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Monitoring lava lake fluctuations and crater refilling with continuous laser rangefinders

The U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) has developed a new method to continuously monitor lava lake elevations. Since 2018, HVO has stationed a laser rangefinder on Kīlauea’s caldera rim. The instrument automatically measures lava lake elevation each second, with centimeter accuracy. A stream of elevation data flows to HVO’s database and public website...
Authors
Edward F. Younger, William Tollett, Matthew R. Patrick

New paleomagnetic constraints on the eruption timing, stratigraphy, and post-emplacement deformation of the Picture Gorge Basalt within the Columbia River Basalt Group

The Picture Gorge Basalt (PGB) is part of the Miocene Columbia River Basalt Group (CRBG). The PGB, which outcrops in eastern Oregon, is considered coincident in time with the voluminous Grande Ronde Basalt. New radiometric ages have expanded the age‐range of the PGB, suggesting it began erupting prior to the Steens Basalt to its south and continued until after cessation of the Grande...
Authors
Anthony Francis Pivarunas, Margaret Susan Avery, Jonathan T. Hagstrum, Scott E.K. Bennett, Andrew T. Calvert

Deposits of volcanic wet flows

No abstract available.
Authors
T.C. Pierson, Lee Siebert, Kevin M. Scott

lasertram: A Python library for time resolved analysis of laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry data

Laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) data has a wide variety of uses in the geosciences for in-situ chemical analysis of complex natural materials. Improvements to instrument capabilities and operating software have drastically reduced the time required to generate large volumes of data relative to previous methodologies. Raw data from LA-ICP-MS...
Authors
Jordan Edward Lubbers, Adam J.R. Kent, Chris Russo

Grfin Tools—User guide and methods for modeling landslide runout and debris-flow growth and inundation

The software package, Grfin Tools, can estimate potential runout from landslides or inundation from geophysical mass flows such as debris flows, lahars from volcanoes, and rock avalanches within a digital elevation model (DEM). Grfin is an acronym of growth + flow + inundation. The tools within this package apply simple, well-tested, empirical models of runout that are computationally...
Authors
Mark E. Reid, Dianne L. Brien, Collin Cronkite-Ratcliff, Jonathan P. Perkins

Local, regional, and distal recordings of seismic unrest at Tau Island volcano, American Samoa

A seismic swarm near Taʻū Island, a volcanic island in eastern American Samoa, occurred from July to October 2022. The earliest unrest was noted as felt shaking reports in late July, and instrumentation varied in the beginning of the sequence as the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Hawaiian Volcano Observatory responded by installing temporary and then permanent seismometers to monitor the...
Authors
Aaron Wech, Matthew M. Haney, Jefferson Chang, Arthur D. Jolly, Clara Yoon, Robert J. Skoumal

Chemical and isotopic fractionation during melt inclusion formation

Melt inclusions are used to study the origin and evolution of magmas. The extent to which they represent equilibrium melt compositions, however, critically hinges on the ratio of crystal growth rate to diffusion rate in melts. If the rate of crystal growth is limited by the supply of nutrients and the dissipation of unwanted components, the trapped melt will be depleted in compatible...
Authors
Bruna da Silva Ricardo, Martin Oeser, Kendra J. Lynn, Neil Bennett, Xu Chu, Grace Henderson, Y. Liu, Stephan Weyer, Corliss Kin I Sio

Development of ‘SedCam’— A close-range remote sensing method of estimating suspended-sediment concentration in small rivers

The adaptation of suspended-sediment surrogate technologies continues to rapidly expand across geomorphology and fluvial sediment monitoring efforts. Over a decade of research and development shows increased reliability and accuracy of in-situ surrogates with reduced program cost as compared to traditional sample-based methods, but environmental fouling and probe damage can be...
Authors
Adam R. Mosbrucker, Molly S. Wood

2022 Volcanic activity in Alaska and the Northern Mariana Islands—Summary of events and response of the Alaska Volcano Observatory

In 2022, the Alaska Volcano Observatory responded to eruptions, volcanic unrest or suspected unrest, increased seismicity, and other significant activity at 11 volcanic centers in Alaska and in the Northern Mariana Islands. Eruptive activity in Alaska consisted of repeated small, ash-producing, phreatomagmatic explosions from Mount Young on Semisopochnoi Island; the eruption of a thick...
Authors
Tim R. Orr, Hannah R. Dietterich, Ronni Grapenthin, Matthew M. Haney, Matthew W. Loewen, Pablo Saunders-Shultz, Darren Tan, Christopher F. Waythomas, Aaron G. Wech

Catastrophic lava flow levee failure: Precursors, processes, and implications

During an effusive eruption crisis the initial advance of a lava flow is typically the primary focus of model forecasts and hazard management efforts. Flow branching and lateral expansion of lava flows can pose significant dangers within evolving flow fields throughout the duration of an eruption and are an underappreciated hazard. We use field monitoring, infrasound, time lapse imagery...
Authors
Elisabeth Gallant, Hannah R. Dietterich, Matthew R. Patrick, David Matthew Hyman, Brett B Carr, John J. Lyons, Elinor S. Meredith

Long-lived partial melt beneath Cascade volcanoes

Quantitative estimates of magma storage are fundamental to evaluating volcanic dynamics and hazards. Yet our understanding of subvolcanic magmatic plumbing systems and their variability remains limited. There is ongoing debate regarding the ephemerality of shallow magma storage and its volume relative to eruptive output, and so whether an upper-crustal magma body could be a sign of...
Authors
Guanning Pang, Geoffrey A. Abers, Seth C. Moran, Weston Thelen

New 40Ar/39Ar eruption ages reveal an important temporal relationship between mafic and silicic volcanism in the Yellowstone Plateau volcanic field

The chronology of mafic eruptions and their temporal relation to rhyolitic volcanism in the Yellowstone Plateau volcanic field are poorly known, thereby limiting our understanding of the way(s) in which mafic magmatism drives rhyolitic activity. To address this, we measured 40Ar/39Ar eruption ages on 13 mafic samples collected from Henrys Fork Caldera (eastern Idaho, western United...
Authors
Cole Messa, Kenneth Sims, Mark E. Stelten, Brandi Lawler, Mel Kuntz
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