The added value of time-variable microgravimetry to the understanding of how volcanoes work
Daniele Carbone, Michael P. Poland, Filippo Greco, Michel Diament
2017, Earth-Science Reviews (169) 146-179
During the past few decades, time-variable volcano gravimetry has shown great potential for imaging subsurface processes at active volcanoes (including some processes that might otherwise remain “hidden”), especially when combined with other methods (e.g., ground deformation, seismicity, and gas emissions). By supplying information on changes in the distribution of bulk...
The spectrum of persistent volcanic flank instability: A review and proposed framework based on Kīlauea, Piton de la Fournaise, and Etna
Michael P. Poland, Aline Peltier, Alessandro Bonaforte, Giuseppe Puglisi
2017, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research (339) 63-80
Persistent motion of the south flank of Kīlauea Volcano, Hawai'i, has been known for several decades, but has only recently been identified at other large basaltic volcanoes—namely Piton de la Fournaise (La Réunion) and Etna (Sicily)—thanks to the advent of space geodetic techniques. Nevertheless, understanding of long-term flank instability is...
An updated geospatial liquefaction model for global application
Jing Zhu, Laurie G. Baise, Eric M. Thompson
2017, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (107) 1365-1385
We present an updated geospatial approach to estimation of earthquake-induced liquefaction from globally available geospatial proxies. Our previous iteration of the geospatial liquefaction model was based on mapped liquefaction surface effects from four earthquakes in Christchurch, New Zealand, and Kobe, Japan, paired with geospatial explanatory variables including slope-derived VS30, compound...
Collecting a better water-quality sample: Reducing vertical stratification bias in open and closed channels
William R. Selbig
2017, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the 5th Federal Interagency Hydrologic Modeling Conference and the 10th Federal Interagency Sedimentation Conference
Collection of water-quality samples that accurately characterize average particle concentrations and distributions in channels can be complicated by large sources of variability. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) developed a fully automated Depth-Integrated Sample Arm (DISA) as a way to reduce bias and improve accuracy in water-quality concentration data. The DISA...
Marine ferromanganese encrustations: Archives of changing oceans
Andrea Koschinsky, James R. Hein
2017, Elements (13) 177-182
Marine iron–manganese oxide coatings occur in many shallow and deep-water areas of the global ocean and can form in three ways: 1) Fe–Mn crusts can precipitate from seawater onto rocks on seamounts; 2) Fe–Mn nodules can form on the sediment surface around a nucleus by diagenetic processes in sediment pore...
Assessment of undiscovered continuous oil and gas resources in the Heath Formation, central Montana and western North Dakota, 2016
Ronald M. Drake II, Christopher J. Schenk, Timothy R. Klett, Phuong A. Le, Heidi M. Leathers, Michael E. Brownfield, Thomas M. Finn, Stephanie B. Gaswirth, Kristen R. Marra, Marilyn E. Tennyson
2017, Fact Sheet 2017-3032
Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated undiscovered, technically recoverable mean resources of 884 million barrels of oil and 106 billion cubic feet of gas in the North-Central Montana and Williston Basin Provinces of central Montana and western North Dakota....
Hydrogeologic framework and hydrologic conditions of the Piney Point aquifer in Virginia
E. Randolph McFarland
2017, Scientific Investigations Report 2017-5041
The Piney Point aquifer in Virginia is newly described and delineated as being composed of six geologic units, in a study conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (VA DEQ). The eastward-dipping geologic units include, in stratigraphically ascending order, thesand of the...
Duckling survival of mallards in Southland, New Zealand
Erin Garrick, Courtney L. Amundson, Phillip J. Seddon
2017, Journal of Wildlife Management (81) 858-867
The southern portion of New Zealand's South Island is a productive area for mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) despite a notable lack of permanent or semi-permanent wetlands. Most broods are reared in pastures that may or may not be flooded with ephemeral water. In recent years, there has been an increased conversion...
Perturbational and nonperturbational inversion of Rayleigh-wave velocities
Matthew M. Haney, Victor C. Tsai
2017, Geophysics (82) F15-F28
The inversion of Rayleigh-wave dispersion curves is a classic geophysical inverse problem. We have developed a set of MATLAB codes that performs forward modeling and inversion of Rayleigh-wave phase or group velocity measurements. We describe two different methods of inversion: a perturbational method based on finite elements and a nonperturbational...
