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G.H. Taylor

Publications and source records attributed to G.H. Taylor.

14 recordsLinked to original sources

Investigations relating to the absorption of precipitation and its penetration to the zone of saturation

This paper deals briefly with the methods and results from three separate investigations that are in progress as to the quantity of rain‐water that percolates downward to the water‐table in the localities where it falls. 1. Workers in the Department of Agriculture, under the direction of W. W. McLaughlin and in cooperation with the California State Department of Public Works, have used several related methods to intercept and measure the rainfall‐penetration. H. F. Blaney and C. A. Taylor have conducted these tests near Los Angeles. A report covering this work, with H. F. Blaney, C. A. Taylor, and A. A. Young as co‐authors, will be published in the near future as a bulletin by the State of California, Department of Public Works, Division of Water Resources. Rough sketches of some of the apparatus used are shown in Figures 1 and 2.

California

The transmission of pressure in artesian aquifers

The water in artesian aquifers is confined under pressure . Under ideal conditions in a perfectly rigid artesian reservoir a change of pressure in one part of the reservoir should produce a corresponding change of pressure in all other parts of the reservoir. Theoretically, the transmission of pressure should take place rapidly and without any movement of water other than the small amount resulting from the compressibility of water. However, observations under natural conditions show that the transmission of pressure is not always rapid and that the rate of transmission appears to be determined in great part by the distance traversed and the magnitude of the change of pressure . There are many reasons for believing that artesian aquifers and their confining beds are not perfectly rigid but that they are elastic and capable of compression and dilation (O. E. Meinzer, Compressibility and elasticity of artesian aquifers , Econ. Geol., v. 23, pp. 263–291, 1928). This appears to be the cause of the lack of rapidity of transmission of pressure in artesian aquifers .

Eos, Transactions, American Geophysical Union

Fluctuations of ground‐water levels in Utah

Long‐time continuous records of the fluctuations of ground‐water levels have been obtained at relatively few locations in the United States. Among the few available records for Utah that extend continuously over a period of a year or more are those made in the Jordan River and Ogden valleys by the United States Geological Survey in cooperation with Salt Lake City and Ogden. A few of the records of water‐levels, with records of stream‐flow and precipitation, are shown in Figure 1. Most of these records were begun during 1931 or 1932. A State‐wide program of well‐observations was begun during the summer of 1935 and is now in progress, the work being done by the Geological Survey in cooperation with the Utah State Engineer.

Eos, Transactions, American Geophysical Union

Diagnosis of an intense atmospheric river impacting the pacific northwest: Storm summary and offshore vertical structure observed with COSMIC satellite retrievals

This study uses the new satellite-based Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate (COSMIC) mission to retrieve tropospheric profiles of temperature and moisture over the data-sparse eastern Pacific Ocean. The COSMIC retrievals, which employ a global positioning system radio occultation technique combined with "first-guess" information from numerical weather prediction model analyses, are evaluated through the diagnosis of an intense atmospheric river (AR; i.e., a narrow plume of strong water vapor flux) that devastated the Pacific Northwest with flooding rains in early November 2006. A detailed analysis of this AR is presented first using conventional datasets and highlights the fact that ARs are critical contributors to West Coast extreme precipitation and flooding events. Then, the COSMIC evaluation is provided. Offshore composite COSMIC soundings north of, within, and south of this AR exhibited vertical structures that are meteorologically consistent with satellite imagery and global reanalysis fields of this case and with earlier composite dropsonde results from other landfalling ARs. Also, a curtain of 12 offshore COSMIC soundings through the AR yielded cross-sectional thermodynamic and moisture structures that were similarly consistent, including details comparable to earlier aircraft-based dropsonde analyses. The results show that the new COSMIC retrievals, which are global (currently yielding ???2000 soundings per day), provide high-resolution vertical-profile information beyond that found in the numerical model first-guess fields and can help monitor key lower-tropospheric mesoscale phenomena in data-sparse regions. Hence, COSMIC will likely support a wide array of applications, from physical process studies to data assimilation, numerical weather prediction, and climate research. ?? 2008 American Meteorological Society.

