Ground motion in the presence of complex topography: Earthquake and ambient noise sources
Stephen H. Hartzell, Mark Meremonte, Leonardo Ramírez-Guzmán, Daniel McNamara
2014, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (104) 451-466
To study the influence of topography on ground motion, eight seismic recorders were deployed for a period of one year over Poverty Ridge on the east side of the San Francisco Bay Area, California. This location is desirable because of its proximity to local earthquake sources and the significant topographic...
A GIS-based vulnerability assessment of brine contamination to aquatic resources from oil and gas development in eastern Sheridan County, Montana
Todd M. Preston, Tara L. Chesley-Preston, Joanna N. Thamke
2014, Science of the Total Environment (472) 1152-1162
Water (brine) co-produced with oil in the Williston Basin is some of the most saline in the nation. The Prairie Pothole Region (PPR), characterized by glacial sediments and numerous wetlands, covers the northern and eastern portion of the Williston Basin. Sheridan County, Montana, lies within the PPR and has a...
Pictorial account and landscape evolution of the crevasses near Fort St. Philip, Louisiana
Glenn M. Suir, William R. Jones, Adrienne L. Garber, John A. Barras
2014, MRG&P Report 2
Quantifying the effects of active natural and constructed crevasses is critical to the planning and success of future ecosystem restoration activities. This document provides a historical overview of landscape changes within the vicinity of the natural crevasses near Fort St. Philip, Louisiana. A significant event influencing landscape change within the...
Elk monitoring in Lewis and Clark National Historical Park: 2008-2012 synthesis report
Paul C. Griffin, Kurt J. Jenkins, Carla Cole, Chris Clatterbuck, John Boetsch, Katherine Beirne
2014, Natural Resource Technical Report NPS/NCCN/NRTR--2014/837
Maintaining elk (Cervus elaphus roosevelti) herds that frequent Lewis and Clark National Historical Park (NHP) is central to the park’s purpose of preserving the historic, cultural, scenic, and natural resources associated with the winter encampment of the Lewis and Clark expedition. Elk were critically important to the Lewis and Clark...
Source and progression of a submarine landslide and tsunami: The 1964 Great Alaska earthquake at Valdez
Thomas E. Parsons, Eric L. Geist, Holly F. Ryan, Homa J. Lee, Peter J. Haeussler, Patrick Lynett, Patrick E. Hart, Ray W. Sliter, Emily C. Roland
2014, Journal of Geophysical Research - Solid Earth (119) 8502-8516
Like many subduction zone earthquakes, the deadliest aspects of the 1964 M = 9.2 Alaska earthquake were the tsunamis it caused. The worst of these were generated by local submarine landslides induced by the earthquake. These caused high runups, engulfing several coastal towns in Prince William Sound. In this paper, we study one...
Upper Devonian–Mississippian stratigraphic framework of the Arkoma Basin and distribution of potential source-rock facies in the Woodford–Chattanooga and Fayetteville–Caney shale-gas systems
David W. Houseknecht, William A. Rouse, Stanley T. Paxton, John C. Mars, Bryant R. Fulk
2014, American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin (98) 1739-1759
Wireline logs were used to document the stratigraphic framework of Upper Devonian–Mississippian strata in the Arkoma Basin, and maps of high-gamma ray (HGR) log response were used to analyze the spatial distribution of potential source rocks in the Woodford–Chattanooga and Fayetteville–Caney shale-gas systems. The Woodford–Chattanooga shale is a transgressive deposit...
A synoptic examination of causes of land loss in southern Louisiana as related to the exploitation of subsurface geologic resources
Ricardo A. Olea, James L. Coleman
2014, Journal of Coastal Research (30) 1025-1044
During the last 80 years, Louisiana has been losing wetlands at an average rate of 62 km2/y (24 mi2/y) for an accumulated loss of approximately 4900 km2 (1900 mi2). The loss seems to be the combined result of natural and anthropogenic causes that are behind primarily land subsidence averaging about 10...
Noble gas geochemistry investigation of high CO2 natural gas at the LaBarge Platform, Wyoming, USA
Matthew D. Merrill, Andrew G. Hunt, Celeste D. Lohr
2014, Energy Procedia (63) 4186-4190
A regional sampling of gases from thermal springs near the LaBarge Field, Wyoming, USA to determine the extent of the total carbon dioxide system (TCDS) indicates that the system may extend up to 70 km to the northwest of the field. Geochemical evidence...
Native plant recovery in study plots after fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) control on Santa Cruz Island
Paula Power, Thomas R. Stanley, Clark Cowan, James R. Robertson
2014, Monographs of the Western North American Naturalist (7) 465-476
Santa Cruz Island is the largest of the California Channel Islands and supports a diverse and unique flora which includes 9 federally listed species. Sheep, cattle, and pigs, introduced to the island in the mid-1800s, disturbed the soil, browsed native vegetation, and facilitated the spread of exotic invasive plants. Recent...
