Estimation of wildfire size and risk changes due to fuels treatments
M.A. Cochrane, C.J. Moran, M.C. Wimberly, A.D. Baer, M.A. Finney, K.L. Beckendorf, J. Eidenshink, Z. Zhu
2012, International Journal of Wildland Fire (21) 357-367
Human land use practices, altered climates, and shifting forest and fire management policies have increased the frequency of large wildfires several-fold. Mitigation of potential fire behaviour and fire severity have increasingly been attempted through pre-fire alteration of wildland fuels using mechanical treatments and prescribed fires. Despite annual treatment of more...
Elemental mapping by Dawn reveals exogenic H in Vesta's regolith
Thomas H. Prettyman, David W. Mittlefehldt, Naoyuki Yamashita, David J. Lawrence, Andrew W. Beck, William C. Feldman, Timothy J. McCoy, Harry Y. McSween, Michael J. Toplis, Timothy N. Titus, Pasquale Tricarico, Robert C. Reedy, John S. Hendricks, Olivier Forni, Lucille Le Corre, Jian-Yang Li, Hugau Mizzon, Vishnu Reddy, Carol A. Raymond, Christopher T. Russell
2012, Science (338) 242-246
Using Dawn’s Gamma Ray and Neutron Detector, we tested models of Vesta’s evolution based on studies of howardite, eucrite, and diogenite (HED) meteorites. Global Fe/O and Fe/Si ratios are consistent with HED compositions. Neutron measurements confirm that a thick, diogenitic lower crust is exposed in the Rheasilvia basin, which is...
Long-term change along the Colorado River in Grand Canyon National Park (1889-2011)
R. H. Webb, J. Belnap, M. L. Scott, J.M. Friedman, T.C. Esque
2012, Newsletter
The Colorado River and its riverine resources have undergone profound changes since completion of Glen Canyon Dam in 1963, as every river runner with any history in Grand Canyon will attest. Long-term monitoring data are difficult to obtain for high-value resource areas (Webb et al. 2009), particularly in remote parts...
Hotspot: the Snake River Geothermal Drilling Project--initial report
J.W. Shervais, D. Nielson, T. Lachmar, E. H. Christiansen, L. Morgan, Wayne C. Shanks, C. Delahunty, D.R. Schmitt, L.M. Liberty, D.D. Blackwell, J. M. Glen, J.A. Kessler, K.E. Potter, M.M. Jean, C.J. Sant, T. Freeman
2012, Geothermal Resources Council Transactions (36) 767-772
The Snake River volcanic province (SRP) overlies a thermal anomaly that extends deep into the mantle; it represents one of the highest heat flow provinces in North America. The primary goal of this project is to evaluate geothermal potential in three distinct settings: (1) Kimama site: inferred high sub-aquifer geothermal...
Anisotropic path modeling to assess pedestrian-evacuation potential from Cascadia-related tsunamis in the US Pacific Northwest
Nathan J. Wood, Mathew C. Schmidtlein
2012, Natural Hazards (62) 275-300
Recent disasters highlight the threat that tsunamis pose to coastal communities. When developing tsunami-education efforts and vertical-evacuation strategies, emergency managers need to understand how much time it could take for a coastal population to reach higher ground before tsunami waves arrive. To improve efforts to model pedestrian evacuations from tsunamis,...
Strontium isotope systematics of mixing groundwater and oil-field brine at Goose Lake in northeastern Montana, USA
Zell E. Peterman, Joanna N. Thamke, Kiyoto Futa, Todd Preston
2012, Applied Geochemistry (27) 2403-2408
Groundwater, surface water, and soil in the Goose Lake oil field in northeastern Montana have been affected by Cl−-rich oil-field brines during long-term petroleum production. Ongoing multidisciplinary geochemical and geophysical studies have identified the degree and local extent of interaction between brine and groundwater. Fourteen samples representing groundwater, surface water,...
Fixed recurrence and slip models better predict earthquake behavior than the time- and slip-predictable models 1: repeating earthquakes
Justin L. Rubinstein, William L. Ellsworth, Kate Huihsuan Chen, Naoki Uchida
2012, Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth (117)
The behavior of individual events in repeating earthquake sequences in California, Taiwan and Japan is better predicted by a model with fixed inter-event time or fixed slip than it is by the time- and slip-predictable models for earthquake occurrence. Given that repeating earthquakes are highly regular in both inter-event time...
