Publications

The 2005-6 eruption of Augustine Volcano in the Cook Inlet region, Alaska, greatly increased public desire for volcano hazard information, as this eruption was the most significant in Cook Inlet since 1992. In response to this heightened concern, the Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) increased ongoing efforts to deliver specific eruption-focused information to communities nearest to the...

During and after the 2006 eruption of Augustine Volcano, we compiled a geologic map and chronology of new lava and flowage deposits using observational flights, oblique and aerial photography, infrared imaging, satellite data, and field investigations. After approximately 6 months of precursory activity, the explosive phase of the eruption commenced with two explosions on January 11...

The 2005–6 eruption of Augustine Volcano produced tephra-fall deposits during each of four eruptive phases. Late in the precursory phase (December 2005), small phreatic explosions produced small-volume, localized, mostly nonjuvenile tephra. The greatest volume of tephra was produced during the explosive phase (January 11–28, 2006) when 13 discrete Vulcanian explosions generated ash...

Before and during the 2006 eruption of Augustine Volcano, the Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) installed a network of telemetered and nontelemetered cameras in Homer, Alaska, and on Augustine Island. On December 1, 2005, a network camera was installed at the Homer Field Station, a University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute (UAF/GI) facility on a bluff near Homer, where...

Dissemination of volcano-hazard information in coordination with other Federal, State, and local agencies is a primary responsibility of the Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO). During the 2005-6 eruption of Augustine Volcano in Alaska, AVO used existing interagency relationships and written protocols to provide hazard guidance before, during, and after eruptive events. The 2005-6 eruption...

In September of 2004, UNAVCO and the National Science Foundation (NSF) funded EarthScope Plate Boundary Observatory (PBO) installed five permanent Continuous Global Positioning System (CGPS) stations on Augustine Volcano, supplementing one existing CGPS station operated by the Alaska Volcano Observatory. All six CGPS stations proved crucial to scientists for detecting and monitoring the...

Airborne surveillance of gas emissions from Augustine Volcano and other Cook Inlet volcanoes began in 1990 to identify baseline emission levels during noneruptive conditions. Gas measurements at Augustine for SO2, CO2, and H2S showed essentially no evidence of anomalous degassing through spring 2005. Neither did a measurement on May 10, 2005, right after the onset of low level seismicity...

Augustine Volcano is an active stratovolcano located in southwestern Cook Inlet, about 280 kilometers southwest of Anchorage, Alaska. The volcano produced six significant explosive eruptions between 1812 and 1986. Augustine eruptions typically have an explosive onset followed by dome building. The most recent eruption began on January 11, 2006. We applied the small baseline subset (SBAS)

The petrology and geochemistry of 2006 eruptive products of Augustine Volcano, Alaska, have been investigated through analyses of whole-rock samples, phenocrysts, silicate melt inclusions, and matrix glasses to constrain processes of magma evolution, eruption, and degassing. Particular attention was directed toward the concentrations and geochemical relationships involving the magmatic...

In-place measurements of environmental magnetic susceptibility of pyroclastic flows, surges and lahars emplaced during the 2006 eruption of Augustine Volcano show that primary volume magnetic susceptibilities of pyroclastic materials decreased where the flows encountered water and steam. The Rocky Point pyroclastic flow, the largest flow of the eruption sequence, encountered a small pond...

Lightning and other electrical activity were measured during the 2006 eruption of Augustine Volcano. We found two phases of the activity, the explosive phase corresponding to the explosive eruptions and the plume phase. We classified the lightning into three types, vent discharges, near-vent lightning, and plume lightning. Vent discharges are small, 10 to 100 m sparks, that occur at rate...

Satellite observations played an important role in monitoring the 2006 eruption of Augustine Volcano. It represented the first opportunity for observers to use, in an operational setting, new Web-based tools and techniques developed by the Alaska Volcano Observatory remote sensing group. The 'Okmok Algorithm' was used to analyze thermal infrared satellite data and highlight changes in...