I have 38 years of experience as a USGS volcanologist. As the Volcano Science Center Director, I oversee the work of 170 employees at five U.S. volcano observatories and the Volcano Disaster Assistance Program. I am responsible for science and operational planning; workforce development; improving diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility; and preparing the USGS for U.S. volcanic eruptions.
I have worked for the USGS on various aspects of volcanology, eruption response, and hazard assessment and risk mitigation since 1983. I was introduced to volcanoes in college looking at Viking Orbiter images of Olympus Mons on Mars. My first Earthly volcano was Mount St. Helens where I spent the summer of 1982 studying small-volume pyroclastic flow deposits from 1980. I learned about lava and volcano monitoring as an assistant geologist at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory in the early days of the Pu`u`O`o eruption and mapped the summit and southwest rift zone of Kīlauea Volcano as part of the Big Island Geologic Mapping Project working for Ed Wolfe. In 1985, I spent a month at sea on an ALVIN expedition to the active propagating rift system near the Galapagos at 95.5W.
I moved to the new Alaska Volcano Observatory in 1990 where I participated in eruption response and physical volcanologic studies at Redoubt, Spurr, Augustine, Okmok, and other Aleutian volcanoes. My science focus was illuminating eruptive histories at Aniakchak and Okmok calderas, characterizing young pyroclastic deposits and processes, and hazard assessment. I developed strong interests and experience in managing volcano hazard information, developing warning systems, interagency coordination, and volcanic ash and aviation hazards. For some time, I led collaboration between the Alaska Volcano Observatory and colleagues in Kamchatka and Sakhalin to expand Russian eruption warning systems.
I served as the first USGS Geoscience Advisor to USAID's Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (1998-2000) where I developed and facilitated programs supporting disaster mitigation abroad. From 2009-2010, I completed two details to the USGS Western Regional Office as Chief of Staff and Deputy Regional Director. In 2011-2012, I represented the Volcano Hazards Program and Science Center during development of the USGS Hazards Mission Strategic Science Plan.
I served as Scientist-in-Charge of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory from 2015-2020, overseeing a staff of 30 and managing response to the 2018 lower East Rift Zone eruption and summit collapse of Kīlauea. During my tenure, I focused on hiring a new generation of HVO scientists, planning for new facilities and science initiatives following Congressional funding in the aftermath of the 2018 event, and preparing for a Mauna Loa eruption.
I returned to Alaska in 2020 and became Center Director in May 2021. My focus at this time is preparing for growth that may occur as part of the Congressionally authorized National Volcano Early Warning System and ensuring adequate support for our workforce to carry out the VSC goals to better understand volcanic processes and hazards, and provide timely guidance and information to help protect lives and property.
Professional Experience
2021 - Present, Volcano Science Center Director
2015 - 2020, Hawaiian Volcano Observatory Scientist-in-Charge
Education and Certifications
Sc.B, Geological Sciences, Brown University, 1981
M.S. Geological Sciences, Arizona State University, 1986
Affiliations and Memberships*
Geological Society of Ameria (Fellow)
American Geophysical Union
International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior
Honors and Awards
2019 Samuel J. Heymann Service to America finalist, HVO staff
2019 DOI Unit Award for Excellence of Service, HVO staff, for Kīlauea response
2016 Elected Fellow, Geological Society of America
2006 Superior Service Award, DOI
Science and Products
Geologic Map of the Summit Region of Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii
This report consists of a large map sheet and a pamphlet. The map shows the geology, some photographs, description of map units, and correlation of map units. The pamphlet gives the full text about the geologic map.
