Publications

No abstract available.

When a powerful earthquake strikes an urban region, damage concentrates not only near the quake's source. Damage can also occur many miles from the source in areas of soft ground. In recent years, scientists have developed ways to identify and map these areas of high seismic hazard. This advance has spurred pioneering legislation to reduce earthquake losses in areas of greatest hazard.

Almost 75 percent of Utah's population lives near the Wasatch Fault. Earth scientists have shown that this fault has repeatedly experienced strong earthquakes of magnitude 7 or larger and will continue to do so in the future. Efforts to increase public awareness of earthquake hazards in Utah have resulted in residents and community leaders taking actions that will save lives and reduce damage in f

No abstract available.

Destructive debris flows occur frequently at glacierized Mount Rainier volcano, Washington, U.S.A. Twenty-three such flows have occurred in the Tahoma Creek valley since 1967. Hydrologic and geomorphic evidence indicate that all or nearly all of these flows began as outburst floods from South Tahoma Glacier. Flood waters are stored subglacially. The volume of stored water discharged during a typic

A large field of blocky sea-floor hills, up to 10 km long and 500 m high, are gigantic slide blocks derived from the west flank of Mauna Loa volcano on the island of Hawaii. These megablocks are embedded in the toe of the South Kona landslide, which extends ∼80 km seaward from the present coastline to depths of nearly 5 km. A 10–15-km-wide belt of numerous, smaller, 1–3-km-long slide blocks separa

Heating and freezing data were obtained for fluid inclusions in hydrothermal quartz, calcite, and anhydrite from several depths in three scientific observation holes drilled along the lower East Rift Zone of Kilauea volcano, Hawaii. Compositions of the inclusion fluids range from dilute meteoric water to highly modified sea water concentrated by boiling. Comparison of measured drill-hole temperatu

We are leading a new international initiative to conduct scientific drilling within the San Andreas fault zone at depths of up to 10 km. This project is motivated by the need to understand the physical and chemical processes operating within the fault zone and to answer fundamental questions about earthquake generation along major plate-boundary faults. Through a comprehensive program of coring, f

Condensate samples were collected in 1992 from a high-temperature (300° C) fumarole on the floor of the Halemaumau Pit Crater at Kilauea. The emergence about two years earlier of such a hot fumarole was unprecedented at such a central location at Kilauea. The condensates have hydrogen and oxygen isotopic compositions which indicate that the waters emitted by the fumarole are composed largely of me

The south flank of Kilauea volcano has experienced two large [magnitude (M) 7.2 and M 6.1] earthquakes in the past two decades. Global Positioning System measurements conducted between 1990 and 1993 reveal seaward displacements of Kilauea's central south flank at rates of up to about 10 centimeters per year. In contrast, the northern side of the volcano and the distal ends of the south flank did n

Eruptions of gas or steam and non-juvenile debris are common in volcanic and hydrothermal areas. From reports of non-juvenile eruptions or eruptive sequences world-wide, at least three types (or end-members) can be identified: (1) those involving rock and liquid water initially at boiling-point temperatures (‘boiling-point eruptions’); (2) those powered by gas (primarily water vapor) at initial te

The Pu'u 'O'o-Kupaianaha eruption (1983-present) is the longest lived rift eruption of either Kilauea or neighboring Mauna Loa in recorded history. The initial fissure opening in January 1983 was followed by three years of episodic fire fountaining at the Pu'u 'O'o vent on Kilauea's east rift zone ∼19km from the summit (episodes 4–47). These spectacular events gave way in July 1986 to five and a h