We had an eruption up here not too long ago with Mt. Redoubt… we evacuated our airplanes (C-17’s) out of an abundance of caution. On a subsequent flight, I had a USGS geologist on board and asked her about her opinion on when it would erupt… She said “geology is a funny thing- it could be 5 minutes from now or 50,000 years”.
Rainier is far from dormant. They have earthquakes up there almost on a weekly basis. Most are very small, likely not even felt by people, but they do have some pretty good shakers on occasion. Some of them are actually glacier quakes, caused by the movement of ice so they don't affect the rocks.
