Mineral resource of the month: soda ash
Dennis S. Kostic
2006, Geotimes (2006)
Soda ash, also known as sodium carbonate, is an alkali chemical that can be refined from the mineral trona and from sodium carbonate-bearing brines. Several chemical processes exist for manufacturing synthetic soda ash....
Odontomariinae, a new middle paleozoic subfamily of slit-bearing euophaloidean gastropods (Euophalomorpha, Gastropoda)
J. Fryda, D. Heidelberger, R. B. Blodgett
2006, Neues Jahrbuch fur Geologie und Palaontologie - Monatshefte 225-248
A new subfamily, the Odontomariinae subfam. nov., is established herein for a distinctive group of uncoiled, slit-bearing Middle Devonian euomphalid gastropods. Its taxonomic position is based on the recent discovery of open coiled protoconchs and it is placed within the Euomphalomorpha. The genera Odontomaria Odontomaria C. F. Roemer and Tubiconcha...
Mineral resource of the month: mercury
William E. Brooks
2006, Geotimes (2006)
The ore of mercury, cinnabar, is soft and dark red, and native mercury is one of a few metals that is liquid at room temperatures. Cinnabar from Almaden, Spain, the world’s oldest producing mercury mine, was used during Roman times, and the chemical symbol for mercury (Hg) is from "hydrargyrum,"...
First USGS urban seismic hazard maps predict the effects of soils
C.H. Cramer, J.S. Gomberg, E.S. Schweig, B.A. Waldron, K. Tucker
2006, Seismological Research Letters (77) 23-29
Probabilistic and scenario urban seismic hazard maps have been produced for Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee covering a six-quadrangle area of the city. The nine probabilistic maps are for peak ground acceleration and 0.2 s and 1.0 s spectral acceleration and for 10%, 5%, and 2% probability of being exceeded in...
Characterization of surface and ground water δ18O seasonal variation and its use for estimating groundwater residence times
Michael M. Reddy, Paul F. Schuster, Carol Kendall, Micaela B. Reddy
2006, Hydrological Processes (20) 1753-1772
18O is an ideal tracer for characterizing hydrological processes because it can be reliably measured in several watershed hydrological compartments. Here, we present multiyear isotopic data, i.e. 18O variations (δ18O), for precipitation inputs, surface water and groundwater in the Shingobee River Headwaters Area (SRHA), a well-instrumented research catchment in north-central Minnesota....
Sexual dimorphism of the internal mandibular chamber in Fayum Pliohyracidae (Mammalia)
de Blieux, M.R. Baumrind, E.L. Simons, P.S. Chatrath, G.E. Meyer, Y.S. Attia
2006, Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology (26) 160-169
An internal mandibular fenestra and chamber are found in many fossil hyracoids. The internal mandibular fenestra is located on the lingual surface of the mandibular corpus and opens into a chamber within the mandible. The mandibular chamber is maximally developed in late Eocene Thyrohyrax meyeri and early Oligocene Thyrohyrax domorictus...
Evaluation of gridded snow water equivalent and satellite snow cover products for mountain basins in a hydrologic model
K.A. Dressler, G.H. Leavesley, R.C. Bales, S.R. Fassnacht
2006, Conference Paper, Hydrological Processes
The USGS precipitation-runoff modelling system (PRMS) hydrologic model was used to evaluate experimental, gridded, 1 km2 snow-covered area (SCA) and snow water equivalent (SWE) products for two headwater basins within the Rio Grande (i.e. upper Rio Grande River basin) and Salt River (i.e. Black River basin) drainages in the southwestern...
Groundwater-supported evapotranspiration within glaciated watersheds under conditions of climate change
D. Cohen, M. Person, R. Daannen, S. Locke, D. Dahlstrom, V. Zabielski, T. C. Winter, D.O. Rosenberry, H. Wright, E. Ito, J.L. Nieber, W.J. Gutowski Jr.
2006, Conference Paper, Journal of Hydrology
This paper analyzes the effects of geology and geomorphology on surface-water/-groundwater interactions, evapotranspiration, and recharge under conditions of long-term climatic change. Our analysis uses hydrologic data from the glaciated Crow Wing watershed in central Minnesota, USA, combined with a hydrologic model of transient coupled unsaturated/saturated flow (HYDRAT2D). Analysis of historical...
