Much of what is known about the effects of the 1886 Charleston, South Carolina, earthquake throughout the epicentral region can be attributed to meticulous field investigations by an individual with training in geology and engineering, Earle Sloan (Clendenin, 1926). In a recent study, Bilham and Hough (2024) undertook a detailed analysis of the effects of the earthquake on railroads in the Charleston region, drawing heavily from Sloan’s reports. This exercise identified several inconsistencies in Sloan’s field reports, including understandable measurement imprecision, inferred data entry mistakes, and transcription errors. The study also begged the question, where was Sloan at the time of the mainshock and over the following week? And to what extent did he draw from secondhand information in compiling his reports? On this question Sloan’s reports were sometimes enigmatic, lending themselves to misinterpretation in contemporaneous as well as modern interpretations. Beyond the details that were germane for, and briefly summarized by, the studies of Bilham and Hough (2023, 2024), in this report we don our historical seismologist caps to chronicle Sloan’s activities following the earthquake. We summarize our inferences here for the benefit of future scholars who might attempt to retrace either Sloan’s footsteps or our own. This study also serves to highlight Sloan’s singular contributions to earthquake science, which were never published separately.
","language":"English","publisher":"Seismological Society of America","doi":"10.1785/0220240055","usgsCitation":"Hough, S.E., and Bilham, R., 2024, On the provenance of field reports of the 1886 Charleston, South Carolina, earthquake: A seismo-historical whodunnit: Seismological Research Letters, v. 95, no. 4, p. 2527-2537, https://doi.org/10.1785/0220240055.","productDescription":"11 p.","startPage":"2527","endPage":"2537","ipdsId":"IP-162654","costCenters":[{"id":237,"text":"Earthquake Science Center","active":true,"usgs":true}],"links":[{"id":482169,"type":{"id":24,"text":"Thumbnail"},"url":"https://pubs.usgs.gov/thumbnails/outside_thumb.jpg"}],"country":"United States","state":"South Carolina","city":"Charleston","geographicExtents":"{\n \"type\": \"FeatureCollection\",\n \"features\": [\n {\n \"type\": \"Feature\",\n \"properties\": {},\n \"geometry\": {\n \"coordinates\": [\n [\n [\n -80.13297882942096,\n 33.016985369462645\n ],\n [\n -80.13297882942096,\n 32.63864581856026\n ],\n [\n -79.78369938078559,\n 32.63864581856026\n ],\n [\n -79.78369938078559,\n 33.016985369462645\n ],\n [\n -80.13297882942096,\n 33.016985369462645\n ]\n ]\n ],\n \"type\": \"Polygon\"\n }\n }\n ]\n}","volume":"95","issue":"4","noUsgsAuthors":false,"publicationDate":"2024-05-09","publicationStatus":"PW","contributors":{"authors":[{"text":"Hough, Susan E. 0000-0002-5980-2986","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5980-2986","contributorId":263442,"corporation":false,"usgs":true,"family":"Hough","given":"Susan","email":"","middleInitial":"E.","affiliations":[{"id":237,"text":"Earthquake Science Center","active":true,"usgs":true}],"preferred":true,"id":927586,"contributorType":{"id":1,"text":"Authors"},"rank":1},{"text":"Bilham, Roger","contributorId":225117,"corporation":false,"usgs":false,"family":"Bilham","given":"Roger","affiliations":[{"id":13693,"text":"University of Colorado Boulder","active":true,"usgs":false}],"preferred":false,"id":927587,"contributorType":{"id":1,"text":"Authors"},"rank":2}]}} ,{"id":70254655,"text":"70254655 - 2024 - Homogenization of soil seed bank communities by fire and invasive species in the Mojave Desert","interactions":[],"lastModifiedDate":"2024-06-06T12:05:34.025548","indexId":"70254655","displayToPublicDate":"2024-05-09T07:04:20","publicationYear":"2024","noYear":false,"publicationType":{"id":2,"text":"Article"},"publicationSubtype":{"id":10,"text":"Journal Article"},"seriesTitle":{"id":3910,"text":"Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution","onlineIssn":"2296-701X","active":true,"publicationSubtype":{"id":10}},"title":"Homogenization of soil seed bank communities by fire and invasive species in the Mojave Desert","docAbstract":"Soil seed banks help maintain species diversity through temporal storage effects and function as germination pools that can optimize fitness across varying environmental conditions. These characteristics promote the persistence of native plant communities, yet disturbances such as fire and associated invasions by non-native species can disrupt these reserves, fundamentally altering successional trajectories. This may be particularly true in deserts, where native plant communities are less adapted to fire. While studies of fire effects on desert plant communities are not uncommon, information regarding the short- and long-term effects of fire on seed banks is less available. To better understand the influence of fire and invasive species on desert seed banks, we investigated soil seed bank biodiversity from 30 wildfires that burned between 1972 and 2010 across the Mojave Desert ecoregion of North America. We assessed how characteristics of fire regimes (frequency, time since fire, and burn severity) interacted with climate and invasive plants on measures of α-, β-, and γ-diversities. Because β-diversity is a direct measure of community variability and reveals important information about biodiversity loss, we further examined the nestedness and turnover components of β-diversity. Mean α- and γ-diversities were generally higher for burned locations than in unburned reference sites, however individual fire variables had little influence on patterns of seed bank diversity. Burned area seed banks tended to be dominated by non-native invasive species, primarily two grasses, (Bromus rubens, Bromus tectorum), as well as an invasive forb (Erodium cicutarium). The most striking pattern we observed was a collective sharp decline in α-, β-, and γ-diversities with increased invasive species dominance, indicating the homogenization of seed bank communities with the colonization of invasive species after fire. Evidence of homogenization was further supported by reduced turnover and increased nestedness in burn areas compared to reference areas indicating potential biodiversity loss. Our findings highlight how biological processes such as plant invasions can combine with disturbance from fire to alter patterns of seed bank composition and diversity in desert ecosystems.
Managing aquatic ecosystems for people and nature can be improved by collaboration among scientists, managers, decision-makers, and other stakeholders. Many collaborative and interdisciplinary approaches have been developed to address the management of freshwater ecosystems; however, there are still barriers to overcome. We worked as part of a regional stakeholder group comprising municipal water utility operators, conservation organizations, academic partners, and other stakeholders to understand the effects of low-flow and drought on ecological functions of the upper Flint River, Georgia (USA), a free-flowing river important for municipal water supply, recreation, and native biota. We used published literature and locally targeted studies to identify quantitative flow targets that could be used to inform water management and drought planning. Drawing from principles of Translational Ecology, we relied on an iterative process to develop information needs for the group and maintained communication and engagement throughout data collection, analysis, and synthesis. We identified three quantitative flow benchmarks to evaluate the ecological impacts of drought in the river. The results were valuable to both the water utilities represented in the working group and State regional water planning, which is used to guide water management strategies and permitting for the basin. We identified principles that were important for the successful engagement in the working group and helped to overcome the challenge of working across sectors and without direct authority guiding the implementation of our work. Interdisciplinary work and creative solutions are crucial to plan for and adapt to greater pressure on our water resources.
