Search Results

This report summarizes the environmental settings of streams in New York and South Carolina, where the U.S. Geological Survey completed detailed investigations during 2005-09 into factors contributing to mercury bioaccumulation in top-predator fish and other stream organisms. Descriptions of location, land use/land cover, climate, precipitation, atmospheric deposition, hydrology, water temperature,...

The April 4, 2010 (Mw7.2), El Mayor-Cucapah, Baja California, Mexico, earthquake is the strongest earthquake to shake the Salton Trough area since the 1992 (Mw7.3) Landers earthquake. Similar to the Landers event, ground-surface fracturing occurred on multiple faults in the trough. However, the 2010 event triggered surface slip on more...

We conducted an aerial helicopter survey between July 18 and July 25, 2011, to estimate abundance and trends of introduced mountain goats (Oreamnos americanus) in the Olympic Mountains. The survey was the first since we developed a sightability correction model in 2008, which provided the means to estimate the number...

Geophysical logs were collected and analyzed along with bedrock core samples and bedrock outcrops to define the bedrock stratigraphy and flow zones penetrated by 93 monitor and water-supply wells in Cayuga County, New York. The work was completed from 2001 through 2011 as part of an investigation of volatile-organic compound...

This report presents the results of zircon and monazite uranium-lead (U-Pb) geochronologic analyses of 24 rock samples. The samples in this study were collected from mapped exposures identified while conducting either new, detailed (1:24,000-scale) geologic quadrangle mapping or reconnaissance mapping, both of which were used for compilation of the bedrock...

Executive SummaryStable-isotope data indicate that there are three sources of water that effect the composition and Hg concentration of waters in Harley Gulch: (1) meteoric water that dominates water chemistry during the wet season; (2) thermal water effluent from the Turkey Run mine that effects the chemistry at sample site...

In 2010, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center completed three cruises to map the bathymetry of the main channel and shallow intertidal mudflats in the southernmost part of south San Francisco Bay. The three surveys were merged to generate comprehensive maps of Coyote Creek (from...

In June 2010, the U.S. Geological Survey conducted airborne electromagnetic and magnetic surveys of the Yukon Flats and Fort Wainwright study areas in central Alaska. These data were collected to estimate the three-dimensional distribution of permafrost at the time of the survey. These data were also collected to evaluate the...

Geographic information system (GIS) information may facilitate energy studies, which in turn provide input for energy policy decisions. Prior to this study, no GIS file representing the occurrence of coal-bearing units in India or Bangladesh was known to exist. This Open-File Report contains downloadable shapefiles representing the coalfields of India...

Nebraska's Upper Loup Natural Resources District is currently (2011) participating in the Elkhorn-Loup Model to understand the effect of various groundwater-management scenarios on surface-water resources. During Phase 1 of the Elkhorn-Loup Model, a lack of subsurface geological information in the Upper Loup Natural Resources District, hereafter referred to as the...

The Las Conchas Fire during the summer of 2011 was the largest in recorded history for the state of New Mexico, burning 634 square kilometers in the Jemez Mountains of north-central New Mexico. The burned landscape is now at risk of damage from postwildfire erosion, such as that caused by...

In San Juan County, Colorado, the effects of historical mining continue to contribute dissolved metals to groundwater and surface water. Water samples in Prospect Gulch near Silverton, Colorado, were collected at selected locations that span pre- and post-reclamation activities at the Lark Mine, located in the Prospect Gulch watershed. Geochemical...

This report summarizes a meeting of geologists, marine sedimentologists, geophysicists, and seismologists that was held on November 18–19, 2010 at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon. The overall goal of the meeting was to evaluate observations of turbidite deposits to provide constraints on the recurrence time and rupture extent of...

Ongoing development of coalbed natural gas in the Powder River structural basin in Wyoming and Montana led to formation of an interagency aquatic task group to address concerns about the effects of the resulting production water on biological communities in streams of the area. Ecological assessments, made from 2005–08 under...

Time-domain electromagnetic (TEM) soundings were made in Miami-Dade and southern Broward Counties to aid in mapping the landward extent of saltwater in the Biscayne aquifer. A total of 79 soundings were collected in settings ranging from urban to undeveloped land, with some of the former posing problems of land access...

The eastern margin of the Australia plate is one of the most seismically active areas of the world due to high rates of convergence between the Australia and Pacific plates. In the region of New Zealand, the 3,000 km long Australia-Pacific plate boundary extends from south of Macquarie Island to...

There have been 22 M7.5+ earthquakes recorded in the New Guinea region since 1900. The dominant earthquake mechanisms are thrust and strike slip, associated with the arc-continent collision and the relative motions between numerous local microplates. The largest earthquake in the region was a M8.2 shallow thrust fault event in...

This map shows details of the Australia plate and vicinity not presented in Tarr and others (2010). The boundary of the Australia plate includes all fundamental plate boundary components: mid-ocean ridges, subduction zones, arc-continent collisions, and large-offset transform faults. Along the southern edge of the plate the mid-ocean ridge separates...

This report presents finished-water matrix-spike recoveries of 270 anthropogenic organic compounds with and without the addition of ascorbic acid to preserve water samples containing free chlorine. Percent recoveries were calculated using analytical results from a study conducted during 2004-10 for the National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program of the U.S. Geological...

Borehole geophysical logs and flowmeter data were collected in April 2011 from eight boreholes to identify the depth and orientation of cavernous zones within the Miocene Tampa Limestone in the vicinity of Jim Woodruff Lock and Dam in Jackson County, Florida. These data are used to assess leakage near the...

In response to the June 15, 2010 request from the Polish Geological Institute (PGI) to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) for assistance and advice regarding real-time landslide monitoring, landslide specialists from the USGS Landslide Hazard Program visited PGI headquarters and field sites in September 2010. During our visit we became...

Two test wells were completed at Fort Stewart, GA, in January and February 2010 to investigate the potential of using the Lower Floridan aquifer as a source of water to satisfy anticipated increases in water use. One well was completed in the Lower Floridan aquifer at a depth of 1,255...

This report provides a summary of responses to the questions included in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) National Conservation Training Center (NCTC) Distance Education survey conducted from January 26, 2010, to February 8, 2010. The survey included questions for two studies sponsored by the Division of Education Outreach...

Prior U.S. Geological Survey studies (Open-File Reports 2005-1216 and 2009-1158) examined historical land- and water-area changes and estimated magnitudes of land subsidence and erosion at 10 wetland sites in the Mississippi River delta plain. The present study extends that work by analyzing interior wetland loss and relative magnitudes of subsidence...

Soil gas, seeps, and soil were assessed for contaminants at the North Range Road Landfill at Fort Gordon, Georgia, from October 2008 to September 2009. The assessment included delineating organic contaminants present in soil-gas samples beneath the area estimated to be the landfill and in water samples collected from three...