Local-area-enhanced, 2.5-meter resolution natural-color and color-infrared satellite-image mosaics of the Aynak mineral district in Afghanistan: Chapter E in Local-area-enhanced, high-resolution natural-color and color-infrared satellite-image mosaics of mineral districts in Afghanistan
Philip A. Davis, Laura E. Cagney, Scott A. Arko, Michelle L. Harbin
2012, Data Series 709-E
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Defense Task Force for Business and Stability Operations, prepared databases for mineral-resource target areas in Afghanistan. The purpose of the databases is to (1) provide useful data to ground-survey crews for use in performing detailed assessments of the...
Evaluation of streambed scour at bridges over tidal waterways in Alaska
Jeffrey S. Conaway, Paul V. Schauer
2012, Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5245
The potential for streambed scour was evaluated at 41 bridges that cross tidal waterways in Alaska. These bridges are subject to several coastal and riverine processes that have the potential, individually or in combination, to induce streambed scour or to damage the structure or adjacent channel. The proximity of a...
Phenology and duration of remigial moult in Surf Scoters (Melanitta perspicillata) and White-winged Scoters (Melanitta fusca) on the Pacific coast of North America
Rian D. Dickson, Daniel Esler, Jerry W. Hupp, E.M. Anderson, J.R. Evenson, J. Barrett
2012, Canadian Journal of Zoology (90) 932-944
By quantifying phenology and duration of remigial moult in Surf Scoters (Melanitta perspicillata (L., 1758)) and White-winged Scoters (Melanitta fusca (L., 1758)), we tested whether timing of moult is dictated by temporal optima or constraints. Scoters (n = 3481) were captured during moult in Alaska, British Columbia, and Washington, and...
Assessment of undiscovered petroleum resources of the Amerasia Basin Petroleum Province
David W. Houseknecht, Kenneth J. Bird, Christopher P. Garrity
2012, Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5146
The Amerasia Basin Petroleum Province encompasses the Canada Basin and the sediment prisms along the Alaska and Canada margins, outboard from basinward margins (hingelines) of the rift shoulders that formed during extensional opening of the Canada Basin. The province includes the Mackenzie delta and slope, the outer shelves and marine...
Assessment of undiscovered petroleum resources of the Arctic Alaska Petroleum Province
David W. Houseknecht, Kenneth J. Bird, Christopher P. Garrity
2012, Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5147
The Arctic Alaska Petroleum Province encompasses all lands and adjacent continental shelf areas north of the Brooks Range-Herald arch tectonic belts and south of the northern (outboard) margin of the Alaska rift shoulder. Even though only a small part is thoroughly explored, it is one of the most prolific petroleum...
Early Tertiary exhumation of the flank of a forearc basin, southwest Talkeetna Mountains, Alaska
Heather A. Bleick, Alison B. Till, Dwight Bradley, Paul O’Sullivan, Joe L. Wooden, Dan B. Bradley, Theresa A. Taylor, Sam B. Friedman, Chad P. Hults
2012, Open-File Report 2012-1232
New geochronologic and thermochronologic data from rocks near Hatcher Pass, southwest Talkeetna Mountains, Alaska, record earliest Paleocene erosional and structural exhumation on the flank of the active Cook Inlet forearc basin. Cretaceous plutons shed sediments to the south, forming the Paleocene Arkose Ridge Formation. A Paleocene(?)-Eocene detachment fault juxtaposed ~60...
Polar bear and walrus response to the rapid decline in Arctic sea ice
Karen L. Oakley, Mary E. Whalen, David C. Douglas, Mark S. Udevitz, Todd C. Atwood, C. Jay
2012, Fact Sheet 2012-3131
The Arctic is warming faster than other regions of the world due to positive climate feedbacks associated with loss of snow and ice. One highly visible consequence has been a rapid decline in Arctic sea ice over the past 3 decades - a decline projected to continue and result in...
Walrus areas of use in the Chukchi Sea during sparse sea ice cover
Chadwick V. Jay, Anthony S. Fischbach, Anatoly A. Kochnev
2012, Marine Ecology Progress Series (468) 1-13
The Pacific walrus Odobenus rosmarus divergens feeds on benthic invertebrates on the continental shelf of the Chukchi and Bering Seas and rests on sea ice between foraging trips. With climate warming, ice-free periods in the Chukchi Sea have increased and are projected to increase further in frequency and duration. We...