Cropland fallowing is choosing not to plant a crop during a season when a crop is normally planted. It is an important component of many crop rotations and can improve soil moisture and health. Knowing which fields are fallow is critical to assess crop productivity and crop water productivity, needed for food security assessments. The annual spatial extent of cropland fallows is poorly understood within the United States (U.S.). The U.S. Department of Agriculture Cropland Data Layer does provide cropland fallow areas; however, at a significantly lower confidence than their cropland classes. This study developed a methodology to map cropland fallows within the Northern Great Plains region of the U.S. using an easily implementable decision tree algorithm leveraging training and validation data from wet (2019), normal (2015), and dry (2017) precipitation years to account for climatic variability. The decision trees automated cropland fallow algorithm (ACFA) was coded on a cloud platform utilizing remotely sensed, time-series data from the years 2010–2019 to separate cropland fallows from other land cover/land use classes. Overall accuracies varied between 96%-98%. Producer’s and user’s accuracies of cropland fallow class varied between 70-87%.
Drylands impacted by energy development often require costly reclamation activities to reconstruct damaged soils and vegetation, yet little is known about the effectiveness of reclamation practices in promoting recovery of soil quality due to a lack of long-term and cross-site studies. Here, we examined paired on-pad and adjacent undisturbed off-pad soil properties over a 22-year chronosequence of 91 reclaimed oil or gas well pads across soil and climate gradients of the Colorado Plateau in the southwestern United States. Our goals were to estimate the time required for soil properties to reach undisturbed conditions, examine the multivariate nature of soil quality following reclamation, and identify environmental factors that affect reclamation outcomes. Soil samples, collected in 2020 and 2021, were analyzed for biogeochemical pools (total nitrogen, and total organic and inorganic carbon), chemical characteristics (salinity, sodicity, pH), and texture. Predicted time to recovery across all sites was 29 years for biogeochemical soil properties, 31 years for soil chemical properties, and 6 years for soil texture. Ordination of soil properties revealed differences between on- and off-pad soils, while site aridity explained variability in on-pad recovery. The predicted time to total soil recovery (distance between on- and off-pad in ordination space) was 96 years, which was longer than any individual soil property. No site reached total recovery, indicating that individual soil properties alone may not fully indicate recovery in soil quality as soil recovery does not equal the sum of its parts. Site aridity was the largest predictor of reclamation outcomes, but the effects differed depending on soil type. Taken together, results suggest the recovery of soil quality - which reflects soil fertility, carbon sequestration potential, and other ecosystem functions - was influenced primarily by site setting, with soil type and aridity major mediators of on-pad carbon, salinity, and total soil recovery following reclamation.
The use of wetlands as a treatment approach for nitrogen in runoff is a common practice in agroecosystems. However, nitrate is not the sole constituent present in agricultural runoff and other biologically active contaminants have the potential to affect nitrate removal efficiency. In this study, the impacts of the combined effects of four common veterinary antibiotics (chlortetracycline, sulfamethazine, lincomycin, monensin) on nitrate-N treatment efficiency in saturated sediments and wetlands were evaluated in a coupled microcosm/mesocosm scale experiment. Veterinary antibiotics were hypothesized to significantly impact nitrogen speciation (e.g., nitrate and ammonium) and nitrogen uptake and transformation processes (e.g., plant uptake and denitrification) within the wetland ecosystems. To test this hypothesis, the coupled study had three objectives: 1. assess veterinary antibiotic impact on nitrogen cycle processes in wetland sediments using microcosm incubations, 2. measure nitrate-N reduction in water of floating treatment wetland systems over time following the introduction of veterinary antibiotic residues, and 3. identify the fate of veterinary antibiotics in floating treatment wetlands using mesocosms. Microcosms containing added mixtures of the veterinary antibiotics had little to no effect at lower concentrations but stimulated denitrification potential rates at higher concentrations. Based on observed changes in the nitrogen loss in the microcosm experiments, floating treatment wetland mesocosms were enriched with 1000 μg L−1 of the antibiotic mixture. Rates of nitrate-N loss observed in mesocosms with the veterinary antibiotic enrichment were consistent with the microcosm experiments in that denitrification was not inhibited, even at the high dosage. In the mesocosm experiments, average nitrate-N removal rates were not found to be impacted by the veterinary antibiotics. Further, veterinary antibiotics were primarily found in the roots of the floating treatment wetland biomass, accumulating approximately 190 mg m−2 of the antibiotic mixture. These findings provide new insight into the impact that veterinary antibiotic mixtures may have on nutrient management strategies for large-scale agricultural operations and the potential for veterinary antibiotic removal in these wetlands.
","language":"English","publisher":"MDPI","doi":"10.3390/toxics12050346","usgsCitation":"Russell, M.V., Messer, T.L., Repert, D.A., Smith, R.L., Bartelt-Hunt, S., Snow, D.D., and Reed, A., 2024, Influence of four veterinary antibiotics on constructed treatment wetland nitrogen transformation: Toxics, v. 12, no. 5, 346, 26 p., https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics12050346.","productDescription":"346, 26 p.","ipdsId":"IP-163926","costCenters":[{"id":37277,"text":"WMA - Earth System Processes Division","active":true,"usgs":true}],"links":[{"id":439646,"rank":0,"type":{"id":40,"text":"Open Access Publisher Index Page"},"url":"https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics12050346","text":"Publisher Index Page"},{"id":428796,"type":{"id":24,"text":"Thumbnail"},"url":"https://pubs.usgs.gov/thumbnails/outside_thumb.jpg"}],"volume":"12","issue":"5","noUsgsAuthors":false,"publicationDate":"2024-05-08","publicationStatus":"PW","contributors":{"authors":[{"text":"Russell, Matthew V. 0000-0001-9287-1409","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9287-1409","contributorId":336767,"corporation":false,"usgs":false,"family":"Russell","given":"Matthew","email":"","middleInitial":"V.","affiliations":[{"id":12425,"text":"University of Kentucky","active":true,"usgs":false}],"preferred":false,"id":900972,"contributorType":{"id":1,"text":"Authors"},"rank":1},{"text":"Messer, Tiffany L.","contributorId":194057,"corporation":false,"usgs":false,"family":"Messer","given":"Tiffany","email":"","middleInitial":"L.","affiliations":[],"preferred":false,"id":900973,"contributorType":{"id":1,"text":"Authors"},"rank":2},{"text":"Repert, Deborah A. 0000-0001-7284-1456 darepert@usgs.gov","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7284-1456","contributorId":2578,"corporation":false,"usgs":true,"family":"Repert","given":"Deborah","email":"darepert@usgs.gov","middleInitial":"A.","affiliations":[{"id":36183,"text":"Hydro-Ecological Interactions Branch","active":true,"usgs":true},{"id":38175,"text":"Toxics Substances Hydrology Program","active":true,"usgs":true},{"id":37464,"text":"WMA - Laboratory & Analytical Services Division","active":true,"usgs":true},{"id":5044,"text":"National Research Program - Central Branch","active":true,"usgs":true}],"preferred":true,"id":900974,"contributorType":{"id":1,"text":"Authors"},"rank":3},{"text":"Smith, Richard L. 0000-0002-3829-0125 rlsmith@usgs.gov","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3829-0125","contributorId":1592,"corporation":false,"usgs":true,"family":"Smith","given":"Richard","email":"rlsmith@usgs.gov","middleInitial":"L.","affiliations":[{"id":37277,"text":"WMA - Earth System Processes Division","active":true,"usgs":true},{"id":5044,"text":"National Research Program - Central Branch","active":true,"usgs":true},{"id":36183,"text":"Hydro-Ecological Interactions Branch","active":true,"usgs":true},{"id":38175,"text":"Toxics Substances Hydrology Program","active":true,"usgs":true}],"preferred":true,"id":900975,"contributorType":{"id":1,"text":"Authors"},"rank":4},{"text":"Bartelt-Hunt, Shannon","contributorId":189223,"corporation":false,"usgs":false,"family":"Bartelt-Hunt","given":"Shannon","email":"","affiliations":[],"preferred":false,"id":900976,"contributorType":{"id":1,"text":"Authors"},"rank":5},{"text":"Snow, Daniel D.","contributorId":204934,"corporation":false,"usgs":false,"family":"Snow","given":"Daniel","email":"","middleInitial":"D.","affiliations":[{"id":6754,"text":"University of