Geology topics

Research about Unimak Island

Source-linked reports with geographic coverage including Unimak Island.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

USGS2024

Versatile modeling of deformation (VMOD) inversion framework: Application to 20 years of observations at Westdahl Volcano and Fisher Caldera, Alaska, US

We developed an open source, extensible Python-based framework, that we call the Versatile Modeling of Deformation (VMOD), for forward and inverse modeling of crustal deformation sources. VMOD abstracts from specific source model implementations, data types and inversion methods. We implement the most common geodetic source models which can be combined to model and analyze multi-source deformation. VMOD supports Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), InSAR, electronic distance measurement, Leveling and tilt data. To infer source characteristics from observations, VMOD implements non-linear least squares and Markov Chain Monte-Carlo Bayesian inversions, including joint inversions using different sources of data. VMOD's structure allows for easy integration of new geodetic models, data types, and inversion strategies. We benchmark the forward models against other published results and the inversion approaches against other implementations. We apply VMOD to analyze deformation at Unimak Island, Alaska, observed with continuous and campaign GNSS, and ascending and descending InSAR time series generated from Sentinel-1 satellite radar acquisitions. These data show an inflation pattern at Westdahl volcano and subsidence at Fisher Caldera. We use VMOD to test a range of source models by jointly inverting the GNSS and InSAR data sets. Our final model simultaneously constrains the parameters of two sources. Our results reveal a depressurizing spheroid under Fisher Caldera ∼4–6 km deep, contracting at a rate of ∼2–3 Mm 3 /yr, and a pressurizing spherical source underneath Westdahl volcano ∼6–8 km deep, inflating at ∼5 Mm 3 /yr. This and past applications of VMOD to volcanic unrest benefit from an extensible framework which supports jointly inversions of data sets for parameters of easily composable multi-source models.

Alaska↗

USGS2014

The 1946 Unimak Tsunami Earthquake Area: revised tectonic structure in reprocessed seismic images and a suspect near field tsunami source

In 1946 at Unimak Pass, Alaska, a tsunami destroyed the lighthouse at Scotch Cap, Unimak Island, took 159 lives on the Hawaiian Islands, damaged island coastal facilities across the south Pacific, and destroyed a hut in Antarctica. The tsunami magnitude of 9.3 is comparable to the magnitude 9.1 tsunami that devastated the Tohoku coast of Japan in 2011. Both causative earthquake epicenters occurred in shallow reaches of the subduction zone. Contractile tectonism along the Alaska margin presumably generated the far-field tsunami by producing a seafloor elevation change. However, the Scotch Cap lighthouse was destroyed by a near-field tsunami that was probably generated by a coeval large undersea landslide, yet bathymetric surveys showed no fresh large landslide scar. We investigated this problem by reprocessing five seismic lines, presented here as high-resolution graphic images, both uninterpreted and interpreted, and available for the reader to download. In addition, the processed seismic data for each line are available for download as seismic industry-standard SEG-Y files. One line, processed through prestack depth migration, crosses a 10 × 15 kilometer and 800-meter-high hill presumed previously to be basement, but that instead is composed of stratified rock superimposed on the slope sediment. This image and multibeam bathymetry illustrate a slide block that could have sourced the 1946 near-field tsunami because it is positioned within a distance determined by the time between earthquake shaking and the tsunami arrival at Scotch Cap and is consistent with the local extent of high runup of 42 meters along the adjacent Alaskan coast. The Unimak/Scotch Cap margin is structurally similar to the 2011 Tohoku tsunamigenic margin where a large landslide at the trench, coeval with the Tohoku earthquake, has been documented. Further study can improve our understanding of tsunami sources along Alaska’s erosional margins.

Alaska↗

USGS2007

Eruption and deposition of the Fisher Tuff (Alaska)--Evidence for the evolution of pyroclastic flows

Recognition that the Fisher Tuff (Unimak Island, Alaska) was deposited on the leeside of an &sim;500–700‐m‐high mountain range (Tugamak Range) more than 10 km away from its source played a major role in defining pyroclastic flows as momentum‐driven currents. We reexamined the Fisher Tuff to evaluate whether deposition from expanded turbulent clouds can better explain its depositional features. We studied the tuff at 89 sites and sieved bulk samples from 27 of those sites. We find that the tuff consists of a complex sequence of deposits that record the evolution of the eruption from a buoyant plume (22 km) that deposited &sim;0.2 km 3 of dacite magma as a pyroclastic fall layer to erupting &sim;10–100 km 3 of andesitic magma as Scoria‐rich pyroclastic falls and flows that were mainly deposited to the north and northwest of the caldera, including those in valleys within the Tugamak Range. The distribution of the flow deposits and their welding, internal stratification, and the occurrence of lithic breccia all suggest that the pyroclastic flows were fed from a fountaining column that vented from an inclined conduit, the first time such a conduit has been recognized during a large‐volume caldera eruption. Pyroclastic flow deposits before and after the mountain range and thin veneer deposits high in the range are best explained by a flow that was stratified into a dense undercurrent and an overriding dilute turbulent cloud, from which deposition before the range was mainly from the undercurrent. When the flow ran into the mountain range, however, the undercurrent was blocked, but the turbulent cloud continued on. As the flow continued north, it restratified, forming another undercurrent. The Fisher Tuff thus records the passing of a flow that was significantly higher (800–1100 m thick) than the mountain range and thus did not require excessive momentum.

Alaska↗

USGS1987

Devastating tsunami inspires efforts to reduce future tsunami destruction

The beacon from landmark Scotch Cap lighthouse pierced the moonless night of April 1, 1946, in Alaska's remote Aleutain Island chain. In the reinforced concrete lighthouse, five men were engaged in various support operations connected with the maintenance of the 80,000 candlepower beam. Perched atop a building constructed 5 years earlier on a bluff 32 feet above sea level, the proud new light rose a total of 92 feet above the swirling restless seas. On a cliff behind the lighthouse, a second building housed the Coast Guard radio-direction-finding station.

Alaska↗