Publications

Ventifacts, rocks abraded by wind-borne particles, are found in Gale Crater, Mars. In the eastward drive from “Bradbury Landing” to “Rocknest,” they account for about half of the float and outcrop seen by Curiosity's cameras. Many are faceted and exhibit abrasion textures found at a range of scales, from submillimeter lineations to centimeter-scale facets, scallops, flutes, and grooves...

We calculate stress changes resulting from the M = 6.0 West Napa earthquake on north San Francisco Bay area faults. The earthquake ruptured within a series of long faults that pose significant hazard to the Bay area, and we are thus concerned with potential increases in the probability of a large earthquake through stress transfer. We conduct this exercise as a prospective test because...

The rivers of western Oregon have diverse forms and characteristics, with channel substrates ranging from continuous alluvial gravel to bare bedrock. Analysis of several measurable morphologic attributes of 24 valley reaches on 17 rivers provides a basis for comparing nonalluvial and alluvial channels. Key differences are that alluvial reaches have greater bar area, greater migration...

In September 2004, Mount St. Helens volcano erupted after nearly 18 years of quiescence. However, it is unclear from the limited geophysical observations when or if the magma chamber replenished following the 1980–1986 eruptions in the years before the 2004–2008 extrusive eruption. We use coda wave interferometry with repeating earthquakes to measure small changes in the velocity...

The 40Ar/39Ar investigations of a large suite of fine-grained basaltic rocks of the Boring volcanic field (BVF), Oregon and Washington (USA), yielded two primary results. (1) Using age control from paleomagnetic polarity, stratigraphy, and available plateau ages, 40Ar/39Ar recoil model ages are defined that provide reliable age results in the absence of an age plateau, even in cases of...

We held 8 regional and topical workshops across the U.S. to gather information for these maps. The maps were available to the public for comment during a 60-day period. A Steering Committee (9 experts) was assembled to review the inputs and results and provide additional insights. The maps have been presented at several professional meetings. In this talk we discuss: (1) CEUS, (2) WUS...

The characteristics of magma supply, storage, and transport are among the most critical parameters governing volcanic activity, yet they remain largely unconstrained because all three processes are hidden beneath the surface. Hawaiian volcanoes, particularly Kīlauea and Mauna Loa, offer excellent prospects for studying subsurface magmatic processes, owing to their accessibility and...

For many earthquake engineering applications, site response is estimated through empirical correlations with the time‐averaged shear‐wave velocity to 30 m depth (VS30). These applications therefore depend on the availability of either site‐specific VS30 measurements or VS30 maps at local, regional, and global scales. Because VS30 measurements are sparse, a proxy frequently is needed to...

Substantial effort has been invested to understand where seismically induced landslides may occur in the future, as they are a costly and frequently fatal threat in mountainous regions. The goal of this work is to develop a statistical model for estimating the spatial distribution of landslides in near real-time around the globe for use in conjunction with the U.S. Geological Survey...

The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) was established as a natural laboratory to study volcanic processes. Since the most frequent form of volcanic activity in Hawai‘i is effusive, a major contribution of the past century of research at HVO has been to describe and quantify lava flow emplacement processes. Lava flow research has taken many forms; first and foremost it has been a...

The 19 known shield volcanoes of the main Hawaiian Islands—15 now emergent, 3 submerged, and 1 newly born and still submarine—lie at the southeast end of a long-lived hot spot chain. As the Pacific Plate of the Earth’s lithosphere moves slowly northwestward over the Hawaiian hot spot, volcanoes are successively born above it, evolve as they drift away from it, and eventually die and...

This chapter, prepared in celebration of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatoryʼs centennial, provides a historical lens through which to view modern paradigms of Hawaiian-style eruption dynamics. The models presented here draw heavily from observations, monitoring, and experiments conducted on Kīlauea Volcano, which, as the site of frequent and accessible eruptions, has attracted scientists...