Predominant-period site classification for response spectra prediction equations in Italy
Carola Di Alessandro, Luis Fabian Bonilla, David M. Boore, Antonio Rovelli, Oona Scotti
2012, BSSA 680-695
We propose a site‐classification scheme based on the predominant period of the site, as determined from the average horizontal‐to‐vertical (H/V) spectral ratios of ground motion. Our scheme extends Zhao et al. (2006) classifications by adding two classes, the most important of which is defined by flat H/V ratios with amplitudes...
Fixed bed sorption of phosphorus from wastewater using iron oxide-based media derived from acid mine drainage
Philip L. Sibrell, T.W. Tucker
2012, Water, Air, & Soil Pollution (223) 5105-5117
Phosphorus (P) releases to the environment have been implicated in the eutrophication of important water bodies worldwide. Current technology for the removal of P from wastewaters consists of treatment with aluminum (Al) or iron (Fe) salts, but is expensive. The neutralization of acid mine drainage (AMD) generates sludge rich in...
Reconnaissance soil geochemistry at the Riverton Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action Site, Fremont County, Wyoming
David B. Smith, Michael J. Sweat
2012, Open-File Report 2012-1257
Soil samples were collected and chemically analyzed from the Riverton Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action Site, which lies within the Wind River Indian Reservation in Fremont County, Wyoming. Nineteen soil samples from a depth of 0 to 5 centimeters were collected in August 2011 from the site. The samples were...
Quaternary geologic map of the Glasgow 1° x 2° quadrangle, Montana
David S. Fullerton, Roger B. Colton, Charles A. Bush
2012, Open-File Report 2012-1217
The Glasgow quadrangle encompasses approximately 16,084 km2 (6,210 mi2). The northern boundary is the Montana/Saskatchewan (U.S./Canada) boundary. The quadrangle is in the Northern Plains physiographic province and it includes the Boundary Plateau, Peerless Plateau, and Larb Hills. The primary river is the Milk River. The map units are surficial deposits and...
Temporal variations of geyser water chemistry in the Upper Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park, USA
Shaul Hurwitz, Andrew G. Hunt, William C. Evans
2012, Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems (13)
Geysers are rare features that reflect a delicate balance between an abundant supply of water and heat and a unique geometry of fractures and porous rocks. Between April 2007 and September 2008, we sampled Old Faithful, Daisy, Grand, Oblong, and Aurum geysers in Yellowstone National Park's Upper Geyser Basin and...
Evaluation of water-quality characteristics and sampling design for streams in North Dakota, 1970–2008
Joel M. Galloway, Aldo V. Vecchia, Kevin C. Vining, Brenda K. Densmore, Robert F. Lundgren
2012, Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5216
In response to the need to examine the large amount of historic water-quality data comprehensively across North Dakota and evaluate the efficiency of the State-wide sampling programs, a study was done by the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the North Dakota State Water Commission and the North Dakota Department...
Waste rice seed in conventional and stripper-head harvested fields in California: Implications for wintering waterfowl
Joseph P. Fleskes, Brian J. Halstead, Michael L. Casazza, Peter S. Coates, Jeffrey D. Kohl, Daniel A. Skalos
2012, Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management (3) 266-275
Waste rice seed is an important food for wintering waterfowl and current estimates of its availability are needed to determine the carrying capacity of rice fields and guide habitat conservation. We used a line-intercept method to estimate mass-density of rice seed remaining after harvest during 2010 in the Sacramento Valley...
Flood-inundation maps for the White River at Newberry, Indiana
Kathleen K. Fowler, Moon H. Kim, Chad D. Menke
2012, Scientific Investigations Map 3231
Digital flood-inundation maps for a 4.9-mile reach of the White River at Newberry, Indiana (Ind.), were created by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs. The inundation maps, which can be accessed through the USGS Flood Inundation Mapping Science Web site...
Geology and 40Ar/39Ar geochronology of the medium- to high-K Tanaga volcanic cluster, western Aleutians
Brian R. Jicha, Michelle L. Coombs, Andrew T. Calvert, Brad S. Singer
2012, Geological Society of America Bulletin (124) 842-856
We used geologic mapping and geochemical data augmented by 40Ar/39Ar dating to establish an eruptive chronology for the Tanaga volcanic cluster in the western Aleutian arc. The Tanaga volcanic cluster is unique in comparison to other central and western Aleutian volcanoes in that it consists of three closely spaced, active,...
