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In Memory of Dr. Peter Wallmann

On February 16, 1997, our colleague, Dr. Peter C. Wallmann, was killed tragically in a highway accident while relocating from Seattle to his new home in Las Vegas. Also killed in the accident was Peter's four year old son, Matthew. His wife of twelve years, Denise Jenkins Wallman, and children Elizabeth, age 11, and Andrew, age 9, survived with minor injuries. In the aftermath, Peter's family decided to relocate to St. George, Utah, where Denise's parents reside. The family held a memorial service in St. George on March 1.

Peter was born October 15, 1959 in Berkeley, California to James and Mary Wallmann. His father was part of the world-renowned team at the Berkeley Radiation Laboratory which synthesized numerous new transuranic elements. Unfortunately, Peter, too, knew the loss of a parent during childhood, as his father fell victim to cancer.

Peter completed his MS degree at Stanford in 1986 under the supervision of Gail Mahood working on the correlation of eruptions at Pantelleria Volcano with sea level changes in the Mediterranean Sea. He combined a thorough knowledge of the volcanic history of this region with a mathematical model of deformation over the magma chamber to come to the remarkable conclusion that these volcanic eruption were triggered by a lowering of sea level during glacial periods.

Peter received his PhD degree in 1991 at Stanford under Prof. David Pollard's supervision. He worked on the structure and vent geometry in the Novarupta Basin near Katmai Volcano, Alaska. This is the site of the largest volcanic eruption of this century. The eruption of 1912 created the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes, first made famous by a series of National Geographic Expeditions and articles. Peter's detailed mapping of the vent region provided new insight regarding the eruption mechanics and linked the behavior of this volcano to the motion of the tectonics.

Peter joined Golder Associates in 1991 as a member of the Fractured Rock Technology group. He quickly made an impact with his geologic insights, computer skills, and mathematical capabilities. His work included flow and transport simulations for several radioactive waste research projects including the Stripa and Äspö Laboratories (Sweden), and the Kamaishi Mine (Japan). He worked extensively supporting the US Geological Survey's work on fracture geology for the US repository site at Yucca Mountain, and he developed pioneering applications of the FracMan codes to landfill designs at the proposed Campo site in southern California.

At the time of his death, Peter had taken a lead geological role in developing the environmental impact statement (EIS) for Yucca Mountain, and he had temporarily left Golder Associates for Jason Associates pending resolution of conflict-of-interest issues between the EIS project and Golder's other support contracts for Yucca Mountain.

Although his technical achievements were substantial, Peter's friends and colleages remember him most for his kind personality, valued collegiality, and his religious convictions. A member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS), Peter had been active in missionary work in Thailand as a youth. He clearly applied his faith in his daily life. This faith has been a bulwark for his family through these difficult times.

I would like to offer this final reflection on Peter's life. In our thirties, few of us anticipate or plan for sudden death. When it occurs, the inevitable grievances and petty grudges of our everyday personal life may go forever unresolved. When I reflect on Peter's life at Golder Associates, I can think of no unkind word or deed or unpleasantry for which an apology was left outstanding. Our working lives would benefit if all of us conducted ourselves in this manner.

The family has set up a trust fund for the education of Peter's children. For information on contributing please contact Jamie Gunn or Thomas Doe in the Seattle office of Golder Associates at (425) 883-0777. The Seattle office is preparing a book of remembrances and testmonials for the Wallmann family. These will be available through the FracMan web page, and other additions are welcome.

Publications

Crowe, B. M., F. V. Perry, G. A. Valentine, G. A. Wallmann, R. Kossik, 1993, "Simulation Modeling of the Probability of Magmatic Disruption of the Potential Yucca Mountain Site, " LA-UR-93-3505, Focus 93: Site Characterization and Model Validation, Sept. 26-29, 1993, Las Vegas, NV, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM.

Dershowitz, William S., Thomas W. Doe, Peter C. Wallmann, 1992, "Discrete Feature Dual Porosity Analysis of Fractured Rock Masses. Applications to Fractured Reservoirs and Hazardous Waste," Proceedings of the 33rd U.S. Symposium on Rock Mechanics, June 3-5, 1992, Sant Fe, NM, A.A. Balkema, Rotterdam , Netherlands.

