James W. Vallance

The oldest postglacial lapilli–ash tephra recognized in sedimentary records surrounding Mount Rainier (Washington State, USA) is R tephra, a very early Holocene deposit that acts as an important stratigraphic and geochronologic marker bed. This multidisciplinary study incorporates tephrostratigraphy, radiocarbon dating, petrography, and electron microprobe analysis to characterize R...

Lahars occur during volcanic eruptions--or, less predictably, through other processes on steep volcanic terrain--when large masses of water mixed with sediment sweep down and off volcano slopes and commonly incorporate additional sediment and water. Because lahars are water-saturated, both liquid and solid interactions influence their behavior and distinguish them from other related...

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...

Lahars are volcanic debris flows that are dubbed primary when triggered by eruptive activity or secondary when triggered by other factors such as heavy rainfall after eruptive activity has waned. Variation in time and space of the proportion of sediment to water within a lahar dictates lahar flow phase and the resultant sedimentary character of deposits. Characteristics of source...

Catastrophic dense granular flows, such as occur in rock avalanches, debris flows and pyroclastic flows, move as fully shearing mixtures that have approximately 60 vol.% solids and tend to segregate to form coarse-grained fronts and leveed channels. Levees restrict spreading of unconfined flows and form as coarse particles that become concentrated in the top of the flow are transported...

Each of the three phases of the 2006 eruption at Augustine Volcano had a distinctive eruptive style and flowage deposits. From January 11 to 28, the explosive phase comprised short vulcanian eruptions that punctuated dome growth and produced volcanowide pyroclastic flows and more energetic hot currents whose mobility was influenced by efficient mixing with and vaporization of snow...