United States Geological Survey (USGS) Natural Hazards Response
Rynn M. Lamb, Brenda K. Jones
2012, Fact Sheet 2012-3061
The primary goal of U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Natural Hazards Response is to ensure that the disaster response community has access to timely, accurate, and relevant geospatial products, imagery, and services during and after an emergency event. To accomplish this goal, products and services provided by the National Geospatial Program...
One year of migration data for a western yellow-billed cuckoo
Juddson D. Sechrist, Eben H. Paxton, Darrell D. Ahlers, Robert H. Doster, Vicky M. Ryan
2012, Western Birds (43) 2-11
In 2009, we studied the migration of the Western Yellow-billed Cuckoo by capturing 13 breeding birds on the middle Rio Grande, New Mexico, and attaching a 1.5-g Mk 14-S British Antarctic Survey geolocator to each bird. In 2010, we recaptured one of the cuckoos, enabling us to download its geolocation...
Producing fractional rangeland component predictions in a sagebrush ecosystem, a Wyoming sensitivity analysis
George Xian, Collin G. Homer, Brian Granneman, Debra K. Meyer
2012, Open-File Report 2012-1239
Remote sensing information has been widely used to monitor vegetation condition and variations in a variety of ecosystems, including shrublands. Careful application of remotely sensed imagery can provide additional spatially explicit, continuous, and extensive data on the composition and condition of shrubland ecosystems. Historically, the most widely available remote sensing...
Remote sensing of sagebrush canopy nitrogen
Jessica J. Mitchell, Nancy F. Glenn, Temuulen T. Sankey, DeWayne R. Derryberry, Matthew J. Germino
2012, Remote Sensing of Environment (124) 217-223
This paper presents a combination of techniques suitable for remotely sensing foliar Nitrogen (N) in semiarid shrublands – a capability that would significantly improve our limited understanding of vegetation functionality in dryland ecosystems. The ability to estimate foliar N distributions across arid and semi-arid environments could help answer process-driven questions...
Rapid, low-cost photogrammetry to monitor volcanic eruptions: An example from Mount St. Helens, Washington, USA
Angela K. Diefenbach, Juliet G. Crider, Steve P. Schilling, Daniel Dzurisin
2012, Bulletin of Volcanology (74) 579-587
We describe a low-cost application of digital photogrammetry using commercially available photogrammetric software and oblique photographs taken with an off-the-shelf digital camera to create sequential digital elevation models (DEMs) of a lava dome that grew during the 2004–2008 eruption of Mount St. Helens (MSH) volcano. Renewed activity at MSH provided...
Water-level altitudes and continuous and discrete water quality at and near an aquifer storage and recovery site, Bexar, Atascosa, and Wilson Counties, Texas, June 2004-September 2011
Cassi L. Crow
2012, Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5260
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the San Antonio Water System (SAWS), collected data during 2004–11 to characterize the quality of native groundwater from the San Antonio segment of the Edwards aquifer (hereinafter, Edwards aquifer) and preinjection and postinjection water from the Carrizo aquifer (informal name commonly applied...
Bioenergy potential of the United States constrained by satellite observations of existing productivity
W. Kolby Smith, Cory C. Cleveland, Sasha C. Reed, Norman L. Miller, Steven W. Running
2012, Environmental Science & Technology (46) 3536-3544
United States (U.S.) energy policy includes an expectation that bioenergy will be a substantial future energy source. In particular, the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA) aims to increase annual U.S. biofuel (secondary bioenergy) production by more than 3-fold, from 40 to 136 billion liters ethanol, which implies...
Characterization of the hydrologic resources of San Miguel County, New Mexico, and identification of hydrologic data gaps, 2011
Anne Marie Matherne, Anne M. Stewart
2012, Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5238
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with San Miguel County, New Mexico, conducted a study to assess publicly available information regarding the hydrologic resources of San Miguel County and to identify data gaps in that information and hydrologic information that could aid in the management of available water resources....
