In late 2007, a perched lava channel, built up to 45 m above the preexisting surface, developed during the ongoing eruption near Pu'u 'Ō'ō cone on Kīlauea Volcano's east rift zone. The lava channel was segmented into four pools extending over a total of 1.4 km. From late October to mid-December, a cyclic behavior, consisting of steady lava level rise terminated by vigorous spattering and an abrupt drop in lava level, was commonly observed in pool 1. We use geologic observations, video, time-lapse camera images, and seismicity to characterize and understand this cyclic behavior. Spattering episodes occurred at intervals of 40-100 min during peak activity and involved small (5-10-m-high) fountains limited to the margins of the pool. Most spattering episodes had fountains which migrated downchannel. Each spattering episode was associated with a rapid lava level drop of about 1 m, which was concurrent with a conspicuous cigar-shaped tremor burst with peak frequencies of 4-5 Hz. We interpret this cyclic behavior to be gas pistoning, and this is the first documented instance of gas pistoning in lava well away from the deeper conduit. Our observations and data indicate that the gas pistoning was driven by gas accumulation beneath the visco-elastic component of the surface crust, contrary to other studies which attribute similar behavior to the periodic rise of gas slugs. The gas piston events typically had a gas mass of about 2,500 kg (similar to the explosions at Stromboli), with gas accumulation and release rates of about 1.1 and 5.7 kg s-1, respectively. The time-averaged gas output rate of the gas pistoning events accounted for about 1-2% of the total gas output rate of the east rift zone eruption.

No description available.

No description available.

Lahars pose a significant risk to communities, particularly those living near snow-capped volcanoes. Flows of mud and debris, typically but not necessarily triggered by volcanic activity, can have huge impacts, such as those seen at Nevado Del Ruiz, Colombia, in 1985 which led to the loss of over 23,000 lives and destroyed an entire town. We surveyed communities around Mount Rainier, Washington, United States, where over 150,000 people are at risk from lahar impacts. We explored how factors including demographics, social effects such as perceptions of community preparedness, evacuation drills, and cognitive factors such as risk perception and self-efficacy relate to preparedness when living within or nearby a volcanic hazard zone. Key findings include: women have stronger intentions to prepare but see themselves as less prepared than men; those who neither live nor work in a lahar hazard zone were more likely to have an emergency kit and to see themselves as more prepared; those who will need help to evacuate see the risk as lower but feel less prepared; those who think their community and officials are more prepared feel more prepared themselves; and benefits of evacuation drills and testing evacuation routes including stronger intentions to evacuate using an encouraged method and higher self-efficacy. We make a number of recommendations based on these findings including the critical practice of regular evacuation drills and the importance of ongoing messaging that focuses on appropriate ways to evacuate as well as the careful recommendation for residents to identify alternative unofficial evacuation routes.

No description available.

No description available.

Porosity is a fundamental characteristic of rock critical to its mechanical and hydrologic behavior, yet a study of the open and accumulated healed porosity of nine core samples from Newberry Volcano shows that different measurement methods produce significantly different estimates of pore volume and structure. This study compares traditional 2D point count, petrographic image analysis, and 3D x-ray Micro Computed Tomography (micro CT) measurement of porosity primarily derived from fracture slip and dilation. The set of measurements quantifies the discrepancy among measurement methods and provides a basis for assessing how this uncertainty depends on geologic factors including the stage of fracture development, and the size and connectivity of the pores. This comparison reveals that detailed petrographic mapping provides the most accurate characterization of fracture porosity, and its history of development, owing to its high spatial resolution and accuracy of phase identification as well as insights afforded from mineralogic and textural relationships. However, this analysis lacks the three-dimensional characterization necessary to determine pore shape and interconnectedness, especially in highly anisotropic and heterogeneous fracture porosity. Micro CT does characterize the three dimensionality of pores, and thus although it consistently underestimates porosity due to non-uniqueness of phase densities and limitations in resolution, and is difficult to post process, this method can usefully augment the petrographic analysis. High resolution mapping of petrographic thin sections also provides a means to characterize the roughness of fracture surfaces across multiple cycles of slip, related dilation, and healing. Analysis of 19 slip events on a small, early stage fracture experiencing less than mm-scale slip, indicates that this roughness is preserved across multiple slip events and is consistently associated with dilation recorded by the accumulation of layers of precipitated cement. Initially, characteristic length scales intrinsic to rock such as the primary grain and pore size distribution of the > 0.2 mm size fraction significantly influence the roughness of fractures, until the dominant mechanism of fracture growth becomes linkage among macroscopic fractures. This correlation among primary rock characteristics such as grain size, fracture roughness, repeated fracture slip, and dilation provides a potential method to assess the key attributes promoting dilatant, self-propping fracture slip necessary for successful stimulation to generate an Enhanced Geothermal System. Comparison to more developed fractures characterized by the development of fault rock suggest such stimulation is most successful for fractures sustaining small slip of a few millimeters or less during single slip events. / Geology

