USGS EDMAP Program-Training the Next Generation of Geologic Mappers
National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program
2010, Fact Sheet 2010-3088
EDMAP is an interactive and meaningful program for university students to gain experience and knowledge in geologic mapping while contributing to national efforts to map the geology of the United States. It is a matching-funds grant program with universities and is one of the three components of the congressionally mandated...
Nutrients in the nation's streams and groundwater: National findings and implications
Neil M. Dubrovsky, Pixie A. Hamilton
2010, Fact Sheet 2010-3078
A comprehensive national analysis of the distribution and trends of nutrient concentrations in streams and groundwater from 1992 through 2004 is provided by the National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program of the United States Geological Survey (USGS). Findings describe the distribution and causes of varying nutrient concentrations in streams and groundwater...
Expanded USGS science in the Chesapeake Bay restoration
Scott Phillips
2010, Fact Sheet 2010-3081
In May 2009, the President issued Executive Order (EO) 13508 for Chesapeake Bay Protection and Restoration. For the first time since the creation of the Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) in 1983, the full weight of the Federal Government will be used to address the challenges facing the Chesapeake Bay. The...
Characterization of Fish Creek, Teton County, Wyoming, 2004-08
Cheryl A. Eddy-Miller, David A. Peterson, Jerrod D. Wheeler, Daniel J. Leemon
2010, Fact Sheet 2010-3075
Fish Creek, a tributary to the Snake River, is about 15 river miles long and is located in Teton County in western Wyoming near the town of Wilson (fig. 1). Public concern about nuisance growths of aquatic plants in Fish Creek has been increasing since the early 2000s. To address...
Decadal-scale changes in dissolved-solids concentrations in groundwater used for public supply, Salt Lake Valley, Utah
Susan A. Thiros, Larry Spangler
2010, Fact Sheet 2010-3073
Basin-fill aquifers are a major source of good-quality water for public supply in many areas of the southwestern United States and have undergone increasing development as populations have grown over time. During 2005, the basin-fill aquifer in Salt Lake Valley, Utah, provided approximately 75,000 acre-feet, or about 29 percent of...
Noninvasive methods for monitoring bear population trends
Katherine Kendall
2010, Fact Sheet 2010-3054
The U.S. Geological Survey began a grizzly bear research project in 2009 in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem (NCDE) of northwestern Montana. This work uses hair collection and DNA analysis methods similar to those used in the 2004 Northern Divide Grizzly Bear Project. However, instead of producing a snapshot of...
Hydrology, phenology and the USA National Phenology Network
George R. Kish
2010, Fact Sheet 2010-3083
Phenology is the study of seasonally-recurring biological events (such as leaf-out, fruit production, and animal reproduction and migration) and how these events are influenced by environmental change. Phenological changes are some of the most sensitive biological indicators of climate change, and also affect nearly all aspects of ecosystem function. Spatially...
Hawaii StreamStats: A web application for defining drainage-basin characteristics and estimating peak-streamflow statistics
Sarah N. Rosa, Delwyn S. Oki
2010, Fact Sheet 2010-3052
Reliable estimates of the magnitude and frequency of floods are necessary for the safe and efficient design of roads, bridges, water-conveyance structures, and flood-control projects and for the management of flood plains and flood-prone areas. StreamStats provides a simple, fast, and reproducible method to define drainage-basin characteristics and estimate the...
A climate trend analysis of Kenya-August 2010
Christopher C. Funk
2010, Fact Sheet 2010-3074
Introduction This brief report draws from a multi-year effort by the United States Agency for International Development's Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS NET) to monitor and map rainfall and temperature trends over the last 50 years (1960-2009) in Kenya. Observations from seventy rainfall gauges and seventeen air temperature stations were...
Joint Agency Commercial Imagery Evaluation (JACIE)
Carrie Jucht
2010, Fact Sheet 2010-3080
Remote sensing data are vital to understanding the physical world and to answering many of its needs and problems. The United States Geological Survey's (USGS) Remote Sensing Technologies (RST) Project, working with its partners, is proud to sponsor the annual Joint Agency Commercial Imagery Evaluation (JACIE) Workshop to help understand...
Source, Use, and Disposition of Freshwater in Puerto Rico, 2005
Wanda L. Molina-Rivera
2010, Fact Sheet 2009-3080
Water diverted from streams and pumped from wells constitutes the main sources of water for the 78 municipios of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. A better understanding is needed about water-use patterns, particularly about the amount of water used, where and how this water is used and disposed, and how...
Groundwater quality in the North San Francisco Bay groundwater basins, California
Justin T. Kulongoski, Kenneth Belitz
2010, Fact Sheet 2010-3060
Groundwater provides more than 40 percent of California's drinking water. To protect this vital resource, the State of California created the Groundwater Ambient Monitoring and Assessment (GAMA) Program. The Priority Basin Project of the GAMA Program provides a comprehensive assessment of the State's groundwater quality and increases public access to...
