Simulation of groundwater and surface-water resources and evaluation of water-management alternatives for the Chamokane Creek basin, Stevens County, Washington
D. Matthew Ely, Sue C. Kahle
2012, Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5224
A three-dimensional, transient numerical model of groundwater and surface-water flow was constructed for Chamokane Creek basin to better understand the groundwater-flow system and its relation to surface-water resources. The model described in this report can be used as a tool by water-management agencies and other stakeholders to quantitatively evaluate the...
Geodatabase of sites, basin boundaries, and topology rules used to store drainage basin boundaries for the U.S. Geological Survey, Colorado Water Science Center
Jean A. Dupree, Richard M. Crowfoot
2012, Data Series 650
This geodatabase and its component datasets are part of U.S. Geological Survey Digital Data Series 650 and were generated to store basin boundaries for U.S. Geological Survey streamgages and other sites in Colorado. The geodatabase and its components were created by the U.S. Geological Survey, Colorado Water Science Center, and...
Digital database architecture and delineation methodology for deriving drainage basins, and a comparison of digitally and non-digitally derived numeric drainage areas
Jean A. Dupree, Richard M. Crowfoot
2012, Techniques and Methods 11-C6
The drainage basin is a fundamental hydrologic entity used for studies of surface-water resources and during planning of water-related projects. Numeric drainage areas published by the U.S. Geological Survey water science centers in Annual Water Data Reports and on the National Water Information Systems (NWIS) Web site are still primarily...
Development and application of downscaled hydroclimatic predictor variables for use in climate vulnerability and assessment studies
James Thorne, Ryan Boynton, Lorraine Flint, Alan Flint, Thuy N’goc Le
2012, Report
This paper outlines the production of 270-meter grid-scale maps for 14 climate and derivative hydrologic variables for a region that encompasses the State of California and all the streams that flow into it. The paper describes the Basin Characterization Model (BCM), a map-based, mechanistic model used to process the hydrological...
Aquifer test at well SMW-1 near Moenkopi, Arizona
Rob Carruth, Donald J. Bills
2012, Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5201
The Hopi villages of Lower Moencopi and Upper Moenkopi are on the Hopi Indian Reservation south of Tuba City in northern Arizona. These adjacent Hopi villages, located west and north of the confluence of Pasture Canyon Wash and Moenkopi Wash, are dependent on groundwater withdrawals from three wells that penetrate...
Geogenic sources of benzene in aquifers used for public supply, California
Matthew K. Landon, Kenneth Belitz
2012, Environmental Science & Technology (46) 8689-8697
Statistical evaluation of two large statewide data sets from the California State Water Board's Groundwater Ambient Monitoring and Assessment Program (1973 wells) and the California Department of Public Health (12417 wells) reveals that benzene occurs infrequently (1.7%) and at generally low concentrations (median detected concentration of 0.024 μg/L) in groundwater...
Eruption probabilities for the Lassen Volcanic Center and regional volcanism, northern California, and probabilities for large explosive eruptions in the Cascade Range
Manuel Nathenson, Michael A. Clynne, L.J. Patrick Muffler
2012, Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5176-B
Chronologies for eruptive activity of the Lassen Volcanic Center and for eruptions from the regional mafic vents in the surrounding area of the Lassen segment of the Cascade Range are here used to estimate probabilities of future eruptions. For the regional mafic volcanism, the ages of many vents are known...
Assessment of the Coal-Bed Gas Total Petroleum System in the Cook Inlet-Susitna region, south-central Alaska
William A. Rouse, David W. Houseknecht
2012, Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5145
The Cook Inlet-Susitna region of south-central Alaska contains large quantities of gas-bearing coal of Tertiary age. The U.S. Geological Survey in 2011 completed an assessment of undiscovered, technically recoverable coal-bed gas resources underlying the Cook Inlet-Susitna region based on the total petroleum system (TPS) concept. The Cook Inlet Coal-Bed Gas...
Water quality, hydrology, and simulated response to changes in phosphorus loading of Mercer Lake, Iron County, Wisconsin, with special emphasis on the effects of wastewater discharges
Dale M. Robertson, Herbert S. Garn, William J. Rose, Paul F. Juckem, Paul C. Reneau
2012, Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5134
Mercer Lake is a relatively shallow drainage lake in north-central Wisconsin. The area near the lake has gone through many changes over the past century, including urbanization and industrial development. To try to improve the water quality of the lake, actions have been taken, such as removal of the lumber...
