Shallow lake, strong shake: Record of seismically triggered lacustrine sedimentation from the 1959 M7.3 Hebgen Lake earthquake within Henrys Lake, Idaho
Sylvia R. Nicovich, Christopher DuRoss, Jessica Ann Thompson Jobe, Jessica R. Rodysill, Richard W. Briggs, Alexandra Elise Hatem, Madeleine Mai-Lynh Tan, Yann Gavillot, Noah Silas Lindberg, Laura E. Strickland, Jason Scott Padgett
2024, Geophysical Research Letters (51)
We investigate a shallow lake basin for evidence of a large historic intraplate earthquake in western North America. Henrys Lake, Idaho is an atypical candidate for a lacustrine paleoseismic study given its shallow depth (~7 m) and low relief (≤2° slopes). Here, we test the earthquake-recording capacity of this basin...
The U.S. Geological Survey National Water Quality Network—Surface Water—2023
Melissa L. Riskin
2024, General Information Product 245
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Water Quality Network for surface water (NWQN-SW) was established in 2013 to develop long-term, comparable assessments of surface-water quality in support of national, regional, state, and local needs related to water-quality management and policy. Waterquality samples are collected at each site and measured for...
The U.S. Geological Survey National Atmospheric Deposition Network—2023
Ryan Conner McCammon
2024, General Information Product 244
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has been a National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP) partner agency since 1981. NADP is comprised of five atmospheric monitoring networks that verify Clean Air Act effectiveness and provide essential data to protect human health and preserve ecosystems for current and future generations. Stakeholders include land...
U.S. Geological Survey Groundwater Climate Response Network—2023
Jason Fine, Rodney Caldwell
2024, General Information Product 243
As of October 2023, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) operated more than 660 sites across the United States and its territories as part of the Groundwater Climate Response Network (CRN). The CRN is comprised of wells and springs selected to monitor the effects of climate variability, such as droughts, on...
Advancing sustainable groundwater management with a hydro-economic system model: Investigations in the Harney Basin, Oregon
William K. Jaeger, John M. Antle, Stephen B. Gingerich, Daniel Bigelow
2024, Water Resources Research (60)
Groundwater resources frequently trend toward unsustainable levels because, absent effective institutions, individual water users generally act independently without considering the impacts on other users. Hydro-economic models (HEMs) of human-natural systems can play a positive role toward successful groundwater management by yielding valuable knowledge and insight. The current study explores how...
Urban tick exposure on Staten Island is higher in pet owners
Noriko Tamari, Kacey C. Ernst, Aaron Joey Enriquez, Maria A. Diuk-Wasser, Maria P. Fernandez, Kevin Berry, Mary H. Hayden
2024, PLoS ONE (19)
Over the past decade, Lyme and other tick-borne diseases have expanded into urban areas, including Staten Island, New York. While Lyme disease is often researched with a focus on human risk, domestic pets are also at risk of contracting the disease. The present study aims to describe differences in tick...
Field trials of an autonomous eDNA sampler in lotic waters
Scott D. George, Adam Sepulveda, Patrick Ross Hutchins, David Pilliod, Katy E. Klymus, Austen Thomas, Ben Augustine, Chany C Huddleston Adrianza, Devin Nicole Jones, Jacob R. Williams, Eric Leinonen
2024, Environmental Science & Technology (58) 20942-20953
Environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis has become a transformative technology, but sample collection methods lack standardization and sampling at effective frequencies requires considerable field effort. Autonomous eDNA samplers that can sample water at high frequencies offer potential solutions to these problems. We present results from four case studies using a prototype...
Secondary contact erodes Pleistocene diversification in a wide-ranging freshwater mussel (Quadrula)
Sean M. Keogh, Nathan Johnson, Chase H. Smith, Bernard E. Sietman, Jeffrey T. Garner, Charles R. Randklev, Andrew M. Simons
2024, Molecular Ecology
The isolated river drainages of eastern North America serve as a natural laboratory to investigate the roles of allopatry and secondary contact in the evolutionary trajectories of recently diverged lineages. Drainage divides facilitate allopatric speciation, but due to their sensitivity to climatic and geomorphological changes, neighboring rivers frequently coalesce, creating...
Federal lands greenhouse gas emissions and sequestration in the United States: Estimates for 2005–22
Matthew D. Merrill, Benjamin M. Sleeter, Philip A. Freeman
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5103
In 2016, the Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior requested that the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) produce a publicly available and annually updated database of estimated greenhouse gas emissions associated with the extraction and use of fossil fuels from Federal lands. The first report in this series included...
Assessing predictions from optimal egg theory for an ectotherm relative to habitat duration
Jon M. Davenport, Andrew Feltmann, LeeAnn Fishback, Blake R. Hossack
2024, Wildlife Letters
Optimal egg size theory predicts females must balance investment per offspring to maximize fitness based on environmental quality. In wetlands, environmental quality can be duration of water and predator presence. Ectotherms using habitats that dry or contain predators are likely under selection to optimize offspring production. We measured reproductive output...