Northwest Area Science
Tracy L. Fuentes, Marijke van Heeswijk, Eric E. Grossman
2010, Fact Sheet 2010-3064
Northwest Area Facts * Population about 12 million * 43 federally recognized Tribes * Hydropower provides about two-thirds of electricity supply * 78 federally listed threatened and endangered species * 12 active or potentially active...
Response of Florida shelf ecosystems to climate change: from macro to micro scales
Lisa Robbins, Ellen Raabe
2010, Fact Sheet 2010-3065
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) research in St. Petersburg, Fla., is focusing attention on marine environments of the Florida shelf at three levels, from regional to estuarine to the individual organism. The USGS is partnering on this project with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (DACS), National Oceanic and...
Locating inputs of freshwater to Lynch Cove, Hood Canal, Washington, using aerial infrared photography
Rich W. Sheibley, Edward G. Josberger, Chris Chickadel
2010, Fact Sheet 2010-3072
The input of freshwater and associated nutrients into Lynch Cove and lower Hood Canal (fig. 1) from sources such as groundwater seeps, small streams, and ephemeral creeks may play a major role in the nutrient loading and hydrodynamics of this low dissolved-oxygen (hypoxic) system. These disbursed sources exhibit a high...
Recent (2001-09) hydrologic history and regionalization studies in Texas-Statistical characterization of storms, floods, and rainfall-runoff relations
William H. Asquith
2010, Fact Sheet 2010-3063
As part of numerous cooperative studies investigating rainfall and streamflow during 1991-2009 with the Texas Department of Transportation and Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) published about 20 reports describing either historical streamflow conditions (hydrologic history) in Texas or the results of studies involving regional rainfall...
Aligning USGS senior leadership structure with the USGS science strategy
Water Resources Division, U.S. Geological Survey
2010, Fact Sheet 2010-3066
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is realigning its management and budget structure to further enhance the work of its science programs and their interdisciplinary focus areas related to the USGS Science Strategy as outlined in 'Facing Tomorrow's Challenges-U.S. Geological Survey Science in the Decade 2007-2017' (U.S. Geological Survey, 2007). In...
Historic flooding in northern Georgia, September 16-22, 2009
Brian E. McCallum, Anthony J. Gotvald
2010, Fact Sheet 2010-3061
A primary mission of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is the measurement and documentation of the magnitude and extent of hydrologic hazards, such as floods, droughts, and hurricane storm surge. USGS personnel were deployed to document historic, widespread flooding that occurred throughout the Atlanta metropolitan area and northwestern Georgia in...
Aquatic macroinvertebrates of the lower Missouri River
Barry C. Poulton
2010, Fact Sheet 2010-3045
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Columbia Environmental Research Center (CERC), in cooperation with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS), and the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (MDNR), has been conducting research on the aquatic macroinvertebrates of the lower Missouri River since the mid-1990s....
USGS Activities at Lake Roosevelt and the Upper Columbia River
Cynthia Barton, Gary L. Turney
2010, Fact Sheet 2010-3056
Lake Roosevelt (Franklin D. Roosevelt Lake) is the impoundment of the upper Columbia River behind Grand Coulee Dam, and is the largest reservoir within the Bureau of Reclamation's Columbia Basin Project (CBP). The reservoir is located in northeastern Washington, and stretches 151 miles from Grand Coulee Dam north to the...
Water use trends in Washington, 1985-2005
R. C. Lane
2010, Fact Sheet 2010-3057
Since 1950, the U.S. Geological Survey Washington Water Science Center (USGS-WAWSC) has collected, compiled, and published, at 5-year intervals, statewide estimates of the amounts of water withdrawn and used for various purposes in Washington State. As new data and methods became available, some of the original datasets were recompiled. The...
Divisions of geologic time-major chronostratigraphic and geochronologic units
U.S. Geological Survey Geologic Names Committee
2010, Fact Sheet 2010-3059
Effective communication in the geosciences requires consistent uses of stratigraphic nomenclature, especially divisions of geologic time. A geologic time scale is composed of standard stratigraphic divisions based on rock sequences and is calibrated in years. Over the years, the development of new dating methods and the refinement of previous methods...
Impacts and predictions of coastal change during hurricanes
Hilary Stockdon, Abby Sallenger
2010, Fact Sheet 2010-3012
Beaches serve as a natural barrier between the ocean and inland communities, ecosystems, and resources. These dynamic environments move and change in response to winds, waves, and currents. During a powerful hurricane, changes to beaches can be large, and the results are sometimes catastrophic. Lives are lost, communities are destroyed,...
The Hazards Data Distribution System update
Brenda K. Jones, Rynn M. Lamb
2010, Fact Sheet 2010-3053
After a major disaster, a satellite image or a collection of aerial photographs of the event is frequently the fastest, most effective way to determine its scope and severity. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Emergency Operations Portal provides emergency first responders and support personnel with easy access to imagery and...
The National Map: New Viewer, Services, and Data Download
Robert M. Dollison
2010, Fact Sheet 2010-3055
Managed by the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) National Geospatial Program, The National Map has transitioned data assets and viewer applications to a new visualization and product and service delivery environment, which includes an improved viewing platform, base map data and overlay services, and an integrated data download service. This new...
