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Alexander, W. H., Jr., Broadhurst, W. L., and White, W. N., Progress report on ground water In the High Plains in Texas, Tex. State Bd. Water Engrs., 12 pp., 7 tigs. (mimeogranhedl May 1944. Ashley, George H.,and Graham, Jack B., Groundwater investigations in Pennsylvania Pa. Dep. Internal Affairs, Monthly Bull., v. 13, pp. 10–13 and 28, 1945.
We present the details of a multi-institutional effort to develop an open-access shear-wave velocity ( V S ) profile database (PDB), which will include a public repository for V S profile data in the United States. V S profiles are an essential resource for ground motion modeling and other applications. The minimum requirements for a site to be included in the database are in situ geophysical V S measurements and location metadata (geodetic coordinates and elevation). Other information is included as available, including geotechnical logs, penetration resistance, laboratory test data, ground water elevation, and P-wave velocity profiles. The project is currently at the stage of data collection (over 4500 V S profiles) and prototype data model development. The database will be presented as an online map-based interface with downloadable V S profile and metadata information. This paper serves as a progress report to the geotechnical and earthquake engineering communities, as we seek community engagement and support.
The Lykins Formation and its equivalents in Colorado are a stratigraphically poorly constrained suite of redbeds and intercalated stromatolitic carbonates, which is hypothesized to span the Permian-Triassic boundary. Herein we present a preliminary detrital zircon geochronology, new fossil occurrences, and δ 13 C chemostratigraphy for exposures along the Front Range and in southeastern Colorado, to refine understanding of the unit's age and depositional history. Detrital zircons from the uppermost Lykins Formation and an overlying eolianite consist of a complex and highly diverse primary and multi-cycle grain population transported from Laurentian and Gondwanan terranes, potentially both by wind and water. Youngest concordant zircons do not rule out deposition of the uppermost Lykins Formation during a portion of Early Triassic time. Conodonts from the lower Lykins Formation require Middle Permian (Guadalupian) deposition. Conodont alteration indices of 1 indicate the unit has a shallow burial history and is amenable to paleomagnetic inquiry. Conodonts, together with other vertebrate, invertebrate, microfossil, and trace fossils, suggest a very shallow to emergent marine origin for the unit's most substantial carbonates, and hint at a marine origin for the unit's intercalated gypsum-anhydrite members. Chemostratigraphy corroborates field evidence of emergence and karst development capping certain units, like the Forelle Limestone Member of the Lykins Formation, where potential sequence boundaries appear to be punctuated by a short-lived meteoric signature. Results presented here are a progress report of ongoing work in these successions. This field trip consists of a brief tour through exposures of the Lykins Formation, in which we will examine well-known localities as well as view new ones for which we seek insights.
This is a progress report on an experiment to demonstrate practicality of such publication. Based on a study conducted since 1959 through the publication of 'Wildlife Disease', the co-authors review the original aims, accomplishments, and future of primary publication in microprint. Space and cost savings, as well as author and reader reactions, portend further developments and use of this medium.
This compilation includes radiocarbon dates and other pertinent information about samples from northern and central California, principally north of latitude 36°, drawn largely from Radiocarbon, Science, unpublished data of U.S. Geological Survey geologists, and other published and unpublished data brought to the author's attention as of January 1981. It includes a location map, several tables, and two lists of sources that contain further information about the samples. This compilation is intended as a progress report rather than a complete survey of the literature.
This map gives an overview of geologically young faults and is intended to help in evaluation of the potential activity of faulting nationally. This map is a progress report. Because of its scale, it cannot be used as an index of specific faults or fault hazards. However, it offers a synopsis, as of 1975, of more extensive data that must be taken into consideration in assessments of hazards from faulting.
