Purgeable organic compounds at or near the Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center, Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho, 2015
Neil V. Maimer, Roy C. Bartholomay
2016, Open-File Report 2016-1083
During 2015, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Energy, collected groundwater samples from 31 wells at or near the Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center (INTEC) at the Idaho National Laboratory for purgeable organic compounds (POCs). The samples were collected and analyzed for the...
Late Holocene volcanism at Medicine Lake Volcano, northern California Cascades
Julie M. Donnelly-Nolan, Duane E. Champion, Timothy L. Grove
2016, Professional Paper 1822
Late Holocene volcanism at Medicine Lake volcano in the southern Cascades arc exhibited widespread and compositionally diverse magmatism ranging from basalt to rhyolite. Nine well-characterized eruptions have taken place at this very large rear-arc volcano since 5,200 years ago, an eruptive frequency greater than nearly all other Cascade volcanoes....
Sensitivity of Pliocene Arctic climate to orbital forcing, atmospheric CO2 and sea ice albedo parameterisation
Fergus W. Howell, Alan M. Haywood, Harry J. Dowsett, Steven J. Pickering
2016, Earth and Planetary Science Letters (441) 133-142
General circulation model (GCM) simulations of the mid-Pliocene Warm Period (mPWP, 3.264 to 3.025 Myr ago) do not reproduce the magnitude of Northern Hemisphere high latitude surface air and sea surface temperature (SAT and SST) warming that proxy data indicate. There is also large uncertainty regarding the state...
Conditions and processes affecting sand resources at archeological sites in the Colorado River corridor below Glen Canyon Dam, Arizona
Amy E. East, Brian D. Collins, Joel B. Sankey, Skye C. Corbett, Helen C. Fairley, Joshua J. Caster
2016, Professional Paper 1825
This study examined links among fluvial, aeolian, and hillslope geomorphic processes that affect archeological sites and surrounding landscapes in the Colorado River corridor downstream from Glen Canyon Dam, Arizona. We assessed the potential for Colorado River sediment to enhance the preservation of river-corridor archeological resources through aeolian sand deposition...
Regional oxygen reduction and denitrification rates in groundwater from multi-model residence time distributions, San Joaquin Valley, USA
Christopher T. Green, Bryant C. Jurgens, Yong Zhang, Jeffrey Starn, Michael J. Singleton, Bradley K. Esser
2016, Journal of Hydrology (145) 47-55
Rates of oxygen and nitrate reduction are key factors in determining the chemical evolution of groundwater. Little is known about how these rates vary and covary in regional groundwater settings, as few studies have focused on regional datasets with multiple tracers and methods of analysis that account for effects of...
Preliminary investigation of groundwater flow and trichloroethene transport in the Surficial Aquifer System, Naval Industrial Reserve Ordnance Plant, Fridley, Minnesota
Jeffrey N. King, J. Hal Davis
2016, Open-File Report 2016-1066
Industrial practices at the Naval Industrial Reserve Ordnance Plant, in Fridley, Minnesota, caused soil and groundwater contamination. Some volatile organic compounds from the plant might have discharged to the Mississippi River, forced by the natural hydraulic gradient in the surficial aquifer system. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency included the Naval...
Latest Miocene-earliest Pliocene evolution of the ancestral Rio Grande at the Española-San Luis Basin boundary, northern New Mexico
Daniel J. Koning, Scott B. Aby, V. J. Grauch, Matthew J. Zimmerer
2016, New Mexico Geology (38) 24-49
We use stratigraphic relations, paleoflow data, and 40Ar/39Ar dating to interpret net aggradation, punctuated by at least two minor incisional events, along part of the upper ancestral Rio Grande fluvial system between 5.5 and 4.5 Ma (in northern New Mexico). The studied fluvial deposits, which we informally call the...
Flood-inundation maps for the East Fork White River at Shoals, Indiana
Justin A. Boldt
2016, Scientific Investigations Report 2016-5036
Digital flood-inundation maps for a 5.9-mile reach of the East Fork White River at Shoals, Indiana (Ind.), were created by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs. The flood-inundation maps, which can be accessed through the USGS Flood Inundation Mapping Science...
Evaluation of background concentrations of selected chemical and radiochemical constituents in water from the eastern Snake River Plain aquifer at and near the Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho
Roy C. Bartholomay, L. Flint Hall
2016, Scientific Investigations Report 2016-5056
The U.S. Geological Survey and Idaho Department of Environmental Quality Idaho National Laboratory (INL) Oversight Program in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Energy determined background concentrations of selected chemical and radiochemical constituents in the eastern Snake River Plain aquifer to aid with ongoing cleanup efforts at the INL. Chemical...
