Formation of submarine flat-topped volcanic cones in Hawai'i

 High-resolution bathymetric mapping has shown that submarine flat-topped volcanic cones, morphologically similar to ones on the deep sea floor and near mid-ocean ridges, are common on or near submarine rift zones of Kilauea, Kohala (or Mauna Kea), Mahukona, and Haleakala volcanoes. Four flat-topped cones on Kohala were explored and sampled with the Pisces V submersible in October 1998. Samples show that flat-topped cones on rift zones are constructed of tholeiitic basalt erupted during the shield stage. Similarly shaped flat-topped cones on the northwest submarine flank of Ni'ihau are apparently formed of alkalic basalt erupted during the rejuvenated stage. Submarine postshield-stage eruptions on Hilo Ridge, Mahukona, Hana Ridge, and offshore Ni'ihau form pointed cones of alkalic basalt and hawaiite. The shield stage flat-topped cones have steep (∼25°) sides, remarkably flat horizontal tops, basal diameters of 1–3 km, and heights <300 m. The flat tops commonly have either a low mound or a deep crater in the center. The rejuvenated-stage flat-topped cones have the same shape with steep sides and flat horizontal tops, but are much larger with basal diameters up to 5.5 km and heights commonly greater than 200 m. The flat tops have a central low mound, shallow crater, or levees that surrounded lava ponds as large as 1 km across. Most of the rejuvenated-stage flat-topped cones formed on slopes <10° and formed adjacent semicircular steps down the flank of Ni'ihau, rather than circular structures. All the flat-topped cones appear to be monogenetic and formed during steady effusive eruptions lasting years to decades. These, and other submarine volcanic cones of similar size and shape, apparently form as continuously overflowing submarine lava ponds. A lava pond surrounded by a levee forms above a sea-floor vent. As lava continues to flow into the pond, the lava flow surface rises and overflows the lowest point on the levee, forming elongate pillow lava flows that simultaneously build the rim outward and upward, but also dam and fill in the low point on the rim. The process repeats at the new lowest point, forming a circular structure with a flat horizontal top and steep pillowed margins. There is a delicate balance between lava (heat) supply to the pond and cooling and thickening of the floating crust. Factors that facilitate construction of such landforms include effusive eruption of lava with low volatile contents, moderate to high confining pressure at moderate to great ocean depth, long-lived steady eruption (years to decades), moderate effusion rates (probably ca. 0.1 km³/year), and low, but not necessarily flat, slopes. With higher effusion rates, sheet flows flood the slope. With lower effusion rates, pillow mounds form. Hawaiian shield-stage eruptions begin as fissure eruptions. If the eruption is too brief, it will not consolidate activity at a point, and fissure-fed flows will form a pond with irregular levees. The pond will solidify between eruptive pulses if the eruption is not steady. Lava that is too volatile rich or that is erupted in too shallow water will produce fragmental and highly vesicular lava that will accumulate to form steep pointed cones, as occurs during the post-shield stage. The steady effusion of lava on land constructs lava shields, which are probably the subaerial analogs to submarine flat-topped cones but formed under different cooling conditions. Received: 30 September 1999 / Accepted: 9 March 2000     

Surface alteration of basalt due to cation-migration

Basaltic lava from Kilauea, Hawaii may have a red-brown surface, indicative of Fe-(hydr)oxides. This surface is not found where exposed to weathering, but at the interface between lava lobes, or in the interior of lava channels. We use several analytical techniques to determine how these Fe-(hydr)oxide surfaces may have developed. WDS-elemental distribution line profiles from the lava surface towards the lava′s interior detect an Fe-rich film of less than 5 μm thickness. Heat treatment of quenched, fresh lava samples of the same chemical composition between 600–1,090°C helps to replicate temperatures under which such an Fe-rich film might have formed. These experiments suggest that Fe-enrichment occurs above 1,020°C, whereas at lower temperatures Ca is enriched relative to Fe. One sample was treated below the glass transition temperature, at 600°C for 164 h. A depth profile with secondary neutral mass spectrometry shows an enrichment of Mg at the outer 50 nm of the glass surface. The formation of films requires cation migration, which is driven by an oxygen chemical potential between air and the reduced basalt (Fe²⁺/Fe³⁺ ratio of 13.3). The change of surface alteration from Mg to Ca film at lower temperatures, to predominantly Fe at high temperatures, is determined by a change of cation availability, largely controlled by crystallization that already occurs below 850°C, and volume crystallization that occurs above 925°C.     

