Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Publications

Filter Total Items: 2674

Hydrologically induced deformation in Long Valley Caldera and adjacent Sierra Nevada

Vertical and horizontal components of GNSS displacements in the Long Valley Caldera and adjacent Sierra Nevada range show a clear correlation with hydrological trends at both multiyear and seasonal time scales. We observe a clear vertical and horizontal seasonal deformation pattern primarily attributable to the solid earth response to hydrological surface loading at large-to-regional (Sierra Nevad
Authors
Francesca Silverii, Emily Montgomery-Brown, Adrian Borsa, Andrew Barbour

Indonesia and the United States team up to reduce impacts from dangerous volcanoes

With 75 historically active volcanoes, Indonesia is the world’s most volcanically active nation. Its volcanoes are legendary throughout the world, with the notorious 19th-century eruptions at Mount Tambora (1815) and Krakatau (1883), and the eruption that created the giant Toba Caldera in Sumatra (75,000 years ago)—the Earth’s largest volcanic eruption in the past 100,000 years. Just in the past 2
Authors
Jacob B. Lowenstern, Kasbani, John S. Pallister, David W. Ramsey

A multidecade analysis of fluvial geomorphic evolution of the Spirit Lake blockage, Mount St. Helens, Washington

Volcanic eruptions can affect landscapes in many ways and consequently alter erosion and the fluxes of water and sediment. Hydrologic and geomorphic responses to volcanic disturbances are varied in both space and time, and, in some instances, can persist for decades to centuries. Understanding the broad context of how landscapes respond to eruptions can help inform how they may evolve, and therefo
Authors
Jon J. Major, Gordon E. Grant, Kristin Sweeney, Adam R. Mosbrucker

Volcanological applications of unoccupied aircraft systems (UAS): Developments, strategies, and future challenges

Unoccupied aircraft systems (UAS) are developing into fundamental tools for tackling the grand challenges in volcanology; here, we review the systems used and their diverse applications. UAS can typically provide image and topographic data at two orders of magnitude better spatial resolution than space-based remote sensing, and close-range observations at temporal resolutions down to those of vide
Authors
Mike R. James, Brett B Carr, Fiona D'Arcy, Angela K. Diefenbach, Hannah R. Dietterich, Alessandro Fornaciai, Einat Lev, Emma J Liu, David C. Pieri, Mel Rodgers, Benoît Smets, Akihiko Terada, Felix W von Aulock, Thomas R. Walter, Kieran T Wood, Edgar U Zorn

Landslide disparities, flume discoveries, and Oso despair

Landslide dynamics is the branch of science that seeks to understand the motion of landslides by applying Newton's laws. This memoir focusses on a 40‐year effort to understand motion of highly mobile—and highly lethal—landslides such as debris avalanches and debris flows. A major component of this work entailed development and operation of the U.S. Geological Survey debris flow flume, a unique, la
Authors
Richard M. Iverson

Seismic and geodetic progression of the 2018 summit caldera collapse of Kīlauea Volcano

The 2018 eruption of Kīlauea volcano, Hawaiʻi, resulted in a major collapse of the summit caldera along with an effusive eruption in the lower East Rift Zone. The caldera collapse comprised 62 highly similar collapse cycles of strong ground deformation and earthquake swarms that ended with a magnitude 5 collapse event and one partial cycle that did not end with a collapse event. We analyzed geodet
Authors
Gabrielle Tepp, Alicia J. Hotovec-Ellis, Brian Shiro, Ingrid Johanson, Weston Thelen, Matthew M. Haney

USGS Cascades Volcano Observatory news media management guide — General protocols and templates

This guide describes general protocols and provides templates for news media management at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Cascades Volcano Observatory (CVO) and is intended for use by the CVO scientist-in-charge, communications staff, scientists, and guest communications colleagues. This public version, with CVO names and contact information removed, may be useful to other agencies developing t
Authors
Carolyn L. Driedger, Elizabeth G. Westby

Geologic map of the Paeroa Fault block and surrounding area, Taupo Volcanic Zone, New Zealand

The Taupo Volcanic Zone (TVZ), New Zealand, is the most productive area of explosive silicic volcanism in the world. Faulted early and middle Pleistocene volcanic products are generally concealed beneath voluminous, generally unfaulted, younger volcanic products. An exception is the southeast margin of the TVZ where the two parallel, northeast-trending Paeroa and Te Weta Fault blocks expose Quater
Authors
Drew T. Downs, Graham S. Leonard, Colin J. N. Wilson, Julie V Rowland

Relocated aftershocks and background seismicity in eastern Indonesia shed light on the 2018 Lombok and Palu earthquake sequences

High seismicity rates in eastern Indonesia occur due to the complex interaction of several tectonic plates which resulted in two deadly, destructive earthquake sequences that occurred in Lombok Island and the city of Palu, Sulawesi in 2018. The first sequence began in July with an Mw 6.4 event near Lombok, culminating in an Mw 7.0 event 8 d later. This was then followed by a nearby Mw 6.9 event 12
Authors
Pepen Supendi, Andri Dian Nugraha, Sri Widiyantoro, Jeremy D. Pesicek, C.H. Thurber, C.I. Abdullah, D. Daryono, S.H. Wiyono, H.A. Shiddiqi, S. Rosalia

A post-eruption study of gases and thermal waters at Okmok Volcano, Alaska

We report here on the first focused study of gas discharges and thermal spring waters at Okmok Volcano since the 2008 phreatomagmatic eruptions. Results include the first compositional gas data from Okmok with minimal air contamination and the first data on magmatic carbon in Okmok spring waters. Chemical and isotopic analyses of the waters and gases are used to assess the character of Okmok fluid
Authors
Deborah Bergfeld, William C. Evans, Andrew Hunt, Taryn Lopez, Janet Schaefer

Have humans influenced volcanic activity on the lower East Rift Zone of Kīlauea Volcano? A publication review

Since the 2018 eruption of Kīlauea Volcano, the topic of whether commercial developments not only caused the eruption to occur in the lower East Rift Zone (LERZ), but also caused its high eruption rate has been a subject of public discussion. We review Kīlauea Volcano publications from the past several decades and show that the eruptive behavior of the volcano has varied and that the 2018 eruption
Authors
James P. Kauahikaua, Frank A. Trusdell

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