Dershowitz, W., K. Redus, P. Wallmann, P. Lapointe, C-L Axelsson, 1992 Feb., The Implication of Fractal Dimension in Hydrogeology and Rock Mechanics. Version 1.1, SKB Technical Report 92-17, Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company, Stockholm, Sweden.

Dershowitz, W., P. Wallmann, 1992 Feb., Discrete Fracture Modelling for the Stripa Tracer Validation Experiment Predictions, Stripa Project Technical Report 92-15, Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company, Stockholm, Sweden.

Dershowitz, William S., Peter C. Wallmann, Joel Geier, Thomas W. Doe, 1993, "Discrete Feature Modelling at the Stripa Mine in Sweden: Significance for Hydrologic Modelling of Fractured Rock Masses," Proceedings of the 4th Annual Conference on High Level Radioactive Waste Management, April 26-30, 1993, Las Vegas, NV, American Society of Civil Engineers, New York, NY.

Dershowitz, W. S., P. Wallmann, J. E. Geier, G. Lee, 1991 Sept., Preliminary - Discrete Fracture Network Modelling of Tracer Migration Experiments at the SCV Site, Stripa Project Technical Report 91-23, Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company, Stockholm, Sweden.

Dershowitz, W., P. Wallmann, S. Kindred, 1991 Jun., Discrete Fracture Modelling for the Stripa Site Characterization and Validation Drift Inflow Predictions, Stripa Project Technical Report 91-16, Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company, Stockholm, Sweden.

Dershowitz, W., P. Wallmann, D. Shuttle, S. Follin, 1996 Dec., Canister and Far-Field Demonstration of the Discrete Fracture Analysis Approach for Performance Assessment, SKB Progress Report U-96-41, Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company, Stockholm, Sweden.

Doe, Thomas W., Peter C. Wallmann, 1995, "Hydraulic Characterization of Fracture Geometry for Discrete Fracture Modeling," Proceedings of the International Congress on Rock Mechanics, vol. 8, Sept. 25-30, 1995, Chiba, Japan, International Society for Rock Mechanics.

Eichelberger, J. C., Sanford Ballard, Charles R. Carrigan, A. Goodliffe, Wes Hildreth, E. Y. Iwatsubo, P. W. Kasameyer, T. E. C. Keith, Juergen Kienle, J. J. Papike, David D. Pollard, D. B. Stone, P. C. Wallmann, P. L. Ward, M. Wilt, M. E. Yount, 1990, "Geophysics at Katmai: Geophyical Expedition to Novarupta Volcano, Katmai National Park, Alaska," EOS, Transactions, American Geophysocal Union, vol. 71, no.. 22, p. 733-735.

Geier, Joel, William S. Dershowitz, Peter C. Wallmann, Thomas W. Doe, 1995, "Discrete Fracture Modelling of In-Situ Hydrologic and Tracer Experiments," Proceedings of the Conference on Fractured and Jointed Rock Masses, June, 1992, Lake Tahoe, CA, A.A. Balkema, Rotterdam.

La Pointe, Paul R., William S. Dershowitz, Peter C. Wallmann, 1993, "Flow and Connectivity Properties of Fracture Networks as a Function of the Fractal Dimension," Geological Society of America, 1993 Annual Meeting, Abstracts with Programs - Geological Society of America, vol. 25, no. 6, p. 250.

La Pointe, Paul R., Sven Follin, Jan Hermanson, Peter Wallmann, 1995 Oct., A Method for Indentifying and Analyzing Conductive Pathways in Fractured Rock Masses for Performance Assessment Transport Models, SKB 95-28, Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company, Stockholm, Sweden.

La Pointe, Paul R., Peter C. Wallmann, William S. Dershowitz, 1993, "Stochastic Estimation of Fracture Size through Simulated Sampling," International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences & Geomechanics Abstracts, vol. 30, no. 7, p. 1611-1617.

