Geology, geochronology, and potential volcanic hazards in the Lava Ridge-Hells Half Acre area, eastern Snake River Plain, Idaho

The evaluation of volcanic hazards for the proposed Safety Test Reactor Facility (STF) at the Argonne National Laboratory-West (ANLW) site, Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL), Idaho, involves an analysis of the geology of the Lava Ridge-Hells Half Acre area and of K-At age determinations on lava flows in cored drill holes. The ANLW site at INEL lies in a shallow topographic depression bounded on the east and south by volcanic rift zones that are the locus of past shield-type basalt volcanism and by rhyolite domes erupted along the ring fracture of an inferred rhyolite caldera. The K-At age data indicate that the ANLW site has been flooded by basalt lava flows at irregular intervals from perhaps a few thousand years to as much as 300,000-400,000 years, with an average recurrence interval between flows of approximately 80,000-100,000 years. At least five major lava flows have covered the ANLW site within the past 500,000 years.