Publications

The first volcanic gas studies in Hawai‘i, beginning in 1912, established that volatile emissions from Kīlauea Volcano contained mostly water vapor, in addition to carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide. This straightforward discovery overturned a popular volatile theory of the day and, in the same action, helped affirm Thomas A. Jaggar, Jr.’s, vision of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) as a pree

Significant progress has been made over the past century in understanding, characterizing, and communicating the societal risks posed by volcanic, earthquake, and tsunami hazards in Hawai‘i. The work of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO), with a century-long commitment to serving the public with credible hazards information, contributed substantially to this global progress. Thomas A. Jaggar,

In the century since the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) put its first seismographs into operation at the edge of Kīlauea Volcano’s summit caldera, seismic monitoring at HVO (now administered by the U.S. Geological Survey [USGS]) has evolved considerably. The HVO seismic network extends across the entire Island of Hawai‘i and is complemented by stations installed and operated by monitoring part

Study of the petrology of Hawaiian volcanoes, in particular the historically active volcanoes on the Island of Hawai‘i, has long been of worldwide scientific interest. When Dr. Thomas A. Jaggar, Jr., established the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) in 1912, detailed observations on basaltic activity at Kīlauea and Mauna Loa volcanoes increased dramatically. The period from 1912 to 1958 saw a gra

Hawaiian volcanoes build long rift zones and some of the largest volcanic edifices on Earth. For the active volcanoes on the Island of Hawai‘i, the growth of these rift zones is upward and seaward and occurs through a repetitive process of decades-long buildup of a magma-system head along the rift zones, followed by rapid large-scale displacement of the seaward flank in seconds to minutes. This la

This chapter, prepared in celebration of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatoryʼs centennial, provides a historical lens through which to view modern paradigms of Hawaiian-style eruption dynamics. The models presented here draw heavily from observations, monitoring, and experiments conducted on Kīlauea Volcano, which, as the site of frequent and accessible eruptions, has attracted scientists from around

The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) was established as a natural laboratory to study volcanic processes. Since the most frequent form of volcanic activity in Hawai‘i is effusive, a major contribution of the past century of research at HVO has been to describe and quantify lava flow emplacement processes. Lava flow research has taken many forms; first and foremost it has been a collection of bas

The 40Ar/39Ar investigations of a large suite of fine-grained basaltic rocks of the Boring volcanic field (BVF), Oregon and Washington (USA), yielded two primary results. (1) Using age control from paleomagnetic polarity, stratigraphy, and available plateau ages, 40Ar/39Ar recoil model ages are defined that provide reliable age results in the absence of an age plateau, even in cases of significant

The 19 known shield volcanoes of the main Hawaiian Islands—15 now emergent, 3 submerged, and 1 newly born and still submarine—lie at the southeast end of a long-lived hot spot chain. As the Pacific Plate of the Earth’s lithosphere moves slowly northwestward over the Hawaiian hot spot, volcanoes are successively born above it, evolve as they drift away from it, and eventually die and subside beneat

We report results from an observational and modeling study of reactive chemistry in the tropospheric plume emitted by Redoubt Volcano, Alaska. Our measurements include the first observations of Br and I degassing from an Alaskan volcano, the first study of O3 evolution in a volcanic plume, as well as the first detection of BrO in the plume of a passively degassing Alaskan volcano. This study also

The eruption in Halema‘uma‘u Crater that began in March 2008 is the longest summit eruption of Kīlauea Volcano, on the Island of Hawai‘i, since 1924. From the time the eruption began, the new "Overlook crater" inside Halema‘uma‘u has exhibited fluctuating lava lake activity, occasional small explosive events, and a persistent gas plume. The beautiful nighttime glow impresses and thrills visitors i

We present a calibration for attenuated total reflectance (ATR) micro-FTIR for analysis of H2O in hydrous glass. A Ge ATR accessory was used to measure evanescent wave absorption by H2O within hydrous rhyolite and other standards. Absorbance at 3450 cm−1 (representing total H2O or H2Ot) and 1630 cm−1 (molecular H2O or H2Om) showed high correlation with measured H2O in the glasses as determined by