Publications

An erupting volcano is one of nature's truly spectacular sights. From a distance, or perhaps through the cameras of the news media, we often observe roiling mushroom clouds of ash or flows of incandescent lava issuing from the volcano's throat. If, however, you happen to live near that erupting volcano, your life or livelihood may be endangered and your property at risk of destruction a...

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The Geothermal Program of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is revisiting the Basin and Range Province after a hiatus of over a decade. The Basin and Range is a region of Neogene extension and generally high, but regionally and locally variable heat flow. The northern Basin and Range (Great Basin) has higher mean elevation and more intense Quaternary extension than does the southern...

Landslides with volumes exceeding 1000 km3 have occurred on the flanks of Hawaiian volcanoes. Because the flanks typically slope seaward no more than 12 °, the mechanics of slope failure are problematic. Limit-equilibrium analyses of wedge-shaped slices of the volcano flanks show that magma injection at prospective headscarps might trigger the landslides, but only under very restrictive...

Condensate samples were collected in 1992 from a high-temperature (300° C) fumarole on the floor of the Halemaumau Pit Crater at Kilauea. The emergence about two years earlier of such a hot fumarole was unprecedented at such a central location at Kilauea. The condensates have hydrogen and oxygen isotopic compositions which indicate that the waters emitted by the fumarole are composed...

Alaska has more than 40 active volcanoes, many of which are close to the major population centers of south-central Alaska. This bibliography was compiled to assist in the preparation of volcano hazard evaluations at Cook Inlet volcanoes. It lists articles, reports, and maps about the geology and hydrology of Hayes, Spurr, Redoubt, Iliamna, Augustine, and Douglas volcanoes in the Cook...

This report compiles hydrologic observations in southern California associated with the 1994 Mw = 6.7 Northridge, California earthquake. In southern California, the largest ground water level change was a drop of 52 cm at Crystalaire. Most of the steplike water-level changes recorded following the Northridge earthquake agreed in direction with the sign of the calculated coseismic volume...

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Isotope tracer methods were used to determine flow paths, recharge areas, and relative age for ground water in the Kilauea volcano area on the Island of Hawaii. Stable isotopes in rainfall show three distinct isotopic gradients with elevation, which are correlated with trade-wind, rain shadow, and high-elevation climatological patterns. Temporal variations in isotopic composition of...

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The last few years have seen several impressive examples of seismic monitoring at volcanoes to provide warnings that have saved lives and property. Changes in the rates and character of volcanic earthquakes provided precursory signs to explosive eruptions of moderate size at Redoubt volcano (Alaska), Mount Unzen (Japan), Mount Spurr (Alaska), and Rabaul caldera (Papua New Guinea), as...