High Lava Plains
The Oregon High Lava Plains is part of one of the world's most voluminous large igneous provinces. Flood basalt eruptions started about 17 million years ago with the Columbia River Flood basalts (mostly in eastern Washington and Oregon). This area is also characterized by bimodal volcanism, which means both basalt and rhyolite make up these sequences. The rhyolitic eruptions are seen to have an age progression that follows an eastern track along the Eastern Snake River Plain, from the Owyhee Plateau to Yellowstone, and also a western track in the High Lava Plains, from the Owyhee Plateau to Newberry Volcano.
Groups from Arizona State University (Matt Fouch) and the Carnegie Institution of Washington (David James) are conducting a broadband seismic experiment to answer fundamental questions such as: why do we have such a large volume of recent magmatism in this intercontinental setting near a subduction zone? what are the dynamic processes that generated the magmatism? We have constructed 97 occupied sites to date and currently have 96 active stations.
Map of the High Lava Plains seismic stations.
Huddle test of 20 seismometers before deployment in Summer 2007.
Digging a hole for the vault in the beautiful eastern Oregon winter.
Leveling the STS-2 sensor in the vault.
Receiver Function Imaging
Under Construction
Mantle Transition Zone
Arizona Seismicity
Under Construction