The objective of the watershed-management evaluation monitoring program in Wisconsin is to evaluate the effectiveness of best-management practices (BMPs) for controlling nonpoint-source pollution in rural and urban watersheds. This progress report provides a summary of the data collected by the U.S Geological Survey for the program and a discussion of the results from several different detailed analyses conducted within this program. A land-use and best-management-practice inventory is ongoing for each evaluation monitoring project to track the different sources of nonpointsource pollution in each watershed and to document implementation of best-management programs that may cause changes in the water quality of streams. Updated information is gathered each year, mapped, and stored in a geographic-information-system database. Summaries of BMP-implementation data collected through the 1999 water year are presented in this report. Suspended sediment and total phosphorus storm-load and annual-load data are summarized for eight rural sites. For all 8 rural sites a sufficient number of pre-BMP storm samples have been collected; for two of the sites (Brewery and Garfoot Creeks), a sufficient number of post-BMP storm samples have been collected to allow for a final assessment of the effectiveness of the BMPs. For the remaining sites, numerous transitional storm samples have been collected, but in all cases BMP implementation has lagged such that there are insufficient post-BMP storm samples for final analysis. For two sites (Rattlesnake and Kuenster Creeks) there are not enough planned BMPs to warrant further data collection. Continuous dissolved-oxygen data collected at 5 rural sites are summarized. In terms of instantaneous concentrations when comparing pre-BMP data to transitional and post-BMP data, the general trend is a reduction in the number of days that the dissolved oxygen concentration was less than the state standard. These results are anecdotal, however; the differences have not been rigorously tested statistically. For a level of dissolved oxygen sustained over a continuous hour, the results are mixed. In general the number of days with standard violations has decreased, but there are notable exceptions. For the four urban streams, the pre-BMP data were examined to determine the level of improvement that could potentially be detected with a statistical analysis. Regression analyses were performed relating constituent loads of suspended solids, total phosphorus and total copper to various independent variables, including seasonal terms and variables related to rainfall. On the basis of the residuals from the regressions, there is a wide range of potential change that could be detected with an analysis of pre- and post-BMP loads. This is likely a result of the high degree of variability in the data, particularly from site to site. For suspended solids, total phosphorus, and total recoverable copper the minimum detectable changes ranges from 20-80, 30-70 and 30-90 percent, respectively. For two of the eight rural streams (Rattlesnake and Kuenster Creeks) minimal BMP implementation has occurred, hence a comparison of pre- BMP and data collected after BMP implementation began is not warranted. For two other rural streams (Brewery and Garfoot Creeks), BMP implementation is complete. For the four remaining rural streams (Bower, Otter, Eagle, and Joos Valley Creeks), the pre-BMP load data were compared to the transitional data to determine if significant reductions in the loads have occurred as a result of the BMP implementation to date. For all sites, the actual constituent loads for suspended solids and total phosphorus exhibit no statistically significant reductions after BMP installation. Multiple regressions were used to remove some of the natural variability in the data. Based on the residual analysis, for Otter Creek, there is a significant difference in the suspended-solids regression residuals between the pre-BMP and transitional periods, indicating a potential reduction as a result of the BMP implementation after accounting for natural variability. For Joos Valley Creek, the residuals for suspended solids and total phosphorus both show a significant reduction after accounting for natural variability. It is possible that the other sites will also show statistically significant reductions in suspended solids and total phosphorus if additional BMPs are implemented.