Iodine
S.T. Krukowski
2006, Mining Engineering (58) 38-40
In descending order, Chile, Japan and the United States have the largest iodine reserves. Chile produces iodine from iodate minerals while Japan and the United States produce it from sodium iodide solutions found in underground iodide solutions. Iodine is also produced from subterranean brines in Azerbaijan, Russia, Turkmenista, Indonesia and...
Proximate and landscape factors influence grassland bird distributions
M.A. Cunningham, Douglas H. Johnson
2006, Ecological Applications (16) 1062-1075
Ecologists increasingly recognize that birds can respond to features well beyond their normal areas of activity, but little is known about the relative importance of landscapes and proximate factors or about the scales of landscapes that influence bird distributions. We examined the influences of tree cover at both proximate and...
Explicit use of the Biot coefficient in predicting shear-wave velocity of water-saturated sediments
Myung W. Lee
2006, Geophysical Prospecting (54) 177-185
Predicting the shear-wave (S-wave) velocity is important in seismic modelling, amplitude analysis with offset, and other exploration and engineering applications. Under the low-frequency approximation, the classical Biot-Gassmann theory relates the Biot coefficient to the bulk modulus of water-saturated sediments. If the Biot coefficient under in situ conditions can be estimated,...
Scattered surface wave energy in the seismic coda
Y. Zeng
2006, Pure and Applied Geophysics (163) 533-548
One of the many important contributions that Aki has made to seismology pertains to the origin of coda waves (Aki, 1969; Aki and Chouet, 1975). In this paper, I revisit Aki's original idea of the role of scattered surface waves in the seismic coda. Based on the radiative transfer theory,...
Advances in recreational water quality monitoring at Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore
Wendy Smith, Meredith Nevers, Richard L. Whitman
2006, Park Science (24) 19-23
Indiana Dunes has improved its ability to protect the health of swimmers through better science-based management and increased understanding of contaminants. Most research has focused on Escherichia coli and its nature, sources, and distribution because it is widely accepted as an indicator of potential pathogens. Though research on E. coli...
Albatross species demonstrate regional differences in North Pacific marine contamination
M. Finkelstein, B.S. Keitt, D.A. Croll, B. Tershy, Walter M. Jarman, S. Rodriguez-Pastor, D.J. Anderson, P.R. Sievert, D. R. Smith
2006, Ecological Applications (16) 678-686
Recent concern about negative effects on human health from elevated organochlorine and mercury concentrations in marine foods has highlighted the need to understand temporal and spatial patterns of marine pollution. Seabirds, long-lived pelagic predators with wide foraging ranges, can be used as indicators of regional contaminant patterns across large temporal...
Genetic structure of Cantharellus formosus populations in a second-growth temperate rain forest of the Pacific Northwest
Regina S. Redman, Judith Ranson, Rusty J. Rodriguez
2006, Pacific Northwest Fungi (1) 1-13
Cantharellus formosus growing on the Olympic Peninsula of the Pacific Northwest was sampled from September – November 1995 for genetic analysis. A total of ninety-six basidiomes from five clusters separated from one another by 3 - 25 meters were genetically characterized by PCR analysis of 13 arbitrary loci and rDNA sequences. The number...
Gas hydrate potential of the mid Atlantic outer continental shelf
William W. Shedd, Deborah R. Hutchinson
2006, Fire in the Ice: NETL Methane Hydrate Newsletter (6) 8-9
For the last two years, the Minerals Management Service (MMS) has been studying the resource potential of gas hydrates in federal offshore lands of the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) off the Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, Pacific, and Alaska in collaboration with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the Department of Energy...
Modeling brook trout presence and absence from landscape variables using four different analytical methods
Paul J. Steen, Dora R. Passino-Reader, Michael J. Wiley
2006, Book chapter, Landscape influences on stream habitats and biological assemblages
As a part of the Great Lakes Regional Aquatic Gap Analysis Project, we evaluated methodologies for modeling associations between fish species and habitat characteristics at a landscape scale. To do this, we created brook trout Salvelinus fontinalis presence and absence models based on four different techniques: multiple linear regression, logistic regression, neural...
