Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center - Who We Are and What We Do
Water Resources Division, U.S. Geological Survey
2008, Fact Sheet 2008-3055
To understand our planet at local, regional, national, and global scales, people need information about Earth's land surfaces and how they are changing. Land remote sensing is the key to gathering this information. Satellites that capture detailed images of Earth's continents, islands, and coastlines are and have been EROS' primary...
Circum-Arctic resource appraisal: Estimates of undiscovered oil and gas north of the Arctic Circle
Kenneth J. Bird, Ronald R. Charpentier, Donald L. Gautier, David W. Houseknecht, Timothy R. Klett, Janet K. Pitman, Thomas E. Moore, Christopher J. Schenk, Marilyn E. Tennyson, Craig R. Wandrey
2008, Fact Sheet 2008-3049
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has completed an assessment of undiscovered conventional oil and gas resources in all areas north of the Arctic Circle. Using a geology-based probabilistic methodology, the USGS estimated the occurrence of undiscovered oil and gas in 33 geologic provinces thought to be prospective for petroleum. The...
Streamflow characteristics of streams in the Helmand Basin, Afghanistan
Tara Williams-Sether
2008, Fact Sheet 2008-3059
A majority of the Afghan population lacks adequate and safe supplies of water because of contamination, lack of water-resources management regulation, and lack of basic infrastructure, compounded by periods of drought and seasonal flooding. Characteristics of historical streamflows are needed to assist with efforts to quantify the water resources of...
In Service to the Nation: The Geology Scientist Emeritus Program
B. M. Adrian, L.M. Bybell, S.R. Brady
2008, Fact Sheet 2008-3013
The Geology Scientist Emeritus Program of the U.S. Geological Survey was established in 1986 as part of the Bureau's Volunteer for Science Program. The purpose of the Scientist Emeritus (SE) Program is to help support retired USGS senior scientists as they volunteer their expertise, intellect, and creativity in efforts that...
Declassified Intelligence Satellite Photographs
Water Resources Division, U.S. Geological Survey
2008, Fact Sheet 2008-3054
Declassified photographs from U.S. intelligence satellites provide an important worldwide addition to the public record of the Earth’s land surface. This imagery was released to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in accordance with Executive Order 12951 on February 23, 1995. The NARA...
A Landscape Indicator Approach to the Identification and Articulation of the Ecological Consequences of Land Cover Change in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, 1970-2000
Terrence Slonecker
2008, Fact Sheet 2008-3056
The advancement of geographic science in the area of land surface status and trends and land cover change is at the core of the current geographic scientific research of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) (McMahon and others, 2005). Perhaps the least developed or articulated aspects of USGS land change science...
Florida Integrated Science Center (FISC) Coral Reef Research
D.Z. Poore
2008, Fact Sheet 2008-3057
Coral reefs provide important ecosystem services such as shoreline protection and the support of lucrative industries including fisheries and tourism. Such ecosystem services are being compromised as reefs decline due to coral disease, climate change, overfishing, and pollution. There is a need for focused, integrated science to understand the complex...
Coral Diseases Following Massive Bleaching in 2005 Cause 60 Percent Decline in Coral Cover and Mortality of the Threatened Species, Acropora Palmata, on Reefs in the U.S. Virgin Islands
Caroline S. Rogers
2008, Fact Sheet 2008-3058
Record-high seawater temperatures and calm seas in the summer of 2005 led to the most severe coral bleaching (greater than 90 percent bleached coral cover) ever observed in the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) (figs. 1 and 2). All but a few coral species bleached, including the threatened species, Acropora palmata....
Bed-material entrainment and associated transportation infrastructure problems in streams of the Edwards Plateau, central Texas
Franklin T. Heitmuller, William H. Asquith
2008, Fact Sheet 2008-3047
The Texas Department of Transportation commonly builds and maintains low-water crossings (LWCs) over streams in the Edwards Plateau in Central Texas. LWCs are low-height structures, typically constructed of concrete and asphalt, that provide acceptable passage over seasonal rivers or streams with relatively low normal-depth flow. They are designed to accommodate...