The annual Planetary Geologic Mappers Meeting serves two purposes. In addition to giving mappers the opportunity to exchange ideas, experiences, victories, and problems with others, presentations are reviewed by the Geologic Mapping Subcommittee (GeMS) to provide input to the Planetary Geology and Geophysics Mapping Program review panel’s consideration of new proposals and progress reports that include mapping tasks. Funded mappers bring both oral presentation materials (slides or viewgraphs) and map products to post for review by GeMS and fellow mappers. Additionally, the annual meetings typically feature optional field trips offering earth analogs and parallels to planetary mapping problems. The 2001 Mappers Meeting, June 18-19, was convened by Tim Parker, Dave Senske, and Ken Tanaka and was hosted by Larry Crumpler and Jayne Aubele of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Oral presentations were given in the Museum’s Honeywell Auditorium, and maps were posted in the Sandia Room. In addition to active mappers, guests included local science teachers who had successfully competed for the right to attend and listen to the reports. It was a unique pleasure for mappers to have the opportunity to interact with and provide information to teachers responding so enthusiastically to the meeting presentation. On Sunday, June 17, Larry and Jayne conducted an optional pre-meeting field trip. The flanks of Rio Grande Rift, east and west of Albuquerque and Valles Caldera north of town presented tectonic, volcanic, and sedimentary examples of the Rift and adjoining areas analogous to observed features on Mars and Venus. The arid but volcanically and tectonically active environment of New Mexico’s rift valley enables focus on features that appear morphologically young and spectacular in satellite images and digital relief models. The theme of the trip was to see what, at orbiter resolution, "obvious" geologic features look like at lander (outcrop) scales. Trips to the top of the rift-flanking mountains (Sandia Peak, 10,600 ft) and the Valles Caldera, as well as various active spring deposits highlighted the day. After welcoming remarks from the host, Larry Crumpler, opening remarks by Tim Parker and Dave Senske and a report on mapping program status by Ken Tanaka, the mappers’ oral presentations began the morning of June 18, with a session on Venus Geologic Mapping. The afternoon continued with an exciting USGS Planetary GIS on the Web (PIGWAD) demonstration and ended with an open discussion of issues in planetary mapping. Posted maps of Venus quadrangles were viewed during the morning break. Tuesday’s Mars Geologic Mapping session began with a pep talk from Tim Parker encouraging mapping community input to the MER landing site selection committee and continued with Steve Saunders describing the potential contribution of Odyssey Mission data to the geologic mapping of Mars. A Mars map poster session was held during the morning break, and the meeting was adjourned mid-afternoon. After the mappers meeting on Tuesday, attendants were treated to a "Field trip to Mars." The Institute of Meteoritics at the University of New Mexico houses an outstanding collection of meteorites, including those that have been identified as originating from Mars. The Institute tour featured examples of most of the different lithologies exhibited by martian meteorites identified to date, as well as some of the analytical tests (scanning electron microscope) they are conducting on specimens from ALH84001. Wednesday, June 20, featured an optional post-meeting field trip to see a travertine quarry and nearby sites of travertine deposition, the Very Large Array near Socorro, and other volcanic features within the Rio Grande Rift.
This is the fourth six-month progress report on a reconnaissance geochemical survey of the State of Missouri. The survey was initiated in July, 1969, to provide epidemiologists of the Environmental Health Center of the University of Missouri with data on the variability in the geochemical environment throughout the State. It is a pilot program in that it is the first attempt to provide information of this kind for so large an area (69,420 sq. mi.), and it is expected that the approaches being developed will be applicable to other reconnaissance investigations designed for similar purposes. The general approach--common to all four phases of the program (rocks, soils, vegetation, and water)--now appears to have taken a final form. The approach to sampling has been described in a following section of the present report. The principal task remaining in the reconnaissance geochemical survey is to follow the general approach through to completion. Some special investigations of selected small areas have been completed (Connor, Shacklette, and Erdman, 1971; Connor, Erdman, Sims, and Ebens, 1971), others are underway, and still others may be started--depending on local situations, or problems, that are identified by us or brought to our attention by others. One important purpose of the reconnaissance survey is to provide background data on the general geochemical setting which may allow more meaningful assessments of local geochemical conditions.
This is the fifth of a series of progress reports to the Environmental Health Surveillance Center of the University of Missouri; each report covers a six-month period in our reconnaissance geochemical survey of the State of Missouri that is designed to provide epidemiologists of the Environmental Health Center with data on the variability in the geochemical environment throughout the State. The survey is being directed at geologic units (including both surficial and bedrock units), both agricultural and uncultivated soils, native vegetation and farm crops, and both ground and surface waters. Emphasis is on the environment in its natural state; artificial pollution of the environment is being investigated in a few small areas-principally where such pollution is thought to complicate our efforts to determine the natural environmental character. Adequate knowledge of the natural environmental character is necessary in order to establish a background for judging the degree and extent of environmental pollution.