The area covered by this map includes parts of four U.S. Geological Survey 7.5' topographic quadrangles (Kilauea Crater, Volcano, Ka`u Desert, and Makaopuhi). It encompasses the su
Filter Total Items: 93
The 2018 eruption of Kīlauea: Insights, puzzles, and opportunities for volcano science
The science of volcanology advances disproportionately during exceptionally large or well-observed eruptions. The 2018 eruption of Kīlauea Volcano (Hawai‘i) was its most impactful in centuries, involving an outpouring of more than one cubic kilometer of basalt, a magnitude 7 flank earthquake, and the volcano’s largest summit collapse since at least the nineteenth century. Eruptive activity was doc
Authors
Kyle R. Anderson, Tom Shea, Kendra J. Lynn, Emily Montgomery-Brown, Donald A. Swanson, Matthew R. Patrick, Brian Shiro, Christina A. Neal
Damage assessment for the 2018 lower East Rift Zone lava flows of Kīlauea volcano, Hawaiʻi
Cataloguing damage and its correlation with hazard intensity is one of the key components needed to robustly assess future risk and plan for mitigation as it provides important empirical data. Damage assessments following volcanic eruptions have been conducted for buildings and other structures following hazards such as tephra fall, pyroclastic density currents, and lahars. However, there are rela
Authors
Elinor S. Meredith, Susanna F. Jenkins, Josh L. Hayes, Natalia Irma Deligne, David Lallemant, Matthew R. Patrick, Christina A. Neal
A look ahead to the next decade at US volcano observatories
Volcano monitoring, eruption response, and hazard assessment at volcanoes in the United States of America (US) fall under the mandate of five regional volcano observatories covering 161 active volcanoes. Working in a wide range of volcanic and geographic settings, US observatories must learn from and apply new knowledge and techniques to a great variety of scientific and hazard communication probl
Authors
Hannah R. Dietterich, Christina A. Neal
The ~400 yr B.P. eruption of Half Cone, a post-caldera composite cone within Aniakchak caldera, Alaska Peninsula
Aniakchak volcano is a historically active caldera located on the central Alaska Peninsula.
The largest eruption from Aniakchak since the ~3,400 yr B.P. caldera-forming eruption
occurred ~400 yr B.P. from Half Cone volcano, an intracaldera composite cone on the
northwest floor of the Aniakchak caldera that was largely destroyed by the eruption. The
~400 yr B.P. eruption produced a widely dispersed
Authors
Brandon Browne, Christina A. Neal, Charles R. Bacon
Rainfall an unlikely trigger of Kilauea’s 2018 rift eruption
If volcanic eruptions could be forecast from the occurrence of some external process, it might be possible to better mitigate risk and protect lives and livelihoods. Farquharson and Amelung1 suggested that the 2018 lower East Rift Zone (ERZ) eruption of Kīlauea Volcano—the most destructive eruption in Hawai‘i in at least 200 years2—was triggered by extreme precipitation, which caused increased por
Authors
M. Poland, Shaul Hurwitz, James P. Kauahikaua, Emily Montgomery-Brown, Kyle R. Anderson, Ingrid Johanson, Matthew R. Patrick, Christina A. Neal
Major-oxide and trace-element geochemical data from rocks collected on Little Sitkin Island, from Little Sitkin Volcano, Alaska
During the 2005 summer field season, geologists Michelle Coombs, Christina Neal, and Jessica Larsen from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks and the U.S. Geological survey, Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) conducted fieldwork on Little Sitkin Island in the western Aleutians of Alaska. The primary purpose of the fieldwork was to install geophysical networks for volcano monitoring. As part of this e
Authors
Jessica Larsen, Christina A. Neal, Cheryl E. Cameron
Preliminary analyses of volcanic hazards at Kīlauea Volcano, Hawai‘i, 2017–2018
From 2017 to 2018, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) responded to ongoing and changing eruptions at Kīlauea Volcano as part of its mission to monitor volcanic processes, issue warnings of dangerous activity, and assess volcanic hazards. To formalize short-term hazards assessments—and, in some cases, issue prognoses for future activity—and make results discoverabl