Lava penetrating water: the different behaviours of pāhoehoe and ‘a‘ā at the Nesjahraun, Tingvellir, Iceland

The Nesjahraun is a basaltic lava flow erupted from a subaerial fissure, extending NE along the Tingvellir graben from the Hengill central volcano that produced pāhoehoe lava followed by ‘a‘ā. The Nesjahraun entered Iceland’s largest lake, Tingvallavatn, along its southern shore during both phases of the eruption and exemplifies lava flowing into water in a lacustrine environment in the absence of powerful wave action. This study combines airborne light detection and ranging, sidescan sonar and Chirp seismic data with field observations to investigate the behaviour of the lava as it entered the water. Pāhoehoe sheet lava was formed during the early stages of the eruption. Along the shoreline, stacks of thin (5–20 cm thick), vesicular, flows rest upon and surround low (<5 m) piles of coarse, unconsolidated, variably oxidised spatter. Clefts within the lava run inland from the lake. These are 2–5 m wide, >2 m deep, ∼50 m long, spaced ∼50 m apart and have sub-horizontal striations on the walls. They likely represent channels or collapsed tubes along which lava was delivered into the water. A circular rootless cone, Eldborg, formed when water infiltrated a lava tube. Offshore from the pāhoehoe lavas, the gradient of the flow surface steepens, suggesting a change in flow regime and the development of a talus ramp. Later, the flow was focused into a channel of ‘a‘ā lava, ∼200–350 m wide. This split into individual flow lobes 20–50 m wide along the shore. ‘A‘ā clinker is exposed on the water’s edge, as well as glassy sand and gravel, which has been locally intruded by small (<1 m), irregularly shaped, lava bodies. The cores of the flow lobes contain coherent, but hackly fractured lava. Mounds consisting predominantly of scoria lapilli and the large paired half-cone of Grámelur were formed in phreatomagmatic explosions. The ‘a‘ā flow can be identified underwater over 1 km offshore, and the sidescan data suggest that the flow lobes remained coherent flowing down a gradient of <10°. The Nesjahraun demonstrates that, even in the absence of ocean waves, phreatomagmatic explosions are ubiquitous and that pāhoehoe flows are much more likely to break up on entering the water than ‘a‘ā flows, which, with a higher flux and shallow underlying surface gradient, can penetrate water and remain coherent over distances of at least 1 km.     

东北大陆裂谷系的形成与地震活动

本文通过对松辽、下辽河盆地深部和浅部构造、岩相、岩浆活动、地温变化的综合分析,认为它们应属大陆裂谷。全文还讨论了它们与地震活动的关系     

Computation of apparent resistivity profiles from VLF-EM data using linear filtering1

A simple filter is developed which transforms VLF-EM real magnetic field transfer functions into apparent resistivities. It is based on the relationship between the horizontal derivative of the surface electric field and the vertical magnetic field at the surface of a two-dimensional earth model. The performance of this simple autoregressive filter is tested for modelled and real survey data. The technique yields profiles of apparent resistivity very similar, both in magnitude and in wavelength, to those which would have been obtained using VLF-EM resistivity measurements or d.c. resistivity profiling. This low-pass filter has the advantage of reducing high-wavenumber noise in the data; therefore only the major features of the VLF-EM profile are displayed.     

The influence of palaeoenvironment and lava flux on the emplacement of submarine, near-shore Late Permian basalt lavas, Sydney Basin (Australia)

Lava flux and a low palaeoslope were the critical factors in determining the development of different facies in the Late Permian Blow Hole flow, which comprises a series of shoshonitic basalt lavas and associated volcaniclastic detritus in the southern Sydney Basin of eastern Australia. The unit consists of a lower lobe and sheet facies, a middle tube and breccia facies, and an upper columnar-jointed facies. Close similarities in petrography and geochemistry between the basalt lavas from the three facies suggest similar viscosities at similar temperatures. Sedimentological and palaeontological evidence from the sedimentary units immediately below the Blow Hole flow suggests that the lower part of the volcanic unit was emplaced in a cold water, shallow submarine environment, but at least the top of the uppermost lava was subaerial with some palaeosol development. The lower lobe and sheet facies was emplaced on a low slope (<2°) in a lower to middle shoreface environment with water depths of 20–25 m. Lava may have transgressed from subaerial to subaqueous and was emplaced relatively passively with lava flux sufficiently high and uniform to form lobes and sheets rather than pillows. The middle unit probably originated from a subaerial vent and flowed into a shallow (10–15 m) submarine environment, and wave action probably interacted with the advancing lava front to form a lava delta. Lava flux was sufficiently high to produce well-developed, subcircular lava tubes, which lack evidence for thermal erosion. In some areas, lava ‘burrowed’ into the unconsolidated, water-saturated lava delta and sand pile to produce intrusive contacts. The upper columnar-jointed unit represents a ponded facies probably emplaced initially in water depths <5 m but whose top was subaerial.     

