Steam spotted rising from road near Portland’s Rocky Butte

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Steam spotted rising from asphalt on a residential street near Rocky Butte raised questions on social media Saturday evening.

“Rocky Butte is an extinct volcano and should not have any steam coming out of it,” said PSU Geologist Scott Burns.

“When you see steam coming out of the ground, it’s either going to be natural from a source deep in the Earth or it’s going to be a pipe that is carrying steam beneath the surface and has a crack in it, leaking out and coming up to the surface,” Burns told KOIN 6 News. “The chances of it being a volcano coming back to life are pretty miniscule, but it is an old volcano.”

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And he added, correctly, “I bet you anything that it is human produced.”

Hannah Schafer with the Portland Bureau of Transportation told KOIN 6 News their crews checked it out and determined this is not a cause for concern at this time.

Their sewer crew found the issue came from a private property between a couple apartment complexes which use steam heat.

A resident of one apartment complex told a member of PBOT’s sewer crew that property management has been aware of the issue and it had been going on for six months or longer.

Even though it turned out not to be Dante’s Peak, Burns said he was glad KOIN 6 News checked out the issue.

“It has not been erupting in the past 97,000 years and, in fact, in the Portland area none of what we call the Boring Lava Volcanoes have erupted. The last one was 57,000 years ago,” he said. “I’m glad you guys are responding to this.”

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