Authors
Christina A. Neal, Kyle R. Anderson
The 2018 rift eruption and summit collapse of Kilauea Volcano
In 2018, Kīlauea Volcano experienced its largest lower East Rift Zone (LERZ) eruption and caldera collapse in at least 200 years. After collapse of the Pu'u 'Ō'ō vent on 30 April, magma propagated downrift. Eruptive fissures opened in the LERZ on 3 May, eventually extending ~6.8 km. A 4 May earthquake (M6.9) produced ~5 m of fault slip. Lava erupted at rates exceeding 100 m3/s, eventually coveri
Authors
Christina A. Neal, Steven Brantley, Loren Antolik, Janet Babb, Matthew K. Burgess, Michael Cappos, Jefferson Chang, Sarah Conway, Liliana G. Desmither, Peter Dotray, Tamar Elias, Pauline Fukunaga, Steven Fuke, Ingrid Johanson, Kevan Kamibayashi, James P. Kauahikaua, R. Lopaka Lee, S. Pekalib, Asta Miklius, Brian Shiro, Don Swanson, Patricia Nadeau, Michael H. Zoeller, P. Okubo, Carolyn Parcheta, Matthew R. Patrick, William Tollett, Frank A. Trusdell, Edward F. Younger, Emily Montgomery-Brown, Kyle R. Anderson, Michael P. Poland, Jessica L. Ball, Joseph A. Bard, Michelle L. Coombs, Hannah R. Dietterich, Christoph Kern, Weston Thelen, Peter Cervelli, Tim R. Orr, Bruce F. Houghton, Cheryl Gansecki, Richard Hazlett, Paul Lundgren, Angela K. Diefenbach, Allan Lerner, Greg Waite, Peter J. Kelly, Laura E. Clor, Cynthia Werner, Katherine Mulliken, Gary B. Fisher, David Damby
Crisis remote sensing during the 2018 lower East Rift Zone eruption of Kīlauea Volcano
Kīlauea Volcano, Hawai‘i, is renowned as one of the most active and closely monitored volcanoes on Earth. Scores of seismometers and deformation sensors form an array across the volcano to detect subsurface magmatic activity, and ground observers track eruptions on the surface. In addition to this dense ground-based monitoring, remote sensing – both airborne and spaceborne – has become a backbone
Authors
Michael H. Zoeller, Matthew R. Patrick, Christina A. Neal
Linking the Ukinrek 1977 maar-eruption observations to the tephra deposits: New insights into maar depositional processes
The Ukinrek Maars erupted 30 March to 9 April 1977, forming two maars, a line of small pit craters and a tephra blanket extending to ~2 km from the vents. We combine photographic and written observations with stratigraphic analysis to reconstruct the eruption. The eruption began with very low (a few meters high) fountaining from small craters above an inferred east-west-trending dike, creating loc
Authors
Michael Ort, Nathalie Lefebvre, Christina A. Neal, Vicki McConnell, Ken Wohletz
Postglacial eruptive history and geochemistry of Semisopochnoi volcano, western Aleutian Islands, Alaska
Semisopochnoi Island, located in the Rat Islands group of the western Aleutian Islands and Aleutian volcanic arc, is a roughly circular island composed of scattered volcanic vents, the prominent caldera of Semisopochnoi volcano, and older, ancestral volcanic rocks. The oldest rocks on the island are gently radially dipping lavas that are the remnants of a shield volcano and of Ragged Top, which is
Authors
Michelle L. Coombs, Jessica F. Larsen, Christina A. Neal
Kīlauea summit eruption—Lava returns to Halemaʻumaʻu
In March 2008, a new volcanic vent opened within Halemaʻumaʻu, a crater at the summit of Kīlauea Volcano in Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park on the Island of Hawaiʻi. This new vent is one of two ongoing eruptions on the volcano. The other is on Kīlauea’s East Rift Zone, where vents have been erupting nearly nonstop since 1983. The duration of these simultaneous summit and rift zone eruptions on Kīl
Authors
Janet L. Babb, Stephen M. Wessells, Christina A. Neal
Filter Total Items: 59
Science and Products
- Maps
Geologic Map of the Summit Region of Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii
This report consists of a large map sheet and a pamphlet. The map shows the geology, some photographs, description of map units, and correlation of map units. The pamphlet gives the full text about the geologic map. The area covered by this map includes parts of four U.S. Geological Survey 7.5' topographic quadrangles (Kilauea Crater, Volcano, Ka`u Desert, and Makaopuhi). It encompasses the su - Publications
Filter Total Items: 93
The 2018 eruption of Kīlauea: Insights, puzzles, and opportunities for volcano science
The science of volcanology advances disproportionately during exceptionally large or well-observed eruptions. The 2018 eruption of Kīlauea Volcano (Hawai‘i) was its most impactful in centuries, involving an outpouring of more than one cubic kilometer of basalt, a magnitude 7 flank earthquake, and the volcano’s largest summit collapse since at least the nineteenth century. Eruptive activity was docAuthorsKyle R. Anderson, Tom Shea, Kendra J. Lynn, Emily Montgomery-Brown, Donald A. Swanson, Matthew R. Patrick, Brian Shiro, Christina A. NealDamage assessment for the 2018 lower East Rift Zone lava flows of Kīlauea volcano, Hawaiʻi
Cataloguing damage and its correlation with hazard intensity is one of the key components needed to robustly assess future risk and plan for mitigation as it provides important empirical data. Damage assessments following volcanic eruptions have been conducted for buildings and other structures following hazards such as tephra fall, pyroclastic density currents, and lahars. However, there are relaAuthorsElinor S. Meredith, Susanna F. Jenkins, Josh L. Hayes, Natalia Irma Deligne, David Lallemant, Matthew R. Patrick, Christina A. NealA look ahead to the next decade at US volcano observatories
Volcano monitoring, eruption response, and hazard assessment at volcanoes in the United States of America (US) fall under the mandate of five regional volcano observatories covering 161 active volcanoes. Working in a wide range of volcanic and geographic settings, US observatories must learn from and apply new knowledge and techniques to a great variety of scientific and hazard communication problAuthorsHannah R. Dietterich, Christina A. NealThe ~400 yr B.P. eruption of Half Cone, a post-caldera composite cone within Aniakchak caldera, Alaska Peninsula
Aniakchak volcano is a historically active caldera located on the central Alaska Peninsula. The largest eruption from Aniakchak since the ~3,400 yr B.P. caldera-forming eruption occurred ~400 yr B.P. from Half Cone volcano, an intracaldera composite cone on the northwest floor of the Aniakchak caldera that was largely destroyed by the eruption. The ~400 yr B.P. eruption produced a widely dispersedAuthorsBrandon Browne, Christina A. Neal, Charles R. BaconRainfall an unlikely trigger of Kilauea’s 2018 rift eruption
If volcanic eruptions could be forecast from the occurrence of some external process, it might be possible to better mitigate risk and protect lives and livelihoods. Farquharson and Amelung1 suggested that the 2018 lower East Rift Zone (ERZ) eruption of Kīlauea Volcano—the most destructive eruption in Hawai‘i in at least 200 years2—was triggered by extreme precipitation, which caused increased porAuthorsM. Poland, Shaul Hurwitz, James P. Kauahikaua, Emily Montgomery-Brown, Kyle R. Anderson, Ingrid Johanson, Matthew R. Patrick, Christina A. NealMajor-oxide and trace-element geochemical data from rocks collected on Little Sitkin Island, from Little Sitkin Volcano, Alaska
During the 2005 summer field season, geologists Michelle Coombs, Christina Neal, and Jessica Larsen from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks and the U.S. Geological survey, Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) conducted fieldwork on Little Sitkin Island in the western Aleutians of Alaska. The primary purpose of the fieldwork was to install geophysical networks for volcano monitoring. As part of this eAuthorsJessica Larsen, Christina A. Neal, Cheryl E. CameronPreliminary analyses of volcanic hazards at Kīlauea Volcano, Hawai‘i, 2017–2018