A broadscale fish-habitat model development process: Genesee Basin, New York
James E. McKenna Jr., Richard R. McDonald, Chris Castiglione, Sandy S. Morrison, Kurt P. Kowalski, Dora R. May Passino
2006, Book chapter, Landscape influences on stream habitats and biological assemblages
We describe a methodology for developing species-habitat models using available fish and stream habitat data from New York State, focusing on the Genesee basin. Electrofishing data from the New York Department of Environmental Conservation were standardized and used for model development and testing. Four types of predictive models (multiple linear...
Petrography and geochemistry of the Middle Devonian coal from Luquan, Yunnan Province, China
S. Dai, D. Han, C. L. Chou
2006, Fuel (85) 456-464
Coals from Luquan, Yunnan Province, China, have high contents of cutinite and microsporinite, with an average of 55 and 33.5 vol%, respectively, (on a mineral-free basis). The coals are classified as cutinitic liptobiolith, sporinite-rich durain, cutinite-rich durain, and sporinitic liptobiolith. These four liptinite-rich coals are often interlayered within the coal...
Coastal groundwater/surface-water interactions: a Great Lakes case study
Brian P. Neff, Sheridan K. Haack, Donald O. Rosenberry, Jacqueline F. Savino, Scott C. Lundstrom
2006, Book chapter, Coastal hydrology and processes
Key similarities exist between marine and Great Lakes coastal environments. Water and nutrient fluxes across lakebeds in the Great Lakes are influenced by seiche and wind set-up and set-down, analogous to tidal influence in marine settings. Groundwater/surface-water interactions also commonly involve a saline-fresh water interface, although in the Great-Lakes cases,...
Demographic patterns of postfire regeneration in Mediterranean-climate shrublands of California
Jon E. Keeley, C. J. Fotheringham, M. Baer-Keeley
2006, Ecological Monographs (76) 235-255
This study uses detailed demographic data to determine the extent to which functional groupings, based on seedling recruitment and resprouting response to fire, capture the dynamics of postfire responses and early successional change in fire-prone ecosystems. Following massive wildfires in southern California, USA, we sampled chaparral and sage scrub vegetation...
Nature and characteristics of the flows that carved the Simud and Tiu outflow channels, Mars
J.A.P. Rodriguez, K. L. Tanaka, H. Miyamoto, S. Sasaki
2006, Geophysical Research Letters (33)
Geomorphic and topographic relations of higher and lower levels of dissection within the Simud and Tiu Valles outflow channels on Mars reveal new insights into their formational histories. We find that the water floods that carved the higher channel floors were primarily sourced from Hydaspis Chaos. The floods apparently branched...
Fuel breaks affect nonnative species abundance in Californian plant communities
K. E. Merriam, Jon E. Keeley, J. L. Beyers
2006, Ecological Applications (16) 515-527
We evaluated the abundance of nonnative plants on fuel breaks and in adjacent untreated areas to determine if fuel treatments promote the invasion of nonnative plant species. Understanding the relationship between fuel treatments and nonnative plants is becoming increasingly important as federal and state agencies are currently implementing large fuel...
Measuring groundwater-surface water interaction and its effect on wetland stream benthic productivity, Trout Lake watershed, northern Wisconsin, USA
R. J. Hunt, M. Strand, J.F. Walker
2006, Conference Paper, Journal of Hydrology
Measurements of groundwater-surface water exchange at three wetland stream sites were related to patterns in benthic productivity as part of the US Geological Survey's Northern Temperate Lakes-Water, Energy and Biogeochemical Budgets (NTL-WEBB) project. The three sites included one high groundwater discharge (HGD) site, one weak groundwater discharge (WGD) site, and...
Phylogeography and genetic identification of the newly-discovered populations of torrent salamanders (Rhyacotriton cascade and R. variegatus) in the central Cascades (USA)
R.S. Wagner, Mark P. Miller, Susan M. Haig
2006, Herpetologica (62) 63-70
Newly discovered populations of Rhyacotritonidae were investigated for taxonomic identity, hybridization, and sympatry. Species in the genus Rhyacotriton have been historically difficult to identify using morphological characters. Mitochondrial (mtDNA) 16S ribosomal RNA sequences (491 bp) and allozymes (6 loci) were used to identify the distribution of populations occurring intermediate between the...
