Ground-water flow direction, water quality, recharge sources, and age, Great Sand Dunes National Monument, south-central Colorado
Michael G. Rupert, Niel Plummer
2004, Scientific Investigations Report 2004-5027
Great Sand Dunes National Monument is located in south-central Colorado along the eastern edge of the San Luis Valley. The Great Sand Dunes National Monument contains the tallest sand dunes in North America; some rise up to750 feet. Important ecological features of the Great Sand Dunes National Monument are palustrine...
Ground-water quality of coastal aquifer systems in the West Coast Basin, Los Angeles County, California, 1999-2002
Michael Land, Eric G. Reichard, Steven M. Crawford, Rhett R. Everett, Mark W. Newhouse, Colin F. Williams
2004, Scientific Investigations Report 2004-5067
The extensive use of ground water throughout the Central and West Coast Basins of Los Angeles County during the first half of the 20th century resulted in declining water levels, widespread seawater intrusion, and deterioration of water quality along most reaches of the coast. In order to control seawater intrusion...
Water Quality and Streamflow of the Indian River, Sitka, Alaska, 2001-02
Edward J. Neal, Timothy P. Brabets, Steven A. Frenzel
2004, Scientific Investigations Report 2004-5023
The Indian River Basin, located near Sitka Alaska, drains an area of 12.3 square miles. This watershed is an important natural resource of Sitka National Historic Park. At the present time, the watershed faces possible development on large tracts of private land upstream of the park that could affect the...
Trends in streamflow and comparisons with instream flows in the lower Puyallup River basin, Washington
Steve S. Sumioka
2004, Scientific Investigations Report 2004-5016
The Puyallup Tribe of Indians is interested in better understanding the water resources of the lower Puyallup River Basin in order to ensure sufficient water to meet Tribal and hatchery needs and make future water-resource decisions. The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Puyallup Tribe, conducted a study to...
Water-quality and bottom-material characteristics of Cross Lake, Caddo Parish, Louisiana, 1997-99
Benton D. McGee
2004, Water-Resources Investigations Report 2003-4135
Cross Lake is a shallow, monomictic lake that was formed in 1926 by the impoundment of Cross Bayou. The lake is the primary drinking-water supply for the City of Shreveport, Louisiana. In recent years, the lakeshore has become increasinginly urbanized. In addition, the land use of the...
Integrating digital information for coastal and marine sciences
Fausto Marincioni, Frances L. Lightsom, Rebecca L. Riall, Guthrie A. Linck, Thomas C. Aldrich, Michael J. Caruso
2004, Journal of Digital Information Management (2) 132-141
A pilot distributed geolibrary, the Marine Realms Information Bank (MRIB), was developed by the U.S. Geological Survey Coastal and Marine Geology Program and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, to classify, integrate, and facilitate access to scientific information about oceans, coasts, and lakes. The MRIB is composed of a categorization scheme,...
Methane hydrate studies: Delineating properties of host sediments to establish reproducible decomposition kinetics
Devinder Mahajan, Phillip Servio, Keith W. Jones, Huan Feng, William J. Winters
C.E. Taylor, J.T. Kwwan, editor(s)
2004, Book chapter, Advances in study of gas hydrates
We have presented a summary of measurements on the physical properties of sediments relevant to methane hydrate recovery. The data includes not only geotechnical determinations, but also the CMT data that gives porosity values and pathways through the sediment material. The results show that CMT techniques can be used to...
Comparison of fluorescence microscopy and solid-phase cytometry methods for counting bacteria in water
John T. Lisle, Martin A. Hamilton, Alan R. Willse, Gordon A. McFeters
2004, Applied and Environmental Microbiology (70) 5343-5348
Total direct counts of bacterial abundance are central in assessing the biomass and bacteriological quality of water in ecological and industrial applications. Several factors have been identified that contribute to the variability in bacterial abundance counts when using fluorescent microscopy, the most significant of which is retaining an adequate number...
