Publications

The location of the Opportunity landing site was determined to better than 10-m absolute accuracy from analyses of radio tracking data. We determined Rover locations during traverses with an error as small as several centimeters using engineering telemetry and overlapping images. Topographic profiles generated from rover data show that the plains are very smooth from meter- to centimeter...

The 3 November 2002 Mw 7.9 Denali fault earthquake triggered deformational offsets and microseismicity under Mammoth Mountain (MM) on the rim of Long Valley caldera, California, some 3460 km from the earthquake. Such strain offsets and microseismicity were not recorded at other borehole strain sites along the San Andreas fault system in California. The Long Valley offsets were recorded...

Radial Semblance is applied to broadband seismic network data to provide source locations of Very-Long-Period (VLP) seismic energy in near real time. With an efficient algorithm and adequate network coverage, accurate source locations of VLP energy are derived to quickly locate the shallow magmatic conduit system at Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii. During a restart in magma flow following a...

These maps present preliminary assessments of the probability of debris-flow activity and estimates of peak discharges that can potentially be generated by debris flows issuing from basins burned by the Cedar and Paradise Fires of October 2003 in southern California in response to 25-year, 10-year, and 2-year recurrence, 1-hour duration rain storms. The probability maps are based on the

No abstract available.

A coastal vulnerability index (CVI, http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2004/1020/html/cvi.htm) was used to map relative vulnerability of the coast to future sea-level rise within Assateague Island National Seashore (ASIS) in Maryland and Virginia. The CVI ranks the following in terms of their physical contribution to sea-level rise-related coastal change: geomorphology, regional coastal slope, rate...

The modern Monterey submarine fan, one of the largest deep-water deposits off the western US, is composed of two major turbidite systems: the Neogene Lower Turbidite System (LTS) and the late Quarternary Upper Turbidite System (UTS). The areally extensive LTS is a distal deposit with low-relief, poorly defined channels, overbank, and lower-fan elements. The younger UTS comprises almost...

Wai‘anae Volcano comprises the western half of O‘ahu Island, but until recently little was known about the submarine portion of this volcano. Seven new submersible dives, conducted in 2001 and 2002, and multibeam bathymetry offshore of Wai‘anae provide evidence pertaining to the overall growth of the volcano's edifice as well as the timing of collapses that formed the Wai‘anae slump...

Seismic velocity and attenuation anomalies in the mantle are commonly interpreted in terms of temperature variations on the basis of laboratory studies of elastic and anelastic properties of rocks. In order to evaluate the relative contributions of thermal and non-thermal effects on anomalies of attenuation of seismic shear waves, Q−1s, and seismic velocity, Vs, we compare global maps of...

We report new strength data for the serpentine mineral chrysotile at effective normal stresses, σn between 40 and 200 MPa in the temperature range 25°-280°C. Overall, the coefficient of friction, μ (= shear stress/effective normal stress) of water-saturated chrysotile gouge increases both with increasing temperature and σn, but the rates vary and the temperature-related increases begin...

Perhaps the most difficult task facing volcanologists today is that of distinguishing between low-level volcanic restlessness and activity that presages a full-scale eruption. We illustrate these difficulties by reexamining the sequence of events that led to the 18 May 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, activity that is often presented as a classic example of early phreatic explosions...

The Rock Elm structure in southwest Wisconsin is an anomalous circular area of highly deformed rocks, ∼6.5 km in diameter, located in a region of virtually horizontal undeformed sedimentary rocks. Shock-produced planar microstructures (PMs) have been identified in quartz grains in several lithologies associated with the structure: sandstones, quartzite pebbles, and breccia. Two distinct...