Porous plates delivered calcium chloride at a negative potential to the top of blocks of partially welded (20.1 x 20.1 x 66.6 cm) and densely welded (30.1 x 20.1 x 48.1 cm) tuff with discrete fractures. During infiltration, flux increased through the partially welded block's fracture as the applied suction was lowered to 2.3 cm. The wetting front advanced 66.6 cm in 239 days. Chloride concentration and temporal moments from five tracer tests with 0 to 5 cm of applied suction indicated that preferential fracture flow occurred. Displacement transducer data reflect a decrease in fracture aperture at several months prior to but not during tracer tests. Fracture transmissivities decreased an order of magnitude (6.4 x 10⁻⁹ to 4.2 x 10⁻¹⁰ M²/s) as the applied suction increased from 0 to 5 cm while the tensiometer data indicated a suction of about 20 cm of water within the fracture and matrix. Highest during infiltration to an initially dry block, inflow losses of 3 to 44 percent due to evaporation are the greatest source of error for the constant potential method used.

This thesis presents the development of various methods for measuring rainfall rates using horizontally-pointing millimetre-wave radars. This work builds from the combination of a T-matrix scattering model that allows the scattering from almost arbitrarily pro led rotationally symmetric particles to be calculated, and drop shape models that allow the effects of temperature and pressure on the shape to be taken into account. Many hours of rain data have been collected with 38 and 94 GHz FMCW radars, as well as with a disdrometer and weather station. These have been used to develop single- and dual-frequency techniques for measuring rainfall rate. A temperature, polarisation and attenuation corrected application of simple power-law relationships between reflectivity and rainfall rate has been successfully demonstrated at 38 GHz. However, at 94 GHz it has been found that more detailed functions relating reflectivity, attenuation and rainfall rate are beneficial. A reflectivity-based determination of attenuation has been adapted from the literature and successfully applied to the 94 GHz data, improving the estimate of rainfall rate at longer ranges. The same method for estimating attenuation has also been used in a dualfrequency technique based on the ratio of the extinction coefficients at 38 and 94 GHz, but with less success. However, a dual-frequency reflectivity ratio based approach has been successfully developed and applied, producing good estimates of rainfall rate, as well as reasonable estimates of two drop-size distribution parameters. Simulations of radar measurements of airborne volcanic ash have also been carried out, demonstrating that for most reasonable measurement configurations the optimal frequencies would typically be 35 GHz or 94 GHz, not the more commonly used 3-10 GHz. It has also been shown that various existing millimetre-wave radars could be used to detect ash. Finally, there is a discussion of the optimal frequencies for dual-frequency measurement of volcanic ash.

