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At least 343 records · Page 19Linked to original sources
USGS1994

Volcanic mixed avalanches: A distinct eruption-triggered mass-flow process at snow-clad volcanoes

A generally unrecognized type of pyroclastic deposit was produced by rapid avalanches of intimately mixed snow and hot pyroclastic debris during eruptions at Mount St. Helens, Nevado del Ruiz, and Redoubt Volcano between 1982 and 1989. These "mixed avalanches" traveled as far as 14 km at velocities up to ∼27 m/s, involved as much as 10 7 m 3 of rock and ice, and left unmelted deposits of single flow units as thick as 5 m. During flow downslope, heat transfer from hot rocks to snow produced meltwater that partially saturated the mixtures, apparently giving these mixed avalanches mobilities equal to or greater than those of "dry" debris avalanches of similar volume. The avalanches studied for this report began as snow avalanches, triggered during explosive phases of the eruptions by ballistic bombardment of snow slopes by hot pyroclastic debris. Erosion by the avalanches incorporated additional snow, fragments of glacier ice, and other rock debris. Mixed-avalanche deposits were massive, very poorly sorted, and ungraded to inversely graded prior to melting. Although rock debris composed as much as 70 wt% of the frozen samples, the bulk volumetric content of rock debris was only 9% to 36%. Snow and ice composed between 36% and 72% of the frozen samples, with void space making up the remainder of the volume. Deformation and consolidation after melting of the ice content reduced the deposits to loose, porous layers that were only a fraction of their original thickness and that later gave little hint of their origin. After melting and desiccation, the deposits are highly susceptible to erosion and unlikely to be well preserved in the stratigraphic record.

Alaska, Washington↗
USGS1995

Minor elements in Quaternary sediment from the Sea of Japan: A record of surface-water productivity and intermediate-water redox conditions

Sediment of Quaternary age from Oki Ridge (903 m depth) in the Sea of Japan (∼3500 m deep) records six episodes of high accumulation rates of Cd, Cr, Cu, Mo, Ni, U, V, and Zn. The high rates correspond to periods of sulfate reduction in the water column at the intermediate depth of Oki Ridge; the intervening low values correspond to periods of denitrification and oxygen respiration. The maxima have a period of 41 k.y., the youngest having an age of 1.10 Ma. The 41 k.y. cycle is similar to the cycle of δ 18 O values of open-ocean plankton of the same age. The similarity between the cycles of minor-element accumulation in Sea of Japan sediment and δ 18 O values of Atlantic Ocean foraminifera indicates that redox changes in the water column of the Sea of Japan during the Quaternary, forced by major shifts in water-column advection and minor shifts in photic-zone productivity, reflect global events.

Geological Society of America Bulletin↗
USGS1995

The active southwest margin of the Colorado Plateau: Uplift of mantle origin

During Cenozoic time, the Colorado Plateau was raised about 2 km above sea level. The most-recent and best-documented uplift of the plateau (∼1 km) has been concentrated at its southwest margin between 6 and 1 Ma, whereas the eastern Colorado Plateau may have been at high elevations since Eocene time. To better understand the recent tectonic activity at the southwest margin of the Colorado Plateau, we compile detailed crustal thickness and density information from seismic and gravity data for a region that includes northwest Arizona and the southern tip of Nevada. This information is used to isolate the mantle contribution to uplift. We find that there is relatively low density mantle underlying the southern margin of the plateau in northwest Arizona, which could result from about 60–80 km of thinning of the dense mantle lithosphere combined with about 100 °C of heating through a 100-km-thick mantle layer. The available estimates from earthquake-source seismology in or near the study area are compatible with this estimate of lithospheric thinning. We speculate that uplift may result from subduction-related thinning of the continental lithosphere.