Reduced injection rates and shallower depths mitigated induced seismicity in Oklahoma
Robert J. Skoumal, Andrew J. Barbour, Justin L. Rubenstein, Margaret Elizabeth Glasgow
2024, The Seismic Record (4) 279-287
The proximity of wastewater disposal to the Precambrian basement is a critical factor influencing induced earthquake rates in the Central United States, but the impact of reducing injection depths has not been widely demonstrated. Beginning in 2015, state regulatory efforts in Oklahoma and Kansas mandated that wells injecting into the...
Water-quality comparisons in the Greater Mooses Tooth unit of the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, 2010 and 2023
Brent M. Hall
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5098
The United States has long held oil reserves in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR–A), but oil production did not begin until 2015. The waters of the NPR–A are generally considered “pristine,” but water quality has not been characterized temporally or spatially in a rigorous manner. In 2010 and...
Triggering the 2022 eruption of Mauna Loa
Kendra J. Lynn, Drew T. Downs, Frank A. Trusdell, Penny E. Wieser, Berenise Rangel, Baylee Rose McDade, Alicia J. Hotovec-Ellis, Ninfa Lucia Bennington, Kyle R. Anderson, Dawn Catherine Sweeney Ruth, Charlotte DeVitre, Andria P. Ellis, Patricia A. Nadeau, Laura E. Clor, Peter J. Kelly, Peter Dotray, Jefferson Chang
2024, Nature Communications (15)
Distinguishing periods of intermittent unrest from the run-up to eruption is a major challenge at volcanoes around the globe. Comparing multidisciplinary monitoring data with mineral chemistry that records the physical and spatio-temporal evolution of magmas fundamentally advances our ability to forecast eruptions. The recent eruption of Mauna Loa, Earth’s largest...
Evidence for low effective stress within the crust of the subducted Gorda plate from the 2022 December Mw 6.4 Ferndale earthquake sequence
Hao Guo, James W. Atterholt, Jeffrey J. McGuire, Clifford Thurber
2024, Seismological Research Letters
Stress levels on and adjacent to megathrust faults at seismogenic depths remain a key but difficult to constrain parameter for assessing seismic hazard in subduction zones. Although strong ground motions have been observed to be generated from distinct, high-stress regions on the downdip end of the megathrust rupture areas in...
Post Carr Fire bioassessment data report, Whiskeytown National Recreation Area, Shasta County, California
Marissa L. Wulff, Larry R. Brown, Veronica L. Violette
2024, Data Report 1201
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the National Park Service, analyzed water and sediment chemistry, benthic macroinvertebrate assemblages, fish and amphibian assemblages, fish and invertebrate tissues, instream habitat characteristics, and sediment heterogeneity at 10 stream sites within Whiskeytown National Recreation Area, Shasta County, California, during August 2020, 2 years...
A methodology to estimate CO2 and energy gas storage resources in depleted conventional gas reservoirs
Matthew Madden Jones, Ashton M. Wiens, Marc Buursink, Sean T. Brennan, Philip A. Freeman, Brian A. Varela, Joao S. Gallotti, Peter D. Warwick
2024, Conference Paper
Depleted hydrocarbon reservoirs are subsurface geological structures capable of sequestering vast quantities of carbon dioxide (CO2) as well as storing other energy gases for later usage, such as natural gas, and potentially hydrogen (H2). Here we outline a methodology to quantify multi-gas storage resources in depleted conventional gas reservoirs for...
Annual grass invasions and wildfire deplete ecosystem carbon storage by >50% to resistant base levels
Toby Matthew Maxwell, Harold E. Quicke, Samuel J. Price, Matthew Germino
2024, Nature Communications, Earth & Environment (5)
Ecological disturbance can affect carbon storage and stability and is a key consideration for managing lands to preserve or increase ecosystem carbon to ameliorate the global greenhouse gas problem. Dryland soils are massive carbon reservoirs that are increasingly impacted by species invasions and altered fire regimes, including the exotic-grass-fire cycle...
Trimming the UCERF3-TD logic tree: Model order reduction for an earthquake rupture forecast considering loss exceedance
Keith Porter, Kevin R. Milner, Ned Field
2024, Earthquake Spectra
The Uniform California Earthquake Rupture Forecast version 3-Time Dependent depicts California’s seismic faults and their activity. Its logic tree has 5760 leaves. Considering 30 more model combinations related to ground motion produces 172,800 distinct models representing so-called epistemic uncertainties. To calculate risk to a portfolio of buildings, one also considers...
