In Memoriam: Thomas P. Miller
Pioneer on Alaska volcanoes
Tom Miller died Sept. 3, 2022, at age 86. Tom retired from the USGS in 2002 follow- ing a distinguished 41-year career and remained Emeritus until 2018 when he moved with his wife, Shirla, to Arizona. Shirla passed away in 2021. Tom grew up in the northern from the Universi- ty of Minnesota at Duluth in 1958 and a M.Sc. degree from the University of Minnesota at Min- neapolis in 1961. Those years included a field season in Antarctica. In 1960, Tom passed the USGS national qualifications test and was offered a job on the Kentucky Mapping Proj - ect. After two years working in Kentucky, he transferred to the Branch of Alaska Geology (BAG) in Meno Park, California. From 1963 to 1967, Tom served as geologist on the Hughes-Shun- gnak project, with an empha - sis on igneous rock petrology. From 1967 to 1972 he served as Chief of the Hogatza Heavy Metals project, studying min - eralization on the west coast of Alaska. While working full-time, Minnesota city of Duluth. He earned a B.Sc. degree in Geology and Min- ing Engineering Tom entered Stanford Uni- versity, earning a Ph.D. in 1971, specializing in plutonic rocks. However, he soon grew more interested in magma that breached the surface and was funded by the Geothermal Research Program to inventory
and study hot springs, which led him into the Volcanic Haz - ards Program. For six years he partnered with Robert L. Smith and learned the basics of vol- canology, specifically explosive processes that produced pyro - clastic flows. In 1972, Tom
that BAG should be headquar - tered in Anchorage, rather than in Menlo Park, and that Tom would be BAG Branch Chief. Some younger members of BAG chose to transfer up to Alaska, and Tom began hiring a doz - en new geologists. Tom led the Alaska Mineral Resource Appraisal Program (AMRAP) and played a seminal role in growing USGS geoscience and mineral resource expertise in Alaska. Tom’s recruitment efforts included a cohort of excellent women scientists, a bold step forward for gender diversity in the USGS. As BAG Branch Chief from 1980 to 1985, Tom oversaw and led geologic mapping projects throughout Alaska. He also led the move of BAG from three offices to a single one on the campus of Alaska Pacific Uni - versity. While overseeing BAG min - eral-resource appraisal work, Tom continued his studies of Alaska volcanoes. In March 1986, Augustine Volcano erupt - ed, and ash began wafting over upper Cook Inlet and the Kenai Peninsula, disrupting air traf - fic and commerce. At the time, there was no USGS volcano observatory in Alaska, and Tom was instructed to “act” like an observatory, wherein he was to be the federal representative for the response. Thus, he and col - leagues mounted a month-long aerial surveillance of the activ- ity and distributed information to Federal, State, and local gov- ernment as well as to media. Following the 1986 Augus - tine eruption, Tom met with the University of Alaska Fair-
moved to the BAG Anchorage office, and in 1975 was put in charge of the office. Tom began working on late Quaternary volca- noes on the Alaska Peninsula and in the Aleutian Islands in 1973, studying petrogenetic and
emplacement processes at more than 9 Aleutian caldera centers. Very little work had been done on most of these volcanoes. Important results of his work were the dating of the major catastrophic caldera-forming eruptions, the identification of all major volcanic centers, and the increase by over 50 percent the known Holocene volcanoes. The refined chronology and vol - ume became invaluable in the response to volcanic eruptions. Tom also conducted studies on thermal springs in non-vol - canic areas of Alaska and de- vised a still-accepted model for non-volcanic thermal springs in Alaska. As part of a regional mapping program in west-central Alaska, Tom identified a major belt of ultrapotassic alkaline intrusive complexes that extends more than 1,300 km across western Alaska and into Russia. In 1980, the USGS decided
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The Alaska Miner
Fall 2023
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