********************************************************* Announcing the 2006 Kleinman Grants for Volcano Research ********************************************************* From: Daniel Dzurisin <dzurisin@xxxxxxxx> The following five students have been awarded 2006 Kleinman Grants for Volcano Research. Jack Kleinman was a USGS employee at the David. A. Johnston Cascades Volcano Observatory who died in a kayaking accident in 1994. By supporting field-oriented research projects in volcanology, the Kleinman Grants memorialize Jack?s exuberance for fieldwork, volcanoes, and the natural world in general. During the past 12 years, the program has helped dozens of aspiring volcanologists who seek to learn more about volcanoes and how they work. Benjamin Andrews is a Ph. D. candidate in the Geology Department at The University of Texas at Austin. His thesis topic is ?Simultaneous eruption of a buoyant plume and non-buoyant pyroclastic flows: Mount St. Helens, May 18th, 1980.? Benjamin will attempt to tie field and laboratory observations to photographic records of the May 18, 1980, eruption. He has sampled and begun analyzing airfall ash deposits from the eruption, and plans to collect samples of pyroclastic flow deposits this summer. Comparative grain-size analysis of the two sample suites will help to constrain the fluid dynamics of the eruption column during periods of dominantly buoyant (May 18 morning) and non-buoyant (afternoon) behavior. Troy Baggerman is an M.S. candidate in the Department of Geology at Western Washington University. Her thesis topic is ?Geochemistry and generation of andesite volcanic flows on Mount Baker, Washington.? Troy will collect and analyze a suite of samples from selected basaltic through rhyodacitic lava flows at Mount Baker. At other volcanoes, various processes have been invoked to explain the generation of andesitic magmas. These include basalt fractionation, episodic basalt replenishment, and magma mixing. This study is aimed at distinguishing among these alternatives at Mount Baker, with possible implications for other Cascade volcanoes. Cooper Brossy is an M.S. student in the Department of Geological Sciences at Central Washingtom University. His thesis topic is ?Lava flow and river interactions in the Owyhee River canyon, southeastern Oregon.? The project aims to understand the effects of Quaternary lava flows on channel migration of the Owyhee river in southeast Oregon. Cooper will determine the number of lava flows that have entered Owyhee Canyon, their ages, and extents. On the basis of field observations, he will identify how the flows have altered the river?s course, investigate how lava effusion rate into a river interacts with the river?s discharge and channel morphology to influence the structure and stability of lava dams, and calculate the rate of river incision through time. Angela Diefenbach is an M.S. student in the Department of Geology at Western Washington University. Her thesis topic is ?Quantitative photogrammetric analysis of current dome-building eruption at Mount St. Helens, Washington.? Angela will use terrestrial photogrammetry to analyze stereo photographs of the growing lava dome at Mount St. Helens. She hopes to document any short-term (hours to days) variations in the extrusion rate for comparison to other datasets, including seismicity, ground tilt, and digital elevation models (DEMs). The latter are being produced every 1-2 months to document the geomorphic evolution of the dome and to calculate the volume of extrusion as a function of time. Brendan Hodge is an M.S. student in the Department of Geology at Western Washington University. His thesis topic is ?Using GPS to characterize surface deformation over a 20-year period on an active volcano: Mt. Baker, Washington.? Brendan will make GPS observations at an array of benchmarks first surveyed by the U.S. Geological Survey in the 1970s and 1980s. The measurements will assess whether increasing degassing of the volcano since 1975 has been accompanied by ground deformation. A preliminary study found that the length of one surveyed line shortened significantly between 1983 and 2004, which suggest that degassing is accompanied by subsidence of the volcano owing to mass loss. Additional measurements will help to confirm or refute this idea. ============================================================== To unsubscribe from the volcano list, send the message: signoff volcano to: listserv@xxxxxxx, or write to: volcano-request@xxxxxxxx To contribute to the volcano list, send your message to: volcano@xxxxxxxx Please do not send attachments. ==============================================================
