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At least 199 records · Page 11Linked to original sources
USGS2000

Map showing recent and historic landslide activity on coastal bluffs of Puget Sound between Shilshole Bay and Everett, Washington

Many landslides occurred on the coastal bluffs between Seattle and Everett, Washington during the winters of 1996 and 1997. Shallow earth slides and debris flows were the most common, but a few deep-seated rotational earth slides also occurred. The landslides caused significant property damage and interfered with rail traffic; future landslides in the area pose significant hazards to property and public safety. Field observations indicate that ground-water seepage, runoff concentration, and dumping at the tops of the bluffs all contributed to instability of the bluffs. Most landslides in the study area occurred in colluvium, residuum, and landslide deposits derived from the Vashon Drift, particularly the advance outwash. In the northern part of the area, colluvium derived from the Pleistocene Whidbey Formation was also involved in shallow landslides. Comparison of recent activity with historic records in the southern part of the map area indicates that landslides tend to occur in many of the same areas as previous landslides.

Washington↗
USGS1999

Environmental issues associated with fossil fuel resources; an evaluation of research opportunities for the U.S. Geological Survey's Energy Resources Program

Fossil fuel consumption in the United States has nearly tripled within the last 50 years (fig. 1), and is expected to continue increasing. As our knowledge and awareness of environmental consequences related to fossil fuel extraction and use grow, we as a nation, face the challenge of balancing our energy requirements with a desire for environmentally cleaner fuel. To help meet this challenge, the Energy Resources Program (ERP) of the Geologic Division (GD), U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) sponsored three internal workshops and a World Wide Web (WWW) workshop. The primary goal of these workshops was to identify those environmental issues that are related to fossil fuels, are national in scope, and are within the purview of the USGS as an earth-science government agency. Those issues so identified will be prioritized according to ERP's future research plan and according to the extent they provide an environmental framework for ERP's petroleum and coal assessments. The purpose of this paper is to provide the results of the internal and WWW workshops as proposed topics of research for future ERP work, delineate studies to answer the questions related to each proposed research area, and link the studies to the seven science goals of the Geologic Division. The information provided herein will be used in preparing the USGS Geologic Division's FY2000 prospectus and ERP's next five-year strategic plan. Acknowledgements. The authors wish to acknowledge information on ERP environmental projects provided by Les Magoon, Paul Lillis, Keith Kvenvolden, Tom Lorenson, and Bob Rosenbauer. Peter Schweitzer was instrumental in providing the software for the WWW workshop, Cheryl Adkisson for constructing the workshop web pages, and Laura Friedrich for constructing the web pages summarizing the internal workshops. Stan Mroczkowski, Jim Otton, Donna Read, and Dorothy Tanti provided notes of or logistical assistance for the internal workshops. This report reflects the collective input of numerous USGS managers and scientists their participation in the workshops is greatly appreciated.

Open-File Report↗
USGS2023

National preparedness strategy & action plan for potentially hazardous near-Earth objects and planetary defense

Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) are asteroids and comets that orbit the Sun, but have orbits that can bring them into Earth’s neighborhood—within 30 million miles of Earth’s orbit. Planetary defense is “applied planetary science” to address the NEO impact risks on Earth. This National Preparedness Strategy and Action Plan for Near-Earth Objects and Planetary Defense (2023 Planetary Defense Strategy) updates the United States’ first comprehensive Near-Earth Object Preparedness Strategy and Action Plan, released in 2018. The 2023 Planetary Defense Strategy builds on existing efforts by Federal Departments and Agencies to address the hazard of near-Earth object impacts, includes evaluation of where progress has been made since 2018, and focuses future work on planetary defense across the U.S. government. The 2023 Planetary Defense Strategy maintains and updates the core five goals of the 2018 Strategy and Action Plan, while adding a sixth goal to improve governance and interagency coordination on planetary defense issues across Federal Departments and Agencies for the decade ahead. The 2023 Planetary Defense Strategy focuses on six goals: • Goal 1: Enhance NEO detection, tracking, and characterization capabilities. • Goal 2: Improve NEO modeling, prediction, and information integration. • Goal 3: Develop technologies for NEO deflection and disruption missions. • Goal 4: Increase international cooperation on NEO preparation. • Goal 5: Strengthen and routinely exercise NEO impact emergency procedures and action protocols. • Goal 6: Improve U.S. governance of planetary defense through new interagency collaboration.

