Mormon cricket control in Utah's west desert - Evaluation of impacts of the pesticide Diflubenzuron on nontarget arthropod communities
Tim B. Graham, Anne M.D. Brasher, Rebecca N. Close
2008, Open-File Report 2008-1305
Grasshopper and Mormon cricket (Orthoptera) populations periodically build to extremely high numbers and can cause significant economic damage in rangelands and agricultural fields of the Great Plains and Intermountain West. A variety of insecticides have been applied to control population outbreaks, with recent efforts directed at minimizing impacts to nontarget...
Internships, employment opportunities, and research grants
2008, General Information Product 80
As an unbiased, multidisciplinary science organization that focuses on biology, geography, geology, geospatial information, and water, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is dedicated to the timely, relevant, and impartial study of the landscape, our natural resources, and the natural hazards that threaten us. Opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students and...
GIS Representation of Coal-Bearing Areas in Africa
Matthew D. Merrill, Susan J. Tewalt
2008, Open-File Report 2008-1258
The African continent contains approximately 5 percent of the world's proven recoverable reserves of coal (World Energy Council, 2007). Energy consumption in Africa is projected to grow at an annual rate of 2.3 percent from 2004 through 2030, while average consumption in first-world nations is expected to rise at 1.4...
The Inskip Formation, the Harmony Formation, and the Havallah sequence of Northwestern Nevada — An interrelated Paleozoic assemblage in the home of the Sonoma orogeny
Keith B. Ketner
2008, Professional Paper 1757
An area between the towns of Winnemucca and Battle Mountain in northwestern Nevada, termed the arkosic triangle, includes the type areas of the middle to upper Paleozoic Inskip Formation and Havallah sequence, the Upper Devonian to Mississippian Harmony Formation, the Sonoma orogeny, and the Golconda thrust. According to an extensive...
Avian Species Inventory at Manzanar National Historic Site, California - Final Report to the National Park Service
Jan Hart, Charles Drost
2008, Open-File Report 2008-1275
We conducted a baseline inventory for avian species at Manzanar National Historic Site, Inyo County, Calif., from 2002 to 2005. Under the guidelines of the Mojave Network Biological Inventory Program, the primary objectives for this study were to (1) inventory and document the occurrence of avian species at Manzanar, with...
TSPP - A collection of FORTRAN programs for processing and manipulating time series
David M. Boore
2008, Open-File Report 2008-1111
This report lists a number of FORTRAN programs that I have developed over the years for processing and manipulating strong-motion accelerograms. The collection is titled TSPP, which stands for Time Series Processing Programs. I have excluded 'strong-motion accelerograms' from the title, however, as the boundary between 'strong' and 'weak' motion...
Geologic Map of the San Luis Quadrangle, Costilla County, Colorado
Michael N. Machette, Ren A. Thompson, Benjamin J. Drenth
2008, Scientific Investigations Map 2963
The map area includes San Luis and the primarily rural surrounding area. San Luis, the county seat of Costilla County, is the oldest surviving settlement in Colorado (1851). West of the town are San Pedro and San Luis mesas (basalt-covered tablelands), which are horsts with the San Luis fault zone...
Water Quality and Biological Characteristics of the Middle Fork of the Saline River, Arkansas, 2003-06
Joel M. Galloway, James C. Petersen, Erica L. Shelby, Jim A. Wise
2008, Scientific Investigations Report 2008-5018
The Middle Fork of the Saline River has many qualities that have been recognized by State and Federal agencies. The Middle Fork provides habitat for several rare aquatic species and is part of a larger stream system (the Upper Saline River) that is known for relatively high levels of species...
Uranium in surface waters and sediments affected by historical mining in the Denver West 1:100,000 Quadrangle, Colorado
Robert A. Zielinski, James K. Otton, R. Randall Schumann, Laurie Wirt
2008, Scientific Investigations Report 2007-5246
Geochemical sampling of 82 stream waters and 87 stream sediments within mountainous areas immediately west of Denver, Colorado, was conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey in October 1994. The primary purpose was to evaluate regionally the effects of geology and past mining on the concentration and distribution of uranium. The...