Large-volume silicic eruptions are often evacuated from magma reservoirs which display gradients in composition, temperature, crystallinity, and volatile content. The 9.7 Ma Devine Canyon Tuff (DCT) of eastern Oregon represents such an eruption, with >300 km³ of compositionally zoned pyroclastic material deposited as a variably-welded ignimbrite. The ignimbrite displays homogenous bulk tuff major element compositions with a wide range of trace element compositions, allowing for the investigation of how these magmas were generated, stored, and modified in the magma reservoir by studying pumices which represent the primary magmas composing the DCT. Five pumices ranging from dacite to rhyolite bulk compositions were selected across the range of trace element compositions and were crushed and sieved to measure how crystallinity and mineral abundances change within each pumice at different particle size fractions. Single alkali feldspar and clinopyroxene crystals were analyzed using EMP and LA ICP-MS from each pumice. Physical results yielded a systematic decrease in crystallinity from 22% to 3% going from the dacite to the most evolved rhyolite composition, with the highest crystallinity occurring between <991-425 microns for all pumices analyzed. The dacite pumices displayed a glomerocrystic texture not observed in rhyolite pumices. Two populations of crystals were distinguished using single crystal chemical data, one belonging to the rhyolitic magmas and another belonging to the dacitic magma. Acquired mineral data have relevance for how strongly zoned with regard to trace elements the rhyolitic magmas of the DCT were, how these magmas were generated, and how they were stored within the magma reservoir. Applying melt extraction models to explain observed patterns in trace element compositions between pumices is problematic. In this model, the observed range of trace elements in rhyolite pumices would be attributed to two separate melt extraction events from an intermediate crystal mush where the first expulsion of melt from the mush produced the most evolved rhyolite composition and a second expulsion coupled with partial melting produced a second rhyolite with an indistinguishable major element composition but less evolved trace element composition. Mixing of these two rhyolite end members would then be needed for generating the range of intermediate rhyolite compositions. Magma mixing modeled using a mixing equation produced a poor fit for trace elements, suggesting the range of observed trace element compositions cannot be solely generated through the mixing of the extracted rhyolite melts but require processes that subsequently modify the mixed rhyolite compositions. The occurrence of crystal aggregates in the dacite may represent fragments of the crystal mush. However, the dacite was unlikely produced by partial remelting of the crystal mush, generating a less evolved, more intermediate bulk composition. In summary, mush extraction combined with partial melting of the crystal mush and mixing of compositional end members cannot fully explain the trace element patterns observed in the DCT pumices thus warranting further study.

The Dinner Creek Tuff erupted during a period of rhyolitic volcanism coeval to the flood volcanism associated with the Columbia River Basalt Group. The High Rock Caldera Complex, Lake Owyhee and McDermitt volcanic fields account for ~90% of the rhyolites erupted between 16.7-15.0 Ma. Situated at the northern end of the Lake Owyhee volcanic field, the Dinner Creek Tuff was originally mapped as a ~2,000 km2 single ignimbrite confined to the Malheur Gorge. Streck et al. (2015) correlated tuff outcrops previously mapped as generic Miocene welded tuff as well as local units such as the "Mascall" or "Pleasant Valley" tuff of eastern Oregon to individual cooling units that comprise the newly redefined Dinner Creek Tuff, enclosing an area of ~25,000 km2. Areal extents defined in this study show that all outcrops now determined to be Dinner Creek Tuff enclose an area of ~31,800 km2 not including any fallout deposits that likely extended beyond the defined area. Although Dinner Creek Tuff rhyolites have nearly identical compositions, different ages and subtle geochemical and mineralogical differences exist and were used to divide the Dinner Creek Tuff into four discrete cooling units. Except for unit 4, the units are lithologically very similar. Unit 1 is the Dinner Creek Tuff unit associated with the Malheur Gorge type section. The four cooling units have ages of 16.15-16 Ma (unit 1), 15.6-15.5 Ma (unit 2), 15.46 Ma (unit 3) and 15.0 Ma (unit 4). Areal extents were established for all four cooling units based on feldspar compositions along with lithological and bulk rock geochemical data. Minimal extents of individual units are as follows: ~22,590 km2 (unit 1), ~17,920 km2 (unit 2), ~14,170 km2 (unit 3) and ~8,370 km2 (unit 4). Using conservative thicknesses, determined erupted tuff volumes are ~170 km3 (unit 1), ~125 km3 (unit 2), ~99 km3 (unit 3) and ~46 km3 (unit 4), totaling ~440 km3 and dense rock equivalents are ~152 km3 (unit 1), ~96 km3 (unit 2), ~76 km3 (unit 3) and ~31 km3 (unit 4), totaling ~356 km3. These extents and volumes are the absolute minimum based solely on the locations of exposed tuff sections and the inclusion of the source. Centering eruptive units on source areas where they are known, expands the tuff extents into a more radial pattern as would be expected for low-aspect ratio, high energy ash-flow tuff eruptions. These probable extents increase the areal extents of the individual units to: ~36,900 km2 (unit 1), ~31,660 km2 (unit 2), ~17,290 km2 (unit 3) and ~10,150 km2 (unit 4) distributed over a ~43,490 km2 area. Likewise, erupted tuff volume and dense rock equivalents also increase: volume-- ~277 km3 (unit 1), ~222 km3 (unit 2), ~121 km3 (unit 3) and ~56 km3 (unit 4); DRE-- ~248 km3 (unit 1), ~170 km3 (unit 2), ~93 km3 (unit 3) and ~38 km3 (unit 4). New mapping confirms previous hypotheses that the Castle Rock caldera erupted unit 1 and identified the new Ironside Mountain caldera as the source for unit 2 while precise source areas for unit 3 and 4 are not yet known but are thought to lie within the Dinner Creek Eruptive Center. Minimal calculated caldera volumes for units 1 and 2 are ~98.5 km3 (unit 1) and ~31.1 km3 (unit 2). Adding the thick ponded intra caldera tuff volume to the determined and probable erupted tuff volumes determined in this study, increases the erupted volumes to ~268 km3 (determined) and ~375 km3 (probable) for unit 1 along with ~157 km3 (determined) and ~253 km3 (probable) for unit 2. DREs increase to ~251 km3 (determined) and ~347 km3 (probable) for unit 1 along with ~128 km3 (determined) and ~202 km3 (probable) for unit 2.

