Procedures for developing multi-period response spectra at non-conterminous United States sites
Mai Tong, Robert D. Hanson, Charles A Kircher, Sanaz Rezaeian, Nicolas Luco
2020, Report
This study complements proposals to the Provisions Update Committee of the Building Seismic Safety Council that would incorporate multi-period response spectra (MPRS) in the 2020 edition of the NEHRP Recommended Seismic Provisions for New Buildings and Other Structures (2020 NEHRP Provisions) and related proposals to the ASCE 7-22 Seismic Subcommittee...
f. Glaciers and ice caps outside Greenland
Gabe Wolken, M. Sharp, L. M. Andreassen, Emily Baker, B. Wouters, D. Burgess, B. Luks, J. Kohler, Shad O'Neel
2020, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society S260-S263
No abstract available....
Three-dimensional shape and structure of the Susitna basin, south-central Alaska, from geophysical data
Anjana K. Shah, Jeffrey Phillips, Kristen A. Lewis, Richard G. Stanley, Peter J. Haeussler, Christopher J. Potter
2020, Geosphere (16) 969-990
We use gravity, magnetic, seismic reflection, well, and outcrop data to determine the three-dimensional shape and structural features of south-central Alaska’s Susitna basin. This basin is located within the Aleutian-Alaskan convergent margin region and is expected to show effects of regional subduction zone processes. Aeromagnetic data, when filtered to highlight...
Progress toward the establishment of an extended-duration gas hydrate reservoir response test on the Alaska North Slope
Norihiro Okinaka, Ray Boswell, Timothy Collett, Koji Yamamoto, Brian Anderson
2020, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the 10th international conference on gas hydrates (ICGH10)
No abstract available....
A synthesis of ten years of chemical contaminant monitoring data in National Park Service - Southeast and southwest Alaska networks
Mary Rider, Dennis Apeti, Annie Jacob, Kimani L. Kimbrough, Erik Davenport, Michael R. Bower, Heather A Colletti, Daniel Esler
2020, NOAA Technical Memorandum NOS/MCCOS 277
With the exception of PAHs and trace metals, which were detected at 100% of the sites, all of the other contaminants were detected at varying frequencies. PBBs, Mirex and Endosulfans were not detected in any of the samples and Chlorpyrifos was only detected in five samples across four sites. Chlordanes...
Radiocarbon dating of tsunami and storm deposits
Harvey M. Kelsey, Robert C. Witter
2020, Book chapter, Geological records of tsunamis and other extreme waves
Radiocarbon age determinations can be an expedient and accurate means to assign age to deposits of tsunami or storm origin. Essential to the process of incorporating radiocarbon age determinations in tsunami or coastal storm investigations is an awareness on the part...
Life at the frozen limit: Microbial carbon metabolism across a Late Pleistocene permafrost chronosequence
Mary-Cathrine Leewis, Renaud Berlemont, David C. Podgorski, Archana Srinivas, Phoebe Zito, Robert G. M. Spencer, Jack McFarland, Thomas A. Douglas, Christopher H. Conaway, Mark Waldrop, Rachel Mackelprang
2020, Frontiers in Microbiology (11)
Permafrost is an extreme habitat yet it hosts microbial populations that remain active over millennia. Using permafrost collected from a Pleistocene chronosequence (19 to 33 ka), we hypothesized that the functional genetic potential of microbial communities in permafrost would reflect microbial strategies to metabolize permafrost soluble organic matter (OM) in situ over...
Recording the aurora borealis (northern lights) at seismometers across Alaska
C. Tape, Adam T. Ringler, D.L. Hampton
2020, Seismological Research Letters (91) 3039-3053
We examine three continuously recording data sets related to the aurora: all‐sky camera images, three‐component magnetometer data, and vertical‐component, broadband seismic data as part of the EarthScope project (2014 to present). Across Alaska there are six all‐sky cameras, 13 magnetometers, and >200"><span...
Ancient rivers and critical minerals in eastern Alaska
Adrian Bender, Richard O. Lease, James V. Jones III, Douglas C. Kreiner
2020, Eos, American Geophysical Union
No abstract available....
Citizen science collaboration with the U.S. Geological Survey in Alaska
Elizabeth Powers, Dee Williams
2020, Fact Sheet 2020-3026
Citizen science is science undertaken by the public, usually in collaboration with professional scientific institutions. It encourages citizens to tackle real-world scientific problems and augments traditional science by expanding the coverage of data collection and by reducing costs of fieldwork in remote locations. Information collected by volunteers enables us all...