Geological Society of America Bulletin↗
USGS1995

Diatom evidence for earthquake-induced subsidence and tsunami 300 yr ago in southern coastal Washington

Fossil diatoms from four stratigraphic sections along the tidal Niawiakum River, southwestern Washington, provide an independent paleoecological test of a relative sea-level rise that has been attributed to subsidence during an inferred earthquake in the Cascadia subduction zone about 300 yr ago. Diatom assemblages in a buried soil and overlying mud indicate a sudden and lasting shift from marshes and forests near or above highest tides to mud flats and incipient tidal marshes, with a progressive return to high-level tidal marshes by sediment aggradation and, perhaps, gradual tectonic uplift. The amount of coseismic submergence required to generate the paleoecological changes observed at these sites could have ranged from a minimum of 0.8–1.0 m to a maximum of ∼3.0 m. Fossil diatoms also provide an independent test of previous inferences that the subsidence was shortly followed by a tsunami. The inferred tsunami deposit is a distinct sandy interval that widely overlies the buried marsh and forest soil. Diatoms from this interval consist of species observed on modern sand flats of the open bay, identifying a bayward source for the sand. Occurrences of the same sand-flat species above the buried soil in the farthest up-valley outcrop where a sandy interval is not recognizable suggest that the tsunami extended farther landward than was previously inferred from the stratigraphy. These data rule out proposed alternatives to the coseismic subsidence model—that is, climatically induced sea-level rise, temporary submergence caused by storms—and support the hypothesis that a great earthquake struck southwestern Washington 300 yr ago.

Geological Society of America Bulletin↗
USGS1995

Chemically diverse, sporadic volcanism at seamounts offshore southern and Baja California

Compositions of lavas from seven small to medium-sized seamounts, between lat 34.0°N and 30.5°N offshore southern and Baja California, include low-K 2 O tholeiitic, transitional, and mildly to moderately alkalic basalt and their differentiates. The low-K 2 O tholeiites resemble primitive (>9% MgO) mid-oceanic-ridge basalt (MORB) with low incompatible element abundances and very depleted, concave-downward, chondrite-normalized rare-earth-element (REE) patterns and lower 87 Sr/ 86 Sr and higher 143 Nd/ 144 Nd ratios than typical MORB from the East Pacific Rise. The seamounts with these MORB-like lavas are inferred to have formed at or near the spreading center. Transitional and mildly to moderately alkalic basalts have higher abundances of incompatible elements and steeper slopes for chondrite-normalized REE patterns with light REE enrichment up to 150 times chondrites. The alkalic compositions indicate more variably enriched mantle sources than those of most seamounts presently located near the East Pacific Rise, but the compositions are within the mantle array defined by other ocean-island basalts. Volcanic rocks from the upper part of Rocas Alijos, a much larger and morphologically more complex edifice than the northern seamounts, located offshore central Baja California at lat ∼25°N, are all highly differentiated trachyte and trachyandesite. Based on 40 Ar/ 39 Ar laser fusion techniques, MORB-like lava from one of the northern edifices is as old as the underlying oceanic crust (>20 Ma), indicating that it originated at a spreading center. Other seamount lava ages are much younger than the oceanic crust on which they reside, ranging from 16.8 ± 0.3 to <7 Ma for some of the northern seamounts to 270 ± 16 ka for the trachyte from Rocas Alijos. Similar highly evolved lavas cap fossil spreading centers like Guadalupe and Socorro Islands, but Rocas Alijos, based on magnetic anomalies, is not an abandoned spreading center but may instead have formed on a leaky transform fault. Some of the seamounts with transitional and alkalic lavas may have formed as part of a short, age-progressive chain formed by a short-lived mantle plume. Many others, aligned along abandoned spreading centers or faults and fracture zones which are abundant in the tectonically complex region offshore southern and peninsular California, may have resulted from upwelling mantle diapirs in response to localized extension. Some of the episodes of volcanism appear to have been contemporaneous with volcanism in the continental borderland and coastal southern California, suggesting linkage between extension along the continental margin and the seamount province farther offshore. The data available for the abundant volcanic edifices of varying sizes, shapes, and orientations in this region suggest that the seamounts formed from multiple episodes of chemically diverse volcanism, tapping variably enriched, heterogeneous mantle, which occurred sporadically from early Miocene to late Pleistocene.

