Volcanic eruptions; energy and size
S. de la Cruz-Reyna
1991, Earthquakes & Volcanoes (USGS) (22) 140-141
The Earth is a dynamic planet. Many different processes are continuously developing, creating a delicate balance between the energy stored and generated in its interior and the heat lost into space. The heat in continuously transferred through complex self-regulating convection mechanisms on a planetary scale. The distribution of terrestrial heat...
Advances(?) in mitigating volcano hazards in Latin America
M.L. Hall
1991, Earthquakes & Volcanoes (USGS) (22) 149-150
The 1980's were incredible years for volcanology. As a consequence of the Mount St. Helens and other eruptions, major advances in our understanding of volcanic processes and eruption dynamics were made. the decade also witnessed the greatest death toll caused by volcanism since 1902. Following Mount St. Helens, awareness of...
Science and the public welfare
F. Press
1991, Earthquakes & Volcanoes (USGS) (22) 93-93
Earthquakes & Volcanoes has achieved much in its 20-year history. It serves as a link with policy makers and the public. it offers a variety of information attractive to professionals: historical, culutral, and curent events, and news items not found or missed elsewhere. And the journal can anticipate an even mroe...
Volcanoes in outer space and inner space
P. Francis
1991, Earthquakes & Volcanoes (USGS) (22) 151-153
AS a teenager, I spent many long, bone-chilling hours studying the Moon and the planets with a rickety, homemade telescope. After 30 years, I still recall the pain and pleasure of creeping illicitly out of the house in the small hours of the morning for the few moments of satisfaction...
Mid-continent earthquake zones; lessons from New Madrid, Missouri
B. J. Mitchell
1991, Earthquakes & Volcanoes (USGS) (22) 120-123
Many seismically active regions occur throughout the world as concentrated zones surrounded by the relatively stable crust of shields or platforms. Examples occur in central and eastern North America, northeastern Brazil, Australia, Norway, Svalbard, Greenland, and other places. Some of these zones, such as those at New Madrid, Missouri, and...
The intensities and magnitudes of volcanic eruptions
H. Sigurdsson
1991, Earthquakes & Volcanoes (USGS) (22) 142-146
Ever since 1935, when C.F Richter devised the earthquake magnitude scale that bears his name, seismologists have been able to view energy release from earthquakes in a systematic and quantitative manner. The benefits have been obvious in terms of assessing seismic gaps and the spatial and temporal trends of earthquake...
Volcanic-hazards assessments; past, present, and future
D. R. Crandell
1991, Earthquakes & Volcanoes (USGS) (22) 131-132
A new reason to study volcanoes has developed within the last few decades; it is to anticipate the specific kinds and extents of future eruptions and their effects on people and property. Such studies are based chiefly on the eruptive histories of volcanoes and the distribution of past eruptive products....
Federal support for seismological research; past, present, and future.
D. R. Sarewitz
1991, Earthquakes & Volcanoes (USGS) (22) 115-116
Data from the past 20 years indicate a strong temporal correlation between major California earthquakes and icnreased federal funding for seismology. ...
The volcanic record that gets away
R.E. Stoiber
1991, Earthquakes & Volcanoes (USGS) (22) 147-148
Volcanologists are accustomed to looking at the record in the rocks to read volcanic history. They map the extent of airfalls, the thickness and distribution of ignimrites and mudflows, and the nature and extent of lava flows. From these data they infer the story of previous eruptive episodes that are...
The paradigm that failed
J.C. Savage
1991, Earthquakes & Volcanoes (USGS) (22) 113-114
Advances in science are memorialized; diversion are soon forgotten. Yet it is a diversion that I commemorate here: the vp/vs anomaly, the so-called seismic velocity ratio, as a method of predicting the time, place, and magnitude of an impending earthquake. ...
Engineering seismology
Ambraseys N.N
1991, Earthquakes & Volcanoes (USGS) (22) 109-110
Twenty years have elasped since the first issue of Earthquakes & Volcanoes. Apart from the remarkable increases in the number of scientists actively enagaged in earth sciences, what are the outstanding achievements during the past 20 years in the field of engineering seismology, which is my own speciality?...
On seismological moments and magnitudes
B. A. Bolt
1991, Earthquakes & Volcanoes (USGS) (22) 111-112
My approach to seismology over the years has always been from the point of view of applied mathematics, as exemplified broadly by the work of the late Sir Harold Jeffreys and Professor K. E. Bullen. Both stresses the development of mathematics in the context of physical systems and of modeling,...
Natural disasters and insurance and reinsurance
G. Berz
1991, Earthquakes & Volcanoes (USGS) (22) 99-102
Great natural disasters, that is, those exceeding the economic capacity of the affected region and requiring national or international assistance, have increased dramatically in number and scope over the past few decades. As the accompanying graph shows, on average, from the 1960's to the 1980's there has been a five-fold...
The nature of earthquake prediction
A.G. Lindh
1991, Earthquakes & Volcanoes (USGS) (22) 117-119
Earthquake prediction is inherently statistical. Although some people continue to think of earthquake prediction as the specification of the time, place, and magnitude of a future earthquake, it has been clear for at least a decade that this is an unrealistic and unreasonable definition. the reality is that earthquake prediction...