Missouri","active":true,"usgs":false}],"preferred":false,"id":900977,"contributorType":{"id":1,"text":"Authors"},"rank":6},{"text":"Reed, Ariel 0000-0002-0792-5204","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0792-5204","contributorId":298788,"corporation":false,"usgs":false,"family":"Reed","given":"Ariel","affiliations":[],"preferred":false,"id":900978,"contributorType":{"id":1,"text":"Authors"},"rank":7}]}} ,{"id":70258420,"text":"70258420 - 2024 - Potential climate and human water-use effects on water-quality trends in a semiarid, western U.S. watershed: Fountain Creek, Colorado, USA","interactions":[],"lastModifiedDate":"2026-02-10T18:05:06.586732","indexId":"70258420","displayToPublicDate":"2024-05-08T07:18:46","publicationYear":"2024","noYear":false,"publicationType":{"id":2,"text":"Article"},"publicationSubtype":{"id":10,"text":"Journal Article"},"seriesTitle":{"id":3709,"text":"Water","active":true,"publicationSubtype":{"id":10}},"title":"Potential climate and human water-use effects on water-quality trends in a semiarid, western U.S. watershed: Fountain Creek, Colorado, USA","docAbstract":"An attractive technique for removing CO2 from the environment is sequestration within stable carbonate solids (e. g., calcite). However, continuous addition of alkalinity is required to achieve favorable conditions for carbonate precipitation (pH>8) from aqueous streams containing dissolved CO2 (pH<4.5) and Ca2+ ions. In this study, a pH-swing process using ion exchange was demonstrated to process 300 L of produced water brine per day for CO2 mineralization. Proton titration capacities were quantified for aqueous streams in equilibrium with gas streams at various concentrations of CO2 (pCO2=0.03–0.20 atm) and at various flow rates (0.5–2.0 L min−1). Energy intensities for the process were determined to be between 30 and 65 kWh per tonne of CO2 sequestered depending on the composition of the brine stream. A life cycle assessment was performed to analyze the net carbon emissions of the technology which indicated a net CO2 reduction for pCO2≥0.12 atm (−0.06–−0.39 kg CO2e per kg precipitated CaCO3) utilizing calcium-rich brines. The results from this study indicate the ion exchange process can be used as a scalable method to provide alkalinity necessary for the capture and storage of CO2 in Ca-rich waste streams.
A Decree of the Supreme Court of the United States, entered June 7, 1954 (New Jersey v. New York, 347 U.S. 995), established the position of Delaware River Master within the U.S. Geological Survey. In addition, the Decree authorizes the diversion of water from the Delaware River Basin and requires compensating releases from specific reservoirs owned by New York City be made under the supervision and direction of the River Master. The Decree stipulates that the River Master provide reports to the Court, not less frequently than annually. This report is the 62nd annual report of the River Master of the Delaware River. This report covers the 2015 River Master report year, which is the period from December 1, 2014, to November 30, 2015.
During the report year, precipitation in the upper Delaware River Basin was 42.22 inches or 95 percent of the long-term average. The combined storage remained above 80 percent of the combined capacity until August 2015. The lowest combined storage of the report year was 57 percent of the total combined capacity on December 1, 2014. Delaware River Master operations during the year were conducted as stipulated by the Decree and the Flexible Flow Management Program.
Diversions from the Delaware River Basin by New York City and New Jersey fully complied with the Decree. The reservoir releases were made as directed by the River Master at rates designed to meet the flow objective for the Delaware River at Montague, New Jersey, on 72 days during the report year. Interim Excess Release Quantity and conservation releases, designed to relieve thermal stress and protect the fishery and aquatic habitat in the tailwaters of the reservoirs, were also made during the report year.
Water quality in the Delaware River estuary between the streamgages at Trenton, New Jersey, and Reedy Island Jetty, Delaware, was monitored at several locations. Data on water temperature, specific conductance, dissolved oxygen, and pH were collected continuously by electronic instruments at four sites.
","language":"English","publisher":"U.S. Geological Survey","publisherLocation":"Reston, VA","doi":"10.3133/ofr20241010","isbn":"978-1-4113-4550-8","usgsCitation":"Russell, K.L., Andrews, W.J., DiFrenna, V.J., Norris, J.M., and Mason, R.R., Jr., 2024, Report of the River Master of the Delaware River for the period December 1, 2014–November 30, 2015: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2024–1010, 96 p., https://doi.org/10.3133/ofr20241010.","productDescription":"xi, 96 p.","numberOfPages":"96","onlineOnly":"N","additionalOnlineFiles":"N","ipdsId":"IP-144905","costCenters":[{"id":509,"text":"Office of the Associate Director for Water","active":true,"usgs":true}],"links":[{"id":499205,"rank":6,"type":{"id":36,"text":"NGMDB Index Page"},"url":"https://ngmdb.usgs.gov/Prodesc/proddesc_116401.htm","linkFileType":{"id":5,"text":"html"}},{"id":428180,"rank":5,"type":{"id":34,"text":"Image Folder"},"url":"https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2024/1010/images/"},{"id":428179,"rank":4,"type":{"id":31,"text":"Publication XML"},"url":"https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2024/1010/ofr20241010.XML","description":"OFR 2024-1010 XML"},{"id":431003,"rank":3,"type":{"id":39,"text":"HTML Document"},"url":"https://pubs.usgs.gov/publication/ofr20241010/full","text":"Report","linkFileType":{"id":5,"text":"html"},"description":"OFR 2024-1010 HTML"},{"id":428177,"rank":2,"type":{"id":11,"text":"Document"},"url":"https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2024/1010/ofr20241010.pdf","text":"Report","size":"8.56 MB","linkFileType":{"id":1,"text":"pdf"},"description":"OFR 2024-1010 PDF"},{"id":428176,"rank":1,"type":{"id":24,"text":"Thumbnail"},"url":"https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2024/1010/coverthb.jpg"}],"country":"United States","state":"Delaware, New Jersey New York, Pennsylvania","otherGeospatial":"Delaware River","geographicExtents":"{\n \"type\": \"FeatureCollection\",\n \"features\": [\n {\n \"type\": \"Feature\",\n \"properties\": {},\n \"geometry\": {\n \"coordinates\": [\n [\n [\n -76.94505928621406,\n 40.05337883630068\n ],\n [\n -74.72855902979892,\n 39.22047921540104\n ],\n [\n -73.33537420998806,\n 42.70804724221631\n ],\n [\n -75.52173314274067,\n 43.29620805006448\n ],\n [\n -76.94505928621406,\n 40.05337883630068\n ]\n ]\n ],\n \"type\": \"Polygon\"\n }\n }\n ]\n}","contact":"Delaware River Master
Office of the Delaware River Master
U.S. Geological Survey
Like many hydrocarbon production areas in the U.S., the Poso Creek Oil Field in California includes and is adjacent to other land uses (agricultural and other developed lands) that affect the hydrology and geochemistry of the aquifer overlying and adjacent to oil development. We hypothesize that the distributions of hydrocarbons and arsenic in groundwater in such areas will be controlled by complex interactions between mixed land uses, oil-field infrastructure, and natural processes. In 2020–2021, samples of groundwater and surface water were collected and analyzed for a large suite of inorganic and organic chemicals and isotope and gas tracers to test this hypothesis. Those data are supplemented with ancillary data on historical geochemistry, hydrology, geology, and oil-field infrastructure. Hydrocarbons in groundwater (e.g., methane through pentane gases and benzene) are associated with natural processes (e.g., fault offsets or transition in sediment depositional environment) and oil-field infrastructure (e.g., fluid-migration pathways associated with uncemented annulus in oil wells or unlined pits). Arsenic concentrations >10 μg per liter (μg/L; maximum concentration 12.9 μg/L) are associated with natural processes in old, high-pH groundwater, and more recent recharge of water from natural and/or engineered recharge processes. Along the southwest margin of the oil field, pumping for drinking-water and irrigation supplies in combination with engineered groundwater recharge produce a depression in groundwater elevations where groundwater with elevated sulfate concentrations from agricultural areas and groundwater with hydrocarbons from the oil field mix to produce a zone of sulfate reduction that removes hydrocarbons and arsenic from groundwater but produces elevated sulfide (S2-) concentrations (maximum concentration 29 mg per liter, mg/L). In this study, multiple approaches were required to resolve the overlapping effects of land uses, oil-field infrastructure, and natural processes on the distributions of hydrocarbons and arsenic in groundwater. The combined use of geographic, historical, physical, chemical, isotopic, and other information to constrain processes could be a useful approach for studies in other hydrocarbon-production areas. This is particularly important where land uses affect aquifer hydrology to an extent that causes mixing of groundwaters with different chemical compositions.