Analysis of coral mucus as an improved medium for detection of enteric microbes and for determining patterns of sewage contamination in reef environments
Erin K. Lipp, Dale W. Griffin
2004, EcoHealth (1) 317-323
Traditional fecal indicator bacteria are often subject to a high degree of die-off and dilution in tropical marine waters, particularly in offshore areas such as coral reefs. Furthermore, these microbes are often not associated with human waste, and their presence may not be indicative of health risk. To address the...
Where in the world are my field plots? Using GPS effectively in environmental field studies
Chris E. Johnson, Christopher C. Barton
2004, Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment (2) 475-482
Global positioning system (GPS) technology is rapidly replacing tape, compass, and traditional surveying instruments as the preferred tool for estimating the positions of environmental research sites. One important problem, however, is that it can be difficult to estimate the uncertainty of GPS-derived positions. Sources of error include various satellite- and...
Assessment of estuarine water-quality indicators using MODIS medium-resolution bands: initial results from Tampa Bay, FL
Chuanmin Hu, Zhiqiang Chen, Tonya D. Clayton, Peter W. Swarzenski, John Brock, Frank E. Muller-Karger
2004, Remote Sensing of Environment (93) 423-441
Using Tampa Bay, FL as an example, we explored the potential for using MODIS medium-resolution bands (250- and 500-m data at 469-, 555-, and 645-nm) for estuarine monitoring. Field surveys during 21–22 October 2003 showed that Tampa Bay has Case-II waters, in that for the salinity range of 24–32 psu,...
Dust storms and their impact on ocean and human health: dust in Earth's atmosphere
Dale W. Griffin, Christina A. Kellog
2004, EcoHealth (1) 284-295
Satellite imagery has greatly influenced our understanding of dust activity on a global scale. A number of different satellites such as NASA's Earth-Probe Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) and Se-viewing Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) acquire daily global-scale data used to produce imagery for monitoring dust storm formation and movement....
A bootstrap approach to computing uncertainty in inferred oil and gas reserve estimates
Emil D. Attanasi, Timothy C. Coburn
2004, Natural Resources Research (13) 45-52
This study develops confidence intervals for estimates of inferred oil and gas reserves based on bootstrap procedures. Inferred reserves are expected additions to proved reserves in previously discovered conventional oil and gas fields. Estimates of inferred reserves accounted for 65% of the total oil and 34% of the total gas...
The role of the unsaturated zone in artificial recharge at San Gorgonio Pass, California
Alan L. Flint, Kevin M. Ellett
2004, Vadose Zone Journal (3) 763-774
The hydrogeology of the unsaturated zone plays a critical role in determining the suitability of a site for artificial recharge. Optimally, a suitable site has highly permeable soils, a capacity for horizontal flow at the aquifer boundary, a lack of impeding layers, and a thick unsaturated zone. The suitability of...
Periphyton and Macroinvertebrate Communities at Five Sites in the San Joaquin River Basin, California, during June and September, 2001
Larry R. Brown, Jason T. May
2004, Scientific Investigations Report 2004-5098
The effects of agriculture, particularly from the use of pesticides, on aquatic ecosystems in the San Joaquin River Basin concern many aquatic resource managers, water quality managers, and water users. A total of five sites were sampled once in June 2001 and once in September 2001 to document the periphyton...
Quality of water in the fractured-bedrock aquifer of New Hampshire
Richard Bridge Moore
2004, Scientific Investigations Report 2004-5093
Over the past few decades, New Hampshire has experienced considerable population growth, which is forcing some communities to look for alternative public and private water supplies in the bedrock aquifer. Because the quality of water from the aquifer can vary, the U.S. Geological Survey statistically analyzed well data from 1,353...
Using twelve years of USGS refraction lines to calibrate the Brocher and others (1997) 3D velocity model of the Bay Area
John Boatwright, Luke Blair, Rufus Catchings, Mark Goldman, Fabio Perosi, Clare Steedman
2004, Open-File Report 2004-1282
Campbell (1983) demonstrated that site amplification correlates with depths to the 1.0, 1.5, and 2.5 km/s S-wave velocity horizons. To estimate these depths for the Bay Area stations in the PEER/NGA database, we compare the depths to the 3.2 and 4.4 km/s P-wave velocities in the Brocher and others (1997)...
