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Charles M Cannon

Charles Cannon is a geologist at the Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center. Since joining the USGS in 2008, he has devoted his career to studying the geology and geomorphology of the Columbia River region and specializes in geographic information systems. While Charlie's current research focuses on mapping Quaternary geology in the region near The Dalles, Oregon,

Since 2010, he has been working to understand the geology of the lower Columbia River, primarily by way of detailed geomorphic mapping and hydrologic analyses of its tidally-influenced reaches between Bonneville Dam and the Pacific Ocean. Since 2014, he has been working to map Quaternary geology in the region near The Dalles, Oregon. His interests include using geographic information systems, remote sensing, and modeling for geologic and geomorphic studies.

Professional Experience

  • 2015 - Present, Geologist, U.S. Geological Survey, Portland, OR

  • 2008 - 2015, Hydrologist, U.S. Geological Survey, Portland, OR

Education and Certifications

  • M.S., Geology, Portland State University, 2015

  • Graduate Certificate, Geographic Information Systems, Portland State University, 2010

  • B.S., Geology with Computer Applications Minor, Portland State University, 2008

Affiliations and Memberships*

  • 2007 - present, Geological Society of America

Science and Products

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Physiographic image of the Pacific Northwest

Pacific Northwest Geologic Mapping: Northern Pacific Border, Cascades and Columbia

The Pacific Northwest is an area created by active and complex geological processes. On its path to the Pacific Ocean, the Columbia River slices through a chain of active volcanoes located along the western margin of the U.S. in Washington, Oregon, and northern California. These volcanoes rest above the active Cascadia subduction zone, which is the boundary where the oceanic tectonic plate dives...
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National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program, Earthquake Science Center, Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center, Oregon Water Science Center, Washington Water Science Center, Western Fisheries Research Center
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Pacific Northwest Geologic Mapping: Northern Pacific Border, Cascades and Columbia

The Pacific Northwest is an area created by active and complex geological processes. On its path to the Pacific Ocean, the Columbia River slices through a chain of active volcanoes located along the western margin of the U.S. in Washington, Oregon, and northern California. These volcanoes rest above the active Cascadia subduction zone, which is the boundary where the oceanic tectonic plate dives...
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Extent of Pliocene hyaloclastic deposits and related lava flows in the Columbia Gorge, Oregon and Washington

This dataset contains polygons representing deposits of hyaloclastic debris that were generated between about 3.5 and 3.0 million years ago when a series of basaltic lava flows entered the canyon of the ancestral Columbia River. The lava flows were erupted from volcanoes in the area of the Hood River graben of McClaughry and others (2012), generally have low-potassium tholeiitic basalt composition
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Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center

Digital terrain model of upper North Fork Toutle River valley, Washington, derived from historical topographic maps

This digital terrain model represents historical elevations along the valley of the North Fork Toutle River upstream of its confluence with the Green River in Cowlitz and Skamania Counties, Washington. Most elevations were derived from U.S. Geological Survey 1:62,500 scale topographic quadrangle maps published from 1953 to 1958 that were derived from aerial photographs taken in 1951 and 1952. Elev
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Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center

Digital Terrain Model to Support Modeling of Lahars Originating on the West Side of Mount Rainier, Washington

This digital elevation model contains ground surface elevations for the valleys of rivers draining the west side of Mount Rainier, Washington. Elevations are mostly from the 1/9th arc-second (approximately 3 meter) resolution U.S. Geological Survey National Elevation Dataset (NED). The NED data were projected to the Universal Transverse Mercator Zone 10 coordinate system and mosaicked to form a si
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Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center

Data to support modeling of the 2015 Tyndall Glacier landslide, Alaska

Landslide-generated tsunamis pose significant hazards, but developing models to assess these hazards presents unique challenges. George and others (2017) present a new methodology in which a depth-averaged two-phase landslide model (D-Claw) is used to simulate all stages of landslide dynamics and subsequent tsunami generation, propagation, and inundation. Because the model describes the evolution
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Volcano Hazards Program
Filter Total Items: 13

Modeling the dynamics of lahars that originate as landslides on the west side of Mount Rainier, Washington