Source characterization of near-surface chemical explosions at SAFOD
Fred F. Pollitz, Justin Rubinstein, William Ellsworth
2012, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (102) 1348-1360
A series of near‐surface chemical explosions conducted at the San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth (SAFOD) main hole were recorded by high‐frequency downhole receiver arrays in April 2005. These seismic recordings at depths ranging from the surface to 2.3 km constrain the shallow velocity and attenuation structure as well as...
Fundamental questions of earthquake statistics, source behavior, and the estimation of earthquake probabilities from possible foreshocks
Andrew J. Michael
2012, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (102) 2547-2562
Estimates of the probability that an ML 4.8 earthquake, which occurred near the southern end of the San Andreas fault on 24 March 2009, would be followed by an M 7 mainshock over the following three days vary from 0.0009 using a Gutenberg–Richter model of aftershock statistics (Reasenberg and Jones,...
Mapping critical loads of nitrogen deposition for aquatic ecosystems in the Rocky Mountains, USA
Leora Nanus, David W. Clow, Jasmine E. Saros, Verlin C. Stephens, Donald H. Campbell
2012, Environmental Pollution (166) 125-135
Spatially explicit estimates of critical loads of nitrogen (N) deposition (CLNdep) for nutrient enrichment in aquatic ecosystems were developed for the Rocky Mountains, USA, using a geostatistical approach. The lowest CLNdep estimates (−1 yr−1) occurred in high-elevation basins with steep slopes, sparse vegetation, and abundance...
Arsenic speciation in food chains from mid-Atlantic hydrothermal vents
Vivien F. Taylor, Brian P. Jackson, Matthew R. Siegfried, Jana Navratilova, Kevin A. Francesconi, Julie Kirshtein, Mary Voytek
2012, Environmental Chemistry (9) 130-138
Arsenic concentration and speciation were determined in benthic fauna collected from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge hydrothermal vents. The shrimp species, Rimicaris exoculata, the vent chimney-dwelling mussel, Bathymodiolus azoricus, Branchipolynoe seepensis, a commensal worm of B. azoricus and the gastropod Peltospira smaragdina showed variations in As concentration and in stable isotope (δ13C...
Direct U-Pb dating of Cretaceous and Paleocene dinosaur bones, San Juan Basin, New Mexico: COMMENT
Alan E. Koenig, Spencer G. Lucas, Leonid A. Neymark, Andrew B. Heckert, Robert M. Sullivan, Steven E. Jasinski, Denver W. Fowler
2012, Geology (40) e262-e262
Based on U-Pb dating of two dinosaur bones from the San Juan Basin of New Mexico (United States), Fassett et al. (2011) claim to provide the first successful direct dating of fossil bones and to establish the presence of Paleocene dinosaurs. Fassett et al. ignore previously published work that directly...
Ecological effects of climate change on salt marsh wildlife: a case study from a highly urbanized estuary
Karen M. Thorne, John Y. Takekawa, Deborah L. Elliott-Fisk
2012, Journal of Coastal Research (28) 1477-1487
Coastal areas are high-risk zones subject to the impacts of global climate change, with significant increases in the frequencies of extreme weather and storm events, and sea-level rise forecast by 2100. These physical processes are expected to alter estuaries, resulting in loss of intertidal wetlands and their component wildlife species....
Gypsum
R.D. Crangle Jr.
2012, Mining Engineering (64) 59-59
The United States is the world's fourth leading producer and consumer of gypsum. Production of gypsum in the U.S. during 2011 was estimated to be 9.4 Mt (103 million st), an increase of 6 percent compared with 2010 production. The average price of mined crude gypsum was $7/t ($6.35/st). Synthetic...
Fluorspar
M. Miller
2012, Mining Engineering (64) 51-52
World fluorspar demand continued to show signs of recovery from 2008-2009 recession. In 2011, nearly all fluorspar (CaF2) consumed in the United States was imported. Hastie Mining and Trucking Co. produced some fluorspar as a byproduct from its limestone quarry operations in Illinois. In addition, a small amount of usable...
Bromine
Joyce A. Ober
2012, Mining Engineering (64) 40-41
The element bromine is found principally as a dissolved species in seawater, evaporitic (salt) lakes and underground brines associated with petroleum deposits. Seawater contains about 65 parts per million of bromine or an estimated 100 Tt (110 trillion st). In the Middle East, the highly saline waters of the Dead...
