Observing northern high-latitude river systems to understand changes in a warming Arctic
Joshua C. Koch, J. A. O’Donnell
2025, Current Climate Change Reports (11)
Purpose of ReviewStreams and rivers are undergoing rapid change as the Arctic warms and thaws. We review recent observations in Arctic stream systems to identify ubiquitous changes and the most useful tools for observing change and exploring the underlying processes.Recent FindingsRecent literature indicates increasingly significant trends...
Critical minerals in orogenic (gold) and Coeur d’Alene-type mineral systems of the United States
Ryan D. Taylor, Albert H. Hofstra
2025, Data Report 1198
Orogenic and Coeur d’Alene-type mineral systems are produced by metamorphic devolatilization of thick volcanic or siliciclastic sedimentary rock sequences and the focused flow of hydrothermal fluids upwards along crustal-scale faults. Most orogenic systems are found along the Cordilleran orogen, stretching from California northwards into Alaska, whereas most Coeur d’Alene-type systems...
Hydrogeologic mapping and three-dimensional geologic modeling of glacial deposits in a multicounty area of southeastern Michigan, northeastern Indiana, and northwestern Ohio
Alexander D. Riddle, Leslie D. Arihood, Shawn Naylor, David C. Lampe
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2025-5008
The glacial deposits underlying southeastern Michigan, northeastern Indiana, and northwestern Ohio are a substantial source of water to communities, agriculture, and industry in the region. Previous efforts to characterize aquifer materials in the area cited a need for additional information about the underlying hydrogeologic characteristics and related groundwater availability as...
Estimating the magnitude and frequency of floods at ungaged locations on streams in Tennessee through the 2013 water year
David Ladd, Paul A. Ensminger
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5130
To improve estimates of the frequency of annual peak flows for ungaged locations on non-urban, unregulated streams in Tennessee, generalized least-squares multiple linear-regression techniques were used to relate annual peak flows from streamgages operated by the U.S. Geological Survey to physical, climatic, and land-use characteristics of their drainage basins. Geospatial...
Peak streamflow trends in Montana and northern Wyoming and their relation to changes in climate, water years 1921–2020
Steven K. Sando, Nancy A. Barth, Roy Sando, Katherine J. Chase
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2023-5064-G
Frequency analysis on annual peak streamflow (hereinafter, peak flow) is essential to water-resources management applications, including critical structure design (for example, bridges and culverts) and floodplain mapping. Nonstationarity is a statistical property of a peak-flow series such that the distributional properties (the mean, variance, or skew) change either gradually (monotonic...
Using the D-Claw software package to model lahars in the Middle Fork Nooksack River drainage and beyond, Mount Baker, Washington
Cynthia A. Gardner, Mary Catherine Benage, Charles M. Cannon, David L. George
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5133
Lahars, or volcanic mudflows, are the most hazardous eruption-related phenomena that will affect communities living along rivers that originate on Mount Baker. In the past 15,000 years, the largest lahars from Mount Baker have affected the Middle Fork Nooksack River drainage and beyond. Here we use the physics-based D-Claw software...
Genetic structure and diversity in wild populations of the Light-footed Ridgway’s Rail reflect 20 years of augmentation through captive breeding and release
Amy G. Vandergast, Julia G. Smith, Anna Mitelberg, Dustin A. Wood, Kimberley A. Sawyer, Courtney J. Conway
2025, Open-File Report 2025-1011
Captive breeding and release programs aimed at recovery of rare species can be informed by genetic data to help select high-diversity source populations, make pairing decisions to minimize inbreeding, and manage release strategies. We developed a set of 54 microsatellite loci to assess genetic structure and diversity across the United...
Groundwater budget for the surficial aquifer surrounding Lake Nokomis, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Colin T. Livdahl
2025, Open-File Report 2025-1021
During prolonged periods of above-average precipitation, rising groundwater levels have the potential to cause damage to and interfere with underground infrastructure and building foundations. To understand the relations between precipitation and groundwater in the vicinity of Lake Nokomis, the U.S. Geological Survey, in collaboration with the University of Minnesota, quantified...