Numerical simulation of the groundwater-flow system of the Kitsap Peninsula, west-central Washington
Lonna M. Frans, Theresa D. Olsen
2016, Scientific Investigations Report 2016-5052
A groundwater-flow model was developed to improve understanding of water resources on the Kitsap Peninsula. The Kitsap Peninsula is in the Puget Sound lowland of west-central Washington, is bounded by Puget Sound on the east and by Hood Canal on the west, and covers an area of about 575 square...
Geologic history of the Blackbird Co-Cu district in the Lemhi subbasin of the Belt-Purcell Basin
Arthur A. Bookstrom, Stephen E. Box, Pamela M. Cossette, Thomas P. Frost, Virginia Gillerman, George King, N. Alex Zirakparvar
2016, GSA Special Papers (522) 185-219
The Blackbird cobalt-copper (Co-Cu) district in the Salmon River Mountains of east-central Idaho occupies the central part of the Idaho cobalt belt—a northwest-elongate, 55-km-long belt of Co-Cu occurrences, hosted in grayish siliciclastic metasedimentary strata of the Lemhi subbasin (of the Mesoproterozoic Belt-Purcell Basin). The Blackbird district contains at least...
Geology of the Greenwater Range, and the dawn of Death Valley, California—Field guide for the Death Valley Natural History Conference, 2013
J.P. Calzia, O.T. Ramo, Robert Jachens, Eugene Smith, Jeffrey Knott
2016, Open-File Report 2016-1064
Much has been written about the age and formation of Death Valley, but that is one—if not the last—chapter in the fascinating geologic history of this area. Igneous and sedimentary rocks in the Greenwater Range, one mountain range east of Death Valley, tell an earlier story that overlaps with the...
Megafloods and Clovis cache at Wenatchee, Washington
Richard B. Waitt
2016, Quaternary Research (85) 430-444
Immense late Wisconsin floods from glacial Lake Missoula drowned the Wenatchee reach of Washington's Columbia valley by different routes. The earliest debacles, nearly 19,000 cal yr BP, raged 335 m deep down the Columbia and built high Pangborn bar at Wenatchee. As advancing ice blocked the northwest of Columbia valley, several giant floods descended...
Coesite in suevites from the Chesapeake Bay impact structure
John C. Jackson, J. Wright Horton Jr., I-Ming Chou, Harvey E. Belkin
2016, Meteoritics and Planetary Science (51) 946-965
The occurrence of coesite in suevites from the Chesapeake Bay impact structure is confirmed within a variety of textural domains in situ by Raman spectroscopy for the first time and in mechanically separated grains by X-ray diffraction. Microtextures of coesite identified in situ investigated under transmitted light and by scanning electron microscope...
Estimating forest and woodland aboveground biomass using active and passive remote sensing
Zhuoting Wu, Dennis G. Dye, John M. Vogel, Barry R. Middleton
2016, Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing (82) 271-281
Aboveground biomass was estimated from active and passive remote sensing sources, including airborne lidar and Landsat-8 satellites, in an eastern Arizona (USA) study area comprised of forest and woodland ecosystems. Compared to field measurements, airborne lidar enabled direct estimation of individual tree height with a slope of 0.98 (R2 = 0.98)....
Geologic map of the Valdez D-1 and D-2 quadrangles (Mount Wrangell Volcano), Alaska
D.H. Richter, R. G. McGimsey, Keith A. Labay, M. A. Lanphere, R. B. Moore, C.J. Nye, D. S. Rosenkrans, G. R. Winkler
2016, Scientific Investigations Map 3351
Geologic Note Mount Wrangell (elev. 4,317 m) is the youngest and only active volcano in the Oligocene to Holocene-aged Wrangell volcanic field that extends from beyond the Alaska-Yukon border northwest through the Wrangell Mountains to the Copper River Basin. The volcano is a very large (900 km3) broad shield containing an...
U.S. Geological Survey response to flooding in Texas, May–June 2015
Jeffery W. East
2016, Fact Sheet 2016-3027
As a Federal science agency within the Department of the Interior, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) collects and disseminates streamflow stage and discharge information along with other types of water information as a major part of its Water mission area. Data collected at USGS streamflow-gaging stations (hereinafter referred to as...
Can the eastern red-backed salamander (Plethodon cinereus) persist in an acidified landscape?