Large lahars pose substantial threats to people and property downstream from Mount Rainier volcano in Washington State. Geologic evidence indicates that these threats exist even during the absence of volcanic activity and that the threats are highest in the densely populated Puyallup and Nisqually River valleys on the west side of the volcano. However, the precise character of these threats can be
Authors
David L. George, Richard M. Iverson, Charles M. Cannon
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Volcano Hazards Program, Volcano Science Center

Major reorganization of the Snake River modulated by passage of the Yellowstone Hotspot

The details and mechanisms for Neogene river reorganization in the U.S. Pacific Northwest and northern Rocky Mountains have been debated for over a century with key implications for how tectonic and volcanic systems modulate topographic development. To evaluate paleo-drainage networks, we produced an expansive data set and provenance analysis of detrital zircon U-Pb ages from Miocene to Pleistocen
Authors
Lydia M. Staisch, Jim E. O'Connor, Charles M. Cannon, Christopher Holm-Denoma, Paul K. Link, John Lasher, Jeremy A. Alexander
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National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program, Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center, Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center

Arc versus river: The geology of the Columbia River Gorge

The Columbia River Gorge is the Columbia River’s long-held yet evolving passage through the volcanic arc of the Cascade Range. The globally unique setting of a continental-scale river bisecting an active volcanic arc at the leading edge of a major plate boundary creates a remarkable setting where dynamic volcanic and tectonic processes interact with diverse and energetic fluvial processes. This th
Authors
Jim E. O'Connor, Ray Wells, Scott E. K. Bennett, Charles M. Cannon, Lydia M. Staisch, James L Anderson, Anthony Francis Pivarunas, Gabriel Wells Gordon, Richard J. Blakely, Mark E. Stelten, Russell C. Evarts
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Volcano Hazards Program, Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center, Volcano Science Center

Diverse cataclysmic floods from Pleistocene glacial Lake Missoula

In late Wisconsin time, the Purcell Trench lobe of the Cordilleran ice sheet dammed the Clark Fork of the Columbia River in western Montana, creating glacial Lake Missoula. During part of this epoch, the Okanogan lobe also dammed the Columbia River downstream, creating glacial Lake Columbia in northeast Washington. Repeated failure of the Purcell Trench ice dam released glacial Lake Missoula, caus
Authors
Roger P. Denlinger, David L. George, Charles M. Cannon, Jim E. O'Connor, Richard B. Waitt
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Water Resources Mission Area, National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program, Volcano Hazards Program, Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center, Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center, Oregon Water Science Center, Volcano Science Center

The Missoula and Bonneville floods—A review of ice-age megafloods in the Columbia River basin

The Channeled Scabland of eastern Washington State, USA, brought megafloods to the scientific forefront. A 30,000-km2 landscape of coulees and cataracts carved into the region’s loess-covered basalt attests to overwhelming volumes of energetic water. The scarred landscape, garnished by huge boulder bars and far-travelled ice-rafted erratics, spurred J Harlen Bretz’s vigorously disputed flood hypot
Authors
Jim E. O'Connor, Victor R. Baker, Richard B. Waitt, Larry N Smith, Charles M. Cannon, David L. George, Roger P. Denlinger
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National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program, Volcano Hazards Program, Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center, Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center, Volcano Science Center

Seamless numerical simulation of a hazard cascade in which a landslide triggers a dam-breach flood and consequent debris flow

Numerical simulations of hazard cascades downstream from moraine-dammed lakes commonly must specify linkages between models of discrete processes such as wave overtopping, dam breaching, erosion, and downstream floods or debris flows. Such linkages can be rather arbitrary and can detract from the ability to accurately conserve mass and momentum during complex sequences of events. Here we describ
Authors
David L. George, Richard M. Iverson, Charles M. Cannon
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Volcano Hazards Program, Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center, Volcano Science Center

New methodology for computing tsunami generation by subaerial landslides: Application to the 2015 Tyndall Glacier landslide, Alaska