From 2017 to 2018, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) responded to ongoing and changing eruptions at Kīlauea Volcano as part of its mission to monitor volcanic processes, issue warnings of dangerous activity, and assess volcanic hazards. To formalize short-term hazards assessments—and, in some cases, issue prognoses for future activity—and make results discoverablAuthorsChristina A. Neal, Kyle R. AndersonThe 2018 rift eruption and summit collapse of Kilauea Volcano
In 2018, Kīlauea Volcano experienced its largest lower East Rift Zone (LERZ) eruption and caldera collapse in at least 200 years. After collapse of the Pu'u 'Ō'ō vent on 30 April, magma propagated downrift. Eruptive fissures opened in the LERZ on 3 May, eventually extending ~6.8 km. A 4 May earthquake (M6.9) produced ~5 m of fault slip. Lava erupted at rates exceeding 100 m3/s, eventually coveriAuthorsChristina A. Neal, Steven Brantley, Loren Antolik, Janet Babb, Matthew K. Burgess, Michael Cappos, Jefferson Chang, Sarah Conway, Liliana G. Desmither, Peter Dotray, Tamar Elias, Pauline Fukunaga, Steven Fuke, Ingrid Johanson, Kevan Kamibayashi, James P. Kauahikaua, R. Lopaka Lee, S. Pekalib, Asta Miklius, Brian Shiro, Don Swanson, Patricia Nadeau, Michael H. Zoeller, P. Okubo, Carolyn Parcheta, Matthew R. Patrick, William Tollett, Frank A. Trusdell, Edward F. Younger, Emily Montgomery-Brown, Kyle R. Anderson, Michael P. Poland, Jessica L. Ball, Joseph A. Bard, Michelle L. Coombs, Hannah R. Dietterich, Christoph Kern, Weston Thelen, Peter Cervelli, Tim R. Orr, Bruce F. Houghton, Cheryl Gansecki, Richard Hazlett, Paul Lundgren, Angela K. Diefenbach, Allan Lerner, Greg Waite, Peter J. Kelly, Laura E. Clor, Cynthia Werner, Katherine Mulliken, Gary B. Fisher, David DambyCrisis remote sensing during the 2018 lower East Rift Zone eruption of Kīlauea Volcano
Kīlauea Volcano, Hawai‘i, is renowned as one of the most active and closely monitored volcanoes on Earth. Scores of seismometers and deformation sensors form an array across the volcano to detect subsurface magmatic activity, and ground observers track eruptions on the surface. In addition to this dense ground-based monitoring, remote sensing – both airborne and spaceborne – has become a backboneAuthorsMichael H. Zoeller, Matthew R. Patrick, Christina A. NealLinking the Ukinrek 1977 maar-eruption observations to the tephra deposits: New insights into maar depositional processes
The Ukinrek Maars erupted 30 March to 9 April 1977, forming two maars, a line of small pit craters and a tephra blanket extending to ~2 km from the vents. We combine photographic and written observations with stratigraphic analysis to reconstruct the eruption. The eruption began with very low (a few meters high) fountaining from small craters above an inferred east-west-trending dike, creating locAuthorsMichael Ort, Nathalie Lefebvre, Christina A. Neal, Vicki McConnell, Ken WohletzPostglacial eruptive history and geochemistry of Semisopochnoi volcano, western Aleutian Islands, Alaska
Semisopochnoi Island, located in the Rat Islands group of the western Aleutian Islands and Aleutian volcanic arc, is a roughly circular island composed of scattered volcanic vents, the prominent caldera of Semisopochnoi volcano, and older, ancestral volcanic rocks. The oldest rocks on the island are gently radially dipping lavas that are the remnants of a shield volcano and of Ragged Top, which isAuthorsMichelle L. Coombs, Jessica F. Larsen, Christina A. NealKīlauea summit eruption—Lava returns to Halemaʻumaʻu
In March 2008, a new volcanic vent opened within Halemaʻumaʻu, a crater at the summit of Kīlauea Volcano in Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park on the Island of Hawaiʻi. This new vent is one of two ongoing eruptions on the volcano. The other is on Kīlauea’s East Rift Zone, where vents have been erupting nearly nonstop since 1983. The duration of these simultaneous summit and rift zone eruptions on KīlAuthorsJanet L. Babb, Stephen M. Wessells, Christina A. Neal - News
Filter Total Items: 59
*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