A New Occurrence Model for National Assessment of Undiscovered Volcanogenic Massive Sulfide Deposits
W.C. Pat Shanks III, Cynthia Dusel-Bacon, Randolph Koski, Lisa A. Morgan, Dan Mosier, Nadine M. Piatak, Ian Ridley, Robert R. Seal II, Klaus J. Schulz, John F. Slack, Roland Thurston
2009, Open-File Report 2009-1235
Volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) deposits are very significant current and historical resources of Cu-Pb-Zn-Au-Ag, are active exploration targets in several areas of the United States and potentially have significant environmental effects. This new USGS VMS deposit model provides a comprehensive review of deposit occurrence and ore genesis, and fully integrates...
A method for creating a three dimensional model from published geologic maps and cross sections
Gregory J. Walsh
2009, Open-File Report 2009-1229
This brief report presents a relatively inexpensive and rapid method for creating a 3D model of geology from published quadrangle-scale maps and cross sections using Google Earth and Google SketchUp software. An example from the Green Mountains of Vermont, USA, is used to illustrate the step by step methods used...
Wildfire risk in the wildland-urban interface: A simulation study in northwestern Wisconsin
Avi Bar Massada, Volker C. Radeloff, Susan I. Stewart, Todd Hawbaker
2009, Forest Ecology and Management (258) 1990-1999
The rapid growth of housing in and near the wildland–urban interface (WUI) increases wildfire risk to lives and structures. To reduce fire risk, it is necessary to identify WUI housing areas that are more susceptible to wildfire. This is challenging, because wildfire patterns depend on fire behavior and spread, which...
Multivariate Statistical Models for Predicting Sediment Yields from Southern California Watersheds
Joseph E. Gartner, Susan H. Cannon, Dennis R. Helsel, Mark Bandurraga
2009, Open-File Report 2009-1200
Debris-retention basins in Southern California are frequently used to protect communities and infrastructure from the hazards of flooding and debris flow. Empirical models that predict sediment yields are used to determine the size of the basins. Such models have been developed using analyses of records of the amount of material...
Emergency Assessment of Postfire Debris-Flow Hazards for the 2009 Station Fire, San Gabriel Mountains, Southern California
Susan H. Cannon, Joseph E. Gartner, Michael G. Rupert, John A. Michael, Dennis M. Staley, Bruce B. Worstell
2009, Open-File Report 2009-1227
This report presents an emergency assessment of potential debris-flow hazards from basins burned by the 2009 Station fire in Los Angeles County, southern California. Statistical-empirical models developed for postfire debris flows are used to estimate the probability and volume of debris-flow production from 678 drainage basins within the burned area...
Near-field receiving water monitoring of trace metals and a benthic community near the Palo Alto Regional Water Quality Control Plant in South San Francisco Bay, California: 2008
Daniel J. Cain, Janet K. Thompson, Jessica Dyke, Francis Parcheso, Samuel N. Luoma, Michelle I. Hornberger
2009, Open-File Report 2009-1193
Results reported herein include trace element concentrations in sediment and in the clam Macoma petalum (formerly reported as Macoma balthica (Cohen and Carlton, 1995)), clam reproductive activity, and benthic macroinvertebrate community structure for a mudflat one kilometer south of the discharge of the Palo Alto Regional Water Quality Control Plant (PARWQCP) in South San...
Quantifying the undiscovered geothermal resources of the United States
Colin F. Williams, Marshall J. Reed, Jacob DeAngelo, S. Peter Galanis Jr.
2009, Conference Paper, Geothermal Resources Council Transactions
In 2008, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) released summary results of an assessment of the electric power production potential from the moderate- and high-temperature geothermal resources of the United States (Williams et al., 2008a; USGS Fact Sheet 2008-3082; http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2008/3082). In the assessment, the estimated mean power production potential from undiscovered...
Bankfull discharge and channel characteristics of streams in New York State
Christiane I. Mulvihill, Barry P. Baldigo, Sarah J. Miller, Douglas DeKoskie, Joel DuBois
2009, Scientific Investigations Report 2009-5144
Equations that relate drainage area to bankfull discharge and channel characteristics (such as width, depth, and cross-sectional area) at gaged sites are needed to help define bankfull discharge and channel characteristics at ungaged sites and can be used in stream-restoration and protection projects, stream-channel classification, and channel assessments. These equations...