Baja California↗
USGS1995

Quaternary soils and dust deposition in southern Nevada and California

Eolian dust constitutes much of the pedogenic material in late Pleistocene and Holocene soils of many arid regions of the world. Comparison of the compositions and influx rates of modern dust with the eolian component of dated soils at 24 sites in southern Nevada and California yields information on (1) the composition and influx rate of dust in late Pleistocene and Holocene soils, (2) paleoclimate and its effects on the genesis of aridic soils, especially with regard to dustfall events, (3) the timing and relative contribution of dust from playa sources versus alluvial sources, and (4) the effects of accumulation of dust in soil horizons. The <2 mm fractions of A and B horizons of soils formed on gravelly alluvial-fan deposits in the study area are similar to modern dust in grain size, content of CaCO 3 and salt, major oxides, and clay mineralogy; thus, they are interpreted to consist largely of dust. The major-oxide compositions of the shallow soil horizons are nearly identical to that of the modern dust, but the compositions of progressively deeper horizons approach that of the parent material. The clay mineralogy of modern dust at a given site is similar to that of the Av horizons of nearby Holocene soils but is commonly different from the mineralogies of deeper soil horizons and of the Av horizons of nearby Pleistocene soils. These results are interpreted to indicate that dust both accumulates and is transformed in Av horizons with time. Changes in soil-accumulation rates provide insights into the interplay of paleoclimate, dust supply, and soil-forming processes. Modern dust-deposition rates are more than large enough to account for middle and late Holocene soil-accumulation rates at nearly all sites. However, the early Holocene soil-accumulation rates in areas near late Pleistocene pluvial lakes are much higher than modern rates and clearly indicate a dust-deflation and -deposition event that caused rapid formation of fine-grained shallow soil horizons on uppermost Pleistocene and lower Holocene deposits. We interpret late Pleistocene soil-accumulation rates to indicate that dust-deposition rates were low during this period but that increased effective moisture during the late Wisconsinan favored translocation of clay and CaCO 3 from near the surface to deeper in the soil profile. Pre–late Pleistocene rates are very low in most areas, mainly due to a pedogenic threshold that was crossed when accumulations of silt, clay, and CaCO 3 began to inhibit the downward transport of eolian material, but in part due to erosion.

Geological Society of America Bulletin↗
USGS1995

Tectonic setting of the Portland-Vancouver area, Oregon and Washington: Constraints from low-altitude aeromagnetic data

Seismic activity in the Portland-Vancouver metropolitan area may be associated with various mapped faults that locally offset volcanic basement of Eocene age and younger. This volcanic basement is concealed in most places by young deposits, vegetation, and urban development. The U.S. Geological Survey conducted an aeromagnetic survey in September 1992 to investigate the extent of these mapped faults and possibly to help identify other seismic and volcanic hazards in the area. The survey was flown approximately 240 m above terrain, along flight lines spaced 460 m apart, and over an area about 50 × 50 km. These magnetic data indicate a pronounced northwest-striking magnetic lineation east of the Willamette River in downtown Portland associated with a fault concealed beneath Quaternary sedimentary deposits and previously inferred from shallow well data. The magnetic lineation confirms the existence of the fault and suggests that it has had a prolonged history: (1) Although well data indicate <200 m of vertical offset of underlying volcanic basement, models based on the aeromagnetic data from downtown Portland suggest reverse faulting with up to 1 km of offset deeper in the section. (2) The magnetic lineation associated with this fault extends southeast to the Clackamas River drainage, a distance of 50 km and considerably beyond the mapped extent of the fault. A northwest-striking magnetic anomaly located southwest of the Tualatin Mountains corresponds closely with another mapped fault and with mixed reverse and strike-slip faulting during a seismic swarm (M ≤ 3) in 1991. We believe these and other anomalies in the aeromagnetic data reflect the Portland Hills fault zone, believed to be the southwestern boundary of a structural basin now occupied by Portland and Vancouver. The postulated northeastern boundary of the basin, the Frontal fault zone, is also evident, although less well represented in the aeromagnetic data. Aeromagnetic anomalies, geologic mapping, and earthquake focal-plane solutions demonstrate a complex deformational history in the Portland-Vancouver area since middle Miocene time that includes elements of compression, extension, and dextral slip. These complexities reflect Portland-Vancouver's unique position within a north-south transition in tectonic styles along the Cascadia margin, from compressional in the north to extensional in the south.