Monthly Weather Review

Ground water in the Jordan Valley, Utah

The Jordan Valley is a small part of a larger area that during the glacial epoch was covered by an ancient lake known as Lake Bonneville. The Jordan River, the natural drainage path from Utah Lake, flows northward through the center of the valley and empties into Great Salt Lake. The Jordan Valley is a rockbottomed valley in which a great thickness of clay, silt, sand, and gravel has been laid down irregularly. The thickness of this material is not definitely known, but wells in the valley have penetrated as much as 2,000 feet without encountering bedrock. These sediments are chiefly stream and lake deposits. The material at the surface of the valley was deposited in an ancient lake which at its highest stage stood about 1,000 feet above the level of Great Salt Lake. The shore deposits laid down in this lake occur in the form of terraces or benches around the margin of this basin. The two most prominent benches are known as the Bonneville and Provo benches. The Bonneville bench was formed during the highest stage of the lake, and the Provo bench during a later stage about 400 feet lower. Ground water occurs in the valley as (1) shallow ground water overlying the confining layer creating the artesian basin, (2) local perched water bodies, and (3) an artesian basin or reservoir including the recharge area. It occurs chiefly in the pore spaces of the sand and gravel of the stream and lake deposits. The most permeable water-bearing material occurs near the foot of the Wasatch Mountains in the area occupied by the Provo and Bonneville benches. At some distance from the mountains beds of finer material dense silt and clay alternate with more permeable beds of sand and gravel, giving rise to artesian conditions. On the Provo and Bonneville benches the water levels lie at considerable distances below the surface; but in the lower areas along the Jordan River and west of Salt Lake City as far as the lake, artesian conditions exist and many flowing wells have been drilled. The principal sources of ground water in the Jordan Valley are the water that seeps into the ground from the streams entering the valley, the water that penetrates directly from the ram and snow that fall upon the bench lands on the east side of the valley, and the water that percolates downward from irrigation canals and from irrigated lands, chiefly derived from Utah Lake. In addition some deep-seated thermal water rises along the Wasatch fault. Field determinations of the chloride content of the ground water show that nearly all the waters from the main part of the area of artesian flow, extending from Salt Lake City to Murray have a chloride content of less than 100 parts per million, and most of them have less than 50 parts per million. The distribution of waters of different chloride content indicates that the water of the main part of the area of artesian flow is derived chiefly from supplies that contain only small amounts of chloride namely, seepage from the streams that head in the Wasatch Mountains and rain and snow that fall upon the Provo and Bonneville benches and penetrate downward through the permeable materials that underlie these benches

Utah

Geology and ground-water resources of Cedar City and Parowan Valleys, Iron County, Utah

Cedar City Valley and Parowan Valley are situated in the eastern part of Iron County, in southwestern Utah. Both valleys are traversed by United States Highway 91, which skirts the west base of the High Plateaus of Utah. The sparse population of the valleys is chiefly dependent upon agricultural products for its livelihood. The climate of the region ranges from arid to semiarid, and the agricultural products are dependent upon irrigation by surface streams and, to an increasing extent during recent years, by water pumped from wells.

Utah

Artesian-water levels and interference between artesian wells in the vicinity of Lehi, Utah

In the vicinity of Lehi, Utah, about 25 miles south of Salt Lake City, supplies of artesian water are obtained at depths of 75 to 750 feet from beds of sand and gravel of Pleistocene age. Individual beds are probably lenticular and irregular in shape, as is characteristic of the stream and lake deposits in many parts of the Lake Bonneville Basin. The artesian supplies are obtained from aquifers or groups of aquifers that are more thoroughly separated by impermeable materials than the artesian aquifers of some other ground-water areas in Utah. Most of the wells are between 130 and 200 feet deep. The artesian area in the vicinity of Lehi is only a small part of a ground-water unit that probably includes most of Utah Lake Valley. The ground-water reservoir in Utah Lake Valley was seriously depleted after the years of subnormal precipitation that culminated in the drought of 1934. However, in the vicinity of Lehi the static levels in 1934 were about the same as during 1904, a year which marked the culmination of a previous drought period. The water levels in the summer of 1935 were about the same as in 1934, indicating that the recharge to the ground-water reservoir was again sufficient to balance the discharge; and during the following year there was a marked rise of the water level in all wells, commonly 5 to 10 feet in amount. The static levels in the vicinity of Lehi fluctuate each year through a range of as much as 15 feet and are ordinarily highest during March or April and lowest during August or September. This fluctuation is due in part to the closing of flowing irrigation wells during the winter. A series of tests was made to determine the extent of interference between artesian wells. Among the wells that are between 130 and 200 feet deep, the operation of certain wells was found to cause a change in the static level in wells as much as 1 1/5 miles distant. The operation of these shallower wells, however, had no apparent effect upon the static level in the wells more than about 200 feet deep nor did the operation of these deeper wells appear to affect the static level in the shallow wells. The deep and shallow aquifers thus appear to be separated by fairly continuous beds of impermeable material.