Potential water-quality and hydrology stressors on freshwater mussels with development of environmental DNA assays for selected mussels and macroinvertebrates in Big Darby Creek Basin, Ohio, 2020–22
Carrie A. Huitger, G. F. Koltun, Erin A. Stelzer, Lauren D. Lynch
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2025-5005
The richness and abundance of freshwater mussels in the Big Darby Creek Basin has declined in recent decades, according to survey results published by the Ohio Biological Survey. In October 2016, a major mussel die-off of undetermined cause reportedly affected over 50 miles of Big Darby Creek; however, fishes and...
Data gap analysis for estimation of agricultural return flows in the Upper Gunnison River Basin, Colorado
Rachel G. Gidley, Quinn M. Miller, Wayne R. Belcher
2025, Open-File Report 2025-1009
The Gunnison River and many tributaries in the Upper Gunnison River Basin provide water to irrigate agricultural crops. The application of irrigation water can recharge some aquifers locally by water percolating below the root zone and eventually flowing back to the stream or river through the subsurface. Diverting surface water...
Four-band image mosaic of the Colorado River Corridor downstream of Glen Canyon Dam in Arizona, derived from the May 2021 airborne image acquisition
Joel B. Sankey, Nathaniel Bransky, Lori M. Pigue, Keith Kohl, Thomas M. Gushue
2025, Data Report 1202
In May 2021, the U.S. Geological Survey’s Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center acquired airborne multispectral high-resolution data for the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon, Arizona. The image data, which consist of four spectral bands (red, band 1; green, band 2; blue, band 3; and near infrared, band 4)...
A model uncertainty quantification protocol for evaluating the value of observation data
Michael N. Fienen, Laura A. Schachter, Randall J. Hunt
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2025-5007
The history-matching approach to parameter estimation with models enables a powerful offshoot analysis of data worth—using the uncertainty of a model forecast as a metric for the worth of data. Adding observation data will either have no impact on forecast uncertainty or will reduce it. Removing existing data will either...
Comparison of hydrologic data and water budgets between 2003–08 and 2018–23 for the eastern part of the Arbuckle-Simpson aquifer, south-central Oklahoma
Shana L. Mashburn, Evin J. Fetkovich, Hayden A. Lockmiller, Chloe Codner, Ethan Allen Kirby, Isaac A. Dale, Colin A. Baciocco
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2025-5011
The Arbuckle-Simpson aquifer is divided spatially into three parts (eastern, central, and western). The largest groundwater withdrawals are from the eastern part of the Arbuckle-Simpson aquifer, which provides water to approximately 39,000 people in Ada and Sulphur, Oklahoma, and surrounding areas. The Arbuckle-Simpson aquifer, including the eastern part, is designated...
Methods for peak-flow frequency analysis for streamgages in or near Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming
Seth A. Siefken, Tara Williams-Sether, Nancy A. Barth, Katherine J. Chase, Mark A. Cedar Face
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2025-5019
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, North Dakota Department of Water Resources, South Dakota Department of Transportation, and the Wyoming Water Development Office, has developed standard methods of peak-flow frequency analysis for studies in Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming....
Base-flow sampling to enhance understanding of the groundwater flow component of nitrogen loading in small watersheds draining into Long Island Sound
Kaitlin L. Laabs, Janet R. Barclay, John R. Mullaney
2025, Data Report 1206
Excessive nitrogen discharge is a major concern for the Long Island Sound. Programs have been implemented to reduce point sources of nitrogen to the sound, but little is known about the nonpoint sources. This study aims to better understand the current groundwater contributions of nitrogen from nonpoint sources in the...
Dynamic rating method for computing discharge and stage from time-series data
Marian M. Domanski, Robert R. Holmes, Jr., Elizabeth Heal, Travis M. Knight
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5129
Ratings are used for several reasons in water-resources investigations. The simplest rating relates discharge to the stage of a river (the stage-discharge relation). From a pure hydrodynamics perspective, all rivers and streams have some form of hysteresis in the relation between stage and discharge because flow becomes unsteady as a...
Updating and recalibrating the integrated Santa Rosa Plain Hydrologic Model to assess stream depletion and to simulate future climate and management scenarios in Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, California
Ayman H. Alzraiee, Andrew Rich, Linda R. Woolfenden, Derek W. Ryter, Enrique Triana, Richard G. Niswonger
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5121
The Santa Rosa Plain Hydrologic Model (SRPHM) was developed and published in 2014 through a collaboration between the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and Sonoma Water to analyze the hydrologic system in the Santa Rosa Plain watershed, help meet the increasing demand for fresh water, and prepare for future uncertainties in...
