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1 1 (December 7, 2021)

handle is hein.crs/goveexx0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional Research Service S December 7, 2021 The National Volcano Early Warning System In 2019, Congress authorized a National Volcano Early Warning and Monitoring System (NVEWS; Section 5001 of P.L. 116-9; 43 U.S.C. 31k). The law directed the Secretary of the Interior to establish NVEWS to monitor volcanoes, warn U.S. citizens of volcanic activity, and protect citizens from undue and avoidable harm resulting from volcanic activity. Congress is interested in a volcano early warning and monitoring system because the nation faces threats from many active volcanoes. In 2018, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS, a bureau within the Department of the Interior) published an assessment of the volcanic threat, which indicated that better monitoring is necessary for effective warnings. The USGS volcanic threat assessment assigned five threat levels (very high, high, moderate, low, and very low) to 161 volcanoes in 14 states and U.S. territories (see Figure 1).The assessment ranked 18 volcanoes as very high and 39 as high threats. Eleven of the 18 very high threat volcanoes are in Washington, Oregon, or California; five are in Alaska; and two are in Hawaii. The assessment noted that the high- and moderate-threat volcanoes are mostly in Alaska and that the more explosive Alaskan volcanoes can affect national and international aviation. The volcano ranked as the highest threat is Kilauea, the Hawaiian volcano whose 2018 intense eruptions were accompanied by destructive lava flows and frequent earthquakes. The USGS asserted that many of the very high and high threat volcanoes are not monitored well enough to provide adequate warnings (i.e., monitoring gaps exist). Congress authorized the USGS to remedy these monitoring gaps and enhance warnings by establishing NVEWS. NVEWS is to be organized within the USGS's Volcano Hazards Program (VHP). VHP studies, monitors, assesses and warns the public about threatening volcanoes in the United States. VHP operates five volcano observatories (Alaska, California, Cascades, Hawaiian, and Yellowstone; see Figure 1), a Volcano Science Center, and a Volcano Disaster Assistance Program (to assist with volcano threats internationally). NVEWS Authorization The 2019 law authorized NVEWS and specified that the system's objective is to monitor U.S. volcanoes at a level commensurate with the volcanic threat. NVEWS is to have two purposes: (1) organize, modernize, standardize, and stabilize the monitoring systems of the five U.S. volcano observatories and (2) unify the monitoring systems of these observatories into a single interoperative system. Figure 1. USGS Volcano Observatories and U.S. Volcanoes Posing Moderate or Higher Threat AVO o 2018 USGS National Frbanks, AK Volcanic Threat Assessment -AVolcano Threat Categories A VO 1,AVery High A High A Moderate CVO/YVO a 0 USGS Volcano Observatories AVO- Alaska Volcano Anchorage/F airbanks, AK CVO- Cascades Volcano CaVO ,Vancouver, WA ot, iHVO- Hawaiian Volcano Hawaii Island, HI H VO CaIVO- California Volcano Moffett Field, CA YVO- Yellowstone Volcano Vancouver, WA Source: CRS adapted from Peter F. Cervelli et al., USGS, Five-Year Management Plan for Establishing and Operating NVEWS: The National Volcano Early Warning System, Open-File Report 2021-1092, at https://doi.org/10.3133/ofr2021 109. Notes: The two high and seven moderate threat volcanoes in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands are not shown here. The AVO is responsible for these volcanoes. tps://crsreports~congress~gov

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