Cheryl A Bondi, Colin M. Beier, Peter K Ducey, Gregory B. Lawrence, Scott W. Bailey
2016, Ecosphere (7)
Hardwood forests of eastern North America have experienced decades of acidic deposition, leading to soil acidification where base cation supply was insufficient to neutralize acid inputs. Negative impacts of soil acidity on amphibians include disrupted embryonic development, lower growth rates, and habitat loss. However, some amphibians exhibit intraspecific variation in...
The structure of genetic diversity in eelgrass (Zostera marina L.) along the North Pacific and Bering Sea coasts of Alaska
Sandra L. Talbot, George K. Sage, Jolene R. Rearick, Megan C. Fowler, Raquel Muñiz-Salazar, Bethany Baibak, Sandy Wyllie-Echeverria, Alehandro Cabello-Pasini, David H. Ward
2016, PLoS ONE (11)
Eelgrass (Zostera marina) populations occupying coastal waters of Alaska are separated by a peninsula and island archipelago into two Large Marine Ecosystems (LMEs). From populations in both LMEs, we characterize genetic diversity, population structure, and polarity in gene flow using nuclear microsatellite fragment and chloroplast and nuclear sequence data. An...
The source of groundwater and solutes to Many Devils Wash at a former uranium mill site in Shiprock, New Mexico
Andrew J. Robertson, Anthony J. Ranalli, Stephen A. Austin, Bryan R. Lawlis
2016, Scientific Investigations Report 2016-5031
The Shiprock Disposal Site is the location of the former Navajo Mill (Mill), a uranium ore-processing facility, located on a terrace overlooking the San Juan River in the town of Shiprock, New Mexico. Following the closure of the Mill, all tailings and associated materials were encapsulated in a disposal cell...
Magma transport and olivine crystallization depths in Kīlauea’s East Rift Zone inferred from experimentally rehomogenized melt inclusions
Robin M Tuohy, Paul J. Wallace, Matthew W. Loewen, Don Swanson, Adam J R Kent
2016, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta (185) 232-250
Concentrations of H2O and CO2 in olivine-hosted melt inclusions can be used to estimate crystallization depths for the olivine host. However, the original dissolved CO2concentration of melt inclusions at the time of trapping can be difficult to measure directly because in many cases substantial CO2 is transferred...
Geologic map of the Rio Rico and Nogales 7.5’ quadrangles, Santa Cruz County, Arizona
William R. Page, Christopher M. Menges, Floyd Gray, Margaret E. Berry, Mark W. Bultman, Michael A. Cosca, D. Paco VanSistine
2016, Scientific Investigations Map 3354
The Rio Rico and Nogales (Arizona) 1:24,000-scale quadrangles are located in the Basin and Range Province of southern Arizona, and the southern edge of the map is the international border with Sonora, Mexico. The major urban area is Nogales, a bi-national city known as “the gateway to Mexico.” Rocks exposed...
Notes on the origin of copromacrinite based on nitrogen functionalities and δ13C and δ15N determined on samples from the Peach Orchard coal bed, southern Magoffin County, Kentucky
Bruno Valentim, Manuel Algarra, Alexandra Guedes, Leslie F. Ruppert, James C. Hower
2016, International Journal of Coal Geology (160-161) 63-72
This paper represents the first attempt to show, by means other than just petrographic ones, that one type of macrinite, herein designated copromacrinite, may result from macrofauna feces. For that purpose a combination of coal petrography, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and elemental-analysis continuous-flow isotope ratio mass spectrometry methods were used...
Perchlorate and selected metals in water and soil within Mount Rushmore National Memorial, South Dakota, 2011–15
Galen K. Hoogestraat, Barbara L. Rowe
2016, Scientific Investigations Report 2016-5030
Mount Rushmore National Memorial is located in the east-central part of the Black Hills area of South Dakota and is challenged to provide drinking water to about 3 million annual visitors and year-round park personnel. An environmental concern to water resources within Mount Rushmore National Memorial has been the annual...
Forest cover changes due to hydrocarbon extraction disturbance in central Pennsylvania (2004–2010)
Coral Roig-Silva, E. Terrence Slonecker, Lesley Milheim, Jesse R. Ballew, S. Gail Winters
2016, Journal of Maps (12) 131-138
The state of Pennsylvania has a long history of oil and gas extraction. In recent years with advances in technology such as hydraulic fracturing, hydrocarbon sources that were not profitable in the past are now being exploited. Here, we present an assessment of the cumulative impact of oil and gas...
