{"id":53328,"date":"2026-10-30T07:31:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T11:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/?p=53328"},"modified":"2026-10-30T07:31:00","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T11:31:00","slug":"mount-hood-coalman-glacier-pond-debris-flow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/mount-hood-coalman-glacier-pond-debris-flow\/53328\/","title":{"rendered":"A meltwater pond at the foot of Mount Hood\u2019s Coalman Glacier has grown larger than in previous years, and the USGS says a sudden release could send a debris flow down the White River toward the Highway 35 bridge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Somewhere in the region of 13 million gallons of meltwater has pooled at the foot of Coalman Glacier, high on the south side of Oregon\u2019s Mount Hood, and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) says the pond is \u201csignificantly larger than in previous years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If it were all released in one go, the water could set off a debris flow (a fast surge of mud, rock, and water) down the White River, possibly reaching as far as the Highway 35 bridge, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/volcanoes.usgs.gov\/hans-public\/notice\/DOI-USGS-CVO-2026-10-23T14%3A05%3A07%2B00%3A00\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a notice<\/a> posted on October 23 by the agency\u2019s Cascades Volcano Observatory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Volcano Web Shorts:  Debris Flows\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/dx6ZQObNMmg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At the volume the observatory estimated, it wasn\u2019t expecting populated areas to be affected. The notice kept Mount Hood at alert level NORMAL, aviation color code GREEN, so we\u2019re not looking at a volcanic warning here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The pond was spotted on October 6 from a helicopter out on a routine flight. It fills a basin hemmed in by Crater Rock, the summit cliffs, and Devil\u2019s Kitchen, an earthen berm of altered rock and moraine (debris a glacier bulldozes along and leaves behind) that holds the water in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In its October 23 notice, the observatory said that berm \u201cappears stable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">How much water it\u2019s holding back hadn\u2019t been measured by then. The USGS\u2019s ballpark figure is \u201con the order of ~50,000 cubic meters,\u201d enough to fill about 20 Olympic swimming pools. A sample collected the week before the notice also showed the water to be mildly acidic, with a provisional pH of 4, about the same as black coffee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The terrain would funnel any flood down the southeast flank to the White River, away from the Sandy River, Timberline Lodge, and Government Camp. Still, the USGS counts the White River among the drainages where past debris flows have done the most damage to roads and bridges, alongside Newton Creek, Eliot Branch, and Ladd Creek.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1013\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/mount-hood-coalman-glacier-pond-debris-flow-2.jpg\" alt=\"Muddy riverbed on Mount Hood&#x27;s White River covered with fresh debris-flow deposits of grey mud and rounded cobbles, seen from the Highway 35 bridge\" class=\"wp-image-53308\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/mount-hood-coalman-glacier-pond-debris-flow-2.jpg 1800w, https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/mount-hood-coalman-glacier-pond-debris-flow-2-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/mount-hood-coalman-glacier-pond-debris-flow-2-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/mount-hood-coalman-glacier-pond-debris-flow-2-1536x864.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Small debris flows in August 2015 left fresh mud and cobbles in the White River channel, seen here from the Highway 35 bridge; the USGS says a sudden release from the pond could send a debris flow down the same river. Photo: William Scott \/ USGS (public domain)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The deadliest in recent memory hit on Christmas Day in 1980, when a debris flow down Polallie Creek, on the east flank, briefly dammed the East Fork Hood River and the flood that broke through killed one person. It also wrecked some 5 to 6 miles (8 to 10 kilometers) of Highway 35, and losses added up to at least $13 million in 1980 dollars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Seth Moran, the observatory\u2019s acting scientist-in-charge, signed the October 23 notice, which says measurements of the pond will carry on with help from the U.S. Forest Service, the National Weather Service, and Portland Mountain Rescue. When it went out, no closures had been announced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The pond has grown in a year when snow on Mount Hood has been thin on the ground: Oregon set record lows for snow in the 2025-26 winter, and a heat wave arrived in the summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By October 8, the Palmer Snowfield above Timberline Lodge, where skiers train through the summer months, was almost completely bare, reports <a href=\"https:\/\/www.opb.org\/article\/2026\/10\/16\/drought-heat-mount-hood-glaciers-oregon-portland\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">OPB<\/a>. The lodge had shut down its Palmer Express lift back on July 19, earlier than at any point in its history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Robin Cressy, a videographer who films skiers on the Palmer, summed it up for OPB: \u201cIt looks like there\u2019s nothing there, and pretty much there is nothing there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The scientists OPB consulted don\u2019t see this year as a one-off. Oregon had 36 glaciers in the 1980s, and it\u2019s down to 25 today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1013\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/mount-hood-coalman-glacier-pond-debris-flow-3.jpg\" alt=\"Mount Hood from a mountain road in September, its slopes mostly bare rock and gravel with only scattered patches of snow and ice under a deep blue sky\" class=\"wp-image-53309\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/mount-hood-coalman-glacier-pond-debris-flow-3.jpg 1800w, https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/mount-hood-coalman-glacier-pond-debris-flow-3-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/mount-hood-coalman-glacier-pond-debris-flow-3-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/mount-hood-coalman-glacier-pond-debris-flow-3-1536x864.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Mount Hood in September 2013, after a light-snow winter, had lost nearly all its seasonal snow, leaving mostly the glaciers. Photo: Don Graham via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0), cropped<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Glaciers last a long time, points out Andrew Fountain, a professor emeritus of geology at Portland State University, but in years like this one they simply shrink.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The coming months might not bring much relief. Philip Mote, a climate science professor at Oregon State University, warns that another poor snow year is possible, which would leave the observatory watching the pond below Coalman Glacier with less snow around it than usual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe trends are absolutely that we\u2019re losing snowpack,\u201d says environmental studies and geography professor Mark Carey, from the University of Oregon.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Somewhere in the region of 13 million gallons of meltwater has pooled at the foot of Coalman Glacier, high on &#8230; <\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more-container\"><a title=\"A meltwater pond at the foot of Mount Hood\u2019s Coalman Glacier has grown larger than in previous years, and the USGS says a sudden release could send a debris flow down the White River toward the Highway 35 bridge\" class=\"read-more button\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/mount-hood-coalman-glacier-pond-debris-flow\/53328\/#more-53328\" aria-label=\"Read more about A meltwater pond at the foot of Mount Hood\u2019s Coalman Glacier has grown larger than in previous years, and the USGS says a sudden release could send a debris flow down the White River toward the Highway 35 bridge\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":53307,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"eco_video_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environment","resize-featured-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53328"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53345,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53328\/revisions\/53345"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}