Landslide-generated tsunamis pose significant hazards and involve complex, multiphase physics that are challenging to model. We present a new methodology in which our depth-averaged two-phase model D-Claw is used to seamlessly simulate all stages of landslide dynamics as well as tsunami generation, propagation, and inundation. Because the model describes the evolution of solid and fluid volume fra
Authors
David L. George, Richard M. Iverson, Charles M. Cannon
By
Volcano Hazards Program, Volcano Science Center

Landslide mobility and hazards: implications of the 2014 Oso disaster

Landslides reflect landscape instability that evolves over meteorological and geological timescales, and they also pose threats to people, property, and the environment. The severity of these threats depends largely on landslide speed and travel distance, which are collectively described as landslide “mobility”. To investigate causes and effects of mobility, we focus on a disastrous landslide that
Authors
Richard M. Iverson, David L. George, Kate E. Allstadt, Mark E. Reid, Brian D. Collins, James W. Vallance, Steve P. Schilling, Jonathan W. Godt, Charles Cannon, Christopher S. Magirl, Rex L. Baum, Jeffrey A. Coe, William Schulz, J. Brent Bower
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Natural Hazards Mission Area, Landslide Hazards Program, Volcano Hazards Program, Volcano Science Center, Geologic Hazards Science Center

Columbia River Estuary ecosystem classification—Concept and application

This document describes the concept, organization, and application of a hierarchical ecosystem classification that integrates saline and tidal freshwater reaches of estuaries in order to characterize the ecosystems of large flood plain rivers that are strongly influenced by riverine and estuarine hydrology. We illustrate the classification by applying it to the Columbia River estuary (Oregon-Washi
Authors
Charles A. Simenstad, Jennifer L. Burke, Jim E. O'Connor, Charles Cannon, Danelle W. Heatwole, Mary F. Ramirez, Ian R. Waite, Timothy D. Counihan, Krista L. Jones
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Natural Hazards Mission Area, Volcano Hazards Program, Volcano Science Center, Western Fisheries Research Center, Columbia River Research Laboratory (CRRL)

Channel change and bed-material transport in the Umpqua River basin, Oregon

The Umpqua River drains 12,103 square kilometers of western Oregon; with headwaters in the Cascade Range, the river flows through portions of the Klamath Mountains and Oregon Coast Range before entering the Pacific Ocean. Above the head of tide, the Umpqua River, along with its major tributaries, the North and South Umpqua Rivers, flows on a mixed bedrock and alluvium bed, alternating between bedr
Authors
J. Rose Wallick, Jim E. O'Connor, Scott Anderson, Mackenzie K. Keith, Charles Cannon, John C. Risley
By
Water Resources Mission Area, Natural Hazards Mission Area, Volcano Hazards Program, Volcano Science Center, Oregon Water Science Center, Utah Water Science Center

Channel change and bed-material transport in the Umpqua River basin, Oregon

The Umpqua River drains 12,103 km2 of western Oregon, heading in the Cascade Range and draining portions of the Klamath Mountains and Coast Range before entering the Pacific Ocean. Above the head of tide, the Umpqua River, along with its major tributaries, the North and South Umpqua Rivers, flows on a mixed bedrock and alluvium bed, alternating between bedrock rapids and intermittent, shallow grav
Authors
J. Rose Wallick, Jim E. O'Connor, Scott Anderson, Mackenzie K. Keith, Charles Cannon, John C. Risley
By
Water Resources Mission Area, Oregon Water Science Center

Channel change and bed-material transport in the Lower Chetco River, Oregon

The lower Chetco River is a wandering gravel-bed river flanked by abundant and large gravel bars formed of coarse bed-material sediment. The large gravel bars have been a source of commercial aggregate since the early twentieth century for which ongoing permitting and aquatic habitat concerns have motivated this assessment of historical channel change and sediment transport rates. Analysis of hist
Authors
J. Rose Wallick, Scott W. Anderson, Charles Cannon, Jim E. O'Connor
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Water Resources Mission Area, Oregon Water Science Center

Science and Products

*Disclaimer: Listing outside positions with professional scientific organizations on this Staff Profile are for informational purposes only and do not constitute an endorsement of those professional scientific organizations or their activities by the USGS, Department of the Interior, or U.S. Government