Oregon, Washington↗
USGS1996

Tributary debris fans and the late Holocene alluvial chronology of the Colorado River, eastern Grand Canyon, Arizona

Bouldery debris fans and sandy alluvial terraces of the Colorado River developed contemporaneously during the late Holocene at the mouths of nine major tributaries in eastern Grand Canyon. The age of the debris fans and alluvial terraces contributes to understanding river hydraulics and to the history of human activity along the river, which has been concentrated on these surfaces for at least two to three millennia. Poorly sorted, coarse-grained debris-flow deposits of several ages are interbedded with, overlie, or are overlapped by three terrace-forming alluviums. The alluvial deposits are of three age groups: the striped alluvium, deposited from before 770 b.c. to about a.d. 300; the alluvium of Pueblo II age deposited from about a.d. 700 to December 1900; and the alluvium of the upper mesquite terrace, deposited from about a.d. 1400 to 1880. Two elements define the geomorphology of a typical debris fan: the large, inactive surface of the fan and a smaller, entrenched, active debris-flow channel and fan that is about one-sixth the area of the inactive fan. The inactive fan is segmented into at least three surfaces with distinctive weathering characteristics. These surfaces are conformable with underlying debris-flow deposits that date from before 770 b.c. to around a.d. 660, a.d. 660 to before a.d. 1200, and from a.d. 1200 to slightly before 1890, respectively, based on late-19th-century photographs, radiocarbon and archaeologic dating of the three stratigraphically related alluviums, and radiocarbon dating of fine-grained debris-flow deposits. These debris flows aggraded the fans in at least three stages beginning about 2.8 ka, if not earlier in the late Holocene. Several main-stem floods eroded the margin of the segmented fans, reducing fan symmetry. The entrenched, active debris-flow channels contain deposits <100 yr old, which form debris fans at the mouth of the channel adjacent to the river. Early and middle Holocene debris-flow and alluvial deposits have not been recognized, as they were evidently not preserved adjacent to the river or are buried by younger deposits.

Arizona↗
USGS1996

Lower and lower Middle Pennsylvanian fluvial to estuarine deposition, central Appalachian basin: Effects of eustasy, tectonics, and climate

Interpretations of Pennsylvanian sedimentation and peat accumulation commonly use examples from the Appalachian basin because of the excellent outcrops and large reserve of coal (>100 billion metric tons) in the region. Particularly controversial is the origin of Lower and lower Middle Pennsylvanian quartzose sandstones; beach-barrier, marine-bar, tidal-strait, and fluvial models all have been applied to a series of sand bodies along the western outcrop margin of the basin. Interpretations of these sandstones and their inferred lateral relationships are critical for understanding the relative degree of eustatic, tectonic, and climatic controls on Early Pennsylvanian sedimentation. Cross sections utilizing >1000 subsurface records and detailed sedimentological analysis of the Livingston Conglomerate, Rockcastle Sandstone, Corbin Sandstone, and Pine Creek sandstone (an informal member) of the Breathitt Group were used to show that each of the principal quartzose sandstones on the margin of the central Appalachian basin contains both fluvial and marginal marine facies. The four sandstones are fluvially dominated and are inferred to represent successive bed-load trunk systems of the Appalachian foreland. Base-level rise and an associated decrease in extra-basinal sediment at the end of each fluvial episode led to the development of local estuaries and marine reworking of the tops of the sand belts. Each of the sand belts is capped locally by a coal, regardless of whether the upper surfaces of the sand belts are of fluvial or estuarine origin, suggesting allocyclic controls on deposition. Peats were controlled by a tropical ever-wet climate, which also influenced sandstone composition through weathering of stored sands in slowly aggrading braidplains. Recurrent stacking of thick, coarse-grained, fluvial deposits with extra-basinal quartz pebbles; dominance of bed-load fluvial–lowstand deposits over mixed-load, estuarine-transgressive deposits; thinning of sand belts around tectonic highs and along faults; cratonward shift and amalgamation of successive sand belts on the margin of the basin; and truncation of successive sand belts toward the fault-bound margin of the basin are interpreted as regional responses to Alleghenian tectonism, inferred to have been the dominant control on accommodation space and sediment flux in the Early Pennsylvanian basin.

