USGS investigations of water produced during hydrocarbon reservoir development
Mark A. Engle, Isabelle M. Cozzarelli, Bruce D. Smith
2014, Fact Sheet 2014-3104
Significant quantities of water are present in hydrocarbon reservoirs. When brought to the land surface during oil, gas, and coalbed methane production, the water—either naturally occurring or injected as a method to enhance production—is termed produced water. Produced water is currently managed through processes such as recycling, treatment and discharge,...
Earthquake catalog for estimation of maximum earthquake magnitude, Central and Eastern United States: Part B, historical earthquakes
Russell L. Wheeler
2014, Open-File Report 2014-1025-B
Computation of probabilistic earthquake hazard requires an estimate of Mmax: the moment magnitude of the largest earthquake that is thought to be possible within a specified geographic region. The region specified in this report is the Central and Eastern United States and adjacent Canada. Parts A and B of this...
Geologic map of the west-central Buffalo National River region, northern Arkansas
Mark R. Hudson, Kenzie J. Turner
2014, Scientific Investigations Map 3314
This map summarizes the geology of the west-central Buffalo National River region in the Ozark Plateaus region of northern Arkansas. Geologically, the region lies on the southern flank of the Ozark dome, an uplift that exposes oldest rocks at its center in Missouri. Physiographically, the map area spans the Springfield...
Ecological implications of Laurel Wilt infestation on Everglades Tree Islands, southern Florida
James R. Snyder
2014, Open-File Report 2014-1225
There is a long history of introduced pests attacking native forest trees in the United States (Liebhold and others, 1995; Aukema and others, 2010). Well-known examples include chestnut blight that decimated the American chestnut (Castanea dentata), an extremely important tree in the eastern United States, both as a food source...
Selenium in the upper Blackfoot River watershed, southeastern Idaho, 2001-12
Christopher A. Mebane, Greg Mladenka, Lynn Van Every, Marshall L. Williams, Mark A. Hardy, John R. Garbarino
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5203
The upper Blackfoot River in southeastern Idaho receives runoff from 12 large phosphate mines. Waste shales that are removed to access the phosphate ore are highly enriched with selenium, resulting in elevated selenium in runoff from the mine waste dumps. In 2001, in cooperation with the Bureau of Land Management,...
Digital topographic data based on lidar survey of Mount Shasta Volcano, California, July-September 2010
Joel E. Robinson
2014, Data Series 852
The most voluminous of the Cascade volcanoes, northern California’s Mount Shasta, is a massive compound stratovolcano composed of at least four main edifices constructed over a period of at least 590,000 years. An ancestral Shasta volcano was destroyed by Earth’s largest known Quaternary subaerial debris avalanche, which filled Shasta Valley,...
Long Valley Caldera 2003 through 2014: Overview of low level unrest in the past decade
Stuart K. Wilkinson, David P. Hill, John O. Langbein, Michael Lisowski, Margaret T. Mangan
2014, Open-File Report 2014-1222
Long Valley Caldera is located in California along the eastern escarpment of the Sierra Nevada Range. The caldera formed about 760,000 years ago as the eruption of 600 km3 of rhyolite magma (Bishop Tuff) resulted in collapse of the partially evacuated magma chamber. Resurgent doming in the central part of...
Attenuation and scattering tomography of the deep plumbing system of Mount St. Helens
Luca De Siena, Christine Thomas, Greg P. Waite, Seth C. Moran, Stefan Klemme
2014, Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth (119) 8223-8238
We present a combined 3-D P wave attenuation, 2-D S coda attenuation, and 3-D S coda scattering tomography model of fluid pathways, feeding systems, and sediments below Mount St. Helens (MSH) volcano between depths of 0 and 18 km. High-scattering and high-attenuation shallow anomalies are indicative of magma and fluid-rich zones within and below the volcanic...
Technical Note: Linking climate change and downed woody debris decomposition across forests of the eastern United States
Matthew B. Russell, Christopher W. Woodall, Anthony W. D’Amato, Shawn Fraver, John B. Bradford
2014, Biogeosciences (11) 6417-6425
Forest ecosystems play a critical role in mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. Forest carbon (C) is stored through photosynthesis and released via decomposition and combustion. Relative to C fixation in biomass, much less is known about C depletion through decomposition of woody debris, particularly under a changing climate. It is assumed...