Living in Yellowstone's Caldera: A geochemical trophic cascade in elk
Robert A. Garrott, P.J. White, James K. Otton, Maurice A. Chaffee
2008, Book, Terrestrial Ecology
Though the geology of earth's rare geothermal environments and their associated microbial communities are intensely studied, less scientific attention has focused on their potential effects through the plant-herbivore-carnivore trophic chain. The west-central portion of Yellowstone National Park contains a 2000-km2 volcanic <a...
Geochemistry of Rock Samples Collected from the Iron Hill Carbonatite Complex, Gunnison County, Colorado
Bradley S. Van Gosen
2008, Open-File Report 2008-1119
A study conducted in 2006 by the U.S. Geological Survey collected 57 surface rock samples from nine types of intrusive rock in the Iron Hill carbonatite complex. This intrusive complex, located in Gunnison County of southwestern Colorado, is known for its classic carbonatite-alkaline igneous geology and petrology. The Iron Hill...
Magmatic and tectonic evolution of the Caetano caldera, north-central Nevada: A tilted, mid-Tertiary eruptive center and source of the Caetano Tuff
David A. John, Christopher D. Henry, Joseph P. Colgan
2008, Geosphere (4) 75-106
The Caetano Tuff is a late Eocene, rhyolite ash-flow tuff that crops out within an ∼90-km-long, east-west–trending belt in north-central Nevada, previously interpreted as an elongate graben or “volcano-tectonic trough.” New field, petrographic, geochemical, and geochronologic data show that: (1) the east half of the “trough” is actually the Caetano...
Trace element and Pb isotope composition of plagioclase from dome samples from the 2004-2005 eruption of Mount St. Helens, Washington
Adam J. R. Kent, Michael C. Rowe, Carl R. Thornber, John S. Pallister
David R. Sherrod, William E. Scott, Peter H. Stauffer, editor(s)
2008, Professional Paper 1750-35
We report the results of in-situ laser ablation ICP–MS analyses of anorthite content, trace-element (Li, Ti, Sr, Ba, La, Pr, Ce, Nd, Eu, Pb) concentrations, and Pb-isotope compositions in plagioclase from eight dome-dacite samples collected from the 2004-5 eruption of Mount St. Helens and, for comparison, from three dome samples...
Lead isotopes and trace metals in dust at Yucca Mountain
Loretta Kwak, Leonid A. Neymark, Zell E. Peterman
2008, Conference Paper, International High-Level Radioactive Waste Management 2008
Lead (Pb)-isotope compositions and trace-metal concentrations were determined for samples of dust collected from underground and surface locations at and near the proposed radioactive waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Rare earth element concentrations in the dust samples from the underground tunnels are similar to those in wholerock samples of...
Evolving magma storage conditions beneath Mount St. Helens inferred from chemical variations in melt inclusions from the 1980-1986 and current (2004-2006) eruptions
Jon Blundy, Katharine V. Cashman, Kim Berlo
David R. Sherrod, William E. Scott, Peter H. Stauffer, editor(s)
2008, Professional Paper 1750-33
Major element, trace element, and volatile concentrations in 187 glassy melt inclusions and 25 groundmass glasses from the 1980-86 eruption of Mount St. Helens are presented, together with 103 analyses of touching FE-Ti oxide pairs from the same samples. These data are used to evaluate the temporal evolution of...
Petrology of the 2004-2006 Mount St. Helens lava dome -- implications for magmatic plumbing and eruption triggering
John S. Pallister, Carl R. Thornber, Katharine V. Cashman, Michael A. Clynne, Heather Lowers, Charlie Mandeville, Isabelle K. Brownfield, Gregory P. Meeker
David R. Sherrod, William E. Scott, Peter H. Stauffer, editor(s)
2008, Professional Paper 1750-30
Eighteen years after dome-forming eruptions ended in 1986, and with little warning, Mount St. Helens began to erupt again in October 2004. During the ensuing two years, the volcano extruded more than 80×106 m3 of gas-poor, crystal-rich dacite lava. The 2004-6 dacite is remarkably uniform in bulk-rock composition and, at...
Lightning‐driven electric fields measured in the lower ionosphere: Implications for transient luminous events
Jeremy N. Thomas, Benjamin H. Barnum, Erin Lay, Robert H. Holzworth, Mengu Cho, Michael C. Kelley
2008, Journal of Geophysical Research A: Space Physics (113) 1-8
Transient luminous events above thunderstorms such as sprites, halos, and elves require large electric fields in the lower ionosphere. Yet very few in situ measurements in this region have been successfully accomplished, since it is typically too low in altitude for rockets and satellites and too high for balloons. In...