Report↗
USGS2023

Bringing the Nature Futures Framework to life: Creating a set of illustrative narratives of nature futures

To halt further destruction of the biosphere, most people and societies around the globe need to transform their relationships with nature. The internationally agreed vision under the Convention of Biological Diversity—Living in harmony with nature—is that “By 2050, biodiversity is valued, conserved, restored and wisely used, maintaining ecosystem services, sustaining a healthy planet and delivering benefits essential for all people”. In this context, there are a variety of debates between alternative perspectives on how to achieve this vision. Yet, scenarios and models that are able to explore these debates in the context of “living in harmony with nature” have not been widely developed. To address this gap, the Nature Futures Framework has been developed to catalyse the development of new scenarios and models that embrace a plurality of perspectives on desirable futures for nature and people. In this paper, members of the IPBES task force on scenarios and models provide an example of how the Nature Futures Framework can be implemented for the development of illustrative narratives representing a diversity of desirable nature futures: information that can be used to assess and develop scenarios and models whilst acknowledging the underpinning value perspectives on nature. Here, the term illustrative reflects the multiple ways in which desired nature futures can be captured by these narratives. In addition, to explore the interdependence between narratives, and therefore their potential to be translated into scenarios and models, the six narratives developed here were assessed around three areas of the transformative change debate, specifically, (1) land sparing vs. land sharing, (2) Half Earth vs. Whole Earth conservation, and (3) green growth vs. post-growth economic development. The paper concludes with an assessment of how the Nature Futures Framework could be used to assist in developing and articulating transformative pathways towards desirable nature futures.

Sustainability Science↗
USGS2023

Report of the Science Community Workshop on the proposed First Sample Depot for the Mars Sample Return Campaign

The Mars 2020/Mars Sample Return (MSR) Sample Depot Science Community Workshop was held on September 28 and 30, 2022, to assess the Scientifically-Return Worthy (SRW) value of the full collection of samples acquired by the rover Perseverance at Jezero Crater, and of a proposed subset of samples to be left as a First Depot at a location within Jezero Crater called Three Forks. The primary outcome of the workshop was that the community is in consensus on the following statement: The proposed set of ten sample tubes that includes seven rock samples, one regolith sample, one atmospheric sample, and one witness tube constitutes a SRW collection that: (1) represents the diversity of the explored region around the landing site, (2) covers partially or fully, in a balanced way, all of the International MSR Objectives and Samples Team scientific objectives that are applicable to Jezero Crater, and (3) the analyses of samples in this First Depot on Earth would be of fundamental importance, providing a substantial improvement in our understanding of Mars. At the conclusion of the meeting, there was overall community support for forming the First Depot as described at the workshop and placing it at the Three Forks site. The community also recognized that the diversity of the Rover Cache (the sample collection that remains on the rover after placing the First Depot) will significantly improve with the samples that are planned to be obtained in the future by the Perseverance rover and that the Rover Cache is the primary target for MSR to return to Earth.

Meteoritics and Planetary Science↗
USGS1979

Minerals, lands, and geology for the common defence and general welfare, Volume 1, Before 1879 : A history of public lands, federal science and mapping policy, and development of mineral resources in the United States

This volume, the first of a four-volume study, is concerned with events in the United States before the establishment of the U.S. Geological Survey, during the years in which geology evolved as a science and began to influence economic development and national policy. Subsequent volumes continue the story but focus on the Survey and its role in the events and developments of later years. The method of analysis demonstrates that knowledge of the Earth and its history, processes, and resources has provided a basis for intelligent economic development; also that geologists very soon realized that uncontrolled development of the land and other natural resources could not continue, that some limitations must be made on man's use of the Earth. The Geological Survey was established when public awareness of the need for balance between development and conservation of our resources was becoming evident. That balance is even more necessary now and in the future for the "general welfare" and "common defence" of the Nation. We can be grateful for the wisdom of our Founding Fathers in providing for publicly supported studies in earth science and engineering by well-trained and motivated scientists and engineers. Such studies, undertaken objectively in the search for facts, can continue to be of great value in the formulation and execution of wise policies to protect our environment and to maintain that balance between development and conservation of the natural resources.

