Publications

Subduction-zone volcanoes account for more than 80 percent of the documented eruptions in recorded history, even though volcanism--deep and, hence, unobserved--along the global oceanic ridge systems overwhelmingly dominates in eruptive output. Because subduction-zone eruptions can be highly explosive, they pose some of the greatest natural hazards to society if the eruptions occur in...

Thirty-eight hydrothermal minerals were identified from 356 drill-core specimens that were obtained from three Scientific Observation Holes (SOH-1, SOH-2, and SOH-4) drilled along the lower East Rift Zone (ERZ) of Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii. The minerals formed during alteration of basaltic rocks and glass by hot, circulating, waters in aquifers consisting of variable mixtures of meteoric...

No abstract available.

More than 100 tephra-fall deposits erupted from Mount St. Helens within about the last 40,000 years are grouped into tephra sets and layers distinguished from each other chiefly by differences in mineral composition and age. The tephra deposits record a complex history of the volcano, form important time-stratigraphic markers, and provide information about probable kinds, frequencies...

At an active volcano, long-period seismicity (with typical periods in the range 0.2–2 s) reflects pressure fluctuations resulting from unsteady mass transport in the sub-surface plumbing system, and hence provides a glimpse of the internal dynamics of the volcanic edifice. When this activity occurs at shallow depths, it may signal the pressure-induced disruption of the steam-dominated...

We elaborate on the well-known spatial association between axc volcanoes and Wadati Benioff zones and explore in detail their genetic relationships as dual physical expressions of slab metamorphism of the oceanic crust and uppermost mantle. At hypocentral depths less than 200 km intra slab Wadati-Benioff earthquakes tend to occur near the top surfaces of slabs. Subduction of very young...

No abstract available.

Comb-layered quartz is a type of unidirectional solidification texture found at the roofs of shallow silicic intrusions that are often associated spatially with Mo and W mineralisation. The texture consists of multiple layers of euhedral, prismatic quartz crystals (Type I) that have grown on subplanar aplite substrates. The layers are separated by porphyritic aplite containing equant...

No abstract available.

Calderas that collapse during large pyroclastic eruptions are anomalously rare in the Cascade arc. Recognition of the early Pleistocene 4.5 × 8 km Kulshan caldera, filled with rhyodacite ignimbrite at the northeast foot of Mount Baker, brings to only three the Quaternary calderas identified in the Cascades. A near-vertical ring fault cut in basement rocks of the North Cascades encloses...

In the early 1960s, the emergence of the theory of plate tectonics started a revolution in the earth sciences. Since then, scientists have verified and refined this theory, and now have a much better understanding of how our planet has been shaped by plate-tectonic processes. We now know that, directly or indirectly, plate tectonics influences nearly all geologic processes, past and...

New and detailed petrographic observations, mineral compositional data, and whole-rock vs glass compositional trends document magma mixing in lavas erupted from Kilauea's lower east rift zone in 1960. Evidence includes the occurrence of heterogeneous phenocryst assemblages, including resorbed and reversely zoned minerals in the lavas inferred to be hybrids. Calculations suggest that this...