The South Florida Ecosystem Portfolio Model - A Map-Based Multicriteria Ecological, Economic, and Community Land-Use Planning Tool
William B. Labiosa, Richard Bernknopf, Paul Hearn, Dianna Hogan, David Strong, Leonard Pearlstine, Amy M. Mathie, Anne M. Wein, Kevin Gillen, Susan Wachter
2009, Scientific Investigations Report 2009-5181
The South Florida Ecosystem Portfolio Model (EPM) prototype is a regional land-use planning Web tool that integrates ecological, economic, and social information and values of relevance to decision-makers and stakeholders. The EPM uses a multicriteria evaluation framework that builds on geographic information system-based (GIS) analysis and spatially-explicit models that characterize...
Understanding the Habitat Needs of the Declining Western Yellow-Billed Cuckoo
Matthew J. Johnson
2009, Fact Sheet 2009-3091
The western yellow-billed cuckoo, once common along the streams and rivers of the American West, is now a candidate for protection under the Endangered Species Act. Most of the remaining breeding pairs are found in Arizona, California, and New Mexico. Research to understand the cuckoos' habitat needs by U.S. Geological...
Adjustment of pesticide concentrations for temporal changes in analytical recovery, 1992-2006
Jeffrey D. Martin, Wesley W. Stone, Duane S. Wydoski, Mark W. Sandstrom
2009, Scientific Investigations Report 2009-5189
Recovery is the proportion of a target analyte that is quantified by an analytical method and is a primary indicator of the analytical bias of a measurement. Recovery is measured by analysis of quality-control (QC) water samples that have known amounts of target analytes added ('spiked' QC samples). For pesticides,...
AnalyzeHOLE - An Integrated Wellbore Flow Analysis Tool
Keith Halford
2009, Techniques and Methods 4-F2
Conventional interpretation of flow logs assumes that hydraulic conductivity is directly proportional to flow change with depth. However, well construction can significantly alter the expected relation between changes in fluid velocity and hydraulic conductivity. Strong hydraulic conductivity contrasts between lithologic intervals can be masked in continuously screened wells. Alternating intervals...
Monitoring fine-sediment volume in the Colorado River ecosystem, Arizona: Bathymetric survey techniques
Matt Kaplinski, Joseph E. Hazel Jr., Rod Parnell, Mike Breedlove, Keith Kohl, Mark Gonzales
2009, Open-File Report 2009-1207
In 2002, a fine-grained sediment (sand, silt, and clay) monitoring effort was initiated in the Colorado River ecosystem, the river corridor downstream from Glen Canyon Dam, to directly survey channel topography at scales previously unobtainable in this canyon setting. This report presents an overview of the equipment and the methods...
Population and habitat restoration - Preamble to section 5
Alex Haro
2009, Book chapter, Challenges for diadromous fishes in a dynamic global environment
Diadromous fish populations are particularly difficult to understand, model and manage because they traverse multiple habitats that present not only environmental, ecological, reproductive, and physiological challenges, but also frequently convey them across multiple management jurisdictions. Our knowledge of population-level effects is also dependent on the quality and extent of...
Solid precipitation measurement intercomparison in Bismarck, North Dakota, from 1988 through 1997
Karen R. Ryberg, Douglas G. Emerson, Kathleen M. Macek-Rowland
2009, Scientific Investigations Report 2009-5180
A solid precipitation measurement intercomparison was recommended by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and was initiated after approval by the ninth session of the Commission for Instruments and Methods of Observation. The goal of the intercomparison was to assess national methods of measuring solid precipitation against methods whose accuracy and...
Analysis of complex pumping interactions during an aquifer test conducted at a well field in the coastal plain near Augusta, Georgia, October 2009
Gerald J. Gonthier
2009, Conference Paper, Georgia Water Resources Conference 2011
A 24-hour aquifer test was conducted in Well Field 2 near Augusta, Georgia, October 21–22, 2009, to characterize the hydraulic properties of the Midville aquifer system. The selected well was pumped at a rate of 684 gallons per minute. At the initiation of aquifer-test pumping, water levels in each of...
Apparent Resistivity and Estimated Interaction Potential of Surface Water and Groundwater along Selected Canals and Streams in the Elkhorn-Loup Model Study Area, North-Central Nebraska, 2006-07
Andrew Teeple, Joseph Vrabel, Wade H. Kress, James C. Cannia
2009, Scientific Investigations Report 2009-5171
In 2005, the State of Nebraska adopted new legislation that in part requires local Natural Resources Districts to include the effect of groundwater use on surface-water systems in their groundwater management plan. In response the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Upper Elkhorn, Lower Elkhorn, Upper Loup, Lower Loup,...
