Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Publications

Filter Total Items: 2695

Channel change and bed-material transport in the Lower Chetco River, Oregon

The lower Chetco River is a wandering gravel-bed river flanked by abundant and large gravel bars formed of coarse bed-material sediment. Since the early twentieth century, the large gravel bars have been a source of commercial aggregate for which ongoing permitting and aquatic habitat concerns have motivated this assessment of historical channel change and sediment transport rates. Analysis of his
Authors
J. Rose Wallick, Scott W. Anderson, Charles Cannon, Jim E. O'Connor

30 cool facts about Mount St. Helens

Commemorating the 30th anniversary of the 1980 eruptions of Mount St. Helens. 
Authors
Carolyn Driedger, Westby Liz, Lisa Faust, Peter Frenzen, Jeanne Bennett, Michael Clynne

Permeability of the continental crust: Dynamic variations inferred from seismicity and metamorphism

The variation of permeability with depth can be probed indirectly by various means, including hydrologic models that use geothermal data as constraints and the progress of metamorphic reactions driven by fluid flow. Geothermal and metamorphic data combine to indicate that mean permeability (k) of tectonically active continental crust decreases with depth (z) according to log k ≈ −14–3.2 log z, whe
Authors
Steven E. Ingebritsen, C. E. Manning

Enhancement of the volcanogenic "bromine explosion" via reactive nitrogen chemistry (Kīlauea volcano, Hawai'i)

Since the first detection of bromine monoxide in volcanic plumes attention has focused on the atmospheric synthesis and impact of volcanogenic reactive halogens. We report here new measurements of BrO in the volcanic plume emitted from Kīlauea volcano – the first time reactive halogens have been observed in emissions from a hotspot volcano. Observations were carried out by ground-based Differentia
Authors
G. G. Salerno, C. Oppenheimer, V. Tsanev, A.J. Sutton, T.J. Roberts, T. Elias

Contamination of basaltic lava by seawater: Evidence found in a lava pillar from Axial Seamount, Juan de Fuca Ridge

A lava pillar formed during the 1998 eruption at Axial Seamount exhibits compositional and textural evidence for contamination by seawater under magmatic conditions. Glass immediately adjacent to anastomosing microfractures within 1 cm of the inner pillar wall is oxidized and significantly enriched in Na and Cl and depleted in Fe and K with respect to that in glassy selvages from the unaffected ou
Authors
Peter Schiffman, Robert A. Zierenberg, William W Jr Chadwick, David A. Clague, Jacob B. Lowenstern

Reconnaissance geochronology of tuffs in the Miocene Barstow Formation: Implications for basin evolution and tectonics in the central Mojave Desert

Early to middle Miocene lacustrine strata of the Barstow Formation are well dated in just a few places, limiting our ability to infer basin evolution and regional tectonics. At the type section in the Mud Hills, previous studies have shown that the lacustrine interval of the Barstow Formation is between ~16.3 Ma and ~13.4 Ma. Elsewhere, lake beds of the Barstow Formation have yielded vertebrate fo
Authors
David M. Miller, Shannon R. Leslie, John W. Hillhouse, Joseph L. Wooden, Jorge A. Vazquez, R. E. Reynolds

Publications of the Volcano Hazards Program 2008

The Volcano Hazards Program of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is part of the Geologic Hazards Assessments subactivity as funded by Congressional appropriation. Investigations are carried out in the Geology and Hydrology Disciplines of the USGS and with cooperators at the Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys, University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute, University of Ha
Authors
Manuel Nathenson

Analyses of gas, steam and water samples collected in and around Lassen Volcanic National Park, California, 1975–2002

This report contains physical and chemical data from gas, steam, and water samples collected between July 1975 and September 2002 from locations in and around Lassen Volcanic National Park, California. Data are compiled as tables in Excel spreadsheets and are organized by locale. Most data are keyed to 1 of 107 site codes that are shown on local- and regional-scale maps. Brief descriptions of term
Authors
Cathy J. Janik, D. Bergfeld

Late eighteenth century Old Maid eruption and lahars at Mount Hood, Oregon (USA) dated with tree rings and historical observations

Tree rings of subfossil trees buried by lahars and lahar-derived sediments along the Sandy and Zigzag Rivers record the onset of a late eighteenth century eruption at Mount Hood, Oregon, USA (Figs. 1–2). Crandell (1980) described and named this eruptive activity the ‘Old Maid eruptive period’ and estimated its age at about “200–300 year” using radiocarbon ages of trees killed by lahars. Cameron an
Authors
Patrick T. Pringle, Thomas C. Pierson, Kenneth A. Cameron, P.R. Sheppard

Source materials for inception stage Hawaiian magmas: Pb‐He isotope variations for early Kilauea

New noble gas and radiogenic isotopic compositions are presented for tholeiitic, transitional, and alkalic rocks from the submarine Hilina region on the south flank of Kilauea, Hawaii. The 3He/4He ratios for undegassed glass and olivine separates (11–26 Ra) contrast with those of postshield and rejuvenated alkalic lavas, consistent with the alkalic and transitional basalts at Hilina corresponding
Authors
Takeshi Hanyu, Jun-Ichi Kimura, Maiko Katakuse, Andrew T. Calvert, Thomas W. Sisson, Shun'ichi Nakai

Rheologic and structural controls on the deformation of Okmok volcano, Alaska: FEMs, InSAR, and ambient noise tomography

Interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) data indicate that the caldera of Okmok volcano, Alaska, subsided more than a meter during its eruption in 1997. The large deformation suggests a relatively shallow magma reservoir beneath Okmok. Seismic tomography using ambient ocean noise reveals two low‐velocity zones (LVZs). The shallow LVZ corresponds to a region of weak, fluid‐saturated materi
Authors
Timothy Masterlark, Matthew M. Haney, Haylee Dickinson, Cheryl Searcy, T. Fournier