Geological Society of America Bulletin↗
USGS1996

The southern Whidbey Island fault: An active structure in the Puget Lowland, Washington

Information from seismic-reflection profiles, outcrops, boreholes, and potential field surveys is used to interpret the structure and history of the southern Whidbey Island fault in the Puget Lowland of western Washington. This northwest-trending fault comprises a broad (as wide as 6–11 km), steep, northeast-dipping zone that includes several splays with inferred strike-slip, reverse, and thrust displacement. Transpressional deformation along the southern Whidbey Island fault is indicated by along-strike variations in structural style and geometry, positive flower structure, local unconformities, out-of-plane displacements, and juxtaposition of correlative sedimentary units with different histories. The southern Whidbey Island fault represents a segment of a boundary between two major crustal blocks. The Cascade block to the northeast is floored by diverse assemblages of pre-Tertiary rocks; the Coast Range block to the southwest is floored by lower Eocene marine basaltic rocks of the Crescent Formation. The fault probably originated during the early Eocene as a dextral strike-slip fault along the eastern side of a continental-margin rift. Bending of the fault and transpressional deformation began during the late middle Eocene and continues to the present. Oblique convergence and clockwise rotation along the continental margin are the inferred driving forces for ongoing deformation. Evidence for Quaternary movement on the southern Whidbey Island fault includes (1) offset and disrupted upper Quaternary strata imaged on seismic-reflection profiles; (2) borehole data that suggests as much as 420 m of structural relief on the Tertiary-Quaternary boundary in the fault zone; (3) several meters of displacement along exposed faults in upper Quaternary sediments; (4) late Quaternary folds with limb dips of as much as ≈9°; (5) large-scale liquefaction features in upper Quaternary sediments within the fault zone; and (6) minor historical seismicity. The southern Whidbey Island fault should be considered capable of generating large earthquakes (M s ≥7) and represents a potential seismic hazard to residents of the Puget Lowland.

Washington↗
USGS1996

Waters associated with an active basaltic volcano, Kilauea, Hawaii: Variation in solute sources, 1973-1991

Chemical and isotopic analyses of samples collected from a December 1962-m-deep research borehole at the summit of Kilauea Volcano provide unique time-series data for composition of waters in the uppermost part of its hydrothermal system. These waters have a distinctive geochemical signature: a very low proportion of chloride relative to other anions compared with other Hawaiian waters—thermal (•30°C) or nonthermal (<30°C)—and with most thermal waters of the world. Isotope data demonstrate that the borehole waters are of essentially meteoric origin, with minimal magmatic input.

Hawaii↗
USGS1996

Paleomagnetism of Jurassic radiolarian chert above the Coast Range ophiolite at Stanley Mountain, California, and implications for its paleogeographic origins

Upper Jurassic red tuffaceous chert above the Coast Range ophiolite at Stanley Mountain, California (lat 35°N, long 240°E), contains three components of remanent magnetization. The first component (A; removed by ≈100–≈200°C) has a direction near the present-day field for southern California and is probably a recently acquired thermoviscous magnetization. A second component (B; removed between ≈100 and ≈600°C) is identical to that observed by previous workers in samples of underlying pillow basalt and overlying terrigenous sedimentary rocks. This component has constant normal polarity and direction throughout the entire section, although these rocks were deposited during a mixed polarity interval of the geomagnetic field. The B magnetization, therefore, is inferred to be a secondary magnetization acquired during accretion, uplift, or Miocene volcanism prior to regional clockwise rotation. The highest temperature component (C; removed between ≈480 and 680°C) is of dual polarity and is tentatively interpreted as a primary magnetization, although it fails a reversal test possibly due to contamination by B. Separation of the B and C components is best shown by samples with negative-inclination C directions, and a corrected mean direction using only these samples indicates an initial paleolatitude of 32°N ± 8°. Paleobiogeographic models relating radiolarian faunal distribution patterns to paleolatitude have apparently been incorrectly calibrated using the overprint B component. Few other paleomagnetic data have been incorporated in these models, and faunal distribution patterns are poorly known and mostly unquantified. The available data, therefore, do not support formation of the Coast Range ophiolite at Stanley Mountain near the paleoequator or accretion at ≈10°N paleolatitude, as has been previously suggested based on paleomagnetic data, but indicate deposition near expected paleolatitudes for North America (35°N ± 4°) during Late Jurassic time.

