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Publications

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The structure and volume of large geysers in Yellowstone National Park, USA and the mineralogy and chemistry of their silica sinter deposits

Siliceous sinter is formed by biogenic and abiogenic opal deposition around hot springs and geysers. Using Structure-from-Motion photogrammetry we generated three-dimensional models of Giant and Castle Geysers from the Upper Geyser Basin of Yellowstone National Park. We use these models to calculate an approximate mass of sinter for each (~2 and ~ 5 kton, respectively) and estimate a range of plau
Authors
Dakota Churchill, Michael Manga, Shaul Hurwitz, Sara Peek, David Damby, Richard Conrey, John R. Wood, R. Blaine McCleskey, William E. Keller, Behnaz Hosseini, Jefferson D.G. Hungerford

Post audit of simulated groundwater flow to a short-lived (2019-2020) crater lake at Kīlauea Volcano

About 14.5 months after the 2018 eruption and summit collapse of Kīlauea Volcano, Hawaiʻi, liquid water started accumulating in the deepened summit crater, forming a lake that attained 51 m depth before rapidly boiling off on December 20, 2020, when an eruption from the crater wall poured lava into the lake. Modeling the growth of the crater lake at Kīlauea summit is important for assessing the po
Authors
Ashton F. Flinders, James P. Kauahikaua, Paul A. Hsieh, Steven E. Ingebritsen

Making the most of volcanic eruption responses

No abstract available.
Authors
Tobias P. Fischer, Seth C. Moran, Kari M Cooper, Diana C. Roman, Peter C LaFemina

Evaluating the state-of-the-art in remote volcanic eruption characterization Part II: Ulawun volcano, Papua New Guinea

Retrospective eruption characterization is valuable for advancing our understanding of volcanic systems and evaluating our observational capabilities, especially with remote technologies (defined here as a space-borne system or non-local, ground-based instrumentation which include regional and remote infrasound sensors). In June 2019, the open-system Ulawun volcano, Papua New Guinea, produced a VE
Authors
Kathleen McKee, Cassandra Marie Smith, Kevin Reath, Eveanjelene Snee, Sean Maher, Robin S. Matoza, Simon A Carn, Diana Roman, Larry G. Mastin, Kyle R. Anderson, David Damby, Ima Itikarai, Kila Mulina, Steve Saunders, Jelle D. Assink, Rodrigo de Negri Levia, Anna Perttu

A geologic field guide to S P Mountain and its lava flow, San Francisco Volcanic Field, Arizona

IntroductionWe created this guide to introduce the user to the San Francisco Volcanic Field as a terrestrial analog site for planetary volcanic processes. For decades, the San Francisco Volcanic Field has been used to teach scientists to recognize the products of common types of volcanic eruptions and associated volcanic features. The volcanic processes and products observed in this volcanic field
Authors
Amber L. Gullikson, M. Elise Rumpf, Lauren A. Edgar, Laszlo P. Keszthelyi, James A. Skinner, Lisa Thompson

The trajectory of soil development and its relationship to soil carbon dynamics

It has been postulated that the amount of soil organic carbon (SOC) associated with soil minerals exhibits a threshold relationship in response to effective soil moisture (estimated as precipitation less evapotranspiration). To better characterize the role of moisture in influencing mechanisms of SOC storage during pedogenesis, we compare soils from two different chronosequence sites: the Santa Cr
Authors
Corey Lawrence, Marjorie S. Schulz, Caroline Masiello, Oliver A. Chadwick, Jennifer W. Harden

Channel-amphitheatre landforms resulting from liquefaction flowslides during rapid drawdown of glacial Lake Fraser, British Columbia, Canada

Unusual channel-amphitheatre landforms are present in Late Pleistocene–early Holocene, subaqueous fan and delta deposits in the glacial Lake Fraser basin, central British Columbia. The lake formed during the decay of the last Cordilleran Ice Sheet and drained ~11,500 years ago during a large outburst flood. The fronts of a delta and two subaqueous fans consisting of silt to fine sand are marked by
Authors
Brendan G.N. Miller, Richard M. Iverson, John J. Clague, Marten Geertsema, Nicholas J. Roberts

Trachyandesite of Kennedy Table, its vent complex, and post−9.3 Ma uplift of the central Sierra Nevada

Tectonic interpretation of the central Sierra Nevada—whether the crest of the Sierra Nevada (California, USA) was uplifted in the late Cenozoic or whether the range has undergone continuous down-wearing since the Late Cretaceous—is controversial, since there is no obvious tectonic explanation for renewed uplift. The strongest direct evidence for late Cenozoic uplift of the central Sierra Nevada co
Authors
Edward Hildreth, Judith Fierstein, Fred M. Phillips, Andrew T. Calvert

Why study geysers?

Scientific research for more than two centuries has improved our understanding of Earth’s geysers. This knowledge provides insights into volcanic processes, the origin and environmental limits of life on Earth and potentially Mars, and on geysers on icy outer solar system satellites. Continued scientific research will help us understand and protect these natural wonders that attract millions of to
Authors
Shaul Hurwitz, Michael Manga, Kathleen Campbell, Carolina Munoz-Saez, Eva Eibl

Repeating caldera collapse events constrain fault friction at the kilometer scale

Fault friction is central to understanding earthquakes, yet laboratory rock mechanics experiments are restricted to, at most, meter scale. Questions thus remain as to the applicability of measured frictional properties to faulting in situ. In particular, the slip-weakening distance dcdc strongly influences precursory slip during earthquake nucleation, but scales with fault roughness and is challen
Authors
Paul Segall, Kyle R. Anderson

The products of primary magma fragmentation finally revealed by pumice agglomerates

Following rapid decompression in the conduit of a volcano, magma breaks into ash- to block-sized fragments, powering explosive sub-Plinian and Plinian eruptions that may generate destructive pyroclastic falls and flows. It is thus crucial to assess how magma breaks up into fragments. This task is difficult, however, because of the subterranean nature of the entire process and because the original
Authors
Thomas Giachetti, Kathy Trafton, Joshua Wiejaczka, James E. Gardner, James M. Watkins, Tom Shea, Heather M. Wright