Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Earthquake Triggering At Alaskan Volcanoes Following The 3 November 2002 Denali Fault Earthquake, Seth C. Moran, John A. Power, Scott D. Stihler, John J. Sa´Nchez, Jacqueline Caplan-Auerbach

Geology Faculty Publications

The 3 November 2002 M_W 7.9 Denali fault earthquake provided an excellent opportunity to investigate triggered earthquakes at Alaskan volcanoes. The Alaska Volcano Observatory operates short-period seismic networks on 24 historically active volcanoes in Alaska, 247–2159 km distant from the mainshock epicenter. We searched for evidence of triggered seismicity by examining the unfiltered waveforms for all stations in each volcano network for ~1 hr after the M_W 7.9 arrival time at each network and for significant increases in located earthquakes in the hours after the mainshock. We found compelling evidence for triggering only at the Katmai volcanic cluster …

Relationship Between Drinking Water Treatment Chemical Usage And Lake Whatcom Water Quality And Algal Data, Robin A. Matthews

Lake Whatcom Other Reports

This assessment is based on daily Bellingham City water treatment data provided by Peg Wendling and a composite data file containing monthly averages for City water treatment chemical data and Institute for Watershed Studies water quality and algal data collected at the Intake site. The monthly averages were calculated using all available depths and dates from September 1992 through May 2004. (Note that the 2004 data only include January through May.)

The Planet, 2004, Fall, Laurie Ballew, Huxley College Of The Environment, Western Washington University

The Planet

No abstract provided.

Magnetic And Clast Fabrics As Measurements Of Grain-Scale Processes Within The Death Valley Shallow Crustal Detachment Faults, Nicholas W. Hayman, Bernard A. Housen, T. T. Cladouhos, K. Livi

Geology Faculty Publications

The rock product of shallow-crustal faulting includes fine-grained breccia and clay-rich gouge. Many gouges and breccias have a fabric produced by distributed deformation. The orientation of fabric elements provides constraints on the kinematics of fault slip and is the structural record of intrafault strain not accommodated by planar and penetrative surfaces. However, it can be difficult to quantify the deformational fabric of fault rocks, especially the preferred orientations of fine-grained minerals, or to uniquely determine the relationship between fabric geometry and finite strain. Here, we present the results of a fabric study of gouge and breccia sampled from low-angle normal …

Lake Whatcom Monitoring Project 2002/2003 Report, Robin A. Matthews, Michael Hilles, Joan Vandersypen, Robert J. Mitchell, Geoffrey B. Matthews

Lake Whatcom Annual Reports

This report is part of an on-going series of annual reports and special project reports that document the Lake Whatcom monitoring program. This work is conducted by the Institute for Watershed Studies and other departments at Western Washington University.

The major objective of this program is to provide long-term baseline water quality monitoring in Lake Whatcom and selected tributaries. Each section contains brief explanations about the water quality data, along with discussions of patterns observed in Lake Whatcom.

The Planet, 2004, Spring, Jessi Leorch, Huxley College Of The Environment, Western Washington University

The Planet

No abstract provided.

Strawberry Sill Water Quality Analysis, Robin A. Matthews

Lake Whatcom Other Reports

The Strawberry Sill sampling program was included as part of the long-term Lake Whatcom monitoring program. Five lake sites are included in the long-term monitoring program: Sites 1–4, located at the deepest points in their respective basins, and the Intake site (Figure 1, page 12). Beginning in October 1996, three sampling sites were added along the 40-meter contour of Strawberry Sill (Sites s1–s3 on Figure 2, page 13). The sill sampling effort was limited to monthly Hydrolab measurements and biannual water quality analyses. In October 2000, the sampling effort along the sill was reduced to a single site (s2), and …

A Counterexample In Sturm-Liouville Completeness Theory, Paul Binding, Branko Ćurgus

Mathematics Faculty Publications

We give an example of an indefinite weight Sturm-Lionville problem whose eigenfunctions form a Riesz basis under Dirichlet boundary conditions but not under anti-periodic boundary conditions.

A Contraction Of The Lucas Polygon, Branko Ćurgus

Mathematics Faculty Publications

The celebrated Gauss-Lucas theorem states that all the roots of the derivative of a complex non-constant polynomial p lie in the convex hull of the roots of p, called the Lucas polygon of p. We improve the Gauss-Lucas theorem by proving that all the nontrivial roots of p^' lie in a smaller convex polygon which is obtained by a strict contraction of the Lucas polygon of p.

An Inverse Problem For The Transport Equation In The Presence Of A Riemannian Metric, Stephen R. Mcdowall

Mathematics Faculty Publications

The stationary linear transport equation models the scattering and absorption of a low-density beam of neutrons as it passes through a body. In Euclidean space, to a first approximation, particles travel in straight lines. Here we study the analogous transport equation for particles in an ambient field described by a Riemannian metric where, again to first approximation, particles follow geodesics of the metric. We consider the problem of determining the scattering and absorption coefficients from knowledge of the albedo operator on the boundary of the domain. Under certain restrictions, the albedo operator is shown to determine the geodesic ray transform …

Optical Design Of Two-Reflector Systems, The Monge-Kantorovich Mass Transfer Problem And Fermat’S Principle, Tilmann Glimm, Vladimir Oliker

Mathematics Faculty Publications

It is shown that the problem of designing a two-reflector system transforming a plane wave front with given intensity into an output plane front with prescribed output intensity can be formulated and solved as the Monge-Kantorovich mass transfer problem.