The Grand Valley in western Colorado is in the semiarid Southwest United States. The north side of the Grand Valley has many ungaged ephemeral streams, which are of particular interest because (1) the underlying bedrock geology, Late Cretaceous Mancos Shale, is a sedimentary rock deposit identified as a major salinity contributor to the Colorado River and (2) despite infrequent streamflows of short duration, monsoon-derived floods in these ephemeral streams can carry substantial amounts of sediment downstream, affecting upstream and downstream banks and channel cross sections. The study area is of interest, because salinity, or the total dissolved solids concentration, in the Colorado River causes an estimated $300 million to $400 million per year in economic damages in the United States, and it is estimated 62 percent of the Upper Colorado River Basin’s total dissolved solid loads originate from geologic sources. In an effort to minimize salt contributions to the Colorado River from public lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management, a comprehensive salinity control approach is typically used to reduce nonpoint sources of salinity through land management techniques and practices.
In 2018, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Bureau of Land Management, began an assessment of ephemeral streams located on the north side of the Grand Valley, western Colorado, to characterize stream channel stability and identify mechanisms affecting erosion. The U.S. Geological Survey developed a method for automatically extracting channel cross-section geometry from existing remotely sensed terrain models. Based on estimated flood stage and surrogate streamflows, hydraulic characteristics were calculated. Furthermore, the channel geometries and hydraulic characteristics were used to estimate channel stability using a statistical model.
Cross-section stabilities were determined from a stream channel stability assessment for a subset of 1,406 visited (field observed) locations out of 13,415 cross sections, which were delineated from remotely sensed terrain models. The application of Manning’s resistance equation in combination with multiple logistic regression models demonstrated channel stability can be estimated with a 0.845 goodness of fit for a validation dataset when using a combination of drainage area, width-to-depth ratio, sinuosity, and shear stress as the explanatory variables. Stream channel stability was extrapolated for 13,415 unvisited (not field observed) cross sections using the multiple logistic regression model and defined explanatory variables. Mapping of the ephemeral streams and their associated stabilities may be used by the Bureau of Land Management to prioritize areas for remediation or changes in management strategies to reduce sediment and salinity loading to the Colorado River.
The study found channel stability within the ephemeral streams to be spatially variable, longitudinally discontinuous, and dictated by changes in channel bed slope. The stable ephemeral streams were relatively wide and shallow and often had smaller drainage areas with less potential for producing shear stresses capable of overcoming channel adhesion. A change in channel bed slope can provide the means necessary to generate shear stresses appropriate to initiate erosion and a subsequent stability transition to incising channels. Channel widening happens when either or both banks of an incising channel reach a critical height for mass wasting, or when channel curvature causes higher sidewall stress. Regardless, widening channels can promote increases in sinuosity and subsequently reduce steep channel bed slopes. Consequently, stable and widening channels can have comparable bed slopes, making channel bed slope a poor explanatory variable to predict channel stability overall, despite its function to initiate channel instability.
The results were based on a surrogate 0.10 annual exceedance probability (AEP; return period equal to the 10-year flood) interval streamflow, although it was recognized fluctuations in streamflow would also affect channel stability. Past and current changes within the study area affect streamflow; therefore, mechanisms affecting erosion include land use disturbances, soil compaction, loss of vegetation cover, drought, less frequent and more extreme precipitation, and fires—which all intensify the potential runoff and erosion within the study area.
Director, Colorado Water Science Center
U.S. Geological Survey
Box 25046, Mail Stop 415
Denver, Colorado 80225
Mathematical models are useful for public health planning and response to infectious disease threats. However, different models can provide differing results, which can hamper decision making if not synthesized appropriately. To address this challenge, multi-model hubs convene independent modeling groups to generate ensembles, known to provide more accurate predictions of future outcomes. Yet, these hubs are resource intensive, and how many models are sufficient in a hub is not known. Here, we compare the benefit of predictions from multiple models in different contexts: (1) decision settings that depend on predictions of quantitative outcomes (e.g., hospital capacity planning), where assessments of the benefits of multi-model ensembles have largely focused; and (2) decisions settings that require the ranking of alternative epidemic scenarios (e.g., comparing outcomes under multiple possible interventions and biological uncertainties). We develop a mathematical framework to mimic a multi-model prediction setting, and use this framework to quantify how frequently predictions from different models agree. We further explore multi-model agreement using real-world, empirical data from 14 rounds of U.S. COVID-19 Scenario Modeling Hub projections. Our results suggest that the value of multiple models could be different in different decision contexts, and if only a few models are available, focusing on the rank of alternative epidemic scenarios could be more robust than focusing on quantitative outcomes. Although additional exploration of the sufficient number of models for different contexts is still needed, our results indicate that it may be possible to identify decision contexts where it is robust to rely on fewer models, a finding that can inform the use of modeling resources during future public health crises.
