LUSI Mud Eruption: Natural or Man-Made Disaster?

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LUSI Mud Eruption: Natural or Man-Made Disaster?

Ever since the mud started spewing from the Lumpur Sidoarjo (aka “Lusi”) mud volcano in the subdistrict of Porong, Sidoarjo on East Java Island, Indonesia, on May 29, 2006, an opportunity to study the feature and, fortunately or unfortunately, become embroiled in the political controversy over it opened in the geological community. Newly appointed Assistant Professor Maxwell Rudolph of Portland State University was involved in studies related to this phenomenon during his doctoral years at UC Berkeley ending in 2012, and spoke to GSOC at the June Friday night lecture describing his work. 

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Studying The Columbia River and Its Sediments

/ Cramer Hall S17, Portland State University/
Studying The Columbia River and Its Sediments

When PSU hired Dr. Curt Peterson twenty-five years ago, one of the tasks they gave him was to research the geographic extent and stratigraphy of the Lower Columbia River channel. Prior to charging this task to him, Portland State University had not conducted any geologic research into this important local geologic feature, and the only geologic section that had been done of the channel was at the Astoria Bridge....

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Nick Zentner's "2-Minute Geology" of the Kittitas Valley

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Nick Zentner's "2-Minute Geology" of the Kittitas Valley

Nick Zentner, Senior Lecturer at Central Washington University, Ellensburg, gave a riveting lecture on the geology of the Kittitas Valley at our 79th Annual Banquet this March. Starting out with an old fashioned “chalk talk” on a large blackboard that he rolled in specially for the occasion, Nick first depicted the location of Ellensburg on a hasty but accurate drawing of Washington State. He noted that the subject of his lecture was in the center of the state, using letters to represent other points of reference such as Seattle, Spokane and Tri Cities. 

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Do we need this Aggradation?

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Do we need this Aggradation?

Tom Pierson’s talk to GSOC focused on his study of the aggradation and erosion of volcanic sediment that occurred in the Rio Chaiten valley as a result of the December 2008 and February 2009 eruptions of the Chaiten volcano in the southern region of Chile. Pierson, who has worked at the USGS Cascades Volcano Observatory since 1981, has traveled the Pacific rim studying hydrologic and geomorphic responses to volcanic eruptions.

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