La Pointe, Paul R., Peter Wallmann, Sven Follin, 1995 Sept., Estimation of Effective Block Conductivities Based on Discrete Network Analyses Using Data from the Aspo Site, SKB Technical Report 95-15, Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company, Stockholm, Sweden.

Lowenstern, Jacob B, Peter C. Wallmann, 1989, "The West Mageik Lakes Sill; Analoque for the Feeder of the 1912 Eruption at the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes?" Bulletin - New Mexico Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources, vol. 131, p. 169.

Lowenstern, Jacob B., Peter C. Wallmann, David D. Pollard, 1991, "The West Mageik Lake Sill Complex as an Analogue for Magma Transport During the 1912 Eruption at the Valley of the Ten Thousand Smokes, Alaska," Geophysical Research Letters, vol. 18, no. 8, p. 1569-1572.

Mahood, Gail A., Peter Wallmann, 1985, "Correlation of Eruptions at an Island Volcano with Glacial Sea Level Drawdown; Pantelleria, Italy," EOS, Transactions, American Geophysical Union, vol. 66, no. 46. p. 1141.

Pollard, David D., P. C. Wallmann, Agust Gudmundsson, 1987, "Possible Effect of Aspect Ratios of Magma Chambers on Eruption Frequency; Comment and Reply," Geology (Boulder), vol. 15, no. 9, p. 877-879.

Uchida, Masahiro, Thomas Doe, Willian Dershowitz, Andrew Thomas, Peter Wallmann, Atsushi Sawada, 1994 Mar., Discrete-Fracture Modelling of the Aspo LPT-2, Large Scale Pumping and Tracer Test, SKB International Cooperation Report 94-09, Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company, Stockholm, Sweden.

Uchida, Masahiro, Thomas W. Doe, William Dershowitz, Peter Wallmann, 1993, "Simulation of Fracture Flow to the Kamaishi Validation Drift," Proceedings of the 4th Annual Conference on High Level Radioactive Waste Management, April 26-30, 1993, Las Vegas, NV, American Society of Civil Engineers, New York, NY.

Wallmann, Peter C., 1993, "A Technique for Calculation of the Probability of Dikes Intersecting a Repository," Proceedings of the 4th Annual Conference on High Level Radioactive Waste Management, April 26-30, 1993, Las Vegas, NV, American Society of Civil Engineers, New York, NY.

Wallmann, Peter Caswell, 1986, Mechanical Models for Correlation of Ring-Fracture Eruptions at Pantelleria, Strait of Sicily, with Glacial Sea-Level, Master's Thesis, Stanford University, Stanford, California.

Wallmann, Peter C., Ian Miller, Richard Kossik, 1993, "Assessment of Volcanic and Tectonic Hazards to High Level Radioactive Waste Repositories," Proceedings of the 4th Annual Conference on High Level Radioactive Waste Management, April 26-30, 1993, Las Vegas, NV, American Society of Civil Engineers, New York, NY.

Wallman, P. C., D. D. Pollard, 1990, "Numerical Modeling of Structures in the Novarupta Basin, Valley of the Ten Thousand Smokes, Katmai National Park, Alaska," EOS, Transactions, American Geophysical Union, vol. 71, no. 43, p. 1691.

Wallmann, Peter C, David D. Pollard, 1989, "Investigations of the Mechanics of Surficial Deformation in the Novarupta Basin, Valley of the Ten Thousand Smokes, Katmai National Park, Alaska," Bulletin - New Mexico Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources, vol. 131, p. 286.

Wallmann, Peter C., David D. Pollard, 1988, "Surficial Deformation in the Novarupta Caldera, Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes, Katmai National Park, Alaska," EOS, Transactions, American Geophysical Union, vol. 69, no. 44, p. 1472

Wallmann, Peter C., David D. Pollard, Wes Hildreth, John C. Eichelberger, 1990, "New Structural Limits on Magma Chamber Locations at the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes, Katmai National Park, Alaska," Geology (Boulder), vol. 18, no. 12, p. 1240-1243.