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This study presents major and trace element data for 243 mantle garnet xenocrysts from six kimberlites in parts of western North America. The geochemical data for the garnet xenocrysts are used to infer the composition, thickness, and tectonothermal affinity of the mantle lithosphere beneath western Laurentia at the time of...

Tag retention and tag-related mortality are concerns for any tagging study but are rarely estimated. We assessed retention and mortality rates for esophageal radio tag implants in adult sockeye salmon Oncorhynchus nerka. Migrating sockeye salmon captured at the outlet of Lake Clark, Alaska, were implanted with one of four different...

A new Nearctic lumbriculid genus, Eremidrilus, includes four new California species (E. elegans, E. coyote, E. ritocsi, and E. felini) plus the new combination of Trichodrilus allegheniensis Cook, 1971 from the eastern U.S.A. Eremidrilus has the Trichodrilus arrangement of reproductive organs, but is distinguished by a filiform proboscis and male...

Effective discharge has been used to describe the streamflow level that is responsible for transporting the most sediment over the long term. Careful inspection reveals that this concept may not have been well defined, and different interpretations have led to conflicting representations. Because total load is ultimately the quantity of...

This paper describes erosion and sedimentation associated with the 17 July 1998 Papua New Guinea tsunami. Observed within two months of the tsunami, distinct deposits of a layer averaging 8-cm thick of gray sand rested on a brown muddy soil. In most cases the sand is normally graded, with more...

Two periods of volcanic unrest occurred between 1989 and 1998 in the Long Valley Caldera, eastern California. Numerous earthquakes were recorded, and these periods of unrest were documented with high-precision geodetic measurements. The first round of unrest started rapidly in late 1989 and slowly decreased in rate through the early...

The discovery of Brandon vent on the southern East Pacific Rise is providing new insights into the controls on midocean ridge hydrothermal vent fluid chemistry. The physical conditions at the time ofsampling (287 bar and 405??C) place the Brandon fluids very close to the critical point of seawater (298 bar...

The use of instruments based on the Doppler principle for measuring water velocity and computing discharge is common within the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). The instruments and software have changed appreciably during the last 5 years; therefore, the USGS has begun field validation of the instruments used to make discharge...

The Qinling orogen preserves a record of late mid-Proterozoic to Cenozoic tectonism in central China. High-pressure metamorphism and ophiolite emplacement (Songshugou ophiolite) assembled the Yangtze craton, including the lower Qinling unit, into Rodinia during the ~1.0 Ga Grenvillian orogeny. The lower Qinling unit then rifted from the Yangtze craton at...

Whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) is a masting species that produces relatively large, fat- and protein-rich nuts that are consumed by grizzly bears (Ursus arctos horribilis). Trees produce abundant nut crops in some years and poor crops in other years. Grizzly bear survival...

The final event in a complicated hydrothermal history at the Meikle gold deposit was gold deficient but caused extensive postore dissolution of carbonate, collapse brecciation, and precipitation of calcite and barite crystals in the resulting cavities. Although previously interpreted to be part of the Carlin-type hydrothermal system, crosscutting relationships and U-Th-Pb geochronology constrain this hydrothermal event to late Pliocene time (ca. 2 Ma), nearly 36 Ma after ore...

A combination of observations and model results suggest a mechanism by which coastal blooms of the toxic dinoflagellate Alexandrium fundyense can be initiated from dormant cysts located in offshore sediments. The mechanism arises from the joint effects of organism behavior and the wind-driven response of a surface-trapped plume of fresh...

A classic paper by Rubey [Geol. Soc. Amer. Bull 62 (1951) 1111] examined various hypotheses regarding the origin of sea water and concluded that the most likely hypothesis was volcanic outgassing, a view that was generally accepted by Earth scientists for the next several decades. More recent work suggests that...

The significance of power-law tail probabilities of drainage areas in river basins was discussed. The convergence to a power law was not observed for all underlying distributions, but for a large class of statistical distributions with specific limiting properties. The article also discussed about the scaling properties of topologic and...

We use teleseismic P and S delay times and shear wave splitting measurements to constrain isotropic and anisotropic heterogeneity in the mantle beneath the southern East Pacific Rise (SEPR). The data comprise 462 P and S delay times and 18 shear wave splitting observations recorded during the Mantle Electromagnetic and...

Using molecular genetic markers that differ in mode of inheritance and rate of evolution, we examined levels and partitioning of genetic variation for seven nominal subspecies (11 breeding populations) of Canada Geese (Branta canadensis) in western North America. Gene trees constructed from mtDNA control region sequence data show that subspecies...

Ecological and paleoecological studies from the Patuxent River mouth reveal dynamic variations in benthic ostracode assemblages over the past 600 years due to climatic and anthropogenic factors. Prior to the late 20th century, centennial-scale changes in species dominance were influenced by climatic and hydrological factors that primarily affected salinity and...

On 23 October 2002, the Mw 6.7 Nenana Mountain earthquake occurred in central Alaska. It was followed on 3 November 2002 by the Mw 7.9 Denali Fault mainshock, the largest strike-slip earthquake to occur in North America during the past 150 years. We have modeled static Coulomb stress transfer effects...

Natural production of the radionuclide chlorine-36 (36Cl) has provided a valuable tracer for groundwater studies. The nuclear industry, especially the testing of thermonuclear weapons, has also produced large amounts of 36Cl that can be detected in many samples of groundwater. In order to be most useful in hydrologic studies, the natural production prior to 1952 should be distinguished from more recent artificial...

Four sampling designs for quantifying the effect of low-head sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) barriers on fish communities were evaluated, and the contribution of process-oriented research to the overall confidence of results obtained was discussed. The designs include: (1) sample barrier streams post-construction; (2) sample barrier and reference streams post-construction; (3)...

Changes in the carbon isotope ratio (δ13C) of trans-1,2-dichloroethylene (t-DCE) were measured during its co-metabolic degradation by Methylomonas methanica, a type I methanotroph, and Methylosinus trichosporium OB3b, a type II methanotroph. In closed-vessel incubation experiments with each bacterium, the residual t-DCE became progressively enriched in 13C, indicating isotopic fractionation. From...

The physiological traits that allow fish to survive periods of limited food resources are poorly understood. We assessed changes in proximate body composition, relative organ mass, blood metabolites, and relative weight (Wr) of sedentary and actively swimming (15 cm/s) juvenile rainbow trout (154-182 mm total length) over 147 d of...

The Bauer microplate was an independent slab of oceanic lithosphere that from 17 Ma to 6 Ma grew from 1.4 ?? 105 km2 to 1.2 ?? 106 km2 between the rapidly diverging Pacific and Nazca plates. Growth was by accretion at the lengthening and overlapping axes of the (Bauer-Nazca) Galapagos...

A free-space microwave system developed for the measurement of the relative complex permittivity of granular materials and of pulverized materials was reported. The system consists of a transmitting antenna and a receiving antenna separated by a space filled by the sample to be characterized and a network analyzer for transmission...

High densities of an aridland granivore, Ord's kangaroo rat (Dipodomys ordii), have been documented in floodplain habitats along the Yampa River in northwestern Colorado. Despite a high probability of inundation and attendant high mortality during the spring flood period, the habitat is consistently recolonized. To understand factors that potentially make...