","language":"English","publisher":"Elsevier","doi":"10.1016/j.epidem.2024.100767","usgsCitation":"Wade-Malone, L.K., Howerton, E., Probert, W., Runge, M.C., Viboud, C., and Shea, K., 2024, When do we need multiple infectious disease models? Agreement between projection rank and magnitude in a multi-model setting: Epidemics, v. 47, 100767, 14 p., https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epidem.2024.100767.","productDescription":"100767, 14 p.","ipdsId":"IP-158794","costCenters":[{"id":50464,"text":"Eastern Ecological Science Center","active":true,"usgs":true}],"links":[{"id":467011,"rank":0,"type":{"id":40,"text":"Open Access Publisher Index Page"},"url":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epidem.2024.100767","text":"Publisher Index Page"},{"id":465147,"type":{"id":24,"text":"Thumbnail"},"url":"https://pubs.usgs.gov/thumbnails/outside_thumb.jpg"}],"volume":"47","noUsgsAuthors":false,"publicationStatus":"PW","contributors":{"authors":[{"text":"Wade-Malone, La Keisha","contributorId":347211,"corporation":false,"usgs":false,"family":"Wade-Malone","given":"La","email":"","middleInitial":"Keisha","affiliations":[{"id":6738,"text":"The Pennsylvania State University","active":true,"usgs":false}],"preferred":false,"id":921051,"contributorType":{"id":1,"text":"Authors"},"rank":1},{"text":"Howerton, Emily 0000-0002-0639-3728","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0639-3728","contributorId":258035,"corporation":false,"usgs":false,"family":"Howerton","given":"Emily","email":"","affiliations":[{"id":7260,"text":"Pennsylvania State University","active":true,"usgs":false}],"preferred":false,"id":921052,"contributorType":{"id":1,"text":"Authors"},"rank":2},{"text":"Probert, William J.M.","contributorId":268234,"corporation":false,"usgs":false,"family":"Probert","given":"William J.M.","affiliations":[{"id":25447,"text":"University of Oxford","active":true,"usgs":false}],"preferred":false,"id":921053,"contributorType":{"id":1,"text":"Authors"},"rank":3},{"text":"Runge, Michael C. 0000-0002-8081-536X mrunge@usgs.gov","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8081-536X","contributorId":3358,"corporation":false,"usgs":true,"family":"Runge","given":"Michael","email":"mrunge@usgs.gov","middleInitial":"C.","affiliations":[{"id":531,"text":"Patuxent Wildlife Research Center","active":true,"usgs":true}],"preferred":true,"id":921054,"contributorType":{"id":1,"text":"Authors"},"rank":4},{"text":"Viboud, Cecile 0000-0003-3243-4711","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3243-4711","contributorId":258034,"corporation":false,"usgs":false,"family":"Viboud","given":"Cecile","email":"","affiliations":[{"id":52216,"text":"National Institutes of Health Fogarty International Center","active":true,"usgs":false}],"preferred":false,"id":921055,"contributorType":{"id":1,"text":"Authors"},"rank":5},{"text":"Shea, Katriona 0000-0002-7607-8248","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7607-8248","contributorId":193646,"corporation":false,"usgs":false,"family":"Shea","given":"Katriona","email":"","affiliations":[],"preferred":false,"id":921056,"contributorType":{"id":1,"text":"Authors"},"rank":6}]}} ,{"id":70256544,"text":"70256544 - 2024 - Impounded sediment and dam removal: Erosion rates and proximal downstream fate","interactions":[],"lastModifiedDate":"2024-08-01T14:36:55.324873","indexId":"70256544","displayToPublicDate":"2024-05-06T09:28:16","publicationYear":"2024","noYear":false,"publicationType":{"id":2,"text":"Article"},"publicationSubtype":{"id":10,"text":"Journal Article"},"seriesTitle":{"id":18171,"text":"Earth Systems Processes and Landforms","active":true,"publicationSubtype":{"id":10}},"title":"Impounded sediment and dam removal: Erosion rates and proximal downstream fate","docAbstract":"Sediment management is an important aspect of dam removal projects, often driving costs and influencing community acceptance. For dams storing uncontaminated sediments, downstream release is often the cheapest and most practical approach and can be ecologically beneficial to downstream areas deprived of sediment for years. To employ this option, project proponents must estimate the sediment quantity to be released and, if substantial, estimate how long it will take to erode, where it will go and how long it will stay there. We investigated these issues when the Bloede Dam was removed from the Patapsco River in Maryland, USA, in 2018. The dam was about 10 m high, and its impoundment was nearly filled with an estimated 186 600 m3 of sediment composed of 70% sand and 30% mud. After removal, using elevation surveys generated by traditional methods as well as structure-from-motion (SfM) photogrammetry at high temporal resolution, we documented rapid erosion of stored sediments in the first 6 months (~60%) followed by greatly reduced erosion rates for the next two and a half years. A stable channel developed in the impoundment during the rapid erosion phase. These results were predicted by a two-phased erosion response model developed from observations at sand-filled impoundments, thus expanding its applicability to include impoundments with a sand-over-mud stratigraphy. A similar two-phase erosion response has been reported for sediment releases at other dam removals in the United States, France and Japan across a range of dam and watershed scales, indicating what practitioners and communities should expect in similar settings. Downstream, repeat surveys combined with discharge and sediment gaging showed rapid transport of eroded sediments through a 5-km reach, especially during the first year when discharges were above normal, and little overbank storage.
","language":"English","publisher":"Wiley","doi":"10.1002/esp.5850","usgsCitation":"Collins, M.J., Baker, M.E., Cashman, M.J., Miller, A., and Van Ryswick, S., 2024, Impounded sediment and dam removal: Erosion rates and proximal downstream fate: Earth Systems Processes and Landforms, v. 49, p. 2690-2703, https://doi.org/10.1002/esp.5850.","productDescription":"14 p.","startPage":"2690","endPage":"2703","ipdsId":"IP-155014","costCenters":[{"id":41514,"text":"Maryland-Delaware-District of Columbia Water Science Center","active":true,"usgs":true}],"links":[{"id":439656,"rank":0,"type":{"id":40,"text":"Open Access Publisher Index Page"},"url":"https://doi.org/10.1002/esp.5850","text":"Publisher Index Page"},{"id":432028,"type":{"id":24,"text":"Thumbnail"},"url":"https://pubs.usgs.gov/thumbnails/outside_thumb.jpg"}],"country":"United States","state":"Maryland","otherGeospatial":"Patapsco River","geographicExtents":"{\n \"type\": \"FeatureCollection\",\n \"features\": [\n {\n \"type\": \"Feature\",\n \"properties\": {},\n \"geometry\": {\n \"coordinates\": [\n [\n [\n -76.83408755981594,\n 39.30706218141856\n ],\n [\n -76.82795890419602,\n 39.32160674641318\n ],\n [\n -76.87308992002937,\n 39.34486766362994\n ],\n [\n -76.88530997597846,\n 39.33378339261742\n ],\n [\n -76.83504342654426,\n 39.302889650775796\n ],\n [\n -76.83408755981594,\n 39.30706218141856\n ]\n ]\n ],\n \"type\": \"Polygon\"\n }\n }\n ]\n}","volume":"49","noUsgsAuthors":false,"publicationDate":"2024-05-06","publicationStatus":"PW","contributors":{"authors":[{"text":"Collins, Matthias J. 0000-0003-4238-2038","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4238-2038","contributorId":196365,"corporation":false,"usgs":false,"family":"Collins","given":"Matthias","email":"","middleInitial":"J.","affiliations":[],"preferred":false,"id":907903,"contributorType":{"id":1,"text":"Authors"},"rank":1},{"text":"Baker, Matthew