Impacts of tree rows on grassland birds & potential nest predators: A removal experiment
Kevin S. Ellison, Christine Ribic, David W. Sample, Megan J. Fawcett, John D. Dadisman
2013, PLoS ONE (8)
Globally, grasslands and the wildlife that inhabit them are widely imperiled. Encroachment by shrubs and trees has widely impacted grasslands in the past 150 years. In North America, most grassland birds avoid nesting near woody vegetation. Because woody vegetation fragments grasslands and potential nest predator diversity and abundance is often...
Structure and tectonic evolution of the eastern Española Basin, Rio Grande rift, north-central New Mexico
Daniel Koning, V. J. Grauch, Sean D. Connell, J. Ferguson, William McIntosh, Janet L. Slate, Elmira Wan, W.S. Baldridge
2013, Book chapter, New perspectives on Rio Grande Rift Basins: From tectonics to groundwater
We describe the structure of the eastern Española Basin and use stratigraphic and stratal attitude data to interpret its tectonic development. This area consists of a west-dipping half graben in the northern Rio Grande rift that includes several intrabasinal grabens, faults, and folds. The Embudo–Santa Clara–Pajarito fault system, a collection...
Geochemistry, petrography, and zircon U-Pb geochronology of Paleozoic metaigneous rocks in the Mount Veta area of east-central Alaska: implications for the evolution of the westernmost part of the Yukon-Tanana terrane
Cynthia Dusel-Bacon, Warren C. Day, John N. Aleinikoff
2013, Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences (50) 826-846
We report the results of new mapping, whole-rock major, minor, and trace-element geochemistry, and petrography for metaigneous rocks from the Mount Veta area in the westernmost part of the allochthonous Yukon–Tanana terrane (YTT) in east-central Alaska. These rocks include tonalitic mylonite gneiss and mafic metaigneous rocks from the Chicken metamorphic...
Sequential Gaussian co-simulation of rate decline parameters of longwall gob gas ventholes
C. Özgen Karacan, Ricardo A. Olea
2013, International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences (59) 1-14
Gob gas ventholes (GGVs) are used to control methane inflows into a longwall mining operation by capturing the gas within the overlying fractured strata before it enters the work environment. Using geostatistical co-simulation techniques, this paper maps the parameters of their rate decline behaviors across the study area, a longwall...
An evaluation of seepage gains and losses in Indian Creek Reservoir, Ada County, Idaho, April 2010–November 2011
Marshall L. Williams, Alexandra B. Etheridge
2013, Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5047
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Idaho Department of Water Resources, conducted an investigation on Indian Creek Reservoir, a small impoundment in east Ada County, Idaho, to quantify groundwater seepage into and out of the reservoir. Data from the study will assist the Idaho Water Resources Department’s Comprehensive...
Landscape consequences of natural gas extraction in Allegheny and Susquehanna Counties, Pennsylvania, 2004--2010
E.T. Slonecker, L.E. Milheim, C.M. Roig-Silva, A.R. Malizia
2013, Open-File Report 2013-1025
Increased demands for cleaner burning energy, coupled with the relatively recent technological advances in accessing unconventional hydrocarbon-rich geologic formations, have led to an intense effort to find and extract natural gas from various underground sources around the country. One of these sources, the Marcellus Shale, located in the Allegheny Plateau,...
Geology and oil and gas assessment of the Fruitland Total Petroleum System, San Juan Basin, New Mexico and Colorado: Chapter 6 in Geology and Oil and Gas Assessment of the Fruitland Total Petroleum System, San Juan Basin, New Mexico and Colorado
J.L. Ridgley, S. M. Condon, J. R. Hatch
2013, Data Series 69-F-6
The Fruitland Total Petroleum System (TPS) of the San Juan Basin Province includes all genetically related hydrocarbons generated from coal beds and organic-rich shales in the Cretaceous Fruitland Formation. Coal beds are considered to be the primary source of the hydrocarbons. Potential reservoir rocks in the Fruitland TPS consist of...
Paleomagnetic correlation and ages of basalt flow groups in coreholes at and near the Naval Reactors Facility, Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho
Duane E. Champion, Linda C. Davis, Mary K.V. Hodges, Marvin A. Lanphere
2013, Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5012
Paleomagnetic inclination and polarity studies were conducted on subcore samples from eight coreholes located at and near the Naval Reactors Facility (NRF), Idaho National Laboratory (INL). These studies were used to characterize and to correlate successive stratigraphic basalt flow groups in each corehole to basalt flow groups with similar paleomagnetic...