Book↗
USGS2026

Enhancements to the USGS Landsat Level 2 surface temperature and emissivity product for Collection 3 reprocessing

The Landsat program provides the longest continuous global record of thermal infrared observations of the Earth's surface, underpinning critical applications in climate monitoring, water resources, ecosystem dynamics, urban heat analysis, and natural hazard assessment. The release of a global inventory of Landsat Collection 2 Level 2 surface temperature products by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) marked a major milestone in operational provision of Landsat thermal infrared analysis-ready data. Ongoing validations and community uses of Collection 2 have identified opportunities to further improve accuracy, uncertainty characterization, and emissivity correction across diverse atmospheric and surface conditions. In preparation for the planned Landsat Collection 3 reprocessing of the Landsat data record in the late 2020s, the USGS is implementing a coordinated set of enhancements to the Level 2 surface temperature products. These include revised emissivity estimation that leverages external datasets, improved atmospheric characterization and uncertainty propagation, expanded dynamic range for high temperature targets, consideration of split window atmospheric correction algorithm for Landsat 8 and 9, and decoupling of thermal infrared processing from visible to shortwave infrared constraints to enable surface temperature retrievals under low or no solar illumination conditions. These changes are designed to improve product quality and consistency across the Landsat record. Beyond near-term performance gains, the Collection 3 design establishes a scalable processing architecture to accommodate the expanded spectral and radiometric measurement capabilities of the forthcoming Landsat 10 mission. By preserving continuity across the Landsat 4–9 record while enabling future algorithm evolution, Landsat Collection 3 will provide a foundation for long-term, multi-decadal Earth system thermal infrared observations.

Remote Sensing of Environment↗
USGS2004

Seismographs, sensors, and satellites: Better technology for safer communities

In the past 25 years, our ability to measure, monitor, and model the processes that lead to natural disasters has increased dramatically. Equally important has been the improvement in our technological capability to communicate information about hazards to those whose lives may be affected. These innovations in tracking and communicating the changes-floods, earthquakes, wildfires, volcanic eruptions-in our dynamic planet, supported by a deeper understanding of earth processes, enable us to expand our predictive capabilities and point the way to a safer future. ?? 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Technology in Society↗
USGS2024

Turning setbacks into stepping-stones for growth in conservation paleobiology

Conservation paleobiology is a cross-disciplinary field that utilizes the geohistorical record of past life on Earth to inform present-day decisions in conservation and restoration and assist in planning for future natural resource management. However, information on how past ecosystems and species responded to environmental change over decadal to millennial timescales is rarely incorporated into conservation and restoration decision-making. To heighten awareness among conservation and restoration practitioners of the relevance of geohistorical data and to bridge the gap between research and implementation in conservation paleobiology, we proposed a Research Topic titled “ Integrating Conservation Biology and Paleobiology to Manage Biodiversity and Ecosystems in a Changing World ”. The 21 articles subsequently published demonstrate the diversity and breadth of geohistorical information available to resource management and the challenges of translating these results into conservation practice and policy. Here we discuss the lessons we learned from editing the Research Topic and suggest a pathway forward for conservation paleobiologists who aspire to generate actionable research results to solve current problems in biodiversity conservation and ecological restoration.

Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution↗
USGS2012

Landsat: building a strong future

Conceived in the 1960s, the Landsat program has experienced six successful missions that have contributed to an unprecedented 39-year record of Earth Observations that capture global land conditions and dynamics. Incremental improvements in imaging capabilities continue to improve the quality of Landsat science data, while ensuring continuity over the full instrument record. Landsats 5 and 7 are still collecting imagery. The planned launch of the Landsat Data Continuity Mission in December 2012 potentially extends the Landsat record to nearly 50 years. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Landsat archive contains nearly three million Landsat images. All USGS Landsat data are available at no cost via the Internet. The USGS is committed to improving the content of the historical Landsat archive though the consolidation of Landsat data held in international archives. In addition, the USGS is working on a strategy to develop higher-level Landsat geo- and biophysical datasets. Finally, Federal efforts are underway to transition Landsat into a sustained operational program within the Department of the Interior and to authorize the development of the next two satellites — Landsats 9 and 10.