Effects of changes in reservoir operations on water quality and trophic state indicators in Voyageurs National Park, northern Minnesota, 2001-03
Victoria G. Christensen, G. A. Payne, Larry W. Kallemeyn
2004, Scientific Investigations Report 2004-5044
Implementation of an order by the International Joint Commission in January 2000 has changed operating procedures for dams that regulate two large reservoirs in Voyageurs National Park in northern Minnesota. These new procedures were expected to restore a more natural water regime and affect water levels, water quality, and trophic...
An evaluation of gap-filled Landsat SLC-off imagery for wildland fire burn severity mapping
Stephen M. Howard, James M. Lacasse
2004, Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing (70) 877-880
n May 31, 2003 unusual artifacts appeared within image data collected by the Enhanced Thematic Mapper plus (ETM+) instrument on-board the Landsat 7 spacecraft. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), with the support of NASA, has been working to find a means of compensating for the data gaps that result from...
The effects of urbanization on the biological, physical, and chemical characteristics of coastal New England streams
James F. Coles, Thomas F. Cuffney, Gerard McMahon, Karen M. Beaulieu
2004, Professional Paper 1695
During August 2000, responses of biological communities (invertebrates, fish, and algae), physical habitat, and water chemistry to urban intensity were compared among 30 streams within 80 miles of Boston, Massachusetts. Sites chosen for sampling represented a gradient of the intensity of urban development (urban intensity) among drainage basins that had...
Geochemistry of mine waste and mill tailings, meadow deposits, streambed sediments, and the general hydrology and water quality for the Frohner Meadows area, upper Lump Gulch, Jefferson County, Montana
Terry L. Klein, Michael R. Cannon, David L. Fey
2004, Open-File Report 2004-1254
Frohner Meadows, an area of low-topographic gradient subalpine ponds and wetlands in glaciated terrane near the headwaters of Lump Gulch (a tributary of Prickly Pear Creek), is located about 15 miles west of the town of Clancy, Montana, in the Helena National Forest. Mining and ore treatment of lead-zinc-silver veins...
Preliminary report on using imaging spectroscopy to map ultramafic rocks, serpentinites, and tremolite-actinolite-bearing rocks in California
Gregg A. Swayze, Chris T. Higgins, John P. Clinkenbeard, Raymond F. Kokaly, Roger N. Clark, Gregory P. Meeker, Stephen J. Sutley
2004, Open-File Report 2004-1304
Airborne Visible/InfraRed Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) data were collected in approximately 3- kilometer-wide swaths over selected areas in El Dorado and Plumas Counties that contain serpentinite and ultramafic rocks as part of an experiment to determine if potentially asbestos-bearing rocks could be identified spectrally. M ineral maps created from the AVIRIS...
Marine geology and earthquake hazards of the San Pedro Shelf region, southern California
Michael A. Fisher, William R. Normark, Victoria E. Langenheim, Andrew J. Calvert, Ray Sliter
2004, Professional Paper 1687
High-resolution seismic-reflection data have been com- bined with a variety of other geophysical and geological data to interpret the offshore structure and earthquake hazards of the San Pedro Shelf, near Los Angeles, California. Prominent structures investigated include the Wilmington Graben, the Palos Verdes Fault Zone, various faults below the western part of the shelf and slope,...
The Alaska Volcano Observatory - Expanded monitoring of volcanoes yields results
Steven R. Brantley, Robert G. McGimsey, Christina A. Neal
2004, Fact Sheet 2004-3084
Recent explosive eruptions at some of Alaska's 52 historically active volcanoes have significantly affected air traffic over the North Pacific, as well as Alaska's oil, power, and fishing industries and local communities. Since its founding in the late 1980s, the Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) has installed new monitoring networks and...
A theory for modeling ground-water flow in heterogeneous media
Richard L. Cooley
2004, Professional Paper 1679
Construction of a ground-water model for a field area is not a straightforward process. Data are virtually never complete or detailed enough to allow substitution into the model equations and direct computation of the results of interest. Formal model calibration through optimization, statistical, and geostatistical methods is being applied to...