Peak streamflow trends in Minnesota and their relation to changes in climate, water years 1921–2020
Tara Williams-Sether, Chris Sanocki
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2023-5064-E
This report chapter summarizes the effect of hydroclimatic variability of annual peak streamflow in Minnesota and is part of a larger U.S. Geological Survey multistate study to assess potential nonstationarity in annual peak streamflows across the Midwest. Spatial and temporal patterns were examined for nonstationarity in annual peak streamflow, daily...
Peak streamflow trends in North Dakota and their relation to changes in climate, water years 1921–2020
Karen R. Ryberg, Tara Williams-Sether
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2023-5064-H
Standardized guidelines for completing flood-flow frequency analyses are presented in a U.S. Geological Survey Techniques and Methods report known as Bulletin 17C, https://doi.org/10.3133/tm4B5. In recent decades (since about 2000), a better understanding of long-term climatic persistence (periods of clustered floods or droughts, or wet or dry periods) and...
Estimating agricultural irrigation water consumption for the High Plains aquifer region with integrated energy- and water-balance evapotranspiration modeling approaches
Lei Ji, Gabriel B. Senay, MacKenzie Friedrichs, Stefanie Kagone
2025, Agricultural Water Management (309)
Estimation of irrigation water use provides essential information for the management and conservation of agricultural water resources. Conventionally, water use data are created based on reports and surveys from water users, whereas manual records may not be complete due to lacking flow meters, measurement gaps, inconsistent methods across regions, and...
Continuous stream discharge, salinity, and associated data collected in the lower St. Johns River and its tributaries, Florida, 2022
Jennifer N. Carson, Matthew T. Benacquisto
2025, Open-File Report 2024-1076
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Jacksonville District, deepened the St. Johns River channel in Jacksonville, Florida, to accommodate larger, fully loaded cargo vessels. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, monitored stage, discharge, and (or) water temperature and salinity at 26 continuous...
2022 Volcanic activity in Alaska and the Northern Mariana Islands—Summary of events and response of the Alaska Volcano Observatory
Tim R. Orr, Hannah R. Dietterich, Ronni Grapenthin, Matthew M. Haney, Matthew W. Loewen, Pablo Saunders-Shultz, Darren Tan, Christopher F. Waythomas, Aaron G. Wech
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5108
In 2022, the Alaska Volcano Observatory responded to eruptions, volcanic unrest or suspected unrest, increased seismicity, and other significant activity at 11 volcanic centers in Alaska and in the Northern Mariana Islands. Eruptive activity in Alaska consisted of repeated small, ash-producing, phreatomagmatic explosions from Mount Young on Semisopochnoi Island; the...
Groundwater hydrology, groundwater and surface-water interactions, water quality, and groundwater-flow simulations for the Wet Mountain Valley alluvial aquifer, Custer and Fremont Counties, Colorado, 2017–19
Connor P. Newman, Cory A. Russell, Zachary D. Kisfalusi, Suzanne S. Paschke
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5105
In 2017, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District, began a study to provide a comprehensive analysis of the Wet Mountain Valley alluvial aquifer, Custer and Fremont Counties, Colorado. The study included collection of data pertaining to groundwater hydrology, groundwater and surface-water interactions, and...
Methods to determine streamflow statistics based on data through water year 2021 for selected streamgages in or near Wyoming
Daniel W. Armstrong, David A. Lange, Katherine J. Chase
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5104
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the Wyoming Water Development Office, developed streamflow statistics for streamgages in and near Wyoming. Statistics were computed for active (through September 30, 2021) and discontinued USGS streamgages with 10 or more years of daily mean streamflow record. Streamflow at each streamgage was...
Hydrogeologic framework of the Mountain Home area, southern Idaho
Lauren M. Zinsser, Scott D. Ducar
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5132
In the arid western Snake River Plain around the City of Mountain Home, Idaho, declining groundwater levels concern agricultural, municipal, and other water users who rely on groundwater for sustenance because surface-water resources are limited. The U.S. Geological Survey developed this hydrogeologic framework to provide an updated characterization of groundwater...