Measurement of near-surface seismic compressional wave velocities using refraction tomography at a proposed construction site on the Presidio of Monterey, California
Michael H. Powers, Bethany L. Burton
2012, Open-File Report 2012-1191
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is determining the feasibility of constructing a new barracks building on the U.S. Army Presidio of Monterey in Monterey, California. Due to the presence of an endangered orchid in the proposed area, invasive techniques such as exploratory drill holes are prohibited. To aid in...
Effects of a non-native biocontrol weevil, Larinus planus, and other emerging threats on populations of the federally threatened Pitcher's thistle, Cirsium pitcheri
Kayri Havens, Claudia L. Jolls, Julie E. Marik, Pati Vitt, A. Kathryn McEachern, Darcy Kind
2012, Biological Conservation 202-211
Larinus planus Frabicius (Curculionidae), is a seed-eating weevil that was inadvertently introduced into the US and was subsequently distributed in the US and Canada for the control of noxious thistle species of rangelands. It has been detected recently in the federally threatened Pitcher's thistle (Cirsium pitcheri). We assayed weevil damage...
Fault geometry and cumulative offsets in the central Coast Ranges, California: Evidence for northward increasing slip along the San Gregorio-San Simeon-Hosgri fault
V.E. Langenheim, R.C. Jachens, R. W. Graymer, J.P. Colgan, C. M. Wentworth, R. G. Stanley
2012, Lithosphere (5) 29-48
Estimates of the dip, depth extent, and amount of cumulative displacement along the major faults in the central California Coast Ranges are controversial. We use detailed aeromagnetic data to estimate these parameters for the San Gregorio–San Simeon–Hosgri and other faults. The recently acquired aeromagnetic data provide an areally consistent data...
Understanding beach health throughout the Great Lakes -- continuing research
Water Resources Division, U.S. Geological Survey
2012, Fact Sheet 2012-3113
The overall mission of U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Beach Health Initiative is to provide science-based information and methods that will allow beach managers to more accurately make beach closure and advisory decisions, understand the sources and physical processes affecting beach contaminants, and understand how science-based information can be used to...
Sources of fecal indicator bacteria to groundwater, Malibu Lagoon and the near-shore ocean, Malibu, California, USA
John A. Izbicki, Peter W. Swarzenski, Carmen A. Burton, Laurie Van De Werfhorst, Patricia A. Holden, Eric A. Dubinsky
2012, Annals of Environmental Science (6)
Onsite wastewater treatment systems (OWTS) used to treat residential and commercial sewage near Malibu, California have been implicated as a possible source of fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) to Malibu Lagoon and the near-shore ocean. For this to occur, treated wastewater must first move through groundwater before discharging to the Lagoon...
Preliminary assessment of water chemistry related to groundwater flooding in Wawarsing, New York, 2009-11
Craig J. Brown, David A. Eckhardt, Frederick Stumm, Anthony Chu
2012, Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5144
Water-quality samples collected in an area prone to groundwater flooding in Wawarsing, New York, were analyzed and assessed to better understand the hydrologic system and to aid in the assessment of contributing water sources. Above average rainfall over the past decade, and the presence of a pressurized water tunnel that...
Spatial and temporal trends in runoff at long-term streamgages within and near the Chesapeake Bay Watershed
Karen C. Rice, Robert M. Hirsch
2012, Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5151
Long-term streamflow data within the Chesapeake Bay watershed and surrounding area were analyzed in an attempt to identify trends in streamflow. Data from 30 streamgages near and within the Chesapeake Bay watershed were selected from 1930 through 2010 for analysis. Streamflow data were converted to runoff and trend slopes in...
Modelling ecological flow regime: an example from the Tennessee and Cumberland River basins
Rodney R. Knight, W. Scott Gain, William J. Wolfe
2012, Ecohydrology (5) 613-627
Predictive equations were developed for 19 ecologically relevant streamflow characteristics within five major groups of flow variables (magnitude, ratio, frequency, variability, and date) for use in the Tennessee and Cumberland River basins using stepbackward regression. Basin characteristics explain 50% or more of the variation for 12 of the 19 equations....
Seeing the light: the effects of particles, dissolved materials, and temperature on in situ measurements of DOM fluorescence in rivers and streams
Bryan D. Downing, Brian A. Pellerin, Brian A. Bergamaschi, John Franco Saraceno, Tamara E.C. Kraus
2012, Limnology and Oceanography: Methods (10) 767-775
Field-deployable sensors designed to continuously measure the fluorescence of colored dissolved organic matter (FDOM) in situ are of growing interest. However, the ability to make FDOM measurements that are comparable across sites and over time requires a clear understanding of how instrument characteristics and environmental conditions affect the measurements. In...