The Wildcat Creek Tuff is a thin (~3-12 m), rhyolite to andesitic ash-flow tuff with a minimal extent of 1500 km2 in Malheur county, eastern Oregon. The previously undated tuff yielded a single crystal, anorthoclase 40Ar/39Ar age of 15.49±0.02 Ma and thus is closely related to mafic and silicic volcanism of the Columbia River Province. The tuff texturally stands out by its high proportion of co-mingled mafic inclusions appearing as dark, scoriaceous, and phenocryst-poor fragments, and their proportion dictate bulk tuff compositions ranging from rhyolite (74% SiO2) to andesite (59% SiO2). Glass analyses confirm rhyolite end member at 74-75 wt.% SiO2 and two mafic members, one at 59-60 wt.% SiO2 and the other at 56-57 wt.% SiO2. Rare plagioclase and even rarer pyroxene phenocrysts with compositions clustering at An60-74 and An35-45, and Mg17-19 and Mg80-84, respectively, similarly suggest two andesitic magmas with the 60% member being the dominant mafic composition. It has distinctly lower TiO2 and CaO, slightly lower FeO, and comparable Al2O3, MgO, and alkalis. Eruption of crystal-poor dacitic to basaltic-andesitic cognate components is also observed in other Miocene ash-flow tuffs from eastern Oregon, like the Rattlesnake, Dinner Creek, and the Devine Canyon Tuffs, as well as other less voluminous tuffs. However, the high proportion of mafic components in the Wildcat Creek tuff seems currently unrivaled. The co-eruption of intermediate magmas with rhyolite implies that mafic magmas were tapped from a common reservoir, and these magmas increased in proportion during the course of the eruption(s). This continued up to the point where nearly all deposited tuff material consisted of andesite. This is consistent with progressively deeper magma withdrawal, in turn implying that mafic magmas resided below the rhyolites as a discrete magma batch. Dacitic components of voluminous rhyolitic tuffs have been recently interpreted as remelted samples of a crystal mush after crystal-poor rhyolites where extracted. Dacitic Wildcat Creek Tuff samples do not bear any evidence of this. To the contrary, small negative Eu anomalies, normal Ba and Sr concentrations, and nearly aphyric nature are consistent with a large portion of mixing between Wildcat Creek Tuff rhyolites and regional mid Miocene, Fe-rich, and crystal poor basaltic andesite magmas that occur ubiquitously as lava flows.

Graduation date: 2002 / Best scan available for black and white figures.

