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M. M. Clark

Publications and source records attributed to M. M. Clark.

12 recordsLinked to original sources
USGS2017

Debris-Covered Glaciers in the Sierra Nevada, California, and Their Implications for Snowline Reconstructions

Ice-walled melt ponds on the surfaces of active valley-floor rock glaciers and Matthes (Little Ice Age) moraines in the southern Sierra Nevada indicate that most of these landforms consist of glacier ice under thin (ca. 1 - 10 m) but continuous covers of rock-fall-generated debris. These debris blankets effectively insulate the underlying ice and greatly reduce rates of ablation relative to that of uncovered ice. Such insulation explains the observations that ice-cored rock glaciers in the Sierra, actually debris-covered glaciers, are apparently less sensitive to climatic warming and commonly advance to lower altitudes than do adjacent bare-ice glaciers. Accumulation-area ratios and toe-to-headwall-altitude ratios used to estimate equilibrium-line altitudes (ELAs) of former glaciers may therefore yield incorrect results for cirque glaciers subject to abundant rockfall. Inadvertent lumping of deposits from former debris-covered and bare-ice glaciers partially explains an apparently anomalous regional ELA gradient reported for the pre-Matthes Recess Peak Neoglacial advance. Distinguishing such deposits may be important to studies that rely on paleo-ELA estimates. Moreover, Matthes and Recess Peak ELA gradients along the crest evidently depend strongly on local orographic effects rather than latitudinal climatic trends, indicating that simple linear projections and regional climatic interpretations of ELA gradients of small glaciers may be unreliable.

Quaternary Research↗
USGS1993

Sand boils without earthquakes

Sedimentary deformation caused by liquefaction has become a popular means for inferring prehistoric strong earthquakes. In this report, we describe a new mechanism for generating such features in the absence of earthquakes. Sand boils and a 180-m-long sand dike formed in Fremont Valley, California, when sediment-laden surface runoff was intercepted along the upslope part of a 500-m-long preexisting ground crack, flowed subhorizonally in the crack, and then flowed upward in the downslope part of the crack where it discharged as sand boils on the land surface. If the sand boils and their feeder dike were stratigraphically preserved, they could be misinterpreted as evidence for earthquake-induced liquefaction.

Geology↗
USGS1984

The 1984 Morgan Hill, California, earthquake

The Morgan Hill, California, earthquake (magnitude 6.1) of 24 April 1984 ruptured a 30-kilometer-long segment of the Calaveras fault zone to the east of San Jose. Although it was recognized in 1980 that an earthquake of magnitude 6 occurred on this segment in 1911 and that a repeat of this event might reasonably be expected, no short-term precursors were noted and so the time of the 1984 earthquake was not predicted. Unilateral rupture propagation toward the south-southeast and an energetic late source of seismic radiation located near the southeast end of the rupture zone contributed to the highly focused pattern of strong motion, including an exceptionally large horizontal acceleration of 1.29g at a site on a dam abutment near the southeast end of the rupture zone.

California↗
USGS1982

Magmatic resurgence in Long Valley caldera, California: Possible cause of the 1980 Mammoth Lakes earthquakes

Changes in elevation between 1975 and October 1980 along a leveling line across the Long Valley caldera indicate a broad (half-width, 15 kilometers) uplift (maximum, 0.25 meter) centered on the old resurgent dome. This uplift is consistent with reinflation of a magma reservoir at a depth of about 10 kilometers. Stresses generated by this magmatic resurgence may have caused the sequence of four magnitude 6 earthquakes near Mammoth Lakes in May 1980.

California↗
USGS1982

Map showing surface ruptures associated with the Mammoth Lakes, California, earthquakes of May 1980

This map shows surface ruptures associated with the M 6 Mammoth Lakes earthquakes of May 25-27, 1980 (Sherburne, 1980). The ruptures were mapped during USGS field investigations May 28 to June 4 and July 14-19, 1980. The map also includes some of the ruptures recorded by California Division of Mines and Geology investigators May 26-31, June 26-27, and July 7-11, 1980 (Taylor and Bryant, 1980). Because most of the surface ruptures developed in either unconsolidated pumice, alluvium, or till (and many were on slopes of scarps created by earlier faulting), wind, rain and animals quickly erased many of the ruptures. In places, the minimum detectable slip was 3-10 mm. Thus the lines on the map do not record all of the ruptures that formed at the time of the earthquake. Many of the areas were we show gaps between lines on the map probably had cracks originally.

California↗
USGS1980

Tectonic state: its significance and characterization in the assessment of seismic effects associated with reservoir impounding

Any analysis of seismicity associated with the filling of large reservoirs requires an evaluation of the natural tectonic state in order to determine whether impoundment is the basic source, a mechanically unrelated companion feature, or a triggering stimulus of the observed seismicity. Several arguments indicate that the associated seismicity is usually a triggered effect. Among the elements of tectonic state considered here (existing fractures, accumulated elastic strain, and deformational style), deformational style is especially critical in forecasting the occurrence of impoundment-induced seismicity. The observational evidence indicates that seismicity associated with impounding generally occurs in areas that combine steeply dipping faults, relatively high strain rates, and either extensional or horizontal-shear strain. Simple physical arguments suggest: (1) that increased fluid pressures resulting from increased reservoir head should enhance the likelihood of seismic activity, whatever the tectonic environment; (2) that stress changes resulting from surface loading may increase the likelihood of crustal failure in areas of normal and transcurrent faulting, whereas they generally inhibit failure in areas of thrust faulting. Comparisons with other earthquake-producing artificial and natural processes (underground explosions, fluid injection, underground mining, fluid extraction, volcanic emissions) indicate that reservoir loading may similarly modify the natural tectonic state. Subsurface loading resulting from fluid extraction may be a particularly close analogue of reservoir loading; "seismotectonic" events associated with fluid extraction have been recognized in both seismically active and otherwise aseismic regions. Because the historic record of seismicity and surface faulting commonly is short in comparison with recurrence intervals of earthquake and fault-slip events, tectonic state is most reliably appraised through combined studies of historic seismicity and faulting, instrumentally measured strain, and the geological record, especially that of the Quaternary. Experience in California and elsewhere demonstrates that the character and activity of recognized faults can be assessed by means of: instrumental earthquake investigations, repeated geodetic measurements, written history, archeological studies, fault topography, and local stratigraphic relations. Where faults are less easily distinguished, appraisals of tectonic state may be based on both the regional seismicity and the regional history of vertical movement as shown by: repeated levelling and sea-level measurements, written history, archeologic investigations, terrace and shoreline deformation, and denudation and sedimentation studies.

Engineering Geology↗