Replenishment of a mafic magma in a zoned felsic magma chamber beneath Rishiri Volcano, Japan

The trachytic Tanetomi lava from Rishiri Volcano, northern Japan, provides useful information concerning how a replenished mafic magma mixes with a compositionally zoned felsic magma in a magma chamber. The Tanetomi lava was erupted in the order of Lower lava 1 (LL1, 59.2-59.8 wt.% in SiO₂), Lower lava 2 (LL2, 58.4-59.1 wt.%), and Upper lava (UL, 59.9-65.1 wt.%). Evidence for mixing with a mafic magma is observed only in the LL2, in which a greater amount of crystals derived from the mafic magma occurs in rocks with higher SiO₂ content. The whole-rock compositional trend of the Tanetomi lavas is fairly smooth except for the LL2 lava composition, which scatter along the main composition trend. There is no reasonable composition of basaltic magma on the extrapolation of the LL2 composition trend, and the trend cannot be explained by a simple two-component magma mixing. Before the replenishment, the felsic magma was zoned in composition (58-65 wt.% in SiO₂) and temperature (1030-920°C) in the magma chamber located at the pressure of ~2 kbar. The compositional variation of the main felsic magma was produced by extraction of a fractionated interstitial melt from mush zones along the chamber walls and its subsequent mixing with the main magma (boundary layer fractionation). The LL1 magma tapped the magma chamber soon after the replenishment, before the mafic magma mixed with the overall felsic magma. Then the basalt magma mixed heterogeneously with the upper part of the felsic magma by forced convection as a fountain during injection. The mixing of the basalt magma with compositionally zoned felsic magma resulted in the characteristic composition trend of the LL2. The fraction of basaltic magma in the LL2 magma is estimated to be at most 10%. Despite such a small proportion, the basalt magma was mixed completely with the felsic magma, probably because the crystallinity of undercooled basalt magma was low enough to behave as a liquid.     

3D inversion of DC data using artificial neural networks

In this paper, we investigate the applicability of artificial neural networks in inverting three-dimensional DC resistivity imaging data. The model used to produce synthetic data for training the artificial neural network (ANN) system was a homogeneous medium of resistivity 100 Ωm with an embedded anomalous body of resistivity 1000 Ωm. The different sizes for anomalous body were selected and their location was changed to different positions within the homogeneous model mesh elements. The 3D data set was generated using a finite element forward modeling code through standard 3D modeling software. We investigated different learning paradigms in the training process of the neural network. Resilient propagation was more efficient than any other paradigm. We studied the effect of the data type used on neural network inversion and found that the use of location and the apparent resistivity of data points as the input and corresponding true resistivity as the output of networks produces satisfactory results. We also investigated the effect of the training data pool volume on the inversion properties. We created several synthetic data sets to study the interpolation and extrapolation properties of the ANN. The range of 100–1000 Ωm was divided into six resistivity values as the background resistivity and different resistivity values were also used for the anomalous body. Results from numerous neural network tests indicate that the neural network possesses sufficient interpolation and extrapolation abilities with the selected volume of training data. The trained network was also applied on a real field dataset, collected by a pole-pole array using a square grid (8 ×8) with a 2-m electrode spacing. The inversion results demonstrate that the trained network was able to invert three-dimensional electrical resistivity imaging data. The interpreted results of neural network also agree with the known information about the investigation area.     

