How the mega-drought exposed the dangers of distant volcanoes

Visitors to the Las Vegas Valley know that the only volcano nearby is at The Mirage Hotel. So why did University of Nevada researchers recently find volcanic ash in Lake Mead? The prolonged drought caused record-low water levels in the country’s largest reservoir, exposing rocks embedded with volcanic ash from distant volcanoes.

“For the western United States, there have been two major eruptions in the last million years, as recently as yesterday for geologists, that deposited ash over most of western North America,” said volcanologist Eugene Smith. “If an outbreak of this magnitude were to occur again, most of the western United States would be affected.”

A boiling hot pool of mineral water is seen along Hot Creek in the Long Valley Caldera of central California near Mammoth Mountain, California. The hot springs, earthquake activity, and forest-destroying gas releases are evidence of the volcano and have geologists worried about another eruption.

(George Rose/Getty Images)

Smith pointed to eruptions in Yellowstone and the Sierras of central California as potential sources if the events were large in scale.

“Although the Las Vegas Valley is currently very remote from active volcanoes, in the future we can and will drop ash from these volcanoes over southern Nevada,” Smith said in a press release. “Even a few millimeters of ash is incredibly heavy when wet and can tear down power and telecom lines. They can block roads. It is easily remobilized by wind and water. Ash can cause serious, chronic lung diseases such as silicosis.”

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The Washington State Police developed devices to prevent volcanic ash from entering the engine during the Mount St. Helens eruption.

(Bettmann/Getty Images)

Smith believes even small amounts of ash would endanger air travel and likely shut down airports. Cars and trucks can even immobilize, bringing transportation to a standstill.

Smith co-authored a study with geologist Racheal Johnson and described the dangers of volcanoes even to distant cities. They tested the ash, which hasn’t seen the sun since 1935, when the government built the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River and flooded the reservoir.

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Normally, underwater layers of rock containing volcanic ash become available for scientists to study.

(Racheal Johnsen & Eugene Smith/UNLV/FOX Weather)

Smith said current volcanic emergency planning revolves around areas in the immediate vicinity of a volcano and the path of the lava. He hopes local government officials will develop an action plan similar to plans dealing with floods, earthquakes and tsunamis.

“It’s important that metropolitan areas like Las Vegas, Salt Lake City and Phoenix recognize that the volcanic hazard is related to distant volcanoes rather than local volcanic eruptions,” Smith said. “Just because there aren’t any local volcanoes with high eruption potential doesn’t mean there isn’t a volcanic hazard.”

Visitors stroll along a boardwalk at the famous Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park. The geyser sits on an active volcanic caldera.

(George Rose/Getty Images)

Experts said communities along the Cascade Range should also be well prepared for an eruption.

Smith points to the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. He called it a geologically small eruption. Despite this, it produced an ash plume that traveled as far as the Great Lakes. Idaho and Montana, along with Washington, suffered from infrastructure problems.

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1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington.

(Photo12/Universal Images Group/Getty Images)

Without a mega drought, there would probably have been no discoveries

The volcanic material is the latest in a long list of discoveries made as a result of Lake Mead’s falling water levels during the West’s mega drought.

Police added evidence to a cold case when someone found a barrel containing a murdered body that the perpetrator believed would remain hidden beneath the waves for eternity. The shrinking lake is also an obstacle course for boaters, as the boats in the underwater graveyard now tower above the surface.

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This summer, Lake Mead hit a record low and is currently only a few feet higher. It sits 184 feet below the full pool, which is just a quarter of its capacity, according to the Bureau of Reclamation.

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