How many records should be used in ASCE/SEI-7 ground motion scaling procedure?
Juan C. Reyes, Erol Kalkan
2012, Earthquake Spectra (28) 1223-1242
U.S. national building codes refer to the ASCE/SEI-7 provisions for selecting and scaling ground motions for use in nonlinear response history analysis of structures. Because the limiting values for the number of records in the ASCE/SEI-7 are based on engineering experience, this study examines the required number of records statistically,...
Bauxite and alumina
E.L. Bray
2012, Mining Engineering (64) 35-36
The United States is import-reliant for nearly all of the bauxite that it consumes. Small amounts of bauxite and bauxitic clays are produced in Alabama, Arkansas and Georgia for nonmetallurgical uses. Metallurgical-grade bauxite (crude dry) imports in 2011 totaled 9.54 Mt (10.5 million st), 18 percent more than the quantity...
Demographics, diet, movements, and survival of an isolated, unmanaged raccoon Procyon lotor (Procyonidae, Carnivora) population on the Outer Banks of North Carolina
Arielle Waldstein Parsons, Theodore R. Simons, Allan F. O’Connell, Michael K. Stoskopf
2012, Mammalia (77) 21-30
Raccoons (Procyon lotor) are highly adaptable meso-carnivores that inhabit many environments, including the Atlantic barrier islands, where their role as predators of declining, beach-nesting bird and turtle species is of particular interest. Population models that improve our understanding of predator-prey dynamics are receiving increasing attention in the literature; however, their...
Industrial diamond
D.W. Olson
2012, Mining Engineering (64) 62-63
Estimated 2011 world production of natural and synthetic industrial diamond was about 4.45 billion carats. During 2011, natural industrial diamonds were produced in more than 20 countries, and synthetic industrial diamond was produced in at least 13 countries. About 98 percent of the combined natural and synthetic global output was...
Directional connectivity in hydrology and ecology
Laurel G. Larsen, Jungyill Choi, Martha K. Nungesser, Judson W. Harvey
2012, Ecological Applications (22) 2204-2220
Quantifying hydrologic and ecological connectivity has contributed to understanding transport and dispersal processes and assessing ecosystem degradation or restoration potential. However, there has been little synthesis across disciplines. The growing field of ecohydrology and recent recognition that loss of hydrologic connectivity is leading to a global decline in biodiversity underscore...
Industrial garnet
D.W. Olson
2012, Mining Engineering (64) 64-64
Garnet has been used as a gemstone since the Bronze Age. However, garnet's angular fractures, relatively high hardness and specific gravity, chemical inertness, and nontoxicity make it ideal for many industrial applications. It is also free of crystalline silica and can be recycled....
Bathythermal habitat use by strains of Great Lakes- and Finger Lakes-origin lake trout in Lake Huron after a change in prey fish abundance and composition
Roger A. Bergstedt, Ray L. Argyle, Charles C. Krueger, William W. Taylor
2012, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (141) 263-274
A study conducted in Lake Huron during October 1998–June 2001 found that strains of Great Lakes-origin (GLO) lake trout Salvelinus namaycush occupied significantly higher temperatures than did Finger Lakes-origin (FLO; New York) lake trout based on data from archival (or data storage) telemetry tags that recorded only temperature. During 2002...
Mineral resource of the month: aluminum
E. Lee Bray
2012, Earth (57) 25-25
The article offers information on aluminum, a mineral resource which is described as the third-most abundant element in Earth's crust. According to the article, aluminum is the second-most used metal. Hans Christian Oersted, a Danish chemist, was the first to isolate aluminum in the laboratory. Aluminum is described as lightweight,...
Assessing California groundwater susceptibility using trace concentrations of halogenated volatile organic compounds
Daniel A. Deeds, Justin T. Kulongoski, Kenneth Belitz
2012, Environmental Science & Technology (46) 13128-13135
Twenty-four halogenated volatile organic compounds (hVOCs) and SF6 were measured in groundwater samples collected from 312 wells across California at concentrations as low as 10–12 grams per kilogram groundwater. The hVOCs detected are predominately anthropogenic (i.e., “ahVOCs”) and as such their distribution delineates where groundwaters are impacted and susceptible to...