About 7,000 years ago two major tephra-falls blanketed the Pacific Northwest in volcanic ash. These two tephra-falls, identified as the Llao and climatic tephra-falls, were a part of the eruptive events that led up to the collapse of Mount Mazama to form Crater Lake in the southern Oregon Cascades. The tephra-falls occurred about 200 years apart at around 7,000 years B.P. and 6,800 years B.P. for the Llao and climatic eruptions respectively. The effects of the tephra-falls on the flora, fauna, and people of the period have been characterized by different researchers as ranging from minimal to catastrophic. In an attempt to better understand the affects of these two events on the flora, fauna, and people, a model is presented to help organize the various lines of research into a coherent whole and to suggest profitable areas of research which have not yet been completed. The model is based on ecological and anthropological theory with a strong reliance on analogy with modern ecosystems and volcanic hazards research. The model makes use of the ecosystem concept as the framework for the interaction of the abiotic, or nonliving habitat, with the biotic, or living system. The biotic organisms are adapted to the characteristics of the abiotic habitat and in many respects the composition, frequencies, and distributions of biotic organisms are determined by their tolorance levels to these characteristics. Tephra-falls act as environmental disturbances which change the abiotic habitat of the ecosystem. Therefore, any changes caused by such a disturbance in the abiotic characteristics that are not optimal or are outside of the tolorance limits of the biotic (flora and fauna) components should cause changes in the composition, distribution, and frequency of organisms within the ecosystem. The changes brought about by the tephra-falls may be described by successional and evolutionary processes through analysis of pollen and faunal remains, population demography as described by mortality profiles, and research into the reaction of specific flora and fauna within adaptational types to the properties of tephra-falls and the tephra as a soil body. The state factors used to describe the abiotic component of the ecosystem are: time, distribution, material properties, climate, and geomorphology. The state factor of time involves the determination of the occurrence in time of the event(s), the duration of the event(s), the season of occurrence of the event(s), and the residence time of tephra in the ecosystem. This state factor is used to define the specific point in time and duration of the effects of the tephra-fall(s) for individual ecosystems. The state factor of distribution describes the aerial extent and thickness of the air-fall deposits. This state factor determines the extent of the initial disturbance. The state factor of climate describes the specific components of rainfall, wind, and temperature which control ecosystem composition and development, and the changes to the climate which may have occurred due to volcanic aerosols associated with the eruption. The state factor of geomorphology describes the location of tephra and nontephra bodies across the landscape and through time as the tephra is reworked by wind, water, and gravity from the initial air-fall positions. The determination of the long term distribution of the tephra is important in determining post-event influences on ecosystems as described by the material properties of the tephra. It is argued that most people were not greatly harmed by the Mazama tephra-fall events themselves, but instead may have been greatly affected by a loss of food resources during and after the events. Changes in food resource availability and exploitation locations due to the tephra-falls may have resulted in changes in both settlement and subsistence activities. Changes in settlement and subsistence activities may be seen in a corresponding change in differential frequencies of functional tool types across space and time. The kind and amount of expected changes in settlement and subsistence systems are linked to distance from the source of the tephra, the stability and compostion of pre-disturbance ecosystems, the types and intensity of resource exploitation, and the amount of variability in subsistence and settlement traits which were available to the sociocultural system. / Graduation date: 1988

Eruption dynamics are sensitive to ash aggregation, and ash aggregates (e.g. accretionary lapilli) are commonly found in eruptive deposits, yet few experiments have been conducted on aggregation phenomena using natural materials. Experiments were developed to produce a probabilistic relationship for the efficiency of ash aggregation with respect to particle size, collision kinetic energy and atmospheric water vapor. The laboratory experiments were carried out in an enclosed tank designed to allow for the control of atmospheric water vapor. A synthetic ash proxy, ballotini, and ash from the 2006 eruption of Tungurahua, in Ecuador, were examined for their aggregation potential. Image data was recorded with a high speed camera and post-processed to determine the number of collisions, energy of collisions and probability of aggregation. Aggregation efficiency was dominantly controlled by collision kinetic energy and little to no dependence on atmospheric water vapor was seen in the range of relative humidity conditions tested, 20 to 80%. Equations governing the relationships between aggregation efficiency and collision kinetic energy and the related particle Stokes number, respectively, were determined for implementation into large scale numerical volcanic models.