Seismicity and volcanism; a global perspective
J. H. Latter
1991, Earthquakes & Volcanoes (USGS) (22) 96-98
Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are episodic, related phenomena, resulting from an unstable, evolving Earth. Earthquakes span at least 2 orders of magnitude of energy release (2 of Richter magnitude), and volcanic eruptions at least 3 orders of magnitude in both volume and energy. The largest known earthquakes, of magnitude about...
Reducing volcanic risk; are we winning some battles but losing the war?
R.I. Tilling
1991, Earthquakes & Volcanoes (USGS) (22) 133-137
Historically, significant advances in volcanology have been catalyzed by volcanic disasters or crises, reflecting the the simple fact that volcanoes seem to receive serious scientific and public attention only when they cause, or threaten to cause, trouble. For example, three deadly eruptions in 1902, Mount Pelee, Santa Maria, and Soufriere...
Geology of the Bayan Obo iron-rare-earth-niobium deposits, Inner Mongolia, China
L.J. Drew, M. Qingrun, S. Weijun
Anon, editor(s)
1991, Conference Paper, Preprint - Society of Mining Engineers of AIME
The plate tectonic setting, regional geology, and certain aspects of the economic geology of the iron-rare-earth-niobium ore bodies at Bayan Obo, Inner Mongolia, China, were studied by a team of geologists from the Tianjin Geologic Research Academy and the U.S. Geological Survey between 1987 and 1989. These ore bodies were...
Solution of the one-dimensional consolidation theory equation with a pseudospectral method
N. Sepulveda
Anon, editor(s)
1991, Conference Paper, IAHS Publication (International Association of Hydrological Sciences)
The one-dimensional consolidation theory equation is solved for an aquifer system using a pseudospectral method. The spatial derivatives are computed using Fast Fourier Transforms and the time derivative is solved using a fourth-order Runge-Kutta scheme. The computer model calculates compaction based on the void ratio changes accumulated during the simulated...
National Fisheries Research Center-La Crosse
R.C. Hubely Jr.
C.D. Becker, editor(s)
1991, Book chapter, Fisheries laboratories of North America
Abstract not submitted to date...
Flame ionization mass spectrometry--Isotope ratio determinations for potassium
Howard E. Taylor, John R. Garbarino, S. R. Koirtyohann
1991, Applied Spectroscopy (45) 886-886
The air/acetylene flame provides a convenient ion source for the determination of potassium isotopic ratios by mass spectrometry. Unlike the argon inductively coupled plasma (ICP), the flame provides low background in the mass region of interest. Ion production is quite satisfactory for isotope ratio measurements at the micrograms per milliliter...
Evaluation of evidence pertaining to the origin of vein deposits exposed in trench 14, Nevada Test Site, Nevada
J. S. Stuckless
Anon, editor(s)
1991, Conference Paper, High Level Radioactive Waste Management
Large vein-like deposits of calcite and opaline silica that infill the Bow Ridge fault are exposed by Trench 14 at the Nevada Test Site. The origin of the deposits has been the center of considerable controversy because the deposits occur on the edge of Yucca Mountain, which is being characterized...
Use of electronic microprocessor-based instrumentation by the U.S. geological survey for hydrologic data collection
William G. Shope Jr.
Shane Richard M., editor(s)
1991, Conference Paper, Proceedings - National Conference on Hydraulic Engineering
The U.S. Geological Survey is acquiring a new generation of field computers and communications software to support hydrologic data-collection at field locations. The new computer hardware and software mark the beginning of the Survey's transition from the use of electromechanical devices and paper tapes to electronic microprocessor-based instrumentation. Software is...
Sensitivity analysis of a ground-water-flow model
Lynn J. Torak
Lennon Gerard P.Rouhani Shahrokh, editor(s)
1991, Conference Paper, Symposium on Ground Water
A sensitivity analysis was performed on 18 hydrological factors affecting steady-state groundwater flow in the Upper Floridan aquifer near Albany, southwestern Georgia. Computations were based on a calibrated, two-dimensional, finite-element digital model of the stream-aquifer system and the corresponding data inputs. Flow-system sensitivity was analyzed by computing water-level residuals obtained...
Calcic, gypsic, and siliceous soil chronosequences in arid and semiarid environments
J.W. Harden, E. M. Taylor, M.C. Reheis, L. D. McFadden
W. D. Nettleton, B. L. Allen, C. T. Hallmark, editor(s)
1991, Conference Paper, SSSA Special Publication (Soil Science Society of America)
We studied three soil chronosequences in the western USA to compare the development of calcic, gypsic, and siliceous soils through time. We compared calcic soils from the Silver Lake playa, southeastern California, gypsic-calcic soils from the Kane Fans in Big Horn County, Wyoming, and siliceous-calcic soils from Forty-mile Wash in...
Captive breeding and reintroduction of the endangered masked bobwhite
J. W. Carpenter, R. R. Gabel, J.G. Goodwin
1991, Zoo Biology (10) 439-449
Efforts to restore the endangered masked bobwhite (Colinus virginianus ridgwayi) to its former range have required 1) habitat acquisition, restoration, and preservation; 2) captive propagation; and 3) reintroduction of captive-bred stock. In its role to recover the masked bobwhite, the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) has...
