Glacier Peak is the least known volcano in the state and is not even visible from any population centers.
The closest community is Darrington, which was recently affected by the nearby Oso landslide, which killed more than 40 people.
"It's right there, right out the back door of our community," said Darrington Mayor Dan Rankin, a third-generation resident of the town.
Rankin knows an eruption at Glacier Peak is a big threat to his community.
"It's hot, it's always been hot," Rankin said.
Hot, meaning volcanically active.
U.S. Geological Survey scientist Rick LaHusen says volcanoes like Glacier Peak can roar to life in a matter of days.
"In terms of the hazard it is much more explosive than Mount Rainier has been," LaHusen said.
Many more people live in the shadow of Mount Rainier, so there's a system to warn of lahars, or mud flows, from an eruption.
Lahars from Glacier Peak could affect communities down river - including Darrington and Oso.
Mud flows through the Skagit Valley could reach Sedro-Woolley, Burlington and Mount Vernon.
Ash poses an even wider threat.
Thirteen thousand years ago, an eruption at Glacier Peak sent ash east across the continent.
Rick LaHusen keeps an FAA number in his phone because ash can shut down airplane engines.
"We've got about a five minute window to get the data, interpret the data and call off aircraft so they can be diverted," LaHusen said.
But at Glacier Peak, there's hardly any data to work with.
"It's got one seismometer and you can't locate earthquakes with one," LaHusen said.
Mount St. Helens has 20 monitors and Mount Rainier has nine.
Federal scientists think Glacier Peak needs as many as eight
But first, the money must be found, and it's not clear where it will come from.
The USGS estimates, depending on its sophistication, a monitoring system for Glacier Peak would cost between $600,000 and $2 million.
That's far above the agency's current $300,000 budget for monitoring all of the Cascade volcanoes.
KIRO