This is the seventh and last in a series of progress reports describing the current results of our reconnaissance geochemical survey of the State of Missouri. The survey was initiated on July 1, 1969, and consists of comprehensive field studies in four research areas-rocks, waters, soils and plants. It was undertaken to provide both a geochemical setting for epidemiological studies by personnel of the Environmental Health Surveillance Center and also a test of the feasibility of broad-scale geochemical surveys in large, geologically diverse regions.
Streamflow and fluvial-sediment discharge data are being collected at selected streams and highway gutters in the Lake Tahoe basin to determine the extent of erosion from highway cuts and to attempt to evaluate the effects of various land-treatment practices to reduce erosion. This is the second progress report. Precipitation in the Lake Tahoe area during 1973 was 94 percent of normal. Seventy-one percent of the total annual runoff during the 1973 water year occurred from March through June 1973. Sediment samples were collected during the year at streamflow stations and at gutterflow stations at highway cuts to define the range of transport conditions. The major part (74 percent) of the annual suspended-sediment discharge from streams during the 1973 water year occurred during the snowmelt runoff period, March through June.
Uranium in the central mining area of Marysvale, Utah occurs in hydrothermal veins cutting granitic and volcanic rocks in the eastern source area of the Mount Belknap Volcanics. A preliminary model for the origin of the veins envisages deposition in near-surface fractures above an unexposed pluton that may host a porphyry-type ore deposit. This model is based on the work in progress by the U.S. Geological Survey, and embodies all presently available data from field mapping, literature study, fluid inclusion studies, and diverse geochemical and isotopic studies. Recent advances in uranium geochemistry have been particularly helpful. The work is not yet complete so this model should be considered as a progress report suggesting possible targets for exploration and testing; such testing would in turn lead to refinements in the model and to a clearer understanding of vein-type uranium deposits in general.
The geologic map of the Duncan Canal-Zarembo Island area is the result of a multidisciplinary investigation of an area where an airborne geophysical survey was flown in the spring of 1997. The area was chosen for the geophysical survey because of its high mineral potential, a conclusion of the Petersburg Mineral Resource Assessment Project, conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey from 1978 to 1982. The City of Wrangell, in southeastern Alaska, the Bureau of Land Management, and the State of Alaska provided funding for the airborne geophysical survey. The geophysical data from the airborne survey were released in September 1997. The U.S. Geological Survey conducted field investigations in the spring and fall of 1998 to identify and understand the sources of the geophysical anomalies from the airborne survey. This geologic map updates the geologic maps of the same area published by David A. Brew at 1:63,360 (Brew, 1997a-m; Brew and Koch, 1997). This update is based on 3 weeks of field work, new fossil collections, and the geophysical maps released by the State of Alaska ( DGGS, Staff, and others, 1997a-o). Geologic data from outcrops, fossil ages, radiometric ages, and geochemical signatures were used to identify lithostratigraphic units. Where exposure is poor, geophysical characteristics were used to help control the boundaries of these units. No unit boundaries were drawn based on geophysics alone. The 7200 Hertz resistivity maps (DGGS, Staff, and others, 1997k-o) were particularly helpful for controlling unit boundaries, because different stratigraphic units have distinctive characteristic conductive signatures (Karl and others, 1998). Increased knowledge of unit ages, unit structure, and unit distribution, led to improved understanding of the nature of unit contacts. Northwest- to southwest-directed thrust faults, particularly on Kupreanof Island, are new discovery. Truncated faults and map patterns suggest there were at least 2 generations of thrusting, and that the thrust faults have been folded. Subsequent right-lateral strike-slip NW-SE faults, have offset thrust faults, and these in turn are offset by N-S right-lateral strike-slip faults. Our fieldwork raised as many questions as it answered, and we see this map as a progress report at a reconnaissance level. The main contributions of this map are 1) the greater distribution of Triassic rocks, 2) increased fossil age information, and 3) the identification of thrust faults within and between units.