DNA metabarcoding of feces to infer summer diet of Pacific walruses
Sarah A. Sonsthagen, Chadwick V. Jay, Robert S. Cornman, Anthony S. Fischbach, Jacqueline M. Grebmeier, Sandra L. Talbot
2020, Marine Mammal Science (36) 1196-1211
Environmental conditions in the Chukchi Sea are changing rapidly and may alter the abundance and distribution of marine species and their benthic prey. We used a metabarcoding approach to identify potentially important prey taxa from Pacific walrus (Odobenus rosmarus divergens) fecal samples (n = 87). Bivalvia was the most dominant class...
Bellwether sites for evaluating changes in landslide frequency and magnitude in cryospheric mountainous terrain: A call for systematic, long-term observations to decipher the impact of climate change
Jeffrey A. Coe
2020, Landslides (17) 2483-2501
Permafrost and glaciers are being degraded by the warming effects of climate change. The impact that this degradation has on slope stability in mountainous terrain is the subject of ongoing research efforts. The relatively new availability of high-resolution (≤ 10 m) imagery with worldwide coverage and short (≤ 30 days) repeat acquisition times, as...
Late Cenozoic climate change paces landscape adjustments to Yukon River capture
Adrian Bender, Richard O. Lease, Lee B. Corbett, Paul R. Bierman, Marc Caffee, Tammy M. Rittenour
2020, Nature Geoscience (13) 571-575
Late Cenozoic cooling and changes in glacial–interglacial cycle tempo are thought to increase global rates of erosion starting ~3 million years ago (Ma). Bedrock rivers set rates and patterns of erosion in most landscapes, but constraints on river response to late Cenozoic climate change remain elusive....
A 36-year record of rock avalanches in the Saint Elias Mountains of Alaska, with implications for future hazards
Erin K. Bessette-Kirton, Jeffrey A. Coe
2020, Frontiers in Earth Science (8)
Glacial retreat and mountain-permafrost degradation resulting from rising global temperatures have the potential to impact the frequency and magnitude of landslides in glaciated environments. Several recent events, including the 2015 Taan Fiord rock avalanche, which triggered a tsunami with one of the highest wave runups ever recorded, have called attention...
Using a structured decision analysis to evaluate bald eagle vital signs monitoring in Southwest Alaska National Parks
Rebecca Kolstrom, Tammy L. Wilson, Larry M. Gigliotti
2020, Ecology and Evolution (10) 8114-8126
1. Monitoring programs can benefit from an adaptive monitoring approach, where key decisions about why, where, what, and how to monitor are revisited periodically in order to ensure programmatic relevancy. 2. The National Park Service (NPS) monitors status and trends of Vital Signs to evaluate compliance with the NPS mission....
Segmentation and supercycles: A catalog of earthquake rupture patterns from the Sumatran Sunda Megathrust and other well-studied faults worldwide
Belle E. Philibosian, Aron J. Meltzner
2020, Quaternary Science Reviews (241)
After more than 100 years of earthquake research, earthquake forecasting, which relies on knowledge of past fault rupture patterns, has become the foundation for societal defense against seismic natural disasters. A concept that has come into focus more recently is that rupture segmentation and cyclicity can be complex, and that...
Wildfire-initiated talik development exceeds current thaw projections: Observations and models from Alaska's continuous permafrost zone
David M. Rey, Michelle A. Walvoord, Burke J. Minsley, Brian A. Ebel, Clifford I. Voss, Kamini Singha
2020, Geophysical Research Letters (47)
As the Arctic warms and wildfire occurrence increases, talik formation in permafrost regions is projected to expand and affect the cycling of water and carbon. Yet, few unified field and modeling studies have examined this process in detail, particularly in areas of continuous permafrost. We address this gap by presenting...
Fish growth rates and lake sulphate explain variation in mercury levels in ninespine stickleback (Pungitius pungitius) on the Arctic Coastal Plain of Alaska
Samantha M. Burke, Christian E. Zimmerman, Sarah M. Laske, Joshua C. Koch, Allison M. Derry, Stephanie Guernon, Brian A. Branfireun, Heidi K. Swanson
2020, Science of the Total Environment (743)
Mercury concentrations in freshwater food webs are governed by complex biogeochemical and ecological interactions that spatially vary and are often mediated by climate. The Arctic Coastal Plain of Alaska (ACP) is a heterogeneous, lake-rich landscape where variability in mercury accumulation is poorly understood. Earlier...
