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Water, bed sediment, and biota were sampled in streams from Butte to below Milltown Reservoir as part of a long-term monitoring program in the upper Clark Fork basin; additional water-quality samples were collected in the Clark Fork basin from sites near Milltown Reservoir downstream to near the confluence of the...

The highly oxidizing environment of a wildfire has the potential to convert any chromium present in the soil or in residential or industrial debris to its more toxic form, hexavalent chromium, a known carcinogen. In addition, the highly basic conditions resulting from the combustion of wood and wood products could...

Lack of recruitment and canopy replacement of aspen (Populus tremuloides) stands that grow on the edges of grasslands on the low-elevation elk (Cervus elaphus) winter range of Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) in Colorado have been a cause of concern for more than 70 years. We used a combination of...

The natural resources and watershed conditions of National Park units in the New York-New Jersey area - Gateway National Recreation Area (GATE), Sagamore Hill National Historic Site (SAHI), and Fire Island National Seashore (FIIS) - are threatened by different degrees of urbanization and direct or indirect human use. Such threats...

Landslides are a recurring problem on hillslopes throughout the Puget Lowland, Washington, but can be difficult to identify in the densely forested terrain. However, digital terrain models of the bare-earth surface derived from LIght Detection And Ranging (LIDAR) data express topographic details sufficiently well to identify landslides. Landslides and escarpments...

In March 2008, we collected gravity data along 12 traverses across newly-mapped faults in the Moapa Valley region of Clark County, Nevada. In areas crossed by these faults, the traverses provide better definition of the gravity field and, thus, the density structure, than prior gravity observations. Access problems prohibited complete...

San Acacia Dam is located in a reach of the Rio Grande that has been designated as critical habitat for two endangered species, the Rio Grande silvery minnow (Hybognathus amarus) and the southwestern willow flycatcher (Empidonax traillii extimus). Under present operations, the Rio Grande upstream from the dam is used...

The U.S. / Japan Natural Resources (UJNR) Panel on Earthquake Research promotes advanced study toward a more fundamental understanding of the earthquake process and hazard estimation. The Panel promotes basic and applied research to improve our understanding of the causes and effects of earthquakes and to facilitate the transmission of...

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has been working with the Albany Water, Gas, and Light Commission to monitor ground-water quality and availability since 1977. This report presents an overview of ground-water conditions and studies in the Albany area of Dougherty County, Georgia, during 2007. Historical data are also presented for...

This report describes a study of survival and migration behavior of juvenile coho salmon in the Klamath River relative to discharge at Iron Gate Dam in 2006. This was the second year of a multi-year study with the goal of determining the effects of discharge at Iron Gate Dam on...

Age distribution information can be an important part of understanding the biology of any population. Age estimates collected from the annual growth rings found in tooth and bone cross sections, often referred to as Lines of Arrested Growth (LAGs), have been used in the study of various animals. In this...

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) summary presents seismic data gathered during the year. The seismic summary is offered without interpretation as a source of preliminary data and is complete in that most data for events of M=1.5 are included. All latitude and longitude references in this...

Oil shale units in the Eocene Green River Formation are shown on two east-west stratigraphic sections across the Uinta Basin in northeastern Utah. Several units have potential value for recovery of shale oil, especially the Mahogany oil shale zone, which is a high grade oil shale that can be traced...

This Report introduces and summarizes the new Virtual Data Center (VDC) Tagged Format (VTF) Tool, which was developed by a diverse group of seismologists, earthquake engineers, and information technology professionals for internal use by the COSMOS VDC and other interested parties for the exchange, archiving, and analysis of earthquake strong-ground-motion...

High-resolution measurements of waves, currents, water levels, temperature, salinity and turbidity were made in Hanalei Bay, northern Kaua'i, Hawai'i, during the summer of 2006 to better understand coastal circulation, sediment dynamics, and the potential impact of a river flood in a coral reef-lined embayment during quiescent summer conditions. A series...

The Upper Floridan aquifer is contaminated with saltwater in a 2-square-mile area of downtown Brunswick, Georgia. This contamination has limited the development of the ground-water supply in the Glynn County area. Hydrologic, geologic, and water-quality data are needed to effectively manage water resources. Since 1959, the U.S. Geological Survey has...

Water-quality and hydrologic data were collected during 2005 and 2008 to characterize potential source areas of nutrients and sediment within the Ledge and Holman Creek watersheds upstream from Lake Rogers in Granville County, North Carolina. Eight monitoring locations were established in all--five in Holman Creek and three in Ledge Creek--for...

The VSE-355G3 seismometer is a broadband seismometer (called a 'servo velocity meter' by Tokyo Sokushin) with a specified clip level of 2 m/s and a flat response to earth velocity from 0.008 Hertz (Hz) to 70 Hz. Mr. Yokoi and Mr. Kurahashi of Tokyo Sokushin shipped one instrument to the...

The Utica-Lower Paleozoic Total Petroleum System (TPS) is an important TPS identified in the 2002 U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) assessment of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil and gas resources in the Appalachian basin province (Milici and others, 2003). The TPS is named for the Upper Ordovician Utica Shale, which is the...

On June 6-7, 2008, heavy rainfall of 2 to more than 10 inches fell upon saturated soils and added to already high streamflows from a wetter than normal spring in central and southern Indiana. The heavy rainfall resulted in severe flooding on many streams within the White River Basin during...

The U.S. Geological Survey, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection have been working cooperatively to map the sea-floor geology within Long Island Sound. Sidescan-sonar imagery collected during three NOAA hydrographic surveys (H11043, H11044, and H11045) was used to interpret the surficial-sediment distribution and sedimentary...

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Mineral Resources Program develops mineral-deposit models for application in USGS mineral-resource assessments and other mineral resource-related activities within the USGS as well as for nongovernmental applications. Periodic updates of models are published in order to incorporate new concepts and findings on the occurrence, nature, and...

The Multi-Hazards Demonstration Project (MHDP) is a collaboration between the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and various partners from the public and private sectors and academia, meant to improve Southern California's resiliency to natural hazards (Jones and others, 2007). In support of the MHDP objectives, the ShakeOut Scenario was developed. It...

The U.S. Geological Survey operates the external quality assurance project for the National Atmospheric Deposition Program/Mercury Deposition Network. The project includes the system blank and blind audit programs for assessment of total mercury concentration data quality for wet-deposition samples. This presentation was prepared to train new site operators and to...

From July 31 to August 1, 2006, an unusual set of atmospheric conditions aligned to produce record floods and an unprecedented number of slope failures and debris flows in southeastern Arizona. During the week leading up to the event, an upper-level low-pressure system centered over New Mexico generated widespread and...