Dwight Crandell, volcanologist, 1923-2009

For those who climb, ski, and live near the Cascade volcanoes, this obituary of Dwight Crandell is really interesting and inspiring:

seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews...crandellobit10m.html

I love the part about him being greeted like a rock star when he visited Mount St. Helens a couple of years ago.   

Very interesting article, He loved his work! (Wish I could say the same)
Thanks for posting-Condolences to the family.

Thanks for the post, Lowell. I've read many of Dr. Crandell's papers while researching the Cascade volcanoes over the past decade, and feel a sense of great loss at the passing of such a pioneering scientist.

In case others are interested, here are some links to a few of his most interesting papers which are viewable for free online, including the famed and prescient 1978 St Helens study. Some have been converted to HTML web pages, others need a free Lizardtech plug-in (which works well) to view images of the original paper:

• Rockfalls and Avalanches from Little Tahoma Peak on Mount Rainier, Washington (1965) USGS B1221-A or HTML version
• Volcanic Hazards at Mount Rainier, Washington (1967) USGS B1238 or HTML version
• Surficial Geology of Mount Rainier National Park, Washington (1969) USGS B1288 or HTML version
• The Geologic Story of Mount Rainier (1969, 1983) USGS B1292 or HTML version
• Postglacial lahars from Mount Rainier Volcano, Washington (1971) USGS P677
• Quaternary stratigraphy and extent of glaciation in the Mount Rainier region, Washington (1974) USGS P847
• Potential hazards from future eruptions of Mount St. Helens Volcano, Washington (1978) USGS B1383-C
• Postglacial volcanic deposits at Mount Baker, Washington, and potential hazards from future eruptions (1978) USGS P1022-C
• Gigantic debris avalanche of Pleistocene age from ancestral Mount Shasta Volcano, California, and debris-avalanche hazard zonation (1989) USGS B1861

Here's a link to a complete list of his USGS publications .

Thanks Lowell and Amar for the information about this fellow. Sad to say I'd never heard of him, but now happy to at least be acquainted with his work.

Amar- Thank you for posting those USGS links!

I've been compiling a bibliography on Rainier geology since a kind neighbor donated this old laptop a couple years ago.  The Pierce County reference librarian has been wonderful about sending copies of various shorter journal articles, but USGS publications are considered 'books' and subject to a two week check out period.  This is inconvenient for me since I only venture west of Ashford about once a month & the bookmobile only comes every other Saturday.

The format in your links gives me hope that this caveman can eventually learn to work the search on the USGS library & publication warehouse sites which has defeated me on previous attempts.  I did notice that one of his early publications of especial interest to me was not listed on your final link summarizing his work:

Crandell, D. R., 1963,  Paradise debris flow at Mount Rainier, Washington, U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 475.

Perhaps this reference obtained from another paper is erroneous, since a search just now with those formats turned up nothing at USGS.  My impression so far is that part of the south side of the volcano also collapsed during the Osceola event about 5600 years ago.  Erosion has left only a few scraps around Paradise, but a moraine-like hill near my residence may be a remnant of this old lahar.

There is also a tantalizing sentence at the end of an earlier paper by this pioneering geological giant:

Crandell, D. R.; Mullineaux, D. R.; and Waldron, H. H., 1958, Pleistocene sequence in the southeastern part of the Puget lowland, Washington:  American Journal of Science, v. 256, p.384-398.

This briefly mentions that the Nisqually was dammed by a pre-Wisconsin Puget lobe, but I can find no follow-up in the scientific literature.  It seems pretty obvious from studying the topos that 'glacial Lake Mineral' with a shoreline at about 1700' elevation drained first to the Tilton River/Cowlitz, then the Deschutes as the ice dam was breached. 

Once again, many thanks!

Gary, the first ref you cite is a collection of short papers.  Crandell's paper can be found on p. B135 (= p143 of the file) at the following link: USGS P475-B

Some of his other non-USGS-published papers (and those contained in such collections) can be found by searching on Google Scholar: scholar.google.com/scholar?q=author:dr-crandell

The online GeoRef database is MUCH better for such a search, but access is restricted to subscribing institutions such as UW and those affiliated with them. The public can access the database while sitting in any UW library, though, and then also access most of the journal articles online too (which otherwise have similarly restricted access).