Publications

A numerical simulation of the ground-water flow system in the Castle Lake debris dam, calibrated to data from the 1991 and 1992 water years, was used to estimate factors of safety against heave and internal erosion. The Castle Lake debris dam, 5 miles northwest of the summit of Mount St. Helens, impounds 19,000 acre-ft of water that could pose a flood hazard in the event of a lake...

No abstract available.

Rates of heat loss from eight steam-heated thermal areas and one conductively heated thermal area in Lassen Volcanic National Park have been determined from measurements made during the period 1984-93. Total heat discharge at the steam-heated areas is assumed proportional to the rate of steam upflow from underlying reservoirs. The dominant mode of heat loss differs among the areas...

No abstract available.

Data sets for spring and stream chemistry are combined to estimate convective heat discharge and discharge anomalous amounts of sodium and chloride for the Wood River group of springs south of Crater Lake. The best estimate of heat discharge is 87 MWt based on chloride inventory; this value is 3-5 times the heat input to Crater Lake itself. Anomalous discharges of sodium and chloride are...

During the eruption of Redoubt Volcano from December 1989 through April 1990, the Alaska Volcano Observatory issued advance warnings of several tephra eruptions based on changes in seismic activity related to the occurrence of precursory swarms of long-period (LP) seismic events (dominant period of about 0.5 s). The initial eruption on December 14 occurred after 23 years of quiescence...

High-precision K-Ar dating and detailed mapping have established an eruptive chronology for a Cascade stratovolcano and its surrounding array of coeval basaltic centers. The time-volume-composition data bear upon several fundamental questions concerning the long-term behavior of arc volcanoes. -from Authors

A generally unrecognized type of pyroclastic deposit was produced by rapid avalanches of intimately mixed snow and hot pyroclastic debris during eruptions at Mount St. Helens, Nevado del Ruiz, and Redoubt Volcano between 1982 and 1989. These "mixed avalanches" traveled as far as 14 km at velocities up to ∼27 m/s, involved as much as 107 m3 of rock and ice, and left unmelted deposits of...

Sulfur dioxide (SO2) released by the explosive eruption of Mount Pinatubo on 15 June 1991 had an impact on climate and stratospheric ozone. The total mass of SO2 released was much greater than the amount dissolved in the magma before the eruption, and thus an additional source for the excess SO2 is required. Infrared spectroscopic analyses of dissolved water and carbon dioxide in glass...

Ice diamict comprising clasts of glacier ice and subordinate rock debris in a matrix of ice (snow) grains, coarse ash, and frozen pore water was deposited during the eruption of Redoubt Volcano on December 15, 1989. Rounded clasts of glacier ice and snowpack are as large as 2.5 m, clasts of Redoubt andesite and basement crystalline rocks reach 1 m, and tabular clasts of entrained...

Uranium-series age determinations by mass spectrometric methods were done for travertines and associated carbonate veins related to clastic deposits of the last glaciation (Pinedale) in the northern Yellowstone area. Dramatic variations in the hydrologic head are inferred from variations in the elevation of travertine deposition with time and are consistent with the expected hydrologic...

Airborne monitoring of Mount St. Helens by the USGS began inMay 1980 for sulfur dioxide emissions and in July 1980 forcarbon dioxide emissions. A correlation spectrometer, orCOSPEC, was used to measure sulfur dioxide in Mount St.Helens' plume. The upward-looking COSPEC was mounted in afixed-wing aircraft and flown below and at right angles to theplume. Typically, three to six traverses...