Assessment of undiscovered oil and gas resources of the Timan-Pechora Basin Province, Russia, 2008
Christopher J. Schenk, K. J. Bird, Ronald R. Charpentier, D. L. Gautier, David W. Houseknecht, T. R. Klett, T. Moore, M. J. Pawlewicz, Janet K. Pitman, Marilyn E. Tennyson
2008, Fact Sheet 2008-3051
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) recently assessed the undiscovered oil and gas potential of the Timan-Pechora Basin Province in Russia as part of the USGS Circum-Arctic Oil and Gas Resource Appraisal program. Geologically, the Timan-Pechora Basin Province is a triangular-shaped cratonic block bounded by the northeast-southwest trending Ural Mountains and...
Advanced Remote Sensing Research
Terrence Slonecker, John Jones, Susan D. Price, Dianna Hogan
2008, Fact Sheet 2008-3052
'Remote sensing' is a generic term for monitoring techniques that collect information without being in physical contact with the object of study. Overhead imagery from aircraft and satellite sensors provides the most common form of remotely sensed data and records the interaction of electromagnetic energy (usually visible light) with matter,...
Prehistoric Packrats Piled Up Clues to Climate Change
Kenneth L. Cole
2008, Fact Sheet 2008-3053
Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey and Northern Arizona University studying climate change in the Southwestern United States are getting a helping hand?or would that be paw??from prehistoric packrats. By hoarding parts of animals and plants, including seeds and leaves, in garbage piles or ?middens,? these bushy-tailed rodents preserved crucial...
Availability of Ground-Water Data for California, Water Year 2007
Julia A. Huff, Thomas C. Haltom
2008, Fact Sheet 2008-3048
The U.S. Geological Survey, Water Resources, in cooperation with Federal, State, and local agencies, obtains a large amount of data pertaining to the ground-water resources of California each water year (October 1-September 30). These data constitute a valuable database for developing an improved understanding of the water resources of the...
Modeling and dynamic monitoring of ecosystem performance in the Yukon River Basin
Bruce K. Wylie, L. Zhang, Lei Ji, Larry L. Tieszen, N.B. Bliss
2008, Fact Sheet 2008-3016
Central Alaska is ecologically sensitive and experiencing stress in response to marked regional warming. Resource managers would benefit from an improved ability to monitor ecosystem processes in response to climate change, fire, insect damage, and management policies and to predict responses to future climate scenarios. We have developed a method...
Space acquired photography
Water Resources Division, U.S. Geological Survey
2008, Fact Sheet 2008-3045
Interested in a photograph of the first space walk by an American astronaut, or the first photograph from space of a solar eclipse? Or maybe your interest is in a specific geologic, oceanic, or meteorological phenomenon? The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center is making...
Assessment of undiscovered biogenic gas resources, North-central Montana Province
Jennie L. Ridgley, Lawrence O. Anna, Steven M. Condon, Neil S. Fishman, Timothy C. Hester, Paul G. Lillis, Elisabeth L. Rowan, Ronald Charpentier, Troy A. Cook, Robert A. Crovelli, Timothy R. Klett, Christopher J. Schenk
2008, Fact Sheet 2008-3036
Application of a geology-based assessment methodology by the U.S. Geological Survey resulted in an estimated mean of 6,192 billion cubic feet of shallow biogenic (continuous) undiscovered gas in the North-Central Montana Province. Oil, gas, and natural gas liquids in conventional accumulations were not assessed....
Watershed influences and in-lake processes - A regional-scale approach to monitoring a water-supply reservoir, Lake Houston near Houston, Texas
Timothy D. Oden, Jennifer L. Graham
2008, Fact Sheet 2008-3033
Created in 1954 by an impoundment on the San Jacinto River, Lake Houston currently (2008) supplies about 20 percent of the total source water for the city of Houston. Houston historically has relied on ground water as the major source of supply. As a result of regulations to limit ground-water...
