Conference Papers

At Yucca Mountain, calcite occurs as open-space fillings and coatings on fractures within much of the host volcanic rocks in both the saturated and unsaturated zones. Strontium isotope analyses of these calcites divide the samples into two groups corresponding to their location in either the saturated or unsaturated zones. The group of samples from the unsaturated zone corresponds very...

Detailed structural mapping of an area that straddles the southern part of the Ghost Dance Fault has revealed the presence of several additional subparallel to anastomosing faults. These faults, mapped at a scale of 1:240, are: 1) dominantly north trending, 2) present on both the upthrown and downthrown sides of the surface trace of the Ghost Dance fault, 3) near-vertical features that...

Existing gravity data in the vicinity of Yucca Mountain and Crater Flat have been examined to determine if these data support only the caldera model or if they support other geologic models such as for a high-angle graben or detachment fault. The west to east isostatic gravity profile reduced for a density of 2.0 g/cm3 shows a gravity low of about 20 mGal centered only 2 km from the...

No abstract available

The revised map for the potentiometric surface of the uppermost saturated zone in Tertiary volcanic rocks at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, is based mainly on 1988 water levels. Refinement of the water-level corrections has increased understanding of the area immediately east-southeast and hydrologically downgradient of Yucca Mountain. This small-gradient area is a nearly horizontal surface...

The amount of large woody debris that potentially could be transported to bridge sites was assessed in the basin of the West Harpeth River in Tennessee in the fall of 1992. The assessment was based on inspections of study sites at 12 bridges and examination of channel reaches between bridges. It involved estimating the amount of woody material at least 1.5 meters long, stored in the...

In November 1992 the valve at the top of a U.S. Geological Survey drill hole in Yellowstone National Park parted from the casting as a result of corrosion. This allowed uncontrolled venting of boiling water and steam from the well at an estimated liquid flow rate of about 25-50 gallons per minute. A flow diverter assembly was designed, fabricated and installed on the well within 16 days...

Tectonic characterization of a potential high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, is needed to assess seismic and possible volcanic hazards that could affect the site during the preclosure (next 100 years) and the behavior of the hydrologic system during the postclosure (the following 10,000 years) periods. Tectonic characterization is based on assembling mapped...

No abstract available

The lower east rift zone of Kilauea has been the site of repeated fissure eruptions fed by dikes that traverse the depths of interest to geothermal explorations. We find that a hot-rock-and-magma system of low permeability extending along the rift zone at depths below about 4 km and replenished with magma at a rate that is small in comparison to the modern eruption rate Kilauea can...

Local earthquake tomography - the use of earthquake signals to form a 3-dimensional structural image - is now a mature geophysical analysis method, particularly suited to the study of geothermal reservoirs, which are often seismically active and severely laterally inhomogeneous. Studies have been conducted of the Hengill (Iceland), Krafla (Iceland) and The Geysers (California) geothermal...

This report describes work being done at the U.S. Geological Survey on 3-D simulations of earthquake ground motions in sedimentary basins. The ultimate goal of this research is to predict strong ground motions in sedimentary basins for expected large earthquakes. This report emphasizes the inadequacy of using flat-layered models for synthesizing ground motions in sedimentary basins. 2-D...