Overview of the 2004 to 2006, and continuing, eruption of Mount St. Helens, Washington
William E. Scott, David R. Sherrod, Cynthia A. Gardner
David R. Sherrod, William E. Scott, Peter H. Stauffer, editor(s)
2008, Professional Paper 1750-1
Rapid onset of unrest at Mount St. Helens on September 23, 2004, initiated an uninterrupted lava-dome-building eruption that continues to the time of writing this overview (spring 2006) for a volume of papers focused on this eruption. About three weeks of intense seismic unrest and localized surface uplift, punctuated by...
Quaternary paleoceanography of the central Arctic based on Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Arctic Coring Expedition 302 foraminiferal assemblages
T. M. Cronin, S.A. Smith, F. Eynaud, M. O’Regan, J. King
2008, Paleoceanography (23)
The Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Arctic Coring Expedition (ACEX) Hole 4C from the Lomonosov Ridge in the central Arctic Ocean recovered a continuous 18 in record of Quaternary foraminifera yielding evidence for seasonally ice-free interglacials during the Matuyama, progressive development of large glacials during the mid-Pleistocene transition (MPT) ???1.2-0.9...
Are hotspots of evolutionary potential adequately protected in southern California?
Amy G. Vandergast, A.J. Bohonak, S.A. Hathaway, J. Boys, Robert N. Fisher
2008, Biological Conservation (141) 1648-1664
Reserves are often designed to protect rare habitats, or "typical" exemplars of ecoregions and geomorphic provinces. This approach focuses on current patterns of organismal and ecosystem-level biodiversity, but typically ignores the evolutionary processes that control the gain and loss of biodiversity at these and other levels (e.g., genetic, ecological). In...
Late Neogene marine incursions and the ancestral Gulf of California
K. McDougall
2008, Conference Paper, Special Paper of the Geological Society of America
The late Neogene section in the Salton Trough, California, and along the lower Colorado River in Arizona is composed of marine units bracketed by nonmarine units. Microfossils from the marine deposits indicate that a marine incursion inundated the Salton Trough during the late Miocene. Water depths increased rapidly in the...
When desert tortoises are rare: Testing a new protocol for assessing status
Kevin Keith, Kristin H. Berry, James F. Weigand
2008, California Fish and Game (94) 75-97
We developed and tested a new protocol for sampling populations of the desert tortoise, Gopherus agassizii, a state- and federally listed species, in areas where population densities are very low, historical data are sparse, and anthropogenic uses may threaten the well-being of tortoise populations and habitat. We conducted a 3-year...
Brown treesnake (Boiga irregularis) trappability: Attributes of the snake, environment and trap
V.L. Boyarski, J. A. Savidge, G.H. Rodda
2008, Applied Herpetology (5) 47-61
We examined three classes of factors that may influence brown treesnake (Boiga irregularis) trappability on Guam: (1) attributes of the snake, (2) attributes of the environment and (3) attributes of the trap. The attributes of the snake we considered included body condition, length and sex. Heavier snakes for a given...
Efficient estimation of abundance for patchily distributed populations via two-phase, adaptive sampling.
M.J. Conroy, J.P. Runge, R. J. Barker, M.R. Schofield, C.J. Fonnesbeck
2008, Ecology (89) 3362-3370
Many organisms are patchily distributed, with some patches occupied at high density, others at lower densities, and others not occupied. Estimation of overall abundance can be difficult and is inefficient via intensive approaches such as capture-mark-recapture (CMR) or distance sampling. We propose a two-phase sampling scheme and model in a...
The metallogeny of Late Triassic rifting of the Alexander terrane in southeastern Alaska and northwestern British Columbia
C. D. Taylor, W. R. Premo, A. L. Meier, J.E. Taggart Jr.
2008, Conference Paper, Economic Geology
A belt of unusual volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) occurrences is located along the eastern margin of the Alexander terrane throughout southeastern Alaska and northwestern British Columbia and exhibits a range of characteristics consistent with a variety of syngenetic to epigenetic deposit types. Deposits within this belt include Greens Creek and...