Geophysical and hydrologic analysis of an earthen dam site in southern Westchester County, New York
Anthony Chu, Frederick Stumm, Peter K. Joesten, Michael L. Noll
2013, Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5247
Ninety percent of the drinking water for New York City passes through the Hillview Reservoir facility in the City of Yonkers, Westchester County, New York. In the past, several seeps located downslope from the reservoir have flowed out from the side of the steepest slope at the southern end of...
Representation of ecological systems within the protected areas network of the continental United States
Jocelyn L. Aycrigg, Anne Davidson, Leona K. Svancara, Kevin J. Gergely, Alexa McKerrow, J. Michael Scott
2013, PLoS ONE (8)
If conservation of biodiversity is the goal, then the protected areas network of the continental US may be one of our best conservation tools for safeguarding ecological systems (i.e., vegetation communities). We evaluated representation of ecological systems in the current protected areas network and found insufficient representation at three vegetation...
Lateglacial and Holocene climate, disturbance and permafrost peatland dynamics on the Seward Peninsula, western Alaska
Stephanie D. Hunt, Zicheng Yu, Miriam C. Jones
2013, Quaternary Science Reviews (63) 42-58
Northern peatlands have accumulated large carbon (C) stocks, acting as a long-term atmospheric C sink since the last deglaciation. How these C-rich ecosystems will respond to future climate change, however, is still poorly understood. Furthermore, many northern peatlands exist in regions underlain by permafrost, adding to the challenge of projecting...
Lead isotope determinations from sulfide mineral occurrences--Russian Far East
Stan E. Church, Nikolai A. Goryachev, Vladimir I. Shpikerman
2013, Data Series 743
The lead isotope database for sulfide deposits and occurrences in the Russian Far East was funded by the Mineral Resources Program, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in conjunction with the collaborative studies of mineral resources by the Russian Academy of Sciences and the U. S. Geological Survey (Nokleberg and others, 1996)....
Movements and dive patterns of short-finned pilot whales (Globicephala macrorhynchus) released from a mass stranding in the Florida Keys
Randall S. Wells, Erin M. Fougeres, Arthur G. Cooper, Robert O. Stevens, Micah Brodsky, Robert Lingenfelser, Chris Dold, David C. Douglas
2013, Aquatic Mammals (39) 61-72
Short-finned pilot whales (Globicephala macrorhynchus) are among the most common cetaceans to engage in mass strandings in the southeastern United States. Because these are primarily pelagic, continental shelf-edge animals, much of what is known about this species has derived from mass stranding events. Post-release monitoring via satellite-linked telemetry was conducted...
The United States-Mexican Border - A land of conflict and opportunity: Chapter 1 in United States-Mexican Borderlands: Facing tomorrow's challenges through USGS science
Randall G. Updike
2013, Circular 1380-1
The boundary between the United States and Mexico was created for convenient expediency through political debate and agreements (fig. 1–1). With the exception of the eastern segment of the border, which follows the course of the Rio Grande (known as the Rio Bravo in Mexico), the defining of this border...
Hydrologic data and groundwater flow simulations in the vicinity of Long Lake, Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, near Gary, Indiana
David C. Lampe, E. Randall Bayless
2013, Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5003
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) collected data and simulated groundwater flow to increase understanding of the hydrology and the effects of drainage alterations to the water table in the vicinity of Long Lake, near Gary, Indiana. East Long Lake and West Long Lake (collectively known as Long Lake) make up...
Characterization of the Hosgri Fault Zone and adjacent structures in the offshore Santa Maria Basin, south-central California
C. Richard Willingham, Jan D. Rietman, Ronald G. Heck, William R. Lettis
2013, Bulletin 1995-CC
The Hosgri Fault Zone trends subparallel to the south-central California coast for 110 km from north of Point Estero to south of Purisima Point and forms the eastern margin of the present offshore Santa Maria Basin. Knowledge of the attributes of the Hosgri Fault Zone is important for petroleum development,...
Groundwater-quality data in the Cascade Range and Modoc Plateau study unit, 2010-Results from the California GAMA Program
Jennifer L. Shelton, Miranda S. Fram, Kenneth Belitz
2013, Data Series 688
Groundwater quality in the 39,000-square-kilometer Cascade Range and Modoc Plateau (CAMP) study unit was investigated by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) from July through October 2010, as part of the California State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) Groundwater Ambient Monitoring and Assessment (GAMA) Program’s Priority Basin Project (PBP). The GAMA...