A new high-resolution 3-dimensional P-wave velocity model for Mt. Pinatubo volcano was developed by tomographic inversion of P-wave arrivals from 3,007 earthquakes recorded during a four month period from May to August, 1991. The arrivals were recorded by a network of seismic stations, consisting of seven pre-eruption stations and seven post-eruption stations. Two stations survived the June eruptions. First-arrival travel times were calculated using a finite-difference solution to the eikonal equation. An iterative, linearized approximation of the nonlinear tomography problem was used to solve separately for both velocity structure and hypocenter locations. Several inversions performed with different initial parameters and convergence schemes, and synthetic checkerboard reconstructions indicate a horizontal spatial resolution of velocity perturbations near 4 km. However, the network sparseness allows for a substantial trade-off between focal depth, origin time, and the vertical velocity profile. Many hypocenter clusters collapse from diffuse clouds into tighter features after 3-D relocation. These bands of earthquakes appear to represent fault-related structures. Three low-velocity (relative to the horizontal average) anomalies exist within the well-resolved portion of the velocity model. These anomalies are spatially associated with pre- and post-eruption earthquakes oriented along mapped surface fault zones. Similar anomalies observed at different volcanoes have been previously interpreted as magma related. The low-velocity anomalies at Pinatubo are interpreted as highly fractured, hot volumes of mostly competent rock, which may contain partial melt. / Master of Science

Non-linear volcanic and magmatic processes control the occurrence and behavior of volcanic eruptions. Consequently, understanding the responses of volcanic systems to processes of different length scales, timescales, and magnitudes is critical to interpreting ancient deposits, understanding current eruption dynamics, and predicting future activity. Here I present the results of three studies wherein analytical geochemistry, experimental petrology, and turbulent flow analysis describe otherwise obscured volcanic processes. Injections of new magma are common events in magma chambers. Recharging magma can change the chamber composition and temperature and may facilitate assimilation of country rock. Plagioclase phenocrysts provide an opportunity to examine recharge and assimilation processes, because their compositions are sensitive to temperature and their Sr isotopic ratios can record compositional variations in the chamber. Chemical and isotopic microanalyses of crystals from 7 eruptions of El Chichón Volcano, Mexico, reveal that recharge and assimilation events are very common and mixing is efficient, but individual events seldom affect the entire chamber. During every eruption, magma decompresses and ascends through a conduit from a chamber at depth to a vent at the surface. Changes in pumice textures during the 1800 ¹⁴C yr BP eruption of Ksudach Volcano, Kamchatka, suggest that conduit structure changed following caldera collapse. Decompression experiments show that the post-collapse pumice decompressed at ~0.0025 MPa/s, compared to pre-collapse decompression rates of >0.01 MPa/s. By balancing those results with eruptive mass fluxes I quantify the effects of caldera collapse on a conduit, and show that collapse resulted in a conduit with a very broad base and narrow vent. Turbulent air entrainment controls whether an eruption column rises buoyantly or collapses to generate pyroclastic flows. Through extensive re-evaluation of video and photographs of the 18 May 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, I report the first measurements of the turbulent velocity field of a volcanic column and show that changes in its turbulence reflect changes in eruption behavior. Those results indicate collapse was caused by a reduction in eddy size and turbulent air entrainment initiated by an increased vent size and the development of a buoyant annulus surrounding a dense, collapsing core. / text

第19回名古屋大学年代測定総合研究センターシンポジウム平成18(2006)年度報告<第2部> Proceedings of the 19th symposiumon on Chronological Studies at the Nagoya University Center for Chronological Research in 2006 日時:平成19 (2007)年1月15日(月)～17日(水) 会場:名古屋大学シンポジオン Date:January15th-17th, 2007 Venue:Nagoya Uhiversity Symposion Hall