Nevada, Reno geology professor Philip Ruprecht warned of the possibility of a disaster at Mount Rainier in the United States within the next 100 years due to global warming.

A scientific unit at the UN has concluded that a rise in global temperatures of two degrees above mid-19th century levels will have serious consequences.

The USGS is monitoring changes at Mount Rainier, and communities have installed warning systems and special training efforts.

WASHINGTON, September 16 - RIA Novosti. A disaster according to the Nepalese scenario could happen in the United States in the next 100 years, when the glacier on Mount Rainier cannot withstand global warming, Philip Ruprecht, a professor of geology at the University of Nevada in Reno, told RIA Novosti.

"It's absolutely possible that something could happen within 100 years," Ruprecht said.

According to the professor, the disaster in Nepal was associated with the destruction of a glacier, and at Rainier in Washington state, the volume of ice is the largest of all volcanoes in the southern continental United States.

"Under warming conditions, it is quite possible to imagine how individual parts of the volcano could collapse catastrophically. This is quite possible," Ruprecht said.

The UN's scientific division previously concluded that if global temperatures rose two degrees higher than they were in the mid-19th century, there would be serious consequences. In the summer of 2026, temperatures rose 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels.

“If the stability of the ice masses high on the slopes of the volcano is disrupted, this can lead to catastrophic consequences,” the professor added.

According to him, the US Geological Survey is monitoring changes that could lead to a disaster, and warning systems have been installed in places where people live and special training events are being conducted.

“In the event of such an event, there will be very little time left for evacuation - from a few to a couple of tens of minutes. This is the main danger: there is little time, and people need to have time to climb to a hill,” the agency’s interlocutor emphasized.

The scientist recalled that in the past, large-scale floods or lahars - flows saturated with volcanic material that can occur during rainy periods - have already occurred in this region.

It is impossible to accurately predict a possible disaster, Ruprecht added. Mount Rainier is dangerous, but catastrophic activity can occur in an indefinite period of time - a hundred, two hundred, a thousand years, the professor said.