Stimulus through volcanic monitoring becomes reality

Active US volcanoes and volcano observatories

After all the well-publicized words of “a certain governor in the lower forty-eight” (as Sen. Begich (D-AK) likes to call him) the “wasteful” spending on volcano monitoring improvements in the U.S. have become reality. Sec. of the Interior Ken Salazar announced $15.2 million dollars to modern the infrastructure of the nation’s volcano monitoring networks (that is out of the ~$3 billion that went to the Interior – making volcano monitoring a whopping 0.5% of the stimulus that went to that department). Much of this money will likely go to one of the many USGS volcano observatories, including the Alaska Volcano Observatory and the Hawaii Volcano Observatory.

Ah, volcano monitoring isn’t the only branch of the USGS that will be getting a boost. The US seismic network will be doubled to over 1,600 stations and earthquake monitoring will get an almost $30 million dollar boost. Here’s to disaster monitoring!