Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 13 August 1982:
Vol. 217. no. 4560, pp. 637 - 640
DOI: 10.1126/science.217.4560.637
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Articles

Computer-Assisted Mapping of Pyroclastic Surges

MICHAEL C. MALIN 1 and MICHAEL F. SHERIDAN 1

1 Department of Geology, Arizona State University, Tempe 85287

Volcanic hazard maps of surge boundaries and deposit thickness can be created by using a simplified eruption model based on an "energy line" concept of pyroclastic surge and flow emplacement. Computer image-processing techniques may be used to combine three-dimensional representations of the energy relations of pyroclasts moving under the influence of gravity (defined by an "energy cone") with digital topographic models of volcanoes to generate theoretical hazard maps. The deposit boundary and thickness calculated for the 18 May 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens are qualitatively similar to those actually observed.

Submitted on November 30, 1981
Revised on May 12, 1982


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
The Avellino 3780-yr-B.P. catastrophe as a worst-case scenario for a future eruption at Vesuvius.
G. Mastrolorenzo, P. Petrone, L. Pappalardo, and M. F. Sheridan (2006)
PNAS 103, 4366-4370
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Mapping the volcanic hazards from Soufriere Hills Volcano, Montserrat, West Indies using an image processor.
G. WADGE and M. C. ISAACS (1988)
Journal of the Geological Society 145, 541-551
   Abstract »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)