Assessment of undiscovered oil and gas resources of the West Greenland-East Canada Province, 2008
Christopher J. Schenk, Kenneth J. Bird, Philip J. Brown II, Ronald R. Charpentier, Donald L. Gautier, David W. Houseknecht, Timothy R. Klett, Mark J. Pawlewicz, Anjana Shah, Marilyn E. Tennyson
2008, Fact Sheet 2008-3014
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) recently assessed the undiscovered oil and gas potential of the West Greenland-East Canada Province as part of the USGS Circum-Arctic Oil and Gas Resource Appraisal effort. The West Greenland-East Canada Province is essentially the offshore area between west Greenland and east Canada and includes Baffin...
Hydrologic droughts in Kansas— Are they becoming worse?
James E. Putnam, Charles A. Perry, David M. Wolock
2008, Fact Sheet 2008-3034
Multi-year droughts have been a recurrent feature of the climate and hydrology of Kansas since at least the 1930s. Streamflow records collected by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) indicate that water years 2000 to 2006 (October 1, 1999, through September 30, 2006) represent the sixth hydrologic drought during the past...
Red-Rimmed Melania (Melanoides tuberculatus) - A snail in Biscayne National Park, Florida - Harmful invader or just a nuisance?
G. Lynn Wingard, James B. Murray, W. Bane Schill, Emily C. Phillips
2008, Fact Sheet 2008-3006
Potentially harmful to humans and other animals, the red-rimmed melania snail (Melanoides tuberculatus; family Thiaridae) was discovered in Biscayne National Park, Florida, in 2003 by U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) researchers. The discovery raised concerns for park managers because this aquatic non-native snail is present in significant numbers in areas frequently...
Impacts of Low-Flow and Stream-Temperature Changes on Endangered Atlantic Salmon - Current Research
Robert W. Dudley, Glenn A. Hodgkins, Benjamin H. Letcher
2008, Fact Sheet 2008-3044
Recent climate studies in New England and the northeastern United States have shown evidence of physical changes over time, including trends toward earlier snowmelt runoff, decreasing river ice, and increasing spring water temperatures. A U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) study funded by the National Global Warming and Wildlife Science Center will...
Consumptive Water Use in the Great Lakes Basin
Kimberly H. Shaffer
2008, Fact Sheet 2008-3032
Great Lakes state agencies and organizations view understanding consumptive water use as a critical component in water-resource management. To assist them in developing a better understanding of the factors involved in consumptive use, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has completed an inventory of consumptive-use coefficients for the Great Lakes Basin....
Assessing the vulnerability of public-supply wells to contamination—High Plains Aquifer near York, Nebraska
Martha L. Jagucki, Matthew K. Landon, Brian R. Clark, Sandra M. Eberts
2008, Fact Sheet 2008-3025
The U.S. Geological Survey's National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program found, in studies from 1991 to 2001, low levels of mixtures of contaminants in ground water near the water table in urban areas across the Nation. Although contaminants were detected less frequently in deeper ground water typically developed for public supply...
Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program Western Pilot Project - Information about selected fish and macroinvertebrates sampled from North Dakota perennial streams, 2000-2003
Kevin C. Vining, Robert F. Lundgren
2008, Fact Sheet 2008-3029
Sixty-five sampling sites, selected by a statistical design to represent lengths of perennial streams in North Dakota, were chosen to be sampled for fish and aquatic insects (macroinvertebrates) to establish unbiased baseline data. Channel catfish and common carp were the most abundant game and large fish species in the Cultivated...
Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program Western Pilot Project— Conditions of North Dakota perennial streams for water chemistry and mercury in fish tissue, 2000–2003
Kevin C. Vining, Robert F. Lundgren
2008, Fact Sheet 2008-3028
Sixty-five sampling sites, selected by a statistical design to represent lengths of perennial streams in North Dakota, were chosen to be sampled for water chemistry and mercury in fish tissue to establish unbiased baseline data. From the assessment of all water chemistry constituents, the percentage of stream length considered to...