Wildfire-driven forest conversion in western North American landscapes
Jonathan D. Coop, Sean A. Parks, Camile S Stevens-Rumann, Shelley D. Crausbay, Philip E. Higuera, Matthew D. Hurteau, Alan J. Tepley, Ellen Whitman, Timothy J. Assal, Brandon M. Collins, Kimberley T Davis, Solomon Dobrowski, Donald A. Falk, Paula J. Fornwalt, Peter Z Fulé, Brian J. Harvey, Van R. Kane, Caitlin E. Littlefield, Ellis Margolis, Malcolm North, Marc-André Parisien, Susan Prichard, Kyle C. Rodman
2020, BioScience (70) 659-673
Changing disturbance regimes and climate can overcome forest ecosystem resilience. Following high-severity fire, forest recovery may be compromised by lack of tree seed sources, warmer and drier postfire climate, or short-interval reburning. A potential outcome of the loss of resilience is the conversion of the prefire forest to a different...
U-Pb geochronology of igneous and detrital zircon samples from the Tok River area, eastern Alaska Range, and Talkeetna Mountains, Alaska
Christopher S. Holm-Denoma, Karri R. Sicard, Evan Twelker
2020, Geological & Geophysical Surveys DGGS RDF 2020-3
This Alaska Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys (DGGS) Raw Data File presents U-Pb zircon geochronology results from selected igneous, meta-igneous, and metasedimentary rocks collected during the Tok River and Wrangellia geologic mapping projects in the eastern Alaska Range and the northwestern Talkeetna Mountains, Alaska. The purpose of these analyses...
Petrophysical and geomechanical properties of gas hydrate-bearing sediments recovered from Alaska North Slope 2018 Hydrate-01 Stratigraphic Test Well
Jun Yoneda, Yusuke Jin, Michihiro Muraoka, Motoi Oshima, Kiyofumi Suzuki, Mike Walker, Donald Westacott, Satoshi Otsuki, Kenichi Kumagai, Timothy Collett, Ray Boswell, Norihiro Okinaka
2020, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the 10th international conference on gas hydrates (ICGH10)
Knowledge of petrophysical and geomechanical properties of gas hydrate-bearing sediments are essential for predicting reservoir responses to gas production. The same information is also needed for the designing of production well completions such as specifications for artificial lift, test site water storage capacity, and mesh size for the sand control...
Magnetic field variations in Alaska: Recording space weather events on seismic stations in Alaska
Adam T. Ringler, Robert E. Anthony, David C. Wilson, Abram E. Claycomb, John Spritzer
2020, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (110) 2530-2540
Seismometers are highly sensitive instruments to not only ground motion but also many other nonseismic noise sources (e.g., temperature, pressure, and magnetic field variations). We show that the Alaska component of the Transportable Array is particularly susceptible to recording magnetic storms and other space weather events because the sensors used...
After-hatch and hatch year Buff-breasted Sandpipers (Calidris subruficollis) can be sexed accurately using morphometric measures
Juliana B. Almeida, Iara F. Lopes, Lewis Oring, T. Lee Tibbitts, Lisa M. Pajot, Richard B. Lanctot
2020, Wader Study (127) 37-42
Determining the sex of birds quickly in the field can help in studies of behavior and distribution, and when selecting particular sexes for deploying tracking devices or collecting samples. However, discerning males from females is difficult in species that are plumage monomorphic and have overlapping sexual-size dimorphism, as in Buff-breasted...
A rasterized building footprint dataset for the United States
Mehdi Pourpeikari Heris, Nathan Leon Foks, Kenneth J. Bagstad, Austin Troy, Zachary H. Ancona
2020, Scientific Data (7)
Microsoft released a U.S.-wide vector building dataset in 2018. Although the vector building layers provide relatively accurate geometries, their use in large-extent geospatial analysis comes at a high computational cost. We used High-Performance Computing (HPC) to develop an algorithm that calculates six summary values for each...
Mate fidelity improves survival and breeding propensity of a long‐lived bird
Alan G. Leach, Thomas V. Riecke, James S. Sedinger, David H. Ward, Sean Boyd
2020, Journal of Animal Ecology (89) 2290-2299
Evolutionary and behavioural ecologists have long been interested in factors shaping the variation in mating behaviour observed in nature. Although much of the research on this topic has focused on the consequences of mate choice and mate change on annual reproductive success, studies of a potential positive link between...