E.","contributorId":149189,"corporation":false,"usgs":false,"family":"Baker","given":"Matthew","email":"","middleInitial":"E.","affiliations":[{"id":17665,"text":"Department of Geography and Environmental Systems, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Baltimore, Maryland, US","active":true,"usgs":false}],"preferred":false,"id":907904,"contributorType":{"id":1,"text":"Authors"},"rank":2},{"text":"Cashman, Matthew J. 0000-0002-6635-4309","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6635-4309","contributorId":203315,"corporation":false,"usgs":true,"family":"Cashman","given":"Matthew","middleInitial":"J.","affiliations":[{"id":37277,"text":"WMA - Earth System Processes Division","active":true,"usgs":true}],"preferred":true,"id":907905,"contributorType":{"id":1,"text":"Authors"},"rank":3},{"text":"Miller, Andrew","contributorId":200717,"corporation":false,"usgs":false,"family":"Miller","given":"Andrew","affiliations":[],"preferred":false,"id":907906,"contributorType":{"id":1,"text":"Authors"},"rank":4},{"text":"Van Ryswick, Stephen","contributorId":341076,"corporation":false,"usgs":false,"family":"Van Ryswick","given":"Stephen","email":"","affiliations":[{"id":25435,"text":"Maryland Geological Survey","active":true,"usgs":false}],"preferred":false,"id":907907,"contributorType":{"id":1,"text":"Authors"},"rank":5}]}} ,{"id":70273290,"text":"70273290 - 2024 - Modeling nearshore total phosphorus in Lake Michigan using linked hydrodynamic and water quality models","interactions":[],"lastModifiedDate":"2026-01-05T15:24:15.668823","indexId":"70273290","displayToPublicDate":"2024-05-06T09:12:30","publicationYear":"2024","noYear":false,"publicationType":{"id":2,"text":"Article"},"publicationSubtype":{"id":10,"text":"Journal Article"},"seriesTitle":{"id":1458,"text":"Ecological Modelling","active":true,"publicationSubtype":{"id":10}},"title":"Modeling nearshore total phosphorus in Lake Michigan using linked hydrodynamic and water quality models","docAbstract":"Hurricane Maria induced about 70 000 landslides throughout Puerto Rico, USA, including thousands each in three municipalities situated in Puerto Rico's rugged Cordillera Central range. By combining a nonlinear soil-depth model, presumed wettest-case pore pressures, and quasi-three-dimensional (3D) slope-stability analysis, we developed a landslide susceptibility map that has very good performance and continuous susceptibility zones having smooth, buffered boundaries. Our landslide susceptibility map enables assessment of potential ground-failure locations and their use as landslide sources in a companion assessment of inundation and debris-flow runout. The quasi-3D factor of safety, F3, showed strong inverse correlation to landslide density (high density at low F3). Area under the curve (AUC) of true positive rate (TPR) versus false positive rate (FPR) indicated success of F3 in identifying head-scarp points (AUC = 0.84) and source-area polygons (0.85 ≤ AUC ≤ 0.88). The susceptibility zones enclose specific percentages of observed landslides. Thus, zone boundaries use successive F3 levels for increasing TPR of landslide head-scarp points, with zones bounded by F3 at TPR = 0.75, very high; F3 at TPR = 0.90, high; and the remainder moderate to low. The very high susceptibility zone, with 118 landslides km−2, covered 23 % of the three municipalities. The high zone (51 landslides km−2) covered another 10 %.
Reductions in streamflow caused by groundwater pumping, known as “streamflow depletion,” link the hydrologic process of stream-aquifer interactions to human modifications of the water cycle. Isolating the impacts of groundwater pumping on streamflow is challenging because other climate and human activities concurrently impact streamflow, making it difficult to separate individual drivers of hydrologic change. In addition, there can be lags between when pumping occurs and when streamflow is affected. However, accurate quantification of streamflow depletion is critical to integrated groundwater and surface water management decision making. Here, we highlight research priorities to help advance fundamental hydrologic science and better serve the decision-making process. Key priorities include (a) linking streamflow depletion to decision-relevant outcomes such as ecosystem function and water users to align with partner needs; (b) enhancing partner trust and applicability of streamflow depletion methods through benchmarking and coupled model development; and (c) improving links between streamflow depletion quantification and decision-making processes. Catalyzing research efforts around the common goal of enhancing our streamflow depletion decision-support capabilities will require disciplinary advances within the water science community and a commitment to transdisciplinary collaboration with diverse water-connected disciplines, professions, governments, organizations, and communities.
The great 1957 Aleutian Islands earthquake ruptured ∼1200 km of the plate boundary along the Aleutian subduction zone and produced a destructive tsunami across Hawaiʻi. Early seismic and tsunami analyses indicated that large megathrust fault slip was concentrated in the western Aleutian Islands, but tsunami waves generated by slip in the west cannot explain the large observed runup in Hawaiʻi far to the southeast. Recently mapped 1957 geologic deposits on eastern Aleutian Islands suggest occurrence of very large nearby slip. Jointly modeling tsunami runup along the eastern Aleutian and Hawaiian Islands together with tide gauge recordings across the Pacific resolves 12-26 m shallow slip along 600 km of the eastern Aleutian Islands in addition to modest, deeper western slip inferred from seismic records. The eastern near-trench slip results in an MW 8.3-8.6 tsunami earthquake component of the MW 8.6-8.8 rupture, comparable in size to the adjacent 1946 Aleutian tsunami earthquake to the east. The reexamination of the 1957 rupture confirms the tsunami hazards posed by the eastern Aleutian subduction zone to Hawaiʻi and lays the groundwork for investigation of large prehistoric earthquakes through modeling tsunami runup inferred from stratigraphic observations to constrain their rupture processes.
Waterfowl are housed in captivity for research studies that are infeasible in the wild. Accommodating the unique requirements of semi-aquatic species in captivity while meeting experimental design criteria for research questions can be challenging and may have unknown effects on animal health. Thus, testing and standardizing best husbandry and care practices for waterfowl is necessary to facilitate proper husbandry and humane care while ensuring reliable and repeatable research results. To inform husbandry practices for captive-reared and wild-caught lesser scaup (Aythya affinis; hereafter, scaup), we assessed body mass and fat composition across two different aspects of husbandry, source population (captive-reared or wild caught), and housing densities (birds/m2). Our results suggest that housing scaup at low densities (≤0.6 m2/bird, P = 0.049) relative to other species can minimize negative health effects. Captive-reared scaup were heavier (P = 0.027) with greater body fat (P < 0.001) and exhibited fewer signs of stress during handling than wild-caught scaup. In our experience, scaup which are captive-reared from eggs collected in the wild were better for long-term captivity studies as they maintained body mass between and recovered lost body mass following trials. Researchers would benefit from carefully evaluating the tradeoffs of using short- and long-term captive methods on their research question before designing projects, husbandry practices, and housing facilities for waterfowl.