Direct geoelectrical evidence of mass transfer at the laboratory scale
Ryan D. Swanson, Kamini Singha, Frederick D. Day-Lewis, Andrew Binley, Kristina Keating, Roy Haggerty
2012, Water Resources Research (48)
Previous field-scale experimental data and numerical modeling suggest that the dual-domain mass transfer (DDMT) of electrolytic tracers has an observable geoelectrical signature. Here we present controlled laboratory experiments confirming the electrical signature of DDMT and demonstrate the use of time-lapse electrical measurements in conjunction with concentration measurements to estimate the...
Atlas of relations between climatic parameters and distributions of important trees and shrubs in North America—Modern data for climatic estimation from vegetation inventories
Robert S. Thompson, Katherine H. Anderson, Richard T. Pelltier, Laura E. Strickland, Sarah L. Shafer, Patrick J. Bartlein
2012, Professional Paper 1650-F
Vegetation inventories (plant taxa present in a vegetation assemblage at a given site) can be used to estimate climatic parameters based on the identification of the range of a given parameter where all taxa in an assemblage overlap ("Mutual Climatic Range"). For the reconstruction of past climates from fossil or...
Genetic differences between hatchery and wild steelhead for survival, growth, dispersal, and male maturation in a natural stream (Study site: Twenty-Mile Creek; Stocks: Dworshak hatchery and Selway River wild; Year classes: 1994 and 1995)
Stephen P. Rubin, Reginald R. Reisenbichler, Jay E. Hensleigh, Lisa A. Wetzel, Bruce M. Baker, Frank Leonetti Frank, Karl D. Stenberg, Stacey L. Slatton
Stephen P. Rubin, Reginald R. Reisenbichler, Lisa A. Wetzel, Michael C. Hayes, editor(s)
2012, Report, Genetic differences in growth, migration, and survival between hatchery and wild steelhead and Chinook salmon: Final report. Performance period: June 1991 to December 2005
This study was initiated in the early 1990s to provide managers with data comparing genetic fitness for natural rearing, as measured by survival of juveniles in freshwater, between steelhead Oncorhynchus mykiss from Dworshak National Fish Hatchery and wild steelhead from the Clearwater River, Idaho. We artificially spawned hatchery steelhead and...
Temperature as a potent driver of regional forest drought stress and tree mortality
A. Park Williams, Craig D. Allen, Alison K. Macalady, Daniel Griffin, Connie A. Woodhouse, David M. Meko, Thomas W. Swetnam, Sara A. Rauscher, Richard Seager, Henri D. Grissino-Mayer, Jeffrey S. Dean, Edward R. Cook, Chandana Gangodagamage, Michael Cai, Nathan G. McDowell
2012, Nature Climate Change (3) 292-297
s the climate changes, drought may reduce tree productivity and survival across many forest ecosystems; however, the relative influence of specific climate parameters on forest decline is poorly understood. We derive a forest drought-stress index (FDSI) for the southwestern United States using a comprehensive tree-ring data set representing AD 1000-2007....
Determining the source and genetic fingerprint of natural gases using noble gas geochemistry: a northern Appalachian Basin case study
Andrew G. Hunt, Thomas H. Darrah, Robert J. Poreda
2012, AAPG Bulletin (96) 1785-1811
Silurian and Devonian natural gas reservoirs present within New York state represent an example of unconventional gas accumulations within the northern Appalachian Basin. These unconventional energy resources, previously thought to be noneconomically viable, have come into play following advances in drilling (i.e., horizontal drilling) and extraction (i.e., hydraulic fracturing) capabilities....
Design and implementation of a structural health monitoring and alerting system for hospital buildings in the United States
Hasan S. Ulusoy, Erol Kalkan, Jon Peter B. Fletcher, Paul A. Friberg, W. K. Leith, Krishna Banga
2012, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the 15th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering, Portugal, 2012
This paper describes the current progress in the development of a structural health monitoring and alerting system to meet the needs of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to monitor hospital buildings instrumented in high and very high seismic hazard regions in the U.S. The system, using the measured vibration...
Semi-discrete biomass dynamic modeling: an improved approach for assessing fish stock responses to pulsed harvest events
Clay Pierce, Michael E. Colvin, Timothy W. Stewart
2012, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (69) 1710-1721
Continuous harvest over an annual period is a common assumption of continuous biomass dynamics models (CBDMs); however, fish are frequently harvested in a discrete manner. We developed semidiscrete biomass dynamics models (SDBDMs) that allow discrete harvest events and evaluated differences between CBDMs and SDBDMs using an equilibrium yield analysis with...