Near real-time monitoring of volcanic surface deformation from GPS measurements at Long Valley Caldera, California
Kang Hyeun Ji, Thomas A. Herring, Andrea L. Llenos
2013, Geophysical Research Letters (40) 1054-1058
Long Valley Caldera in eastern California is an active volcanic area and has shown continued unrest in the last three decades. We have monitored surface deformation from Global Positioning System (GPS) data by using a projection method that we call Targeted Projection Operator (TPO). TPO projects residual time series with...
Short-term effects of small dam removal on freshwater mussel assemblage
Ryan J. Heise, W. Gregory Cope, Thomas J. Kwak, Chris B. Eads
2013, WALKERANA (16) 41-52
Dam removal is increasingly used to restore lotic habitat and biota, but its effects on freshwater mussels (family Unionidae) are not well known. We conducted a four-year study to assess short-term effects on mussels after removal of a small hydropower dam on the Deep River (Cape Fear River drainage), North...
Upper crustal structure of Alabama from regional magnetic and gravity data: Using geology to interpret geophysics, and vice versa
Mark G. Steltenpohl, J. Wright Horton Jr., Robert D. Hatcher, Isidore Zietz, David L. Daniels, Michael W. Higgins
2013, Geosphere (9) 1044-1064
Aeromagnetic and gravity data sets obtained for Alabama (United States) have been digitally merged and filtered to enhance upper-crustal anomalies. Beneath the Appalachian Basin in northwestern Alabama, broad deep-crustal anomalies of the continental interior include the Grenville front and New York–Alabama lineament (dextral fault). Toward the east and south, high-angle...
U-Pb ages of detrital zircons from the Tertiary Mississippi River delta plain in central Louisiana: Insights into sediment provenance
William H. Craddock, Andrew R. C. Kylander-Clark
2013, Geosphere (9) 1832-1851
The sources of the tremendous amount of Cenozoic siliciclastic sediment deposited in the Gulf of Mexico region remain debated because of a lack of definitive provenance-identifying characteristics. In an effort to build on prior provenance analysis, we present 101–160 single-grain detrital zircon U-Pb ages for each of 10 outcrop samples...
Correlation of geothermal springs with sub-surface fault terminations revealed by high-resolution, UAV-acquired magnetic data
Jonathan M.G. Glen, A.E. Egger, C. Ippolito, N.Athens
2013, Conference Paper, Proceedings Thirty-eighth Workshop on Geothermal Reservoir Engineering
There is widespread agreement that geothermal springs in extensional geothermal systems are concentrated at fault tips and in fault interaction zones where porosity and permeability are dynamically maintained (Curewitz and Karson, 1997; Faulds et al., 2010). Making these spatial correlations typically involves geological and geophysical studies in order to map...
Where fast weathering creates thin regolith and slow weathering creates thick regolith
Ekaterina Bazilevskaya, Marina Lebedeva, Milan J. Pavich, Susan L. Brantley, Gernot Rother, Dilworth Y. Parkinson, David Cole
2013, Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 847-858
Weathering disaggregates rock into regolith – the fractured or granular earth material that sustains life on the continental land surface. Here, we investigate what controls the depth of regolith formed on ridges of two rock compositions with similar initial porosities in Virginia (USA). A priori, we predicted that the regolith...
Drought and deluge: Effects of recent climate variability on groundwater levels in eastern Arkansas
John B. Czarnecki, T.P. Schrader
2013, Fact Sheet 2012-3135
Arkansas experienced wide extremes in climate variability during the period of 2005 to 2010, recording the largest annual precipitation ever recorded in the State (100.05 inches) in 2009. Many weather stations across the State reported between 80 to 90 inches of rainfall in 2009. For comparison, the average annual precipitation...
Effects of recent climate variability on groundwater levels in eastern Arkansas
John B. Czarnecki, T.P. Schrader
2013, Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5258
Water-level fluctuations in wells completed in the Mississippi River Valley alluvial aquifer in eastern Arkansas were compared to variability in annual precipitation, an indicator of climate variability. The wettest year on record in Little Rock, Arkansas, occurred in 2009 with 81.79 inches of precipitation compared to an average of 47.1...