Denitrifying woodchip bioreactor and phosphorus filter pairing to minimize pollution swapping
Laura E. Christianson, Christine Lepine, Philip Sibrell, Chad J. Penn, Steven T. Summerfelt
2017, Water Research (121) 129-139
Pairing denitrifying woodchip bioreactors and phosphorus-sorbing filters provides a unique, engineered approach for dual nutrient removal from waters impaired with both nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P). This column study aimed to test placement of two P-filter media (acid mine drainage treatment residuals and steel slag) relative to a denitrifying system...
Repeatability of testing a small broadband sensor in the Albuquerque Seismological Laboratory Underground Vault
Adam T. Ringler, Austin Holland, David C. Wilson
2017, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (107) 1557-1563
Variability in seismic instrumentation performance plays a fundamental role in our ability to carry out experiments in observational seismology. Many such experiments rely on the assumed performance of various seismic sensors as well as on methods to isolate the sensors from nonseismic noise sources. We look at the repeatability of...
Efficacy of SpayVac® as a contraceptive in feral horses
James E. Roelle, Stephen S. Germaine, Albert J. Kane, Brian S. Cade
2017, Wildlife Society Bulletin (41) 107-115
ABSTRACT We tested the efficacy of 2 formulations of the immunocontraceptive SpayVac1, which packages the immunogen porcine zona pellucida (PZP) and an adjuvant in multilamellar liposomes, as a contraceptive in captive feral horses (Equus caballus) for 3 consecutive breeding seasons (Pauls Valley, OK, USA; 2012–2014) following a single inoculation. Annual...
Nest-site selection and nest success of an Arctic-breeding passerine, Smith's Longspur, in a changing climate
Heather R. McFarland, Steve J. Kendall, Abby Powell
2017, The Condor (119) 85-97
Despite changes in shrub cover and weather patterns associated with climate change in the Arctic, little is known about the breeding requirements of most passerines tied to northern regions. We investigated the nesting biology and nest habitat characteristics of Smith's Longspurs (Calcarius pictus) in 2 study areas in the Brooks...
The 2008 Wells, Nevada earthquake sequence: Source constraints using calibrated multiple event relocation and InSAR
Jennifer Nealy, Harley M. Benz, Gavin P. Hayes, Eric Berman, William D. Barnhart
2017, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (107) 1107-1117
The 2008 Wells, NV earthquake represents the largest domestic event in the conterminous U.S. outside of California since the October 1983 Borah Peak earthquake in southern Idaho. We present an improved catalog, magnitude complete to 1.6, of the foreshock-aftershock sequence, supplementing the current U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Preliminary Determination of...
Climate change-induced vegetation shifts lead to more ecological droughts despite projected rainfall increases in many global temperate drylands
Britta Tietjen, Daniel R. Schlaepfer, John B. Bradford, William K. Laurenroth, Sonia A. Hall, Michael C. Duniway, Tamara Hochstrasser, Gensuo Jia, Seth M. Munson, David A. Pyke, Scott D. Wilson
2017, Global Change Biology (23) 2743-2754
Drylands occur world-wide and are particularly vulnerable to climate change since dryland ecosystems depend directly on soil water availability that may become increasingly limited as temperatures rise. Climate change will both directly impact soil water availability, and also change plant biomass, with resulting indirect feedbacks on soil moisture. Thus, the...
Paleozoic and mesozoic GIS data from the Geologic Atlas of the Rocky Mountain Region: Volume 1
Aimee Graeber, Gregory L. Gunther, editor(s)
2017, Book
The Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists (RMAG) is, once again, publishing portions of the 1972 Geologic Atlas of the Rocky Mountain Region (Mallory, ed., 1972) as a geospatial map and data package. Georeferenced tiff (Geo TIFF) images of map figures from this atlas has served as the basis for these...
Synthesis centers as critical research infrastructure
Jill Baron, Alison Specht, Eric Garnier, Pamela Bishop, C. Andrew Campbell, Frank W. Davis, Bruno Fady, Dawn Field, Louis J. Gross, Siddeswara M. Guru, Benjamin S Halpern, Stephanie E. Hampton, Peter R. Leavitt, Thomas R. Meagher, Jean Ometto, John N. Parker, Richard Price, Casey H. Rawson, Allen Rodrigo, Laura A. Sheble, Marten Winter
2017, BioScience (67) 750-759
Demand for the opportunity to participate in a synthesis-center activity has increased in the years since the US National Science Foundation (NSF)–funded National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) opened its doors in 1995 and as more scientists across a diversity of scientific disciplines have become aware of what synthesis...