A bootstrap estimation scheme for chemical compositional data with nondetects
Javier Palarea-Albaladejo, J.A Martin-Fernandez, Ricardo A. Olea
2014, Journal of Chemometrics (28) 585-599
The bootstrap method is commonly used to estimate the distribution of estimators and their associated uncertainty when explicit analytic expressions are not available or are difficult to obtain. It has been widely applied in environmental and geochemical studies, where the data generated often represent parts of whole, typically chemical concentrations....
Holocene and latest Pleistocene paleoseismology of the Salt Lake City segment of the Wasatch Fault Zone, Utah, at the Penrose Drive Trench Site
Christopher B. DuRoss, Michael D. Hylland, Greg N. McDonald, Anthony J. Crone, Stephen F. Personius, Ryan D. Gold, Shannon Mahan
2014, Report, Evaluating surface faulting chronologies of Graben-Bounding Faults in Salt Lake Valley, Utah: new paleoseismic data from the Salt Lake City segment of the Wasatch Fault Zone and the West Valley Fault Zone
The Salt Lake City segment (SLCS) of the Wasatch fault zone (WFZ) and the West Valley fault zone (WVFZ) compromise Holocene-active normal faults that bound a large intrabasin graben in northern Salt Lake Valley and have evidence of recurrent, large-magnitude (M ~6-7) surface-faulting earthquakes. However, at the time of this...
Seismic evidence for a crustal magma reservoir beneath the upper east rift zone of Kilauea volcano, Hawaii
Guoqing Lin, Falk Amelung, Yan Lavallee, Paul G. Okubo
2014, Geology (42) 187-190
An anomalous body with low Vp (compressional wave velocity), low Vs (shear wave velocity), and high Vp/Vs anomalies is observed at 8–11 km depth beneath the upper east rift zone of Kilauea volcano in Hawaii by simultaneous inversion of seismic velocity structure and earthquake locations. We interpret this body to...
Stratigraphy, structure and regional correlation of eastern Blue Ridge sequences in southern Virginia and northwestern North Carolina: an interim report from new USGS mapping
Mark W. Carter, Arthur J. Merschat
2014, GSA Field Guides (35) 215-241
Examination of key outcrops in the eastern Blue Ridge in southern Virginia and northwestern North Carolina is used to evaluate existing stratigraphic and structural models. Recent detailed mapping along the Blue Ridge Parkway and the eastern flank of the Mount Rogers massif provides the opportunity to (1) evaluate legacy...
North American Commission on Stratigraphic Nomenclature Note 66: records of Stratigraphic Commission, 2003-2013
Robert M. Easton, Octavian Catuneanu, Art D. Donovan, Richard H. Fluegeman, A.P. Hamblin, Howard Harper, Norman P. Lasca, Jared R. Morrow, Randall C. Orndorff, Peter Sadler, Robert W. Scott, Berry H. Tew
2014, Stratigraphy (11) 143-157
Note 66 summarizes activities of the North American Commission on Stratigraphic Nomenclature (NACSN) from November 2003 to October 2013 and is condensed from the minutes of the NACSN’s 58th to 68th annual meetings1. The purposes of the Commission are to develop statements of stratigraphic principles,recommend procedures applicable to the classification...
Landscapes of Santa Rosa Island, Channel Islands National Park, California
R. Randall Schumann, Scott A. Minor, Daniel R. Muhs, Jeffery S. Pigati
2014, Book chapter, Monographs of the Western North American Naturalist
Santa Rosa Island (SRI) is the second-largest of the California Channel Islands. It is one of 4 east–west aligned islands forming the northern Channel Islands chain, and one of the 5 islands in Channel Islands National Park. The landforms, and collections of landforms called landscapes, of Santa Rosa Island have...
Latest Quaternary paleoseismology and evidence of distributed dextral shear along the Mohawk Valley fault zone, northern Walker Lane, California
Ryan D. Gold, Richard W. Briggs, Stephen Personius, Anthony J. Crone, Shannon A. Mahan, Stephen Angster
2014, Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth (119) 5014-5032
The dextral-slip Mohawk Valley fault zone (MVFZ) strikes northwestward along the eastern margin of the Sierra Nevada in the northern Walker Lane. Geodetic block modeling indicates that the MVFZ may accommodate ~3 mm/yr of regional dextral strain, implying that it is the highest slip-rate strike-slip fault in the region; however,...
Delineation of Tundra Swan Cygnus c. columbianus populations in North America: geographic boundaries and interchange
Craig R. Ely, William J.L. Sladen, Heather M. Wilson, Susan E. Savage, Kristine M. Sowl, Bill Henry, Mike Schwitters, James Snowden
2014, Wildfowl (64) 132-147
North American Tundra Swans Cygnus c. columbianus are composed of two wellrecognised populations: an Eastern Population (EP) that breeds across northern Canada and north of the Brooks Range in Alaska, which migrates to the eastern seaboard of the United States, and a Western Population (WP) that breeds in coastal regions of Alaska south of the Brooks...