","language":"English","publisher":"Oxford Academic","doi":"10.1093/tas/txae076","usgsCitation":"Beach, C., Jacques, C., Lancaster, J., Osborne, D., Yetter, A., Cole, R.A., Hagy, H., and Fournier, A., 2024, Lessons learned from using wild-caught and captive-reared lesser scaup (Aythya affinis) in captive experiments: Translational Animal Science, v. 8, txae076, 7 p., https://doi.org/10.1093/tas/txae076.","productDescription":"txae076, 7 p.","ipdsId":"IP-161402","costCenters":[{"id":456,"text":"National Wildlife Health Center","active":true,"usgs":true}],"links":[{"id":439667,"rank":0,"type":{"id":40,"text":"Open Access Publisher Index Page"},"url":"https://doi.org/10.1093/tas/txae076","text":"Publisher Index Page"},{"id":429201,"type":{"id":24,"text":"Thumbnail"},"url":"https://pubs.usgs.gov/thumbnails/outside_thumb.jpg"}],"volume":"8","noUsgsAuthors":false,"publicationDate":"2024-05-04","publicationStatus":"PW","contributors":{"authors":[{"text":"Beach, C.R","contributorId":336886,"corporation":false,"usgs":false,"family":"Beach","given":"C.R","email":"","affiliations":[{"id":80893,"text":"Department of Biological Sciences, Western Illinois University,","active":true,"usgs":false}],"preferred":false,"id":901298,"contributorType":{"id":1,"text":"Authors"},"rank":1},{"text":"Jacques, C.N","contributorId":336887,"corporation":false,"usgs":false,"family":"Jacques","given":"C.N","affiliations":[{"id":33955,"text":"Illinois Department of Natural Resources","active":true,"usgs":false}],"preferred":false,"id":901299,"contributorType":{"id":1,"text":"Authors"},"rank":2},{"text":"Lancaster, J.D.","contributorId":336888,"corporation":false,"usgs":false,"family":"Lancaster","given":"J.D.","email":"","affiliations":[{"id":80895,"text":"Gulf Coast Joint Venture, Ducks Unlimited, Inc.","active":true,"usgs":false}],"preferred":false,"id":901300,"contributorType":{"id":1,"text":"Authors"},"rank":3},{"text":"Osborne, D.C.","contributorId":336889,"corporation":false,"usgs":false,"family":"Osborne","given":"D.C.","email":"","affiliations":[{"id":80897,"text":"College of Forestry, Agriculture, and Natural Resources, University of Arkansas at Monticello, Monticello, Arkansas, 71656","active":true,"usgs":false}],"preferred":false,"id":901301,"contributorType":{"id":1,"text":"Authors"},"rank":4},{"text":"Yetter, A.P.","contributorId":336890,"corporation":false,"usgs":false,"family":"Yetter","given":"A.P.","email":"","affiliations":[{"id":80898,"text":"Forbes Biological Station–Bellrose Waterfowl Research Center, Illinois Natural History Survey, Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Havana, Illinois, 62644","active":true,"usgs":false}],"preferred":false,"id":901302,"contributorType":{"id":1,"text":"Authors"},"rank":5},{"text":"Cole, Rebecca A. 0000-0003-2923-1622 rcole@usgs.gov","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2923-1622","contributorId":2873,"corporation":false,"usgs":true,"family":"Cole","given":"Rebecca","email":"rcole@usgs.gov","middleInitial":"A.","affiliations":[{"id":456,"text":"National Wildlife Health Center","active":true,"usgs":true}],"preferred":true,"id":901303,"contributorType":{"id":1,"text":"Authors"},"rank":6},{"text":"Hagy, H.M.","contributorId":336891,"corporation":false,"usgs":false,"family":"Hagy","given":"H.M.","email":"","affiliations":[{"id":80899,"text":"National Wildlife Refuge System, United States Fish and Wildlife Service, Stanton, Tennessee, 38069","active":true,"usgs":false}],"preferred":false,"id":901304,"contributorType":{"id":1,"text":"Authors"},"rank":7},{"text":"Fournier, A.M.V.","contributorId":336892,"corporation":false,"usgs":false,"family":"Fournier","given":"A.M.V.","email":"","affiliations":[{"id":80898,"text":"Forbes Biological Station–Bellrose Waterfowl Research Center, Illinois Natural History Survey, Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Havana, Illinois, 62644","active":true,"usgs":false}],"preferred":false,"id":901305,"contributorType":{"id":1,"text":"Authors"},"rank":8}]}} ,{"id":70273820,"text":"70273820 - 2024 - Seismic tomography 2023","interactions":[],"lastModifiedDate":"2026-02-04T15:18:25.7588","indexId":"70273820","displayToPublicDate":"2024-05-03T09:09:44","publicationYear":"2024","noYear":false,"publicationType":{"id":2,"text":"Article"},"publicationSubtype":{"id":10,"text":"Journal Article"},"seriesTitle":{"id":1135,"text":"Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America","onlineIssn":"1943-3573","printIssn":"0037-1106","active":true,"publicationSubtype":{"id":10}},"title":"Seismic tomography 2023","docAbstract":"Seismic tomography is the most abundant source of information about the internal structure of the Earth at scales ranging from a few meters to thousands of kilometers. It constrains the properties of active volcanoes, earthquake fault zones, deep reservoirs and storage sites, glaciers and ice sheets, or the entire globe. It contributes to outstanding societal problems related to natural hazards, resource exploration, underground storage, and many more. The recent advances in seismic tomography are being translated to nondestructive testing, medical ultrasound, and helioseismology. Nearly 50 yr after its first successful applications, this article offers a snapshot of modern seismic tomography. Focused on major challenges and particularly promising research directions, it is intended to guide both Earth science professionals and early‐career scientists. The individual contributions by the coauthors provide diverse perspectives on topics that may at first seem disconnected but are closely tied together by a few coherent threads: multiparameter inversion for properties related to dynamic processes, data quality, and geographic coverage, uncertainty quantification that is useful for geologic interpretation, new formulations of tomographic inverse problems that address concrete geologic questions more directly, and the presentation and quantitative comparison of tomographic models. It remains to be seen which of these problems will be considered solved, solved to some extent, or practically unsolvable over the next decade.
","language":"English","publisher":"Seismological Society of America","doi":"10.1785/0120230229","usgsCitation":"Fichtner, A., Kennett, B., Tsai, V.C., Thurber, C., Rodgers, A., Tape, C., Rawlinson, N., Borcherdt, R.D., Lebedev, S., Priestley, K., Morency, C., Bozdag, E., Tromp, J., Ritsema, J., Romanowicz, B., Liu, Q., Golos, E., and Lin, F., 2024, Seismic tomography 2023: Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, v. 114, no. 3, p. 1185-1213, https://doi.org/10.1785/0120230229.","productDescription":"29 p.","startPage":"1185","endPage":"1213","ipdsId":"IP-157788","costCenters":[{"id":237,"text":"Earthquake Science Center","active":true,"usgs":true}],"links":[{"id":499626,"rank":0,"type":{"id":41,"text":"Open Access External Repository Page"},"url":"https://www.osti.gov/biblio/2426716","text":"External 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Eva","contributorId":365877,"corporation":false,"usgs":false,"family":"Golos","given":"Eva","affiliations":[{"id":82473,"text":"University of Wisconsin- Madison","active":true,"usgs":false}],"preferred":false,"id":954942,"contributorType":{"id":1,"text":"Authors"},"rank":17},{"text":"Lin, Fan-Chi","contributorId":175478,"corporation":false,"usgs":false,"family":"Lin","given":"Fan-Chi","email":"","affiliations":[{"id":13252,"text":"University of Utah","active":true,"usgs":false}],"preferred":false,"id":955031,"contributorType":{"id":1,"text":"Authors"},"rank":18}]}} ,{"id":70261210,"text":"70261210 - 2024 - Unscrambling the Proterozoic supercontinent record of northeastern Washington State, USA","interactions":[],"lastModifiedDate":"2024-12-02T15:13:22.777356","indexId":"70261210","displayToPublicDate":"2024-05-03T09:00:53","publicationYear":"2024","noYear":false,"publicationType":{"id":5,"text":"Book chapter"},"publicationSubtype":{"id":24,"text":"Book Chapter"},"title":"Unscrambling the Proterozoic supercontinent record of northeastern Washington State, USA","docAbstract":"The time interval from Supercontinent Nuna assembly in the late Paleoproterozoic to Supercontinent Rodinia breakup in the Neoproterozoic is considered by some geologists to comprise the “Boring Billion,” an interval possibly marked by a slowdown in plate tectonic processes. In northeastern Washington State, USA, similar to much of western Laurentia, early workers generally thought the tectonostratigraphic framework of this interval of geologic time consisted of two major sequences, the (ca. 1480–1380 Ma) Mesoproterozoic Belt Supergroup and unconformably overlying (<720 Ma) Neoproterozoic Windermere Supergroup. However, recent research indicates that strata considered by early workers as Belt Supergroup equivalents are actually younger, and a post-Belt, pre-Windermere record is present within the <1360 Ma Deer Trail Group and <760 Ma Buffalo Hump Formation. Thus, the northeastern Washington region perhaps comprises the most complete stratigraphic record of the “Boring Billion” time interval in the northwestern United States and holds important insights into global Proterozoic supercontinent tectonic processes. In light of these exciting developments, this field guide will address the early historic economic geology and original mapping of these Proterozoic sequences in the northeastern Washington region, and from that foundation explore more recent isotopic provenance data and their regional to global context. Finally, the guide will end with a discussion of remaining questions with a goal of stimulating interest in these relatively understudied, yet important, rocks.
