Activity at the volcanic field has occurred sporadically for the past 700,000 years. Therefore, it remains likely that volcanoes from the field will erupt in the future, generating voluminous lava flows. Nonetheless, the Volcano Hazards Program directed by the United States Geological Survey lists Indian Heaven's volcanic threat level as Low/Very Low. To assess threats from possible lava flows at Indian Heaven or at nearby Mount Adams, geologists from the United States Geological Survey headed by W. E. Scott determined its mean burial rate in 1995, calculated as the lava volume erupted per unit time divided by the area of the lava field. They found that Indian Heaven's average burial rate was low, but noted that Indian Heaven has had a large lava flow in the past 10,000 years. Estimating the probability of lava flows from Indian Heaven covering a certain point in the zone surrounding the field, the geologists arrived at a range between one in 100,000 to one in a million.