Flood of July 2016 in northern Wisconsin and the Bad River Reservation
Faith A. Fitzpatrick, Eric D. Dantoin, Naomi Tillison, Kara M. Watson, Robert J. Waschbusch, James D. Blount
2017, Scientific Investigations Report 2017-5029
Heavy rain fell across northern Wisconsin and the Bad River Reservation on July 11, 2016, as a result of several rounds of thunderstorms. The storms caused major flooding in the Bad River Basin and nearby tributaries along the south shore of Lake Superior. Rainfall totals were 8–10 inches or more...
Comparison of benthos and plankton for Waukegan Harbor Area of Concern, Illinois, and Burns Harbor-Port of Indiana non-Area of Concern, Indiana, in 2015
Barbara C. Scudder Eikenberry, Hayley T. Olds, Daniel J. Burns, Edward G. Dobrowolski, Kurt L. Schmude
2017, Scientific Investigations Report 2017-5039
During two seasonal sampling events in spring (June) and fall (August) of 2015, the U.S. Geological Survey collected benthos (benthic invertebrates) and plankton (zooplankton and phytoplankton) at three sites each in the Waukegan Harbor Area of Concern (AOC) in Illinois and in Burns Harbor-Port of Indiana, a non-AOC comparison site...
Effects of changes in pumping on regional groundwater-flow paths, 2005 and 2010, and areas contributing recharge to discharging wells, 1990–2010, in the vicinity of North Penn Area 7 Superfund site, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania
Lisa A. Senior, Daniel J. Goode
2017, Scientific Investigations Report 2017-5014
A previously developed regional groundwater flow model was used to simulate the effects of changes in pumping rates on groundwater-flow paths and extent of recharge discharging to wells for a contaminated fractured bedrock aquifer in southeastern Pennsylvania. Groundwater in the vicinity of the North Penn Area 7 Superfund site, Montgomery...
Geologic map of the Beacon Rock quadrangle, Skamania County, Washington
Russell C. Evarts, Robert J. Fleck
2017, Scientific Investigations Map 3367
The Beacon Rock 7.5′ quadrangle is located approximately 50 km east of Portland, Oregon, on the north side of the Columbia River Gorge, a scenic canyon carved through the axis of the Cascade Range by the Columbia River. Although approximately 75,000 people live within the gorge, much of the region...
System identification based on deconvolution and cross correlation: An application to a 20‐story instrumented building in Anchorage, Alaska
Weiping Wen, Erol Kalkan
2017, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (107) 718-740
Deconvolution and cross‐correlation techniques are used for system identification of a 20‐story steel, moment‐resisting frame building in downtown Anchorage, Alaska. This regular‐plan midrise structure is instrumented with a 32‐channel accelerometer array at 10 levels. The impulse response functions (IRFs) and correlation functions (CFs) are computed based on waveforms recorded from...
Coastal circulation and water-column properties in the National Park of American Samoa, February–July 2015
Curt D. Storlazzi, Olivia Cheriton, Kurt J. Rosenberger, Joshua B. Logan, Timothy B. Clark
2017, Open-File Report 2017-1060
There is little information on the oceanography in the National Park of American Samoa (NPSA). The transport pathways for potentially harmful constituents of land-derived runoff, as well as larvae and other planktonic organisms, are driven by nearshore circulation patterns. To evaluate the processes affecting coral reef ecosystem health, it is...
Bioenergetics models to estimate numbers of larval lampreys consumed by smallmouth bass in Elk Creek, Oregon
Luke Schultz, Michael Heck, Brandon M Kowalski, Collin A. Eagles-Smith, Kelly C. Coates, Jason B. Dunham
2017, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (37) 714-723
Nonnative fishes have been increasingly implicated in the decline of native fishes in the Pacific Northwest. Smallmouth Bass Micropterus dolomieu were introduced into the Umpqua River in southwest Oregon in the early 1960s. The spread of Smallmouth Bass throughout the basin coincided with a decline in counts of upstream-migrating Pacific...
Using a gradient in food quality to infer drivers of fatty acid content in two filter-feeding aquatic consumers
James H. Larson, William B. Richardson, Jonathan M. Vallazza, Lynn A. Bartsch, Michelle R. Bartsch
2017, Aquatic Sciences (79) 855-865
Inferences about ecological structure and function are often made using elemental or macromolecular tracers of food web structure. For example, inferences about food chain length are often made using stable isotope ratios of top predators and consumer food sources are often inferred from both stable isotopes and fatty acid (FA)...