The United States National Climate Assessment - Alaska Technical Regional Report
Carl J. Markon, Sarah F. Trainor, F. Stuart Chapin III
Carl J. Markon, Sarah F. Trainor, F. Stuart Chapin III, editor(s)
2012, Circular 1379
The Alaskan landscape is changing, both in terms of effects of human activities as a consequence of increased population, social and economic development and their effects on the local and broad landscape; and those effects that accompany naturally occurring hazards such as volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and tsunamis. Some of the...
Cambrian–Ordovician sedimentary rocks of Alaska
Julie A. Dumoulin, Anita G. Harris
James R. Derby, S.A. Longacre, William A. Morgan, C.A. Sternbach, editor(s)
2012, Book chapter, The great American carbonate bank: The geology and economic resources of the Cambrian-Ordovician Sauk megasequence of Laurentia
Cambrian-Lower Ordovician carbonate rocks that likely formed as part of the Laurentian continental margin, and may thus have been part of the Cambrian-Ordovician great American carbonate bank, occur in east-central Alaska in the Nation Arch area. These strata accumulated on the southwestern margin (present-day coordinates) of the Yukon stable block,...
Geologic map of the Cook Inlet region, Alaska, including parts of the Talkeetna, Talkeetna Mountains, Tyonek, Anchorage, Lake Clark, Kenai, Seward, Iliamna, Seldovia, Mount Katmai, and Afognak 1:250,000-scale quadrangles
Frederic H. Wilson, Chad P. Hults, Henry R. Schmoll, Peter J. Haeussler, Jeanine M. Schmidt, Lynn A. Yehle, Keith A. Labay
2012, Scientific Investigations Map 3153
In 1976, L.B. Magoon, W.L. Adkinson, and R.M. Egbert published a major geologic map of the Cook Inlet region, which has served well as a compilation of existing information and a guide for future research and mapping. The map in this report updates Magoon and others (1976) and incorporates new...
Studies by the U.S. Geological Survey in Alaska, 2011
Julie A. Dumoulin, Cynthia Dusel-Bacon
2012, Professional Paper 1795
The collection of papers that follow continues the series of U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) investigative reports in Alaska under the broad umbrella of the geologic sciences. This series represents new and sometimes-preliminary findings that are of interest to Earth scientists in academia, government, and industry; to land and resource managers;...
Local-area-enhanced, high-resolution natural-color and color-infrared satellite-image mosaics of mineral districts in Afghanistan
Philip A. Davis
2012, Data Series 709
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Defense Task Force for Business and Stability Operations, prepared databases for mineral-resource target areas in Afghanistan. The purpose of the databases is to (1) provide useful data to ground-survey crews for use in performing detailed assessments of the...
Mapped versus actual burned area within wildfire perimeters: Characterizing the unburned
Carl H Key, James Lutz, Carl H. Key, Jonathan Kane, Jan W Van Wagtendonk
2012, Forest Ecology and Management (286) 38-47
For decades, wildfire studies have utilized fire occurrence as the primary data source for investigating the causes and effects of wildfire on the landscape. Fire occurrence data fall primarily into two categories: ignition points and perimeter polygons which are used to calculate a ‘burned...
Population ecology of breeding Pacific common eiders on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska
Heather M. Wilson, Paul L. Flint, Abby N. Powell, J. Barry Grand, Christine L. Moral
2012, Wildlife Monographs (182)
Populations of Pacific common eiders (Somateria mollissima v-nigrum) on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta (YKD) in western Alaska declined by 50–90% from 1957 to 1992 and then stabilized at reduced numbers from the early 1990s to the present. We investigated the underlying processes affecting their population dynamics by collection and analysis of...
Eruptive history of Mount Katmai, Alaska
Edward Hildreth, Judith Fierstein
2012, Geosphere (8) 1527-1567
Mount Katmai has long been recognized for its caldera collapse during the great pyroclastic eruption of 1912 (which vented 10 km away at Novarupta in the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes), but little has previously been reported about the geology of the remote ice-clad stratovolcano itself. Over several seasons,...
Influence of the Amlia fracture zone on the evolution of the Aleutian Terrace forearc basin, central Aleutian subduction zone
Holly F. Ryan, Amy E. Draut, Katie M. Keranen, David W. Scholl
2012, Geosphere (8) 1254-1273
During Pliocene to Quaternary time, the central Aleutian forearc basin evolved in response to a combination of tectonic and climatic factors. Initially, along-trench transport of sediment and accretion of a frontal prism created the accommodation space to allow forearc basin deposition. Transport of sufficient sediment to overtop the bathymetrically high...