Magnetic anomalies and rock magnetism of basalts from Reykjanes (SW-Iceland)

This study presents rock magnetic properties along with magnetic field measurements of different stratigraphic and lithologic basalt units from Reykjanes, the southwestern promontory of the Reykjanes peninsula, where the submarine Reykjanes Ridge passes over into the rift zone of southwestern Iceland. The basaltic fissure eruptions and shield lava of tholeiitic composition (less than 11500 a old) show a high natural remanent magnetization (NRM, J_r) up to 33.6 A/m and high Koenigsberger ratio (Q) up to 52.2 indicating a clear dominance of the NRM compared to the induced part of the magnetization. Pillow basalts and picritic shield lava show distinctly lower J_r values below 10 A/m. Magnetic susceptibility (κ) ranges for all lithologies from 2.5 to 26×10⁻³ SI.     

Geological controls on submarine groundwater discharge in Long Bay,South Carolina (USA)

A combination of geophysical methods including continuous electrical resistivity and high-resolution Chirp sub-bottom profiling were utilized to characterize geologic controls on pore fluid salinity in the nearshore of Long Bay, SC. Resistivity values ranged from less than 1 Ω m to greater than 40 Ω m throughout the bay. Areas of elevated electrical resistivity suggest the influence of relatively fresher water on pore water composition. Geophysical evidence alone does not eliminate all ambiguity associated with lithological and porosity variations that may also contribute to electrical structure of shallow marine sediments. The anomalous field is of sufficient magnitude that lithological variation alone does not control the spatial distribution of elevated electrical resistivity zones. Geographical distribution of electrical anomalies and structures interpreted from nearby sub-bottom profiles indicates abrupt changes in shallow geologic units control preferential pathways for discharge of fresh water into the marine environment. Shore parallel resistivity profiles show dramatic decreases in magnitude with increasing distance from shore, suggesting a significant portion of the terrestrially driven fresh SGD in Long Bay is occurring via the surficial aquifer within a few hundred meters of shore.     

电阻率成像及浅层地震勘探在控盆构造探测中的应用——以万全断裂为例

万全断裂是洋河盆地北缘断裂带组成断裂之一,控制沿线构造活动及地貌发育。断裂走向NE,倾向SE,在沟口处隐伏于第四纪覆盖层,采用电阻率成像和浅层地震联合勘探方法,获得该断裂隐伏段落综合物探异常,结合地质地貌调查,判定隐伏段落展布的具体位置、产状、活动特征及地下结构特征等。研究结果表明,万全断裂隐伏段落走向NE,倾向SE,倾角约75°,上断点埋深约20 m,20—240 m深度可见断裂破碎带（宽约10—20 m）物探异常特征及断裂两侧地层结构差异。该联合探测模式可有效探测复杂地质构造条件下的隐伏活动断裂,具有较强实用性,值得推广。     

Structure and emplacement of the Nandurbar–Dhule mafic dyke swarm,Deccan Traps,and the tectonomagmatic evolution of flood basalts

Flood basalts, such as the Deccan Traps of India, represent huge, typically fissure-fed volcanic provinces. We discuss the structural attributes and emplacement mechanics of a large, linear, tholeiitic dyke swarm exposed in the Nandurbar–Dhule area of the Deccan province. The swarm contains 210 dykes of dolerite and basalt >1 km in length, exposed over an area of 14,500 km². The dykes intrude an exclusively basaltic lava pile, largely composed of highly weathered and zeolitized compound pahoehoe flows. The dykes range in length from <1 km to 79 km, and in thickness from 3 to 62 m. Almost all dykes are vertical, with the others nearly so. They show a strong preferred orientation, with a mean strike of N88°. Because they are not emplaced along faults or fractures, they indicate the regional minimum horizontal compressive stress (σ ₃) to have been aligned ~N–S during swarm emplacement. The dykes have a negative power law length distribution but an irregular thickness distribution; the latter is uncommon among the other dyke swarms described worldwide. Dyke length is not correlated with dyke width. Using the aspect ratios (length/thickness) of several dykes, we calculate magmatic overpressures required for dyke emplacement, and depths to source magma chambers that are consistent with results of previous petrological and gravity modelling. The anomalously high source depths calculated for a few dykes may be an artifact of underestimated aspect ratios due to incomplete along-strike exposure. However, thermal erosion is a mechanism that can also explain this. Whereas several of the Nandurbar–Dhule dykes may be vertically injected dykes from shallow magma chambers, others, particularly the long ones, must have been formed by lateral injection from such chambers. The larger dykes could well have fed substantial (≥1,000 km³) and quickly emplaced (a few years) flood basalt lava flows. This work highlights some interesting and significant similarities, and contrasts, between the Nandurbar–Dhule dyke swarm and regional tholeiitic dyke swarms in Iceland, Sudan, and elsewhere. Editorial responsibility: J. White     