Numbers In The Sky(Viewing Sculpture), Branko Ćurgus

Mathematics Faculty Publications

The following is my personal exploration of Noguchi’s sculpture inspired by what I do most of the time: math, or playing with numbers. His sculpture is very geometric; it lends itself to mathematical explorations, and I decided to look for a mathematical message in it.

I think Skyviewing Sculpture is really beautiful, and I have also encountered a lot of beautiful things in math, so the natural thing was to look for a connection: the beautiful sculpture giving rise to beautiful math. This is a short report of what I found. There is much more to be discovered, and these …

The Planet, 2004, Winter, Jessi Loerch, Huxley College Of The Environment, Western Washington University

The Planet

No abstract provided.

Huxley Horizon, 2004, Winter, Huxley College Of The Environment, Western Washington University

Historical Collection of Huxley Newsletters

No abstract provided.

The Extent Of The White Chuck Tuff, A High Temperature Pyroclastic Flow Deposit, Glacier Peak, Washington, Gerald T. Ladd

WWU Graduate School Collection

The White Chuck Tuff, a massive deposit approximately 15 m thick, caps two terraces in the White Chuck River valley covering an area of approximately 5 km² at the base of Glacier Peak, Washington. Three major post-glacial eruption cycles from Glacier Peak reportedly occurred approximately from 12,000 to 11,250 years ago (White Chuck Assemblage), from 5,500 to 5,100 years ago (Kennedy Creek Assemblage), and from 1,800 to 250 years ago (recent eruptions). West of Glacier Peak, pyroclastic and lahar deposits from all three episodes are found in drainages out to Puget Sound 100 km away. The White Chuck Tuff …

The Paleomagnetism Of The Stewart’S Point And Anchor Bay Members Of The Point Arena Terrane, Northern California, Kirk Heim

WWU Graduate School Collection

Paleomagnetic investigation of Upper Cretaceous sedimentary strata of the Point Arena terrane has shown the rocks to be remagnetized. The study was initially intended to reconstruct the Cretaceous paleogeography of the Point Arena terrane and resolve conflicting translation estimates, but became one of remagnetization. Samples studied are from the Upper Cretaceous Stewart’s Point member and the Late Cretaceous Anchor Bay Member of the Gualala formation. Specimens surviving the remagnetization have a mean second-removed direction that indicates approximately 20 degrees vertical rotation from the expected direction of the Cretaceous magnetic field at the locality of the Point Arena terrane. The loss …

Kinematics Of The Swift Creek Landslide, Northwest Washington, Alexander Scott Mckenzie-Johnson

WWU Graduate School Collection

Deep-seated landslides significantly influence mountain landscapes in Washington State, yet relatively few of these landslides have been studied in detail. I selected the Swift Creek landslide, a large (approximately 5.489 x 10⁵ m² [54.89 hectares]), deep-seated landslide located on Sumas Mountain in northwest Washington, to be the site of a detailed study. This study, the first phase in a planned long-term study to be conducted by WWU, consisted of a detailed topographic survey, geomorphic mapping, repeated GPS surveying of monitoring points (consisting of six surveys from July 2002 to June 2003), tree-core analysis (dendrogeomorphology), and historic aerial photograph …

Modeling The Contributions Of Glacial Meltwater To Streamflow In Thunder Creek, North Cascades National Park, Washington, Jay W. (Jay William) Chennault

WWU Graduate School Collection

In regions where glaciers occur, like the North Cascades, glacial meltwater is a vital component of rivers and streams. Glacial meltwater can also be critical for hydroelectric and municipal purposes. A concern for water resources managers is that glaciers in the North Cascades have been shrinking. The glacier ice coverage of Thunder Creek watershed, the most heavily glaciated basin in the North Cascades, has dropped from approximately 22.5 % to 12.8 % since the Little Ice Age (LIA) maximum (ca. 1850). Glacial meltwater contributions to Thunder Creek are of interest because the creek serves as a tributary to Diablo Reservoir, …

Denitrification Along Pangborn Creek In The Abbotsford-Sumas Aquifer, Washington, Leslie B. (Leslie Braverman) Mckee

WWU Graduate School Collection

The Abbotsford-Sumas aquifer is a shallow, unconfined aquifer located in the agricultural regions of southwestern British Columbia and northwestern Washington and has a history of nitrate contamination. I monitored nitrate distributions in a study area bisected by a wide- scale peat deposit within a portion of the Whatcom County component of the aquifer to assess the current nitrate distribution, evaluate ground and surface water interactions in the peat, and determine the affect of peat on denitrification.

The water quality dataset and statistical analyses showed that nitrate contamination was heavily concentrated upgradient of the peatlands. In general, shallow wells (table) north …

Timing And Paleoclimatic Significance Of Latest Pleistocene And Holocene Cirque Glaciation In The Enchantment Lakes Basin, North Cascades, Wa, Eric L. (Eric Leland) Bilderback

WWU Graduate School Collection

The Enchantment Lakes Basin in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, Washington, preserves two sets of moraines that record distinct post-Wisconsin maximum advances of cirque glaciers in the eastern North Cascades. Cores collected from five lakes adjacent to the moraines indicate that there were two Neoglacial advances, culminating with the Little Ice Age, and one slightly larger advance that ended coincident with the termination of the North Atlantic Younger Dryas event. The cores show no evidence for an early Holocene advance, in contrast to some other studies in the North Cascades, (e.g., Heine, 1998; Thomas, 1997; Thomas et al., 2000).

Upstream glacier …