Inset groundwater-flow models for the Cache and Grand Prairie Critical Groundwater Areas, northeastern Arkansas
Jonathan P. Traylor, Leslie L. Duncan, Andrew T. Leaf, Alec Rolland Weisser, Benjamin J. Dietsch, Moussa Guira
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5088
The water resources in the Mississippi alluvial plain, located in parts of Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas, supports a multibillion-dollar agricultural industry that relies heavily on pumping of groundwater for irrigation of crops and aquaculture. The primary source of groundwater for agricultural-related pumping is the Mississippi River Valley...
Peak streamflow trends in South Dakota and their relation to changes in climate, water years 1921–2020
Nancy A. Barth, Steven K. Sando
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2023-5064-I
Peak-flow (flood) frequency analysis is essential to water-resources management applications, including the design of critical infrastructure such as bridges and culverts, and floodplain mapping. Federal guidelines for performing peak-flow flood frequency analyses are presented in a U.S. Geological Survey Techniques and Methods Report known as Bulletin 17C. A basic assumption...
Deep syntectonic burial of the Anthracite belt, Eastern Pennsylvania
Mark A. Evans, Aaron M. Jubb
2024, International Journal of Coal Geology (295)
Fluid inclusion microthermometry and Raman spectroscopy of fluid inclusions in quartz veins from the Pennsylvanian rocks of the Anthracite belt, eastern Pennsylvania support a deep burial model of coalification in favor of focused orogenic hot fluid flow. High-temperature (250 to 255 °C) trapping of CH4 ± CO2 saturated aqueous fluids and CH4 ± CO2 inclusions indicate fluid...
Riparian methylmercury production increases riverine mercury flux and food web concentrations
Virginia Krause, Austin K. Baldwin, Benjamin D. Peterson, David P. Krabbenhoft, Sarah E. Janssen, James Willacker, Collin A. Eagles-Smith, Brett A. Poulin
2024, Environmental Science & Technology
The production and uptake of toxic methylmercury (MeHg) impacts aquatic ecosystems globally. Rivers can be dynamic and difficult systems to study for MeHg production and bioaccumulation, hence identifying sources of MeHg to these systems is both challenging and important for resource management within rivers and main-stem reservoirs. Riparian zones, which...
Near-term ecological forecasting for climate change action
Michael Dietze, Ethan P. White, Antoinette Abeyta, Carl Boettiger, Nievita Bueno Watts, Cayelan C. Carey, Rebecca Chaplin-Kramer, Ryan E. Emanuel, S.K. Morgan Ernest, Renato Figueiredo, Michael Gerst, Leah R. Johnson, Melissa A. Kenney, Jason S. McLachlan, Ioannis Ch. Paschalidis, Jody Peters, Christine R. Rollinson, Juniper Simonis, Kira Sullivan-Wiley, R. Quinn Thomas, Glenda M Wardle, Alyssa Willson, Jacob Aaron Zwart
2024, Nature Climate Change (14) 1236-1244
A substantial increase in predictive capacity is needed to anticipate and mitigate the widespread change in ecosystems and their services in the face of climate and biodiversity crises. In this era of accelerating change, we cannot rely on historical patterns or focus primarily on long-term projections that extend decades into...
Upper Mississippi River System hydrogeomorphic change conceptual model and hierarchical classification
Faith A. Fitzpatrick, James T. Rogala, Jon S. Hendrickson, Lucie Sawyer, Jayme Stone, Susannah Erwin, Edward J. Brauer, Angus A. Vaughan
2024, Open-File Report 2024-1051
Understanding the geomorphic processes and causes for long-term hydrogeomorphic changes along the Upper Mississippi River System (UMRS) is necessary for scientific studies ranging from habitat needs assessments, sediment transport, and nutrient processing, and making sound management decisions and prioritizing ecological restoration activities. From 2018 through 2020 the U.S. Geological Survey...
Intense alteration on early Mars revealed by high-aluminum rocks at Jezero Crater
C. Royer, C.C. Bedford, J.R. Johnson, B.H.N. Horgan, A. Broz, O. Forni, S. Connell, R.C. Wiens, L. Mandon, B.S. Kathir, E.M. Hausrath, A. Udry, J.M. Madariaga, E. Dehouck, Ryan Anderson, P.S.A. Beck, O. Beyssac, É. Clavé, S.M. Clegg, E. Cloutis, T. Fouchet, Travis S.J. Gabriel, B.J. Garczynski, A. Klidaras, H.T. Manelski, L.E. Mayhew, J. Núñez, A.M. Ollila, S.E. Schröder, J.I. Simon, U. Wolf, K.M. Stack, A. Cousin, S. Maurice
2024, Communications Earth & Environment (5)
The NASA Perseverance rover discovered light-toned float rocks scattered across the surface of Jezero crater that are particularly rich in alumina ( ~ 35 wt% Al2O3) and depleted in other major elements (except silica). These unique float rocks have heterogeneous mineralogy ranging from kaolinite/halloysite-bearing in hydrated samples, to spinel-bearing in dehydrated samples also...