Remote Sensing of Environment↗
USGS1988

FUTURE APPLICATIONS OF EXPERT SYSTEMS FOR THE EVALUATION OF ENERGY RESOURCES.

The loss of professional experience and expertise in the domain of the earth sciences may prove to be one of the most serious outcomes of the boom-and-bust cyclic nature of the volatile energy and mining industries. Promising new applications of powerful computer systems, known as 'expert systems' or 'knowledge-based systems', are predicted for use in the earth science. These systems have the potential capability to capture and preserve the invaluable knowledge bases essential to the evaluation of US energy and mineral resources.

JPT, Journal of Petroleum Technology↗
USGS2026

Magnetic storms and geoelectric hazards

Magnetic storms induce geoelectric fields at Earth's surface that can interfere with grounded long-line systems. The September 1859 storm disrupted global telegraph operations, the March 1989 storm caused a blackout in Canada and interfered with electric-power-transmission systems in the United States, and other storms have had related impacts. The geographic and temporal dependence of geoelectric fields are functions of both geomagnetic variation and local surface impedance, which differ considerably across different geological regions. These dependencies can be mapped across the contiguous United States by combining magnetotelluric impedance tensors with ground magnetometer time series. This review illustrates such mapping for the 1989 storm and shows that power-system interference was experienced where surface impedance is high, and when and where geoelectric fields were intense. Statistical analyses indicate that storms comparable to that of March 1989 occur roughly once every four solar cycles. Ongoing developments in numerical modeling and real-time monitoring are anticipated to enable prediction of geoelectric hazards. ▪ Magnetic storms can induced electric fields in the solid Earth that interfere with electric-power-transmission systems. ▪ Geoelectric hazards depend on the storm-time geomagnetic disturbance and the electrical conductivity structure of Earth. ▪ Historically, impacts on telecommunication and power-transmission systems in the United States have been concentrated in the East and Midwest. ▪ The future occurrence of a magnetic superstorm could cause widespread disruption of electric-power-transmission systems.

Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences↗
USGS2010

Western Mineral and Environmental Resources Science Center--providing comprehensive earth science for complex societal issues

Minerals in the environment and products manufactured from mineral materials are all around us and we use and come into contact with them every day. They impact our way of life and the health of all that lives. Minerals are critical to the Nation's economy and knowing where future mineral resources will come from is important for sustaining the Nation's economy and national security. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Mineral Resources Program (MRP) provides scientific information for objective resource assessments and unbiased research results on mineral resource potential, production and consumption statistics, as well as environmental consequences of mining. The MRP conducts this research to provide information needed for land planners and decisionmakers about where mineral commodities are known and suspected in the earth's crust and about the environmental consequences of extracting those commodities. As part of the MRP scientists of the Western Mineral and Environmental Resources Science Center (WMERSC or 'Center' herein) coordinate the development of national, geologic, geochemical, geophysical, and mineral-resource databases and the migration of existing databases to standard models and formats that are available to both internal and external users. The unique expertise developed by Center scientists over many decades in response to mineral-resource-related issues is now in great demand to support applications such as public health research and remediation of environmental hazards that result from mining and mining-related activities. Western Mineral and Environmental Resources Science Center Results of WMERSC research provide timely and unbiased analyses of minerals and inorganic materials to (1) improve stewardship of public lands and resources; (2) support national and international economic and security policies; (3) sustain prosperity and improve our quality of life; and (4) protect and improve public health, safety, and environmental quality. The MRP supports approximately 40 USGS research specialists who utilize cooperative agreements with universities, industry, and other governmental agencies to support their collaborative research and information exchange. Scientists of the WMERSC study how and where non-fuel mineral resources form and are concentrated in the earth's crust, where mineral resources might be found in the future, and how mineral materials interact with the environment to affect human and ecosystem health. Natural systems (ecosystems) are complex - our understanding of how ecosystems operate requires collecting and synthesizing large amounts of geologic, geochemical, biologic, hydrologic, and meteorological information. Scientists in the Center strive to understand the interplay of various processes and how they affect the structure, composition, and health of ecosystems. Such understanding, which is then summarized in publicly available reports, is used to address and solve a wide variety of issues that are important to society and the economy. WMERSC scientists have extensive national and international experience in these scientific specialties and capabilities - they have collaborated with many Federal, State, and local agencies; with various private sector organizations; as well as with foreign countries and organizations. Nearly every scientific and societal challenge requires a different combination of scientific skills and capabilities. With their breadth of scientific specialties and capabilities, the scientists of the WMERSC can provide scientifically sound approaches to a wide range of societal challenges and issues. The following sections describe examples of important issues that have been addressed by scientists in the Center, the methods employed, and the relevant conclusions. New directions are inevitable as societal needs change over time. Scientists of the WMERSC have a diverse set of skills and capabilities and are proficient in the collection and integration of

