[Llarry]

An aerial view of the volcanos of the Cascade Mountains in the U.S. Pacific Northwest. The Pacific Northwest is largely immune to the weather disasters of many other parts of the country, but we have two pending catastrophes, one of which is pictured here: A volcanic eruption. In particular an eruption of Mount Ranier would create havoc in the Seattle area.

The other (invisible) danger is earthquake and tsunami caused by the Cascadia subduction zone off the PNW coast. The last was in 1700 (reconstructed from records in Japan) and we are overdue for the next. Coastal communities are likely to be devastated by the tsunami; this will be a disaster of the first order. Fortunately (?) we are talking geologic time lines here -- disaster could strike tomorrow or in a hundred years.