Catalog of earthquake hypocenters at Alaskan volcanoes: January 1 through December 31, 2011
James P. Dixon, Scott D. Stihler, John A. Power, Cheryl K. Searcy
2012, Data Series 730
Between January 1 and December 31, 2011, the Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) located 4,364 earthquakes, of which 3,651 occurred within 20 kilometers of the 33 volcanoes with seismograph subnetworks. There was no significant seismic activity above background levels in 2011 at these instrumented volcanic centers. This catalog includes locations, magnitudes,...
History of earthquakes and tsunamis along the eastern Aleutian-Alaska megathrust, with implications for tsunami hazards in the California Continental Borderland
Holly F. Ryan, Roland E. von Huene, Ray E. Wells, David W. Scholl, Stephen Kirby, Amy E. Draut
Julie A. Dumoulin, C. Dusel-Bacon, editor(s)
2012, Professional Paper 1795-A
During the past several years, devastating tsunamis were generated along subduction zones in Indonesia, Chile, and most recently Japan. Both the Chile and Japan tsunamis traveled across the Pacific Ocean and caused localized damage at several coastal areas in California. The question remains as to whether coastal California, in particular...
Influence of permafrost distribution on groundwater flow in the context of climate-driven permafrost thaw: Example from Yukon Flats Basin, Alaska, United States
Michelle Ann Walvoord, Clifford I. Voss, Tristan P. Wellman
2012, Water Resources Research (48)
Understanding the role of permafrost in controlling groundwater flow paths and fluxes is central in studies aimed at assessing potential climate change impacts on vegetation, species habitat, biogeochemical cycling, and biodiversity. Recent field studies in interior Alaska show evidence of hydrologic changes hypothesized to result from permafrost degradation. This study...
Streamflow record extension for selected streams in the Susitna River Basin, Alaska
Janet H. Curran
2012, Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5210
Daily streamflow records for water years 1950–2010 in the Susitna River Basin range in length from 4 to 57 years, and many are distributed within that period in a way that might not adequately represent long-term streamflow conditions. Streamflow in the basin is affected by the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO),...
Assessment of the Coal-Bed Gas Total Petroleum System in the Cook Inlet-Susitna region, south-central Alaska
William A. Rouse, David W. Houseknecht
2012, Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5145
The Cook Inlet-Susitna region of south-central Alaska contains large quantities of gas-bearing coal of Tertiary age. The U.S. Geological Survey in 2011 completed an assessment of undiscovered, technically recoverable coal-bed gas resources underlying the Cook Inlet-Susitna region based on the total petroleum system (TPS) concept. The Cook Inlet Coal-Bed Gas...
Plant toxins and trophic cascades alter fire regime and succession on a boral forest landscape
Zhilan Feng, Jorge A. Alfaro-Murillo, Donald L. DeAngelis, Jennifer Schmidt, Matthew Barga, Yiqiang Zheng, Muhammad Hanis B. Ahmad Tamrin, Mark Olson, Tim Glaser, Knut Kielland, F. Stuart Chapin III, John Bryant
2012, Ecological Modelling (244) 79-92
Two models were integrated in order to study the effect of plant toxicity and a trophic cascade on forest succession and fire patterns across a boreal landscape in central Alaska. One of the models, ALFRESCO, is a cellular automata model that stochastically simulates transitions from spruce dominated 1 km2 spatial...
Ecological context for the North Pacific Landscape Conservation Cooperative
Andrea Woodward, Audrey Taylor, Anne Weekes
2012, Open-File Report 2012-1211
The North Pacific Landscape Conservation Cooperative (NPLCC) encompasses the temperate coastal rainforest and extends from the coastal mountains to the near-shore from the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska to Bodega Bay, California. The area spans multiple agency, state, and international boundaries over more than 22 degrees of latitude, including a wide range...
Local-area-enhanced, 2.5-meter resolution natural-color and color-infrared satellite-image mosaics of the Haji-Gak mineral district in Afghanistan: Chapter C in Local-area-enhanced, high-resolution natural-color and color-infrared satellite-image mosaics of mineral districts in Afghanistan
Philip A. Davis, Laura E. Cagney, Scott A. Arko, Michelle L. Harbin
2012, Data Series 709-C
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Defense Task Force for Business and Stability Operations, prepared databases for mineral-resource target areas in Afghanistan. The purpose of the databases is to (1) provide useful data to ground-survey crews for use in performing detailed assessments of the...