Estimates of natural salinity and hydrology in a subtropical estuarine ecosystem: implications for Greater Everglades restoration
Frank E. Marshall, G. Lynn Wingard, Patrick A. Pitts
2014, Estuaries and Coasts (37) 1449-1466
Disruption of the natural patterns of freshwater flow into estuarine ecosystems occurred in many locations around the world beginning in the twentieth century. To effectively restore these systems, establishing a pre-alteration perspective allows managers to develop science-based restoration targets for salinity and hydrology. This paper describes a process to develop...
Catinaster virginianus sp. nov.: A new species of Catinaster from the middle Miocene Mid-Atlantic Coastal Plain
Jean M. Self-Trail
2014, Journal of Nannoplankton Research (33) 49-57
High-resolution analysis of sediments from four coreholes associated with the Chesapeake Bay impact crater has resulted in the identification of a new species, Catinaster virginianus. This species is similar to Catinaster coalitus coalitus, but differs in having a proximal stem. The first occurrence of C. virginianus is in Zone NN5, and is older...
Aquifers of Arkansas: protection, management, and hydrologic and geochemical characteristics of groundwater resources in Arkansas
Timothy M. Kresse, Phillip D. Hays, Katherine R. Merriman, Jonathan A. Gillip, D. Todd Fugitt, Jane L. Spellman, Anna M. Nottmeier, Drew A. Westerman, Joshua M. Blackstock, James L. Battreal
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5149
Sixteen aquifers in Arkansas that currently serve or have served as sources of water supply are described with respect to existing groundwater protection and management programs, geology, hydrologic characteristics, water use, water levels, deductive analysis, projections of hydrologic conditions, and water quality. State and Federal protection and management programs are...
Geologic framework for the national assessment of carbon dioxide storage resources: Williston Basin, Central Montana Basins, and Montana Thrust Belt study areas
Marc L. Buursink, Matthew D. Merrill, William H. Craddock, Tina L. Roberts-Ashby, Sean T. Brennan, Madalyn S. Blondes, P.A. Freeman, Steven M. Cahan, Christina A. DeVera, Celeste D. Lohr
Peter D. Warwick, M.D. Corum, editor(s)
2014, Open-File Report 2012-1024-J
The 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act directs the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to conduct a national assessment of potential geologic storage resources for carbon dioxide (CO2). The methodology used by the USGS for the national CO2 assessment follows that of previous USGS work. This methodology is non-economic and is...
Groundwater-flow and land-subsidence model of Antelope Valley, California
Adam J. Siade, Tracy Nishikawa, Diane L. Rewis, Peter Martin, Steven P. Phillips
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5166
Antelope Valley, California, is a topographically closed basin in the western part of the Mojave Desert, about 50 miles northeast of Los Angeles. The Antelope Valley groundwater basin is about 940 square miles and is separated from the northern part of Antelope Valley by faults and low-lying hills. Prior to...
Measurements of HFC-134a and HCFC-22 in groundwater and unsaturated-zone air: implications for HFCs and HCFCs as dating tracers
Karl B. Haase, Eurybiades Busenberg, Niel Plummer, Gerolamo Casile, Ward E. Sanford
2014, Chemical Geology (385) 117-128
A new analytical method using gas chromatography with an atomic emission detector (GC–AED) was developed for measurement of ambient concentrations of hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) in soil, air, and groundwater, with the goal of determining their utility as groundwater age tracers. The analytical detection limits of HCFC-22 (difluorochloromethane, CHClF2)...
Landscape consequences of natural gas extraction in Cameron, Clarion, Elk, Forest, Jefferson, McKean, Potter, and Warren Counties, Pennsylvania, 2004-2010
L. E. Milheim, E. T. Slonecker, C. M. Roig-Silva, S. G. Winters, J. R. Ballew
2014, Open-File Report 2014-1152
Increased demands for cleaner burning energy, coupled with the relatively recent technological advances in accessing hydrocarbon-rich geologic formations, have led to an intense effort to find and extract unconventional natural gas from various underground sources around the country. One of these sources, the Marcellus Shale, located in the Allegheny Plateau,...
Stitching the western Piedmont of Virginia: Early Paleozoic tectonic history of the Ellisville Pluton and the Potomac and Chopawamsic Terranes
K. S. Hughes, J. P. Hibbard, R.T. Sauer, William C. Burton
2014, Book
The theme of the 2014 Virginia Geological Field Conference is the tectonic development, economic geology, and seismicity of the western Piedmont of Louisa County, Virginia. It is timely for the conference to turn its attention here, for during the past decade these aspects of western Piedmont geology have garnered the...