Low-flow characteristics of streams under natural and diversion conditions, Waipiʻo Valley, Island of Hawaiʻi, Hawaiʻi
Richard A. Fontaine
2012, Scientific Investigations Report 2011-5118
Over the past 100 years, natural streamflow in Waipiʻo Valley has been reduced by the transfer of water out of the valley by Upper and Lower Hāmākua Ditches. The physical condition and diversion practices along the two ditch systems have varied widely over the years, and as a result, so...
Redox reaction rates in shallow aquifers: Implications for nitrate transport in groundwater and streams
Anthony J. Tesoriero
2012, Conference Paper, Abstracts with Programs, Geological Society of America Annual Meeting
Groundwater age and water chemistry data along flow paths from recharge areas to streams were used to evaluate the trends and transformations of agricultural chemicals. Results from this analysis indicate that median nitrate recharge concentrations in these agricultural areas have increased markedly over the last 50 years from 4 mg...
The utility of harvest recoveries of marked individuals to assess polar bear (Ursus maritimus) survival
Elizabeth L. Peacock, Jeff Laake, Kristin L. Laidre, Erik W. Born, Stephen N. Atkinson
2012, Arctic (65) 391-400
Management of polar bear (Ursus maritimus) populations requires the periodic assessment of life history metrics such as survival rate. This information is frequently obtained during short-term capture and marking efforts (e.g., over the course of three years) that result in hundreds of marked bears remaining in the population after active...
Improving the accuracy of S02 column densities and emission rates obtained from upward-looking UV-spectroscopic measurements of volcanic plumes by taking realistic radiative transfer into account
Christoph Kern, Tim Deutschmann, Cynthia Werner, A. Jeff Sutton, Tamar Elias, Peter J. Kelly
2012, Journal of Geophysical Research D: Atmospheres (117)
Sulfur dioxide (SO2) is monitored using ultraviolet (UV) absorption spectroscopy at numerous volcanoes around the world due to its importance as a measure of volcanic activity and a tracer for other gaseous species. Recent studies have shown that failure to take realistic radiative transfer into account during the spectral retrieval...
Linking the historic 2011 Mississippi River flood to coastal wetland sedimentation
Federico Falcini, Nicole S. Khan, Leonardo Macelloni, Benjamin P. Horton, Carol B. Lutken, Karen L. McKee, Rosalia Santoleri, Simone Colella, Chunyan Li, Gianluca Volpe, Marco D’Emidio, Alessandro Salusti, Douglas J. Jerolmack
2012, Nature Geoscience (5) 803-807
Wetlands in the Mississippi River deltaic plain are deteriorating in part because levees and control structures starve them of sediment. In Spring of 2011 a record-breaking flood brought discharge on the lower Mississippi River to dangerous levels, forcing managers to divert up to 3500 m3/s-1 of water to the Atchafalaya...
Yield of bedrock wells in the Nashoba terrane, central and eastern Massachusetts
Leslie A. DeSimone, Jeffrey R. Barbaro
2012, Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5155
The yield of bedrock wells in the fractured-bedrock aquifers of the Nashoba terrane and surrounding area, central and eastern Massachusetts, was investigated with analyses of existing data. Reported well yield was compiled for 7,287 wells from Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection and U.S. Geological Survey databases. Yield of these wells...
Geomorphic analysis of the river response to sedimentation downstream of Mount Rainier, Washington
Jonathan A. Czuba, Christopher S. Magirl, Christiana R. Czuba, Christopher A. Curran, Kenneth H. Johnson, Theresa D. Olsen, Halley K. Kimball, Casey C. Gish
2012, Open-File Report 2012-1242
A study of the geomorphology of rivers draining Mount Rainier, Washington, was completed to identify sources of sediment to the river network; to identify important processes in the sediment delivery system; to assess current sediment loads in rivers draining Mount Rainier; to evaluate if there were trends in streamflow or...
Palynological composition of a Lower Cretaceous South American tropical sequence: Climatic implications and diversity comparisons with other latitudes.
Paula J. Mejia-Velasquez, David L. Dilcher, Carlos A. Jaramillo, Lucas B. Fortini, Steven R. Manchester
2012, American Journal of Botany (99) 1819-1827
Premise of the study: Reconstruction of floristic patterns during the early diversification of angiosperms is impeded by the scarce fossil record, especially in tropical latitudes. Here we collected quantitative palynological data from a stratigraphic sequence in tropical South America to provide floristic and climatic insights into such tropical environments during...
