Geology topics

John C. Eichelberger

Publications and source records attributed to John C. Eichelberger.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

USGS2011

Interdisciplinary studies of eruption at Chaitén volcano, Chile

High-silica rhyolite magma fuels Earth's largest and most explosive eruptions. Recurrence intervals for such highly explosive eruptions are in the 100- to 100,000-year time range, and there have been few direct observations of such eruptions and their immediate impacts. Consequently, there was keen interest within the volcanology community when the first large eruption of high-silica rhyolite since that of Alaska's Novarupta volcano in 1912 began on 1 May 2008 at Chaitén volcano, southern Chile, a 3-kilometer-diameter caldera volcano with a prehistoric record of rhyolite eruptions [ Naranjo and Stern, 2004semi; Servicio Nacional de Geología y Minería (SERNAGEOMIN), 2008semi; Carn et al., 2009; Castro and Dingwell, 2009; Lara, 2009; Muñoz et al., 2009 ]. Vigorous explosions occurred through 8 May 2008, after which explosive activity waned and a new lava dome was extruded.

Eos, Transactions, American Geophysical Union↗

USGS2011

Geophysics at Katmai: Geophysical expedition to Novarupta Volcano, Katmai National Park, Alaska

The great eruption of 1912 in the Aleutian Range of Alaska (Figure 1) is exceptional for both its size and relative simplicity. It was the largest eruption of this century and the largest rhyolitic outburst in almost 20 centuries. The 60-hour, 30-km 3 (ejecta volume) eruption produced extensive fallout deposits, an ash-flow sheet that gave rise to the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes, and the 3-km-diameter Mt. Katmai caldera. Because magma reached the surface through uniform nonvolcanic basement and the vent underwent little or no collapse (unusual for such a large event), the site provides an ideal target for surface geophysical and subsurface coring exploration of structures and conditions produced by explosive volcanism [Panel on Volcanic Studies at Katmai, 1989]. A project to investigate upper crustal magmatic processes at Katmai is part of the U.S. Continental Scientific Drilling Program [Eichelberger and Hildreth, 1986]. The surface studies phase of this project was undertaken last summer and preliminary results are now emerging.

Alaska↗

USGS2000

Magma storage and mixing conditions for the 1953-1974 eruption of Southwest Trident volcano, Katmai National Park, Alaska

Between 1953 and 1974, approximately 0.5 km 3 of andesite and dacite erupted from a new vent on the southwest flank of Trident volcano in Katmai National Park, Alaska, forming an edifice now known as Southwest (or New) Trident. Field, analytical, and experimental evidence shows that the eruption commenced soon after mixing of dacite and andesite magmas at shallow crustal levels. Four lava flows (58.3–65.5 wt% SiO 2 ) are the dominant products of the eruption; these contain discrete andesitic enclaves (55.8–58.9 wt% SiO 2 ) as well as micro- and macro-scale compositional banding. Tephra from the eruption spans the same compositional range as lava flows; however, andesite scoria (56–58.1 wt% SiO 2 ) is more abundant relative to dacite tephra, and is the explosively erupted counterpart to andesite enclaves. Fe–Ti oxide pairs from andesite scoria show a limited temperature range, clustered around 1000 °C. Temperatures from grains found in dacite lavas possess a wider range; however, cores from large (>100 μm) magnetite and coexisting ilmenite give temperatures of ∼890 °C, taken to represent a pre-mixing temperature for the dacite. Water contents from dacite phenocryst melt inclusions and phase equilibria experiments on the andesite imply that the two magmas last resided at a water pressure of 90 MPa, and contained ∼3.5 wt% H 2 O, equivalent to 3 km depth if saturated. Unzoned pyroxene and sodic plagioclase in the dacite suggest that it likely underwent significant crystallization at this depth; highly resorbed anorthitic plagioclase from the andesite suggests that it originated at greater depths and underwent relatively rapid ascent until it reached 3 km, mixed with dacite, and erupted. Diffusion profiles in phenocrysts suggest that mixing preceded eruption of earliest lava by approximately one month. The lack of a compositional gap in the erupted rock suite indicates that thorough mixing of the andesite and dacite occurred quickly, via disaggregation of enclaves, phenocryst transfer from one magma to another, and direct mixing of compositionally distinct melt phases.

Alaska↗