Circular↗
USGS2020

Book review: Rare earth element resources: Indian context

Rare Earth Element Resources: Indian Context. Yamuna Singh. 2020. ISBN 978-3-030-41353-8. Society of Earth Scientists Series, Springer, Cham, Switzerland, 269 Pp. Hardcover and eBook. €93.08 Rare Earth Element Resources: Indian Context by Yamuna Singh provides an excellent review of rare earth element (REE) deposits and occurrences in India with an emphasis on placer deposits, India’s most notable REE resource. This 269-page, 10-chapter book not only describes REE occurrences but also provides introductory material on REE geochemistry and discusses other potential industrial sources including recycling, fly ash, and mine waste products. The book concludes with a chapter on the state of the REE industry in India and discusses possible future trends and needs. Anyone interested in exploring for REEs in India will find this book from Springer’s Society of Earth Scientists series a useful reference.

Economic Geology↗
USGS1954

Radioactive deposits in California

Reconnaissance examination by Government geologists of many areas, mine properties, and prospects in California during the period between 1948 and 1953 has confirmed the presence of radioactive materials in place at more than 40 localities. Abnormal radioactivity at these localities is due to concentrations of primary and secondary uranium minerals, to radon gas, radium (?), and to thorium minerals. Of the known occurrences only three were thought to contain uranium oxide (uranitite or pitchblende), 4 contained uranium-bearing columbate, tantalate, or titanate minerals, 12 contained secondary uranium minerals, such as autunite, carnotite, and torbernite, one contained radon gas, 7 contained thorium minerals, and, at the remaining 16 localities, the source of the anomalous radiation was not positively determined. The occurrences in which uranium oxide has been tentatively identified include the Rathgeb mine (Calaveras County), the Yerih group of claims (San Bernardino County), and the Rainbow claim (Madera County). Occurrences of secondary uranium minerals are largely confined to the arid desert regions of south-eastern California including deposits in San Bernardino, Kern, Inyo, and Imperial Counties. Uranium-bearing columbate, tantalate, or titanate minerals have been reported from pegmatite and granitic rock in southeastern and eastern California. Thorium minerals have been found in vein deposits in eastern San Bernardino County and from pegmatites and granitic rocks in various parts of southeastern California; placer concentrations of thorium minerals are known from nearly all areas in the State that are underlain, in part, by plutonic crystalline rocks. The primary uranium minerals occur principally as minute accessory crystals in pegmatite or granitic rock, or with base-metal sulfide minerals in veins. Thorium minerals also occur as accessory crystals in pegmatite or granitic rock, in placer deposits derived from such rock, and, at Mountain Pass, in veins containing rare earths. Secondary uranium minerals have been found as fracture coatings and as disseminations in various types of wall rock, although they are largely confined to areas of Tertiary volcanic rocks. Probably the uranium in the uraniferous deposits in California is related genetically to felsic crystalline rocks and felsic volcanic rocks; the present distribution of the secondary uranium minerals has been controlled, in part, by circulating ground waters and probably, in part, by magmatic waters related to the Tertiary volcanic activity. The thorium minerals are genetically related to the intrusion of pegmatite and plutonic crystalline rocks. None of the known deposits of radioactive minerals in California contain marketable reserves of uranium or thorium ore under economic conditions existing in 1952. With a favorable local market small lots of uranium ore may be available in the following places: the Rosamund prospect, the Rafferty and Chilson properties, the Lucky Star claim, and the Yerih group. The commercial production of thorium minerals will be possible, in the near future, only if these minerals can be recovered cheaply as a byproduct either from the mining of rare earths minerals at Mountain Pass or as a byproduct of placer mining for gold.