Hells Canyon to the Bitterroot front: A transect from the accretionary margin eastward across the Idaho batholith
Reed S. Lewis, Keegan L. Smith, Richard M. Gaschnig, Todd A. LaMaskin, Karen Lund, Keith D. Gray, Basil Tikoff, Tor Stetson-Lee, Nicholas Moore
2014, Book chapter, Exploring the Northern Rocky Mountains
This field guide covers geology across north-central Idaho from the Snake River in the west across the Bitterroot Mountains to the east to near Missoula, Montana. The regional geology includes a much-modified Mesozoic accretionary boundary along the western side of Idaho across which allochthonous Permian to Cretaceous arc complexes of...
Strategic conservation planning for the Eastern North Carolina/Southeastern Virginia Strategic Habitat Conservation Team
Louise B. Alexander-Vaughn, Jaime A. Collazo, C. Ashton Drew
2014, Technical Bulletin 337
The Eastern North Carolina/Southeastern Virginia Strategic Habitat Conservation Team (ENCSEVA) is a partnership among local federal agencies and programs with a mission to apply Strategic Habitat Conservation to accomplish priority landscape-level conservation within its geographic region. ENCSEVA seeks to further landscape-scale conservation through collaboration with local partners. To accomplish this...
Preliminary isostatic residual gravity map of the Tremonton 30' x 60' quadrangle, Box Elder and Cache Counties, Utah, and Franklin and Oneida Counties, Idaho
Victoria E. Langenheim, R.Q. Oaks, H. Willis, A.I. Hiscock, Bruce A. Chuchel, Jose J. Rosario, C.L. Hardwick
2014, Utah Geological Survey Miscellaneous Publication 14-2
A new isostatic residual gravity map of the Tremonton 30' x 60' quadrangle of Utah is based on compilation of preexisting data and new data collected by the Utah and U.S. Geological Surveys. Pronounced gravity lows occur over North Bay, northwest of Brigham City, and Malad and Blue Creek Valleys,...
Potentiometric surface and water-level difference maps of selected confined aquifers in Southern Maryland and Maryland’s Eastern Shore, 1975-2013
Andrew W. Staley, David C. Andreasen, Stephen E. Curtin
2014, Open-File Report 14-02-02
Groundwater is the principal source of freshwater supply in most of Southern Maryland and Maryland’s Eastern Shore. It is also the source of freshwater supply used in the operation of the Calvert Cliffs, Chalk Point, and Morgantown power plants. Increased groundwater withdrawals over the last several decades have caused groundwater...
USGS48 Puerto Rico precipitation - A new isotopic reference material for δ2H and δ18O measurements of water
Haiping Qi, Tyler B. Coplen, Lauren V. Tarbox, Jennifer M. Lorenz, Martha A. Scholl
2014, Isotopes in Environmental and Health Studies (50) 442-447
A new secondary isotopic reference material has been prepared from Puerto Rico precipitation, which was filtered, homogenised, loaded into glass ampoules, sealed with a torch, autoclaved to eliminate biological activity, and calibrated by dual-inlet isotope-ratio mass spectrometry. This isotopic reference material, designated as USGS48, is intended to be one of...
Well log and 2D seismic data character of the Wilcox Group in south-central Louisiana
Catherine B. Enomoto
2014, Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies Transactions (64) 105-118
Well logs and 2D seismic data were used to interpret the depth and morphology of potential Paleocene and lower Eocene Wilcox Group slope and basin-floor reservoirs in south-central Louisiana. These may occur in a poorly explored area previously estimated by the U.S. Geological Survey to contain a mean undiscovered conventional...
Resolving terrestrial ecosystem processes along a subgrid topographic gradient for an earth-system model
Z M Subin, Paul C.D. Milly, B N Sulman, Sergey Malyshev, E Shevliakova
2014, Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (11) 8443-8492
Soil moisture is a crucial control on surface water and energy fluxes, vegetation, and soil carbon cycling. Earth-system models (ESMs) generally represent an areal-average soil-moisture state in gridcells at scales of 50–200 km and as a result are not able to capture the nonlinear effects of topographically-controlled subgrid heterogeneity in...
The Devonian Marcellus Shale and Millboro Shale
Daniel J. Soeder, Catherine B. Enomoto, John A. Chermak
2014, GSA Field Guides (35) 129-160
The recent development of unconventional oil and natural gas resources in the United States builds upon many decades of research, which included resource assessment and the development of well completion and extraction technology. The Eastern Gas Shales Project, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy in the 1980s, investigated the...