Utah

Investigations conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey: A part of Chapter 5 in Twenty-first biennial report of the State Engineer to the governor of Utah: 1936-1938

A summary of past investigations in Utah and a description of the work done during the 1934-36 biennium are included in the State Engineer’s Twentieth Biennial Report (pp. 91-106). Co-operative investigation with the State Engineer, begun on July 1, 1935, has been continued during the past biennium. To provide for this work, the 1935 Utah State Legislature appropriated \$10,000 to the State Engineer, this sum being matched by the U. S. Geological Survey during the biennium ending June 30, 1937. During its 1937 session the State Legislature appropriated \$5000 for continuation of co-operative work in underground waters. An equal sum was provided by the U. S. Geological Survey and investigations have continued during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1938.

Utah

Geology and ground-water resources of Ogden Valley, Utah

Ogden Valley is a fault trough bounded on both the east and west by faults that dip toward the middle of the valley. This fault trough contains unconsolidated deposits of clay, sand, and gravel, whose thickness is more than 600 feet. These materials are stream and lake deposits and in places are well sorted and stratified. The lake sediments were laid down in a small lake that occupied Ogden Valley and that was connected with glacial Lake Bonneville at its high stage by an arm of water that occupied Ogden Canyon. During this stage of Lake Bonneville the Ogden Valley was completely filled with lake sediments up to an altitude of about 4,900 feet. These sediments include about 70 feet of clay, sand, and gravel in alternating layers, below which is a bed of varved clay whose maximum thickness is about 70 feet. This clay is continuous under the lower parts of the valley and is the confining bed that produces the artesian conditions. Below the varved clay is a deposit of silt, sand, and gravel of unknown thickness, most of which is believed to be pre-Bonneville alluvium. In most summers the streams entering Ogden Valley are diverted for irrigation, and the upper parts of their channels are generally dry during the irrigation season. Lower down in the valley seepage water appears in the channels, and below these points there is continuous flow. The flow of the Ogden River increases as it passes through Ogden Canyon. This gain in flow is believed to be derived chiefly from ground-water seepage from the canyon walls, although there is probably some groundwater underflow from Ogden Valley at the head of Ogden Canyon. Some of the gain is also due to leakage from pipe lines in the canyon. Of the 146 wells whose records are given in this report, 70 are flowing wells.

Utah

Ground water investigations in Utah to June 30, 1936: A part of Chapter 8 in Twentieth biennial report of the State Engineer to the governor of Utah: 1935-1936

During the past few years of drouth the importance of ground-water supplies has become more fully appreciated. During this time, because of subnormal replenishment of the ground-water reservoirs and the increased withdrawals from wells, the ground-water levels have declined in most developed areas in the State, a condition which has made the well owners acutely aware that ground water is not inexhaustible. Numerous cases of contention between well owners resulted in increased demands for adequate regulation of the appropriation and use of ground water. Realizing that more information concerning the ground water of the State was imperative, not only to administer the ground-water regulations but to prepare for the conservation and replenishment of existing supplies and development of new supplies, the State Legislature enacted, during its 1935 session, Senate Bill 206, which authorized the State Engineer to make an investigation of the ground water of the State. To provide for the expenses of the investigation, the bill allotted /$10,000 to the State Engineer, this sum to be matched by a State or Federal organization, and the investigation to be carried out co-operatively during the biennium beginning July 1, 1935. A co-operative agreement between the State Engineer and the United States Geological Survey was made on July 1, 1935.

Utah