Publications

Webcams are now standard tools for volcano monitoring and are used at observatories in Alaska, the Cascades, Kamchatka, Hawai‘i, Italy, and Japan, among other locations. Webcam images allow invaluable documentation of activity and provide a powerful comparative tool for interpreting other monitoring datastreams, such as seismicity and deformation. Automated image processing can improve the time ef

The current (March 2008 to February 2009) summit eruptive activity at Kilauea Volcano is characterized by explosive degassing bursts accompanied by very long period (VLP) seismic signals. We model the source mechanisms of VLP signals in the 10–50 s band using data recorded for 15 bursts with a 10‐station broadband network deployed in the summit caldera. To determine the source centroid location an

Between January 1 and December 31, 2009, the Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) located 8,829 earthquakes, of which 7,438 occurred within 20 kilometers of the 33 volcanoes with seismograph subnetworks. Monitoring highlights in 2009 include the eruption of Redoubt Volcano, as well as unrest at Okmok Caldera, Shishaldin Volcano, and Mount Veniaminof. Additionally severe seismograph subnetwork outages

On 19 March, 2008 eruptive activity returned to the summit of Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii with the formation of a new vent within the Halemaumau pit crater. The new vent has been gradually increasing in size, and exhibiting sustained degassing and the episodic bursting of gas slugs at the surface of a lava pond ∼200 m below the floor of Halemaumau. The spectral characteristics, source location obtaine

We study the source process of the Kīholo Bay earthquake (MW 6.7), which occurred beneath the northwest part of the Island of Hawai‘i on 15 October 2006, and static stress drops of small earthquakes that occurred in 2006 and 2007 around the main shock including aftershocks. We relocate the aftershocks to determine the fault plane from the two nodal planes. The relocated aftershocks define an E‐W t

The Yellowstone Plateau hosts an active volcanic system, with subterranean magma (molten rock), boiling, pressurized waters, and a variety of active faults with significant earthquake hazards. Within the next few decades, light-to-moderate earthquakes and steam explosions are certain to occur. Volcanic eruptions are less likely, but are ultimately inevitable in this active volcanic region. This do

We examine an eruptive sequence in late 2007 at Bezymianny Volcano to characterize the magmatic plumbing system and eruption-related seismicity. Earthquake locations reveal seismicity below and offset to the north of the volcano along a tectonic fault. Based on historical seismicity, the magma chamber is postulated to have a top at about 6 km depth. Minor dome explosions, large sub-plinian eruptio

This U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) summary presents seismic data gathered during January–March 2009. The seismic summary offers earthquake hypocenters without interpretation as a source of preliminary data and is complete in that most data for events of M≥1.5 are included. All latitude and longitude references in this report are stated in Old Hawaiian Datum. The

A series of complex events at Kīlauea Volcano, Hawaii, 17 June to 19 June 2007, began with an intrusion in the upper east rift zone (ERZ) and culminated with a small eruption (1500 m3). Surface deformation due to the intrusion was recorded in unprecedented detail by Global Positioning System (GPS) and tilt networks as well as interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) data acquired by the EN

The October 2007 removal of Marmot Dam on the Sandy River, Oregon, triggered a rapid sequence of fluvial responses as ~730,000 m3 of sand and gravel that filled the former reservoir were suddenly exposed to an energetic river. Using direct measurements of sediment transport, photogrammetry, and repeat surveys between transport events, we monitored the erosion, transport, and redeposition of this s

Sediment cores from lakes in volcanically active regions can be used to reconstruct the frequency of tephra-fall events. We studied sediment cores from two lakes within 25 km of the summit of Redoubt Volcano, western Cook Inlet, to develop a robust age model for the Holocene tephrochronology, and to assess the extent to which the tephrostratigraphies were correlative between the two nearby lakes.

Rock shear strength plays a fundamental role in volcano flank collapse, yet pertinent data from modern collapse surfaces are rare. Using samples collected from the inferred failure surface of the massive 1980 collapse of Mount St. Helens (MSH), we determined rock shear strength via laboratory tests designed to mimic conditions in the pre-collapse edifice. We observed that the 1980 failure shear su