California↗
USGS1996

Late Cretaceous remagnetization of Proterozoic mafic dikes, southern Highland Mountains, southwestern Montana: A paleomagnetic and 40Ar/39Ar study

Paleomagnetic results from Early Proterozoic metabasite sills and Middle Proterozoic diabase dikes from the southern Highland Mountains of southwestern Montana give well-defined, dual-polarity magnetizations that are statistically identical to those from a small Late Cretaceous pluton that cuts the dikes. The concordance of paleomagnetic directions from rocks of three widely separated ages indicates that the Proterozoic rocks were remagnetized, probably during Late Cretaceous time. Paleomagnetic, rock magnetic, and petrographic observations from the metabasite and diabase samples indicate that remanence is carried primarily by low-Ti magnetite. Combining virtual geomagnetic poles from metabasite sills, diabase dikes, and the Late Cretaceous pluton, we obtain a paleomagnetic pole at 85.5°N, 310.7°E ( K = 19.9, A 95 = 9.1°, N = 14 sites) that is similar to a reference pole from the 74 Ma Adel Mountain Volcanics of western Montana. Biotite and hornblende 40 Ar/ 39 Ar isotopic dates from host basement gneiss and a hornblende from a remagnetized metabasite sill yield ages of ca. 1800 Ma; these dates probably record cooling of the southern Highland Mountains following high-grade metamorphism at 1.9–1.8 Ga. The gneiss and metabasite age spectra show virtually no evidence of disturbance, indicating that the basement rocks were never heated to temperatures sufficient to cause even partial resetting of their argon systems. Thus, the overprint magnetization of the Highland Mountains rocks is not a thermoremanent magnetization acquired during conductive cooling of nearby Late Cretaceous plutons. Remagnetization of the metabasite sills and diabase dikes was probably caused by localized thermochemical and thermoviscous effects during circulation of Late Cretaceous hydrothermal fluids related to epithermal mineralization. The absence of significant disturbance to the 40 Ar/ 39 Ar age spectrum from the remagnetized metabasite hornblende indicates that some secondary magnetizations may go unrecognized and undated, even if 40 Ar/ 39 Ar dating is applied.

Montana↗
USGS1996

Kulshan caldera: A quaternary subglacial caldera in the North Cascades, Washington

Calderas that collapse during large pyroclastic eruptions are anomalously rare in the Cascade arc. Recognition of the early Pleistocene 4.5 × 8 km Kulshan caldera, filled with rhyodacite ignimbrite at the northeast foot of Mount Baker, brings to only three the Quaternary calderas identified in the Cascades. A near-vertical ring fault cut in basement rocks of the North Cascades encloses 30 km 2 of intracaldera ignimbrite (and intermixed collapse breccia) >1 km thick but with no floor exposed. The Lake Tapps tephra in the Puget lowland is the correlative fallout; 200 km from the source, it is as thick as 30 cm. Features of the distal ash fall and the intracaldera tuff suggest large-scale phreatomagmatism during an eruption that may have started subglacially. Several advances of the Cordilleran ice sheet subsequently obliterated the topographic rim, removed every vestige of extracaldera ignimbrite and proximal fallout, and stripped any precaldera extrusive rocks-the former existence of which is suggested only by a few silicic intrusions that cut the circumcaldera basement. Although the caldera is not structurally resurgent, several early intracaldera rhyodacite lavas intrude and rest directly on ignimbrite or on ashy caldera-lake sediments reworked from the eruption products. Subsidence areas, pumice compositions, and volumes of magma erupted (>50 km 3 ) are similar for the Kulshan, Rockland, and Crater Lake (Mazama) events, the three Quaternary caldera-forming eruptions now recognized in the Cascades.

