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The structures and textures preserved in lava domes reflect underlying magmatic and eruptive processes, and may provide evidence of how eruptions initiate and evolve. This study explores the remarkable cycles in lava extrusion style produced between 1922 and 2012 at the Santiaguito lava dome complex, Guatemala. By combining an examination of eruptive lava morphologies and textures with a review of historical records, we aim to constrain the processes responsible for the range of erupted lava type and morphologies. The Santiaguito lava dome complex is divided into four domes (El Caliente, La Mitad, El Monje, El Brujo), containing a range of proximal structures (e.g., spines) from which a series of structurally contrasting lava flows originate. Vesicular lava flows (with a'a like, yet non-brecciated flow top) have the highest porosity with interconnected spheroidal pores and may transition into blocky lava flows. Blocky lava flows are high volume and texturally variable with dense zones of small tubular aligned pore networks and more porous zones of spheroidal shaped pores. Spines are dense and low volume and contain small skeletal shaped pores, and subvertical zones of sigmoidal pores. We attribute the observed differences in pore shapes to reflect shallow inflation, deflation, flattening, or shearing of the pore fraction. Effusion rate and duration of the eruption define the amount of time available for heating or cooling, degassing and outgassing prior to and during extrusion, driving changes in pore textures and lava type. Our new textural data when reviewed with all the other published data allow a cyclic model to be developed. The cyclic eruption models are influenced by viscosity changes resulting from (1) initial magmatic composition and temperature, and (2) effusion rate which in turn affects degassing, outgassing and cooling time in the conduit. Each lava type presents a unique set of hazards and understanding the morphologies and dome progression is useful

Achievable residual jitter on the 1.2 m telescope at MSSS has historically been limited in moderate wind conditions due to the combination of the dynamics associated with the twin telescopes on the common declination axis shaft and the related control system behavior. The lightly damped, low frequency fundamental vibration mode shape of the telescopes rotating out of phase on the common declination axis shaft severely degraded the performance of the prior controllers. The relatively poor historic performance was due to a combination of the low error rejection of external disturbances, and the controller exciting the mode. The new control architecture described in this paper has made it possible to achieve greatly improved pointing performance., Presented at the AMOS (Advanced Maui Optical and Space Surveillance) Technical Conference held in Maui, HI on 10-13 Sep 2013. Prepared in cooperation with the Boeing Company, Chicago, IL.

We present a detailed analysis of a large spectroscopic and photometric sample of DZ white dwarfs based on our latest model atmosphere calculations. We revise the atmospheric parameters of the trigonometric parallax sample of Bergeron, Leggett, & Ruiz (12 stars) and analyze 147 new DZ white dwarfs discovered in the SDSS. The inclusion of metals and hydrogen in our model atmosphere calculations leads to different atmospheric parameters than those derived from pure helium models. Calcium abundances are found in the range from log (Ca/He) = -12 to -8. We also find that fits of the coolest objects show peculiarities, suggesting that our physical models may not correctly describe the conditions of high atmospheric pressure encountered in the coolest DZ stars. We find that the mean mass of the 11 DZ stars with trigonometric parallaxes is significantly lower than that obtained from pure helium models and in much better agreement with the mean mass of other types of white dwarfs. We determine hydrogen abundances for 27% of the DZ stars in our sample, while only upper limits are obtained for objects with low-S/N spectroscopic data. We confirm with a high level of confidence that the accretion rate of hydrogen is at least 2 orders of magnitude smaller than that of metals (and up to 5 in some cases) to be compatible with the observations. We find a correlation between the hydrogen abundance and the effective temperature, suggesting for the first time empirical evidence of a lower temperature boundary for the hydrogen screening mechanism. Finally, we speculate on the possibility that the DZA white dwarfs could be the result of the convective mixing of thin hydrogen rich atmospheres with the underlying helium convection zone., Published in The Astrophysical Journal, v663 p1291-1308, 10 Jul 2007. Prepared in collaboration with Universite de Montreal, Quebec, Canada; University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ; Princeton University Observatory, Princeton, NJ; University of Washington, Seattle, WA; and York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

This site provides information about the distribution and ecology of kelp beds, as seen in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. Other topics include associated animal species and human use and impacts. Materials Include photos; detailed text descriptions of kelp life history; seasonal patterns; dominant species; associated algal, invertebrate and vertebrate assemblages; and anthropogenic uses.