Delayed genetic effects of habitat fragmentation on the ecologically specialized Florida sand skink (Plestiodon reynoldsi)
Jonathan Q. Richmond, Duncan T. Reid, Kyle G. Ashton, Kelly R. Zamudio
2009, Conservation Genetics (10) 1281-1297
Populations rarely show immediate genetic responses to habitat fragmentation, even in taxa that possess suites of traits known to increase their vulnerability to extinction. Thus conservation geneticists must consider the time scale over which contemporary evolutionary processes operate to accurately portray the effects of habitat isolation. Here, we examine the...
U.S. Geological Survey Science for the Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative - 2008 Annual Report
Zachary H. Bowen, Cameron L. Aldridge, Patrick J. Anderson, Timothy J. Assal, Lori Anne Baer, R. Sky Bristol, Natasha B. Carr, Geneva W. Chong, Jay E. Diffendorfer, Bradley C. Fedy, Steven L. Garman, Steve Germaine, Richard I. Grauch, Collin G. Homer, Daniel J. Manier, Matthew J. Kauffman, Natalie Latysh, Cynthia P. Melcher, Kirk A. Miller, Jessica Montag, Constance J. Nutt, Christopher Potter, Hall Sawyer, David B. Smith, Michael J. Sweat, Anna B. Wilson
2009, Open-File Report 2009-1201
The Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative (WLCI) was launched in 2007 in response to concerns about threats to the State's world class wildlife resources, especially the threat posed by rapidly increasing energy development in southwest Wyoming. The overriding purpose of the WLCI is to assess and enhance aquatic and terrestrial habitats...
Hydrogeology and Ground-Water Flow in the Opequon Creek Watershed area, Virginia and West Virginia
Mark D. Kozar, David J. Weary
2009, Scientific Investigations Report 2009-5153
Due to increasing population and economic development in the northern Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and West Virginia, water availability has become a primary concern for water-resource managers in the region. To address these issues, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the West Virginia Department of Health and Human...
Geologic Criteria for the Assessment of Sedimentary Exhalative (Sedex) Zn-Pb-Ag Deposits
Poul Emsbo
2009, Open-File Report 2009-1209
Sedex deposits account for more than 50 percent of the world's zinc and lead reserves and furnish more than 25 percent of the world's production of these two metals. This report draws on previous syntheses as well as on topical studies of deposits in sedex basins to determine the characteristics...
Determination of glyphosate, its degradation product aminomethylphosphonic acid, and glufosinate, in water by isotope dilution and online solid-phase extraction and liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry
Michael T. Meyer, Keith A. Loftin, Edward A. Lee, Gary H. Hinshaw, Julie E. Dietze, Elisabeth A. Scribner
2009, Techniques and Methods 5-A10
The U.S. Geological Survey method (0-2141-09) presented is approved for the determination of glyphosate, its degradation product aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA), and glufosinate in water. It was was validated to demonstrate the method detection levels (MDL), compare isotope dilution to standard addition, and evaluate method and compound stability. The original method...
Mississippi Valley-Type Lead-Zinc Deposit Model
David L. Leach, Ryan D. Taylor
2009, Open-File Report 2009-1213
Mississippi Valley-type (MVT) lead-zinc (Pb+Zn) deposits are found throughout the world, and these deposits are characteristically distributed over hundreds of square kilometers that define individual ore districts. The median size of individual MVT deposits is 7.0 million tonnes with grades of about 7.9 percent Pb+Zn metal. However, MVT deposits usually...
To burn or not to burn Oriental bittersweet: A fire manager’s conundrum
Noel B. Pavlovic, Stacey A. Leicht-Young, Krystal Frohnapple, Neal Mulconrey
2009, Report
Oriental bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus) is a highly invasive liana (woody vine) that occurs throughout the Eastern United States. This twining plant can blanket and girdle adjacent vegetation, affecting succession and damaging trees. In areas where prescribed fire is a management tool, the response of Oriental bittersweet to fire needs to...
Spectroscopic analysis of arsenic uptake in Pteris Ferns
E. Terrence Slonecker, Barry N. Haack, Susan D. Price
2009, Remote Sensing (1) 644-675
Two arsenic-accumulating Pteris ferns (Pteris cretica mayii and Pteris multifida), along with a non-accumulating control fern (Nephrolepis exaltata) were grown in greenhouse conditions in clean sand spiked with 0, 20, 50, 100 and 200 ppm sodium arsenate. Spectral data were collected for each of five replicates prior...
