Geology topics

A. Mark Jellinek

Publications and source records attributed to A. Mark Jellinek.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

USGS2023

New insights into the relationship between mass eruption rate and volcanic column height based on the IVESPA dataset

Rapid and simple estimation of the mass eruption rate (MER) from column height is essential for real-time volcanic hazard management and reconstruction of past explosive eruptions. Using 134 eruptive events from the new Independent Volcanic Eruption Source Parameter Archive (IVESPA, v1.0), we explore empirical MER-height relationships for four measures of column height: spreading level, sulfur dioxide height, and top height from direct observations and as reconstructed from deposits. These relationships show significant differences and highlight limitations of empirical models currently used in operational and research applications. The roles of atmospheric stratification, wind, and humidity remain challenging to detect across the wide range of eruptive conditions spanned in IVESPA, ultimately resulting in empirical relationships outperforming analytical models that account for atmospheric conditions. This finding highlights challenges in constraining the MER-height relation using heterogeneous observations and empirical models, which reinforces the need for improved eruption source parameter data sets and physics-based models.

Geophysical Research Letters↗

USGS2011

Mapping permeability over the surface of the Earth

Permeability, the ease of fluid flow through porous rocks and soils, is a fundamental but often poorly quantified component in the analysis of regional‐scale water fluxes. Permeability is difficult to quantify because it varies over more than 13 orders of magnitude and is heterogeneous and dependent on flow direction. Indeed, at the regional scale, maps of permeability only exist for soil to depths of 1–2 m. Here we use an extensive compilation of results from hydrogeologic models to show that regional‐scale (>5 km) permeability of consolidated and unconsolidated geologic units below soil horizons (hydrolithologies) can be characterized in a statistically meaningful way. The representative permeabilities of these hydrolithologies are used to map the distribution of near‐surface (on the order of 100 m depth) permeability globally and over North America. The distribution of each hydrolithology is generally scale independent. The near‐surface mean permeability is of the order of ∼5 × 10 −14 m 2 . The results provide the first global picture of near‐surface permeability and will be of particular value for evaluating global water resources and modeling the influence of climate‐surface‐subsurface interactions on global climate change.

Geophysical Research Letters↗

USGS1994

The volcanic history of Volcán Alcedo, Galápagos Archipelago: a case study of rhyolitic oceanic volcanism

Volcán Alcedo is one of the seven western Galápagos shields and is the only active Galápagos volcano known to have erupted rhyolite as well as basalt. The volcano stands 4 km above the sea floor and has a subaerial volume of 200 km 3 , nearly all of which is basalt. As Volcán Alcedo grew, it built an elongate domal shield, which was partly truncated during repeated caldera-collapse and partial-filling episodes. An outward-dipping sequence of basalt flows at least 250 m thick forms the steepest (to 33°) flanks of the volcano and is not tilted; thus a constructional origin for the steep upper flanks is favored. About 1 km 3 of rhyolite erupted late in the volcano's history from at least three vents and in 2–5 episodes. The most explosive of these produced a tephra blanket that covers the eastern half of the volcano. Homogeneous rhyolitic pumice is overlain by dacite-rhyolite commingled pumice, with no stratigraphic break. The tephra is notable for its low density and coarse grain size. The calculated height of the eruption plume is 23–30 km, and the intensity is estimated to have been 1.2x10 8 kg/s. Rhyolitic lavas vented from the floor of the caldera and from fissures along the rim overlie the tephra of the plinian phase. The age of the rhyolitic eruptions is ≤120 ka, on the basis of K-Ar ages. Between ten and 20 basaltic lava flows are younger than the rhyolites. Recent faulting resulted in a moat around part of the caldera floor. Alcedo most resently erupted sometime between 1946 and 1960 from its southern flank. Alcedo maintains an active, transient hydrothermal system. Acoustic and seismic activity in 1991 is attributed to the disruption of the hydrothermal system by a regional-scale earthquake.

Bulletin of Volcanology↗