The large fissure eruption in the region of Plosky Tolbachik volcano in Kamchatka, 1975–1976

The paper describes the course of the Large Tolbachik fissure eruption taking place in Kamchatka from July 6, 1975 to December 10, 1976. The eruption zone extended for 30 km. The formation of monogenic scoria cones nearly 300 m high, lava tubes and basalt sheets up to 80 m thick and more than 40 km² in area and subsidence of the Plosky Tolbachik summit caldera to a depth of more than 400 m were observed during the eruption. The volume of eruption products amounted to more than 2 km³. It was the largest basalt eruption which has taken place in the Kurile-Kamchatka volcanic belt in historic time.     

Subaqueous, basaltic lava dome and carapace breccia on King George Island, South Shetland Islands, Antarctica

 On King George Island during latest Oligocene/earliest Miocene time, submarine eruptions resulted in the emplacement of a small (ca. 500 m estimated original diameter) basalt lava dome at Low Head. The dome contains a central mass of columnar rock enveloped by fractured basalt and basalt breccia. The breccia is crystalline and is a joint-block deposit (lithic orthobreccia) interpreted as an unusually thick dome carapace breccia cogenetic with the columnar rock. It was formed in situ by a combination of intense dilation, fracturing and shattering caused by natural hydrofracturing during initial dome effusion and subsequent endogenous emplacement of further basalt melt, now preserved as the columnar rock. Muddy matrix with dispersed hyaloclastite and microfossils fills fractures and diffuse patches in part of the fractured basalt and breccia lithofacies. The sparse glass-rich clasts formed by cooling-contraction granulation during interaction between chilled basalt crust and surrounding water. Together with muddy sediment, they were injected into the dome by hydrofracturing, local steam fluidisation and likely explosive bulk interaction. The basalt lava was highly crystallised and degassed prior to extrusion. Together with a low effusion temperature and rapid convective heat loss in a submarine setting, these properties significantly affected the magma rheology (increased the viscosity and shear strength) and influenced the final dome-like form of the extrusion. Conversely, high heat retention was favoured by the degassed state of the magma (minimal undercooling), a thick breccia carapace and viscous shear heating, which helped to sustain magmatic (eruption) temperatures and enhanced the mobility of the flow. Received: 1 August 1996 / Accepted: 15 September 1997     

Lava bubble-wall fragments formed by submarine hydrovolcanic explosions on Lō'ihi Seamount and Kīlauea Volcano

 Glassy bubble-wall fragments, morphologically similar to littoral limu o Pele, have been found in volcanic sands erupted on Lō'ihi Seamount and along the submarine east rift zone of Kīlauea Volcano. The limu o Pele fragments are undegassed with respect to H₂O and S and formed by mild steam explosions. Angular glass sand fragments apparently form at similar, and greater, depths by cooling-contraction granulation. The limu o Pele fragments from Lō'ihi Seamount are dominantly tholeiitic basalt containing 6.25–7.25% MgO. None of the limu o Pele samples from Lō'ihi Seamount contains less than 5.57% MgO, suggesting that higher viscosity magmas do not form lava bubbles. The dissolved CO₂ and H₂O contents of 7 of the limu o Pele fragments indicate eruption at 1200±300 m depth (120±30 bar). These pressures exceed that generally thought to limit steam explosions. We conclude that hydrovolcanic eruptions are possible, with appropriate pre-mixing conditions, at pressures as great as 120 bar. Received: 22 December 1998 / Accepted: 16 July 1999     

An empirical function to estimate the depths of linear hot sources: Laboratory modeling and field measurements of lava tubes

