| This first section of dissertation concerns the imaging of the crust and upper most mantle structure of the mid-Miocene volcanic provinces of the Northwestern United States using ambient noise tomography. Chapter 1 introduces the complex tectonic history of the northwestern United States and describes the development of volcanism from the ignimbrite sweep that occurred with the extension of the Basin and Range province, initiation and evolution of the mid-Miocene volcanism of the Steens/Columbia River flood basalts, and mirror-image volcanic tracks of the High Lava Plains, Oregon and Yellowstone-Snake River Plains. Chapter 2 describes in detail the concepts and methods for determining the 3D shear velocity structure in the crust and uppermost mantle from ambient noise correlations. Chapter 3 contains the text and supplementary materials of Hanson-Hedgecock et al. [2012] published in the Geophysical Research Letters that describes the application of the ambient noise methods to the imaging of the Western United States. The second section of this work discusses the results of measuring velocity changes associated with three episodes of increased eruptive activity at Tungurahua in 2010 using ambient noise correlations. The third section of this work discusses the results of using the H/V ratio to measure the level of equipartition of the ambient noise wavefield at Tungurahua in 2010. |
