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T. C. Urban

Publications and source records attributed to T. C. Urban.

14 recordsLinked to original sources
USGS1985

In-situ fluid-pressure measurements for earthquake prediction: An example from a deep well at Hi Vista, California

Short-term earthquake prediction requires sensitive instruments for measuring the small anomalous changes in stress and strain that precede earthquakes. Instruments installed at or near the surface have proven too noisy for measuring anomalies of the size expected to occur, and it is now recognized that even to have the possibility of a reliable earthquake-prediction system will require instruments installed in drill holes at depths sufficient to reduce the background noise to a level below that of the expected premonitory signals. We are conducting experiments to determine the maximum signal-to-noise improvement that can be obtained in drill holes. In a 592 m well in the Mojave Desert near Hi Vista, California, we measured water-level changes with amplitudes greater than 10 cm, induced by earth tides. By removing the effects of barometric pressure and the stress related to earth tides, we have achieved a sensitivity to volumetric strain rates of 10-9 to 10-10 per day. Further improvement may be possible, and it appears that a successful earthquake-prediction capability may be achieved with an array of instruments installed in drill holes at depths of about 1 km, assuming that the premonitory strain signals are, in fact, present. ?? 1985 Birkha??user Verlag.

Pure and Applied Geophysics PAGEOPH↗
USGS1985

TEMPERATURE VARIATION WITH TIME IN A PERENNIALLY BOILING WELL IN THE LONG VALLEY CALDERA, MONO COUNTY, CALIFORNIA; OBSERVATIONS IN CHANCE NO. 1 (1976-1983).

Chance No. 1 was drilled to a depth of 245. 4 m and cased to a depth of 72. 2 m in 1961. Temperature logs were obtained in 1976, 1982, and 1983, with the casing open to the atmosphere. Water was boiling at the surface of the fluid column on each occasion. Temperatures within the upper part of the cased interval remained virtually identical over the 7-year period. The small differences observed can be ascribed to convective motions in the large-diameter casing and the large geothermal gradient. Above a depth of 160 m in the open hole, temperatures have cooled 5 degree -7 degree C over the 7-year period of observation. The shape of the temperature profiles and their variation with time can be explained by an influx of cool water at about 160 m. The cooling rate is much larger between 1982 and 1983 than that between 1982 and 1976, which suggests that earthquake shaking may be a major contributing factor.

Conference Paper↗
USGS1976

Heat-flow data from southeastern Oregon

With the exception of values from two holes drilled within 2 km of Mickey Hot Springs, 17 new heat-flow values in southeastern Oregon are within or somewhat below the range one would normally expect in non-anomalous parts of the North American Cordillera. This is not surprising for a region in which most igneous rocks on the surface are 5 m.y. old or more. There is a suggestion of a thermal anomaly associated with the very young (late Pleistocene or Holocene) Diamond Craters lava field, and the thermal regime on both sides of Steens Mountain seems to be controlled, to some degree, by lateral and vertical movement of water.

Oregon↗