","largerWorkType":{"id":4,"text":"Book"},"largerWorkTitle":"Proterozoic Nuna to Pleistocene megafloods: Sharing geology of the inland northwest","largerWorkSubtype":{"id":15,"text":"Monograph"},"language":"English","publisher":"Geological Society of America","doi":"10.1130/2024.0069(02)","usgsCitation":"Brennan, D., Box, S.E., and Eyster, A., 2024, Unscrambling the Proterozoic supercontinent record of northeastern Washington State, USA, chap. of Proterozoic Nuna to Pleistocene megafloods: Sharing geology of the inland northwest, v. 69, p. 25-57, https://doi.org/10.1130/2024.0069(02).","productDescription":"34 p.","startPage":"25","endPage":"57","ipdsId":"IP-160767","costCenters":[{"id":312,"text":"Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center","active":true,"usgs":true}],"links":[{"id":464626,"type":{"id":24,"text":"Thumbnail"},"url":"https://pubs.usgs.gov/thumbnails/outside_thumb.jpg"}],"country":"United States","state":"Washington","geographicExtents":"{\n \"type\": \"FeatureCollection\",\n \"features\": [\n {\n \"type\": \"Feature\",\n \"properties\": {},\n \"geometry\": {\n \"coordinates\": [\n [\n [\n -118.41897809481472,\n 48.704437980903606\n ],\n [\n -118.41897809481472,\n 48.045446269627746\n ],\n [\n -117.22731964669383,\n 48.045446269627746\n ],\n [\n -117.22731964669383,\n 48.704437980903606\n ],\n [\n -118.41897809481472,\n 48.704437980903606\n ]\n ]\n ],\n \"type\": \"Polygon\"\n }\n }\n ]\n}","volume":"69","noUsgsAuthors":false,"publicationStatus":"PW","contributors":{"authors":[{"text":"Brennan, Daniel","contributorId":346764,"corporation":false,"usgs":false,"family":"Brennan","given":"Daniel","email":"","affiliations":[{"id":36941,"text":"Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology","active":true,"usgs":false}],"preferred":false,"id":919869,"contributorType":{"id":1,"text":"Authors"},"rank":1},{"text":"Box, Stephen E. 0000-0002-5268-8375 sbox@usgs.gov","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5268-8375","contributorId":1843,"corporation":false,"usgs":true,"family":"Box","given":"Stephen","email":"sbox@usgs.gov","middleInitial":"E.","affiliations":[{"id":312,"text":"Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center","active":true,"usgs":true}],"preferred":true,"id":919870,"contributorType":{"id":1,"text":"Authors"},"rank":2},{"text":"Eyster, Athena","contributorId":346765,"corporation":false,"usgs":false,"family":"Eyster","given":"Athena","email":"","affiliations":[{"id":6936,"text":"Tufts University","active":true,"usgs":false}],"preferred":false,"id":919871,"contributorType":{"id":1,"text":"Authors"},"rank":3}]}} ,{"id":70255660,"text":"70255660 - 2024 - Combining terrestrial lidar with single line transects to investigate geomorphic change: A case study on the Upper Verde River, Arizona","interactions":[],"lastModifiedDate":"2024-06-27T12:27:55.213471","indexId":"70255660","displayToPublicDate":"2024-05-03T07:24:38","publicationYear":"2024","noYear":false,"publicationType":{"id":2,"text":"Article"},"publicationSubtype":{"id":10,"text":"Journal Article"},"seriesTitle":{"id":1801,"text":"Geomorphology","active":true,"publicationSubtype":{"id":10}},"title":"Combining terrestrial lidar with single line transects to investigate geomorphic change: A case study on the Upper Verde River, Arizona","docAbstract":"The Upper Verde River in northern Arizona, USA is a vital resource for the wildlife and humans that rely on its waters. We characterize the riparian corridor topography using terrestrial laser scanner (TLS) data from 2021 to 2022. We also quantify geomorphic changes associated with human and climate-driven alterations in river flow and vegetation changes by combining the contemporary lidar surveys with legacy measurements from single line geomorphology transects measured by the United States Forest Service (USFS) in 2009. Seventeen plots along the Upper Verde River were surveyed with the TLS and the data were coregistered within individual plots with a Root Mean Square Error of <0.03 m among scan positions. Digital Elevation Models (DEM) were derived for each plot from the TLS data at 10 cm resolution and compared to the 2009 USFS cross-section data to quantify elevation changes. In areas with statistically significant change, we detected maximum changes in elevation due to erosion and deposition of −0.37 m and + 0.97 m, respectively. Topographic changes over the 13-year period were predominately aggradation and associated with sediment deposition, which we hypothesize might have resulted from altered river flow and vegetation encroachment. This study also demonstrates a quantitative and statistical methodology to fuse traditional single line cross-section data with contemporary lidar data to quantify geomorphic change. The novel approach demonstrated here is broadly applicable to natural resource managers for integrating and contextualizing legacy topographic data for understanding past, present, and future landscape and habitat changes.
Wetlands are integral to the global carbon cycle, serving as both a source and a sink for organic carbon. Their potential for carbon storage will likely change in the coming decades in response to higher temperatures and variable precipitation patterns. We characterized the dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and dissolved organic matter (DOM) composition from 12 different wetland sites across the USA spanning gradients in climate, landcover, sampling depth, and hydroperiod for comparison to DOM in other inland waters. Using absorption spectroscopy, parallel factor analysis modeling, and ultra-high resolution mass spectroscopy, we identified differences in DOM sourcing and processing by geographic site. Wetland DOM composition was driven primarily by differences in landcover where forested sites contained greater aromatic and oxygenated DOM content compared to grassland/herbaceous sites which were more aliphatic and enriched in N and S molecular formulae. Furthermore, surface and porewater DOM was also influenced by properties such as soil type, organic matter content, and precipitation. Surface water DOM was relatively enriched in oxygenated higher molecular weight formulae representing HUPHigh O/C compounds than porewaters, whose DOM composition suggests abiotic sulfurization from dissolved inorganic sulfide. Finally, we identified a group of persistent molecular formulae (3,489) present across all sites and sampling depths (i.e., the signature of wetland DOM) that are likely important for riverine-to-coastal DOM transport. As anthropogenic disturbances continue to impact temperate wetlands, this study highlights drivers of DOM composition fundamental for understanding how wetland organic carbon will change, and thus its role in biogeochemical cycling.