The United States was divided into three regions, on the basis of mean annual rainfall, to decrease the variability in storm-runoff constituent loads and to improve regression relations with basin and climatic characteristics. Multiple-regression analyses, in progress, are being refined to determine the best regression models for each of the storm-runoff constituent loads in each of the three regions. These techniques, when finalized, can be used to estimate storm-runoff constituent loads for gaged and ungaged urban watersheds. The preliminary standard errors of estimate for five constituents examined to date ranged from 54 to 223 percent, and the coefficients of determination (r**2) ranged from 0. 39 to 0. 94. Total storm rainfall and total contributing drainage area appear to be the most significant independent variables in the regression models. This paper is a progress report on preliminary results of estimating storm-runoff constituent loads for ungaged watersheds.
This is the second progress report detailing the research about Oriental bittersweet ( Celastrus orbiculatus ) and fire which has been ongoing for two years. We highlight the further results from three components of the study: 1) Susceptibility of different habitats to invasion of Oriental bittersweet, 2) The impact of fire on established individuals of Oriental bittersweet, and 3) Modeling Oriental bittersweet invasion proliferation and presence on the basis of fire history and vegetation.
Water-rights problems have occurred in the central Virgin River basin and are expected to increase as development of the water resources increases. The Utah State Engineer needs a basic knowledge of ground-water conditions and of the relation of ground water to surface water as a first step to understanding and resolving the problems. Accordingly, the State Engineer requested the U. S. Geological Survey to make a ground-water investigation of the central Virgin River basin as part of the Statewide cooperative agreement with the Utah Department of Natural Resources. The investigation was begun July 1, 1968, and fieldwork was completed in August 1970. Detailed information was obtained for the principal aquifers and for recharge, movement, discharge, storage, utilization, and chemical quality of ground water. A progress report (Cordova, Sandberg, and McConkie, 1970) describes the general findings in the first year of the investigation.
In anticipation of the update of the Alaska seismic hazard maps (ASHMs) by the U. S. Geological Survey, we report progress on the comparison of smoothed seismicity models developed using fixed and adaptive smoothing algorithms, and investigate the sensitivity of seismic hazard to the models. While fault-based sources, such as those for great earthquakes in the Alaska-Aleutian subduction zone and for the ~10 shallow crustal faults within Alaska, dominate the seismic hazard estimates for locations near to the sources, smoothed seismicity rates make important contributions to seismic hazard away from fault-based sources and where knowledge of recurrence and magnitude is not sufficient for use in hazard studies. Recent developments in adaptive smoothing methods and statistical tests for evaluating and comparing rate models prompt us to investigate the appropriateness of adaptive smoothing for the ASHMs. We develop smoothed seismicity models for Alaska using fixed and adaptive smoothing methods and compare the resulting models by calculating and evaluating the joint likelihood test. We use the earthquake catalog, and associated completeness levels, developed for the 2007 ASHM to produce fixed-bandwidth-smoothed models with smoothing distances varying from 10 to 100 km and adaptively smoothed models. Adaptive smoothing follows the method of Helmstetter et al. and defines a unique smoothing distance for each earthquake epicenter from the distance to the nth nearest neighbor. The consequence of the adaptive smoothing methods is to reduce smoothing distances, causing locally increased seismicity rates, where seismicity rates are high and to increase smoothing distances where seismicity is sparse. We follow guidance from previous studies to optimize the neighbor number (n-value) by comparing model likelihood values, which estimate the likelihood that the observed earthquake epicenters from the recent catalog are derived from the smoothed rate models. We compare likelihood values from all rate models to rank the smoothing methods. We find that adaptively smoothed seismicity models yield better likelihood values than the fixed smoothing models. Holding all other (source and ground motion) models constant, we calculate seismic hazard curves for all points across Alaska on a 0.1 degree grid, using the adaptively smoothed and fixed smoothed seismicity models separately. Because adaptively smoothed models concentrate seismicity near the earthquake epicenters where seismicity rates are high, the corresponding hazard values are higher, locally, but reduced with distance from observed seismicity, relative to the hazard from fixed-bandwidth models. We suggest that adaptively smoothed seismicity models be considered for implementation in the update to the ASHMs because of their improved likelihood estimates relative to fixed smoothing methods; however, concomitant increases in seismic hazard will cause significant changes in regions of high seismicity, such as near the subduction zone, northeast of Kotzebue, and along the NNE trending zone of seismicity in the Alaskan interior.