Evidence for large-magnitude, post-Eocene extension in the northern Shoshone Range, Nevada, and its implications for Carlin-type gold deposits in the lower plate of the Roberts Mountains allochthon
Joseph P. Colgan, Christopher D. Henry, David A. John
2014, Economic Geology (109) 1843-1862
The northern Shoshone and Toiyabe Ranges in north-central Nevada expose numerous areas of mineralized Paleozoic rock, including major Carlin-type gold deposits at Pipeline and Cortez. Paleozoic rocks in these areas were previously interpreted to have undergone negligible postmineralization extension and tilting, but here we present new data that suggest major...
California State Waters Map Series — Offshore of Half Moon Bay, California
Guy R. Cochrane, Peter Dartnell, H. Gary Greene, Samuel Y. Johnson, Nadine E. Golden, Stephen R. Hartwell, Bryan E. Dieter, Michael W. Manson, Ray W. Sliter, Stephanie L. Ross, Janet Watt, Charles A. Endris, Rikk G. Kvitek, Eleyne L. Phillips, Mercedes D. Erdey, John L. Chin, Carrie K. Bretz
2014, Open-File Report 2014-1214
In 2007, the California Ocean Protection Council initiated the California Seafloor Mapping Program (CSMP), designed to create a comprehensive seafloor map of high-resolution bathymetry, marine benthic habitats, and geology within the 3-nautical-mile limit of California’s State Waters. The CSMP approach is to create highly detailed seafloor maps through collection, integration,...
Identifying the pollen of an extinct spruce species in the Late Quaternary sediments of the Tunica Hills region, south-eastern United States
Luke Mander, Jacklyn Rodriguez, Pietra G. Mueller, Stephen T. Jackson, Surangi W. Punyasena
2014, Journal of Quaternary Science (29) 711-721
Late Quaternary fluvial deposits in the Tunica Hills region of Louisiana and Mississippi are rich in spruce macrofossils of the extinct species Picea critchfieldii, the one recognized plant extinction of the Late Quaternary. However, the morphology of P. critchfieldii pollen is unknown, presenting a barrier to the interpretation of pollen spectra from the...
Relations between continuous real-time turbidity data and discrete suspended-sediment concentration samples in the Neosho and Cottonwood Rivers, east-central Kansas, 2009-2012
Guy M. Foster
2014, Open-File Report 2014-1171
The Neosho River and its primary tributary, the Cottonwood River, are the primary sources of inflow to the John Redmond Reservoir in east-central Kansas. Sedimentation rate in the John Redmond Reservoir was estimated as 743 acre-feet per year for 1964–2006. This estimated sedimentation rate is more than 80 percent larger...
Water-level altitudes 2014 and water-level changes in the Chicot, Evangeline, and Jasper aquifers and compaction 1973-2013 in the Chicot and Evangeline aquifers, Houston-Galveston region, Texas
Mark C. Kasmarek, Michaela R. Johnson, Jason K. Ramage
2014, Scientific Investigations Map 3308
Most of the land-surface subsidence in the Houston-Galveston region, Texas, has occurred as a direct result of groundwater withdrawals for municipal supply, commercial and industrial use, and irrigation that depressured and dewatered the Chicot and Evangeline aquifers, thereby causing compaction of the aquifer sediments, mostly in the fine-grained clay and...
An evaluation of remote sensing technologies for the detection of residual contamination at ready-for-anticipated use sites
E. Terrence Slonecker, Gary B. Fisher
2014, Open-File Report 2014-1197
Operational problems with site access and information, XRF instrument operation, and imagery collections hampered the effective data collection and analysis process. Of the 24 sites imaged and analyzed, 17 appeared to be relatively clean with no discernible metal contamination, hydrocarbons, or asbestos in the soil. None of the samples for...
Potential postwildfire debris-flow hazards: a prewildfire evaluation for the Sandia and Manzano Mountains and surrounding areas, central New Mexico
Anne C. Tillery, Jessica R. Haas, Lara W. Miller, Joe H. Scott, Matthew P. Thompson
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5161
Wildfire can drastically increase the probability of debris flows, a potentially hazardous and destructive form of mass wasting, in landscapes that have otherwise been stable throughout recent history. Although there is no way to know the exact location, extent, and severity of wildfire, or the subsequent rainfall intensity and duration...
Hydrogeologic framework and occurrence, movement, and chemical characterization of groundwater in Dixie Valley, west-central Nevada
Jena M. Huntington, C. Amanda Garcia, Michael R. Rosen
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5152
Dixie Valley, a primarily undeveloped basin in west-central Nevada, is being considered for groundwater exportation. Proposed pumping would occur from the basin-fill aquifer. In response to proposed exportation, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Bureau of Reclamation and Churchill County, conducted a study to improve the understanding of...
