 Lasin Peak. Its beauty belies its simmering potential. It is at the top of the state's volcano watch list. The volcano is still very much active. That's why we have these wonderful hydrothermal areas. California is not only earthquake country. It is also volcano country. Dr. Maggie Mangan is the scientist in charge at the USGS California Volcano Observatory in Menlo Park. The threat is real and the potential for another volcanic eruption in the state of California is on the order of one in a hundred to about one in a couple thousand in any given year. Would you buy a lottery ticket with those odds? Well those odds are why the USGS monitors all eight volcanoes in the watch list. Lasin Peak and Mount Shasta in the north and Long Valley Caldera east of Yosemite are California's high threat volcanoes. Monitoring stations at the volcanoes themselves gather seismic and gas readings along with data on changes in land topography then streams it all in real time to this operations room at the observatory. Scientists also watch the molten rock or magma flowing three miles below Lasin Peak. We keep a watch on that because if we start to see anything migrating toward the surface it might suggest that the magmatic system is going to be replenished and that could provoke an eruption. Dr. Mike Klin has studied Lasin Peak since 1975. Lasin last erupted in May of 1915 miraculously captured on film. There were no known deaths and only a few minor injuries but should Lasin or Shasta blow today and it will? It's not a matter of if it's just a matter of when. The results would be more complicated and concerning depending on the severity and the other conditions like weather but it would not take us by surprise. It's likely that you would see weeks to months of warning. Scientists learn a lot from history. It is a determined odds maker. The number of volcanic eruptions that occur within the state of California in just the last thousand years are about the same as the number of large damaging earthquakes on the San Andreas Fault. We take that hazard seriously. We need to take the volcano hazard seriously.