Estimating depths of buried lava tubes is important for determining the thermal budgets and effusion rates of basaltic volcanic systems. This research used a laboratory experiment scaled to a lava tube system to measure the 3D temperature field surrounding a hot viscous fluid flowing through a buried glass tube while varying conditions such as flow rate and temperature. The depth of the glass tube was changed for different experimental runs. Numerical techniques were applied to model the laboratory experiment. The surface thermal distributions from 166 thermal traverses, constrained to a depth to width ratio of 0.6 to 1.6, were analyzed to empirically derive a depth estimation function using regression techniques. This “Linear Anomaly Surface Transect (LAST)” depth function is a scaleable depth estimation technique which can be solved with thermal imaging data alone. The minimum temperature, maximum temperature and width of a Lorentzian distribution fit to a surface thermal transect, are the only inputs required for the LAST function to estimate the depths of the hot source. The input parameters were then applied to non-laboratory situations including the Kuhio lava tube system in Hawai’i. The LAST function produced depth estimates of ∼ 0.3 m for the Kuhio lava tube in Hawai’i, which did not agree with observations on the ground. This is the result of the complex composition and geometry of an actual lava tube where heat transfer is controlled by more than a simple fluid filling a tube, but also by convection of gasses and fluids in a partially filled passage. Though not effective for lava tubes at this time, the model provides promising results for simple cases applied to engineering and underground coal fires.     

Hydrothermal hexahydrite spherules erupted during the 2008–2010 summit eruption of Kīlauea Volcano,Hawai`i

Small (1–3 mm), hollow spherules of hexahydrite have been collected falling out of the magmatic gas plume downwind of Kīlauea’s summit vent. The spherules were observed on eight separate occasions during 2009–2010 when a lake of actively spattering lava was present ~150–200 m below the rim of the vent. The shells of the spherules have a fine bubbly foam structure less than 0.1 mm thick, composed almost entirely of hexahydrite [MgSO₄·6H₂O] Small microspherules of lava (<5 μm across) along with mineral and rock fragments from the magmatic plume adhered to the outside of the hexahydrite spherules. Phase relationships and the particulate matter in the magmatic plume indicate that the spherules originated as a bubbly solution injected into and mixed with the magmatic plume. The most likely mechanism for production of hexahydrite spherules is boiling of MgSO₄-saturated meteoric water in the walls of the conduit above the surface of the lava lake. Solfataric sulfates may thus be recycled and reinjected into the plume, creating particulates of sulfate minerals that can be distributed far from their original source.     

A major lava tube system from Undara Volcano,North Queensland

The Undara Volcano erupted 0.19 m.y. ago and formed lava fields covering 1,500 km² with a volume of approximately 23 km³. One of the flows extended 160 km on a gradient that averaged only 0.3°. This great length was a result of very high effusion rates, favourable topography and lava tube efficiency. The Undara lavas are rather uniform hawaiites. Lava temperatures are estimated to have been somewhat less than 1175–1220°C and viscosities greater than 10 to 30 Pa s. Long, apparently single lava tubes are well preserved in many places. They are marked by depressions, caves and long level ridges. A system of lava tubes extends for perhaps more than 100 km. The features of the lava tubes are comparable with those described elsewhere. Aligned depressions associated with caves appear to have formed contemporaneously. Most are much wider than the caves and probably represent collapsed lava ponds. The lava tubes appear to have formed by roofing over of lava channels. Close to lava tubes, the rocks developed strongly oxidised characteristics, such as oxidised olivine phenocrysts, ferric clinopyroxene and extensively developed hematite. Differentiated lava forms drips in some caves and is also oxidised.     

The application of resistivity tomography to hydrogeological exploration

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Characterization of volcanic deposits with ground-penetrating radar

 Field-based studies of surficial volcanic deposits are commonly complicated by a combination of poor exposure and rapid lateral variations controlled by unknown paleotopography. The potential of ground-penetrating radar (GPR) as an aid to volcanological studies is shown using data collected from traverses over four well-exposed, Recent volcanic deposits in western Canada. The deposits comprise a pumice airfall deposit (3–4 m thick), a basalt lava flow (3–6 m thick), a pyroclastic flow deposit (15 m thick), and an internally stratified pumice talus deposit (60 m thick). Results show that GPR is effective in delineating major stratigraphic contacts and hence can be used to map unexposed deposits. Different volcanic deposits also exhibit different radar stratigraphic character, suggesting that deposit type may be determined from radar images. In addition, large blocks within the pyroclastic deposits are detected as distinctive point diffractor patterns in the profiles, showing that the technique has potential for providing important grain-size information in coarse poorly sorted deposits. Laboratory measurements of dielectric constant (K') are reported for samples of the main rock types and are compared with values of K' for the bulk deposit as inferred from the field data. The laboratory values differ significantly from the "field" values of K'; these results suggest that the effectiveness of GPR at any site can be substantially improved by initial calibration of well-exposed locations. Received: 10 May 1996 / Accepted: 27 December 1996