California↗
USGS2021

Can Landsat 7 preserve its science capability with a drifting orbit?

Since 2017, the orbit of Landsat 7 has drifted outside its nominal mission requirement toward an earlier acquisition time because of limited onboard fuel resources. This makes quantitative analyses from Landsat 7 data potentially unreliable for many scientific studies. To comprehensively understand the effect of ongoing (2018–2020) orbit drift on Landsat 7 data, we compared surface reflectance and Top-Of-Atmosphere (TOA) reflectance of growing season observations (July 1 ± 30 days) from Landsat 7 with orbit drift and Landsat 8 with nominal orbit using a total of 10,000 randomly selected Northern Hemisphere (0–75 0 N) terrestrial pixels. To evaluate the future (2021–2023) effect of Landsat 7's orbit drift, we analyzed the historical Northern Hemisphere terrestrial growing season Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) TOA reflectance images, which shared a similar orbit drift as Landsat 7 but occurred much earlier. Results suggest that Landsat 7's orbit drift has already led to a general decrease in surface reflectance and TOA reflectance in 2019 and 2020, with a limited impact (overall reflectance changes less than 0.007). The influence of orbit drift is more substantial for the two shortwave infrared (SWIR) bands and the near infrared (NIR) band, but less for the three visible bands (i.e., Red, Green, and Blue). The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), derived from either surface reflectance or TOA reflectance, increased less than 0.003 in 2020. According to the historical EO-1 TOA reflectance data, we estimate that the effect of Landsat 7's orbit drift will be much more dramatic in the future (e.g., the NIR and SWIR bands will decrease more than 0.015 since July 1, 2021), and for different land cover types, the effects of orbit drift are also quite different. To reduce this influence, we examined the c-factor Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF) normalization approach to correct the orbit drift impact for Landsat 7 surface reflectance data collected between 2019 and 2020. We found that the c-factor BRDF can reduce the data difference substantially, but how this approach works after Landsat 7's orbit drifts further still requires more investigation. Therefore, we determined that Landsat 7 can preserve its science capability until 2020, but will be less reliable for remote sensing applications that need accurate absolute radiometric values after 2020. Correction methods such as c-factor BRDF could be a potential viable approach to maintain its science capability going forward.

Science of Remote Sensing↗
USGS2014

Spatially robust estimates of biological nitrogen (N) fixation imply substantial human alteration of the tropical N cycle

Biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) is the largest natural source of exogenous nitrogen (N) to unmanaged ecosystems and also the primary baseline against which anthropogenic changes to the N cycle are measured. Rates of BNF in tropical rainforest are thought to be among the highest on Earth, but they are notoriously difficult to quantify and are based on little empirical data. We adapted a sampling strategy from community ecology to generate spatial estimates of symbiotic and free-living BNF in secondary and primary forest sites that span a typical range of tropical forest legume abundance. Although total BNF was higher in secondary than primary forest, overall rates were roughly five times lower than previous estimates for the tropical forest biome. We found strong correlations between symbiotic BNF and legume abundance, but we also show that spatially free-living BNF often exceeds symbiotic inputs. Our results suggest that BNF in tropical forest has been overestimated, and our data are consistent with a recent top-down estimate of global BNF that implied but did not measure low tropical BNF rates. Finally, comparing tropical BNF within the historical area of tropical rainforest with current anthropogenic N inputs indicates that humans have already at least doubled reactive N inputs to the tropical forest biome, a far greater change than previously thought. Because N inputs are increasing faster in the tropics than anywhere on Earth, both the proportion and the effects of human N enrichment are likely to grow in the future.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of↗
USGS1970

Missile impacts as sources of seismic energy on the moon

Seismic signals recorded from impacts of missiles at the White Sands Missile Range are radically different from the signal recorded from the Apollo 12 lunar module impact. This implies that lunar structure to depths of at least 10 to 20 kilometers is quite different from the typical structure of the earth's crust. Results obtained from this study can be used to predict seismic wave amplitudes from future man-made lunar impacts. Seismic energy and crater dimensions from impacts are compared with measurements from chemical explosions.

New Mexico↗