Yucca Mountain was designated as the proposed high-level radioactive waste repository by the U.S. Government in 1987. The proposed repository design requires high safety for a long maintenance period of 10,000 years. To satisfy this requirement, evaluation of the influence of earthquakes on the repository is necessary. Prediction of earthquake-induced ground motions around the repository requires knowledge of the dynamic properties of the geologic materials around the repository. The main geologic materials in the vicinity of Yucca Mountain are tuffs (ignimbrites) which are formed by the deposition of volcanic ash mixed with erupted volcanic gas, water vapor and pyroclastic material. Two types of dynamic tests, (1) the free-free, unconfined, resonant column and direct arrival test (freefree URC test) and (2) the fixed-free resonant column and torsional shear test (fixed-free RCTS test), were used to measure the dynamic properties of tuffs. The emphasis in this dynamic testing was evaluation of shear modulus (G) and material damping ratio (D) of the tuffs in the small-strain (linear) and mildly nonlinear (to strains of about 0.02 %) ranges. To evaluate the influence of various parameters on G and D of tuffs, correlations with other features such as total unit weight, porosity and stratigraphic unit were performed and general relationships between them are proposed. In addition, an unconfined, slow-cyclic torsional shear (CTS) device was developed and used to measure the cyclic shear properties of the tuffs from Yucca Mountain at larger strain amplitudes than possible in the fixed-free RCTS tests. Additionally, the CTS device was also used to determine the shear failure strength of the tuffs. By combining the cyclic shear properties of the tuffs from the CTS tests and the dynamic properties of the tuffs from the fixed-free RCTS tests, complete dynamic property curves from small-strain to failure strain were evaluated. / text

Fluid flow rates and pathways in partially-welded, fractured, unsaturated tuff are investigated in a sloping borehole (DSB-1) cored from the surface to a perched aquifer at the Apache Leap near Superior, Arizona. Suspected water-bearing fractures were identified in the borehole using video and geophysical logs. Pore water extracted from cores associated with these fractures proved to have elevated ¹⁴C activity relative to pore waters from intermediate depths. Pore water from the deepest fracture interval contained post-bomb ¹⁴C. Low tritium concentrations in most samples indicates imbibition from each flow is small relative to the volume of water in the pores, but cumulative imbibition over time is significant based on ¹⁴C distribution through the unsaturated zone. The saturated zone beneath DSB-1 is a mixture of fracture flows with older aquifer water. Estimates based on ¹⁴C and ³H data indicate half of the water in the local aquifer originated from fractures near DSB-1. Geochernical models incorporating pore-water, surface-runoff, aquifer-water and mineral chemistry suggest that fracture flow may also be the predominant source of recharge for the older aquifer water. Water and carbon are extracted from core samples using uni-axial compression and a new vacuum distillation technique. Distillation is shown to be an effective method when carbon extraction is not possible by other methods. Mass yields from distillation provide evidence that there may be a substantial reservoir of carbon adsorbed to mineral phases. Carbon-14 activity of formation air samples from intervals with low air permeability reflect the composition of water imbibed from fracture flows at those depths. In zones of higher permeability, atmospheric contamination is suspected even though SF₆ (injected as a tracer during drilling) concentrations had not diminished. An independent investigation on the carbon isotopic composition of soil-zone CO₂ demonstrates the need to correct soil-respired CO₂ samples for CO₂ contamination in base reagents and for fractionation during sample collection. The minimum δ¹³C-shift from soil CO₂ to soil-respired CO₂ is also shown to be a function of the δ¹³C of soil organic material rather than a fixed 4.4%₀ as previously thought.