Geological Society of America Bulletin↗
USGS1996

A catastrophic flood caused by drainage of a caldera lake at Aniakchak Volcano, Alaska, and implications for volcanic hazards assessment

Aniakchak caldera, located on the Alaska Peninsula of southwest Alaska, formerly contained a large lake (estimated volume 3.7 × 10 9 m 3 ) that rapidly drained as a result of failure of the caldera rim sometime after ca. 3400 yr B.P. The peak discharge of the resulting flood was estimated using three methods: (1) flow-competence equations, (2) step-backwater modeling, and (3) a dam-break model. The results of the dam-break model indicate that the peak discharge at the breach in the caldera rim was at least 7.7 × 10 4 m 3 s −1 , and the maximum possible discharge was ≈1.1 × 10 6 m 3 s −1 . Flow-competence estimates of discharge, based on the largest boulders transported by the flood, indicate that the peak discharge values, which were a few kilometers downstream of the breach, ranged from 6.4 × 10 5 to 4.8 × 10 6 m 3 s −1 . Similar but less variable results were obtained by step-backwater modeling. Finally, discharge estimates based on regression equations relating peak discharge to the volume and depth of the impounded water, although limited by constraining assumptions, provide results within the range of values determined by the other methods. The discovery and documentation of a flood, caused by the failure of the caldera rim at Aniakchak caldera, underscore the significance and associated hydrologic hazards of potential large floods at other lake-filled calderas.

Geological Society of America Bulletin↗
USGS1996

Recurrent eruption and subsidence at the Platoro caldera complex, southeastern San Juan volcanic field, Colorado: New tales from old tuffs

Reinterpretation of a voluminous regional ash-flow sheet (Masonic Park Tuff) as two separate tuff sheets of similar phenocryst-rich dacite erupted from separate source calderas has important implications for evolution of the multicyclic Platoro caldera complex and for caldera-forming processes generally. Masonic Park Tuff in central parts of the San Juan field, including the type area, was erupted from a concealed source at 28.6 Ma, but widespread tuff previously mapped as Masonic Park Tuff in the southeastern San Juan Mountains is the product of the youngest large-volume eruption of the Platoro caldera complex at 28.4 Ma. This large unit, newly named the “Chiquito Peak Tuff,” is the last-erupted tuff of the Treasure Mountain Group, which consists of at least 20 separate ash-flow sheets of dacite to low-silica rhyolite erupted from the Platoro complex during a 1 m.y. interval (29.5−28.4 Ma). Two Treasure Mountain tuff sheets have volumes in excess of 1000 km 3 each, and five more have volumes of 50–150 km 3 . The total volume of ash-flow tuff exceeds 2500 km 3 , and caldera-related lavas of dominantly andesitic composition make up 250-500 km 3 more. A much greater volume of intermediate-composition magma must have solidified in subcaldera magma chambers. Most preserved features of the Platoro complex-including postcollapse asymmetrical trap-door resurgent uplift of the ponded intracaldera tuff and concurrent infilling by andesitic lava flows-postdate eruption of the Chiquito Peak Tuff. The numerous large-volume pre-Chiquito Peak ash-flow tuffs document multiple eruptions accompanied by recurrent subsidence; early-formed caldera walls nearly coincide with margins of the later Chiquito Peak collapse. Repeated syneruptive collapse at the Platoro complex requires cumulative subsidence of at least 10 km. The rapid regeneration of silicic magmas requires the sustained presence of an andesitic subcaldera magma reservoir, or its rapid replenishment, during the 1 m.y. life span of the Platoro complex. Either case implies large-scale stoping and assimilative recycling of the Tertiary section, including intracaldera tuffs.

Colorado↗
USGS1996

Integrated high-precision analyses of Holocene relative sea-level changes: Lessons from the coast of Maine

A suite of salt-marsh peat samples from four sites along the coast of Maine (Wells, Phippsburg, Gouldsboro, and Machiasport) has been analyzed using high-precision techniques to determine local relative sea-level trends and to evaluate proposed along-coast warping. A spatially variable set of relative sea-level records in Maine would have important implications for geophysical models that predict the response of the lithosphere during deglaciation and postglacial isostatic relaxation. These models are often at odds with observed relative sea-level indicators near the margins of former glaciation, including those from Maine.

Maine↗