Search USGS⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search USGS

Results for “Map Sheet”

Search indexed USGS publications on groundwater, aquifers, geologic maps, mineral resources and earthquakes. Explore source records by subject and place.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 559 records · Page 31Linked to original sources
USGS1999

Map Accuracy Standards

An inaccurate map is not a reliable map. ?X? may mark the spot where the treasure is buried, but unless the seeker can locate ?X? in relation to known landmarks, the map is not very useful. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) publishes maps and other products at high levels of accuracy. Dependability is vital, for example, to engineers, highway officials, and land-use planners who use USGS topographic maps as basic planning tools. As a result, the USGS makes every effort to achieve a high level of accuracy in all of its published products. An important aim of its accuracy control program is to meet the U.S. National Map Accuracy Standards.

Fact Sheet↗
USGS2011

Volunteer map data collection at the USGS

Since 1994, citizen volunteers have helped the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) improve its topographic maps. Through the Earth Science Corps program, citizens were able to "adopt a quad" and collect new information and update existing map features. Until its conclusion in 2001, as many as 300 volunteers annotated paper maps which were incorporated into the USGS topographic-map revision process.

Fact Sheet↗
USGS2014

Landscapes of Santa Rosa Island, Channel Islands National Park, California

Santa Rosa Island (SRI) is the second-largest of the California Channel Islands. It is one of 4 east–west aligned islands forming the northern Channel Islands chain, and one of the 5 islands in Channel Islands National Park. The landforms, and collections of landforms called landscapes, of Santa Rosa Island have been created by tectonic uplift and faulting, rising and falling sea level, landslides, erosion and deposition, floods, and droughts. Landscape features, and areas delineating groups of related features on Santa Rosa Island, are mapped, classified, and described in this paper. Notable landscapes on the island include beaches, coastal plains formed on marine terraces, sand dunes, and sand sheets. In this study, the inland physiography has been classified into 4 areas based on relief and degree of fluvial dissection. Most of the larger streams on the island occupy broad valleys that have been filled with alluvium and later incised to form steep- to vertical-walled arroyos, or barrancas, leaving a relict floodplain above the present channel. A better understanding of the processes and mechanisms that created these landscapes enhances visitors’ enjoyment of their surroundings and contributes to improving land and resource management strategies in order to optimize and balance the multiple goals of conservation, preservation, restoration, and visitor experience.

California↗
USGS2022

LANDFIRE data and applications

LANDFIRE is a Federal program that provides a suite of spatial datasets indicating areas of disturbance, vegetation and fuels distributions and structure, and historical conditions. The level of detail presented in LANDFIRE’s classifications of disturbance, vegetation, and fuels is unparalleled and can be used in a variety of applications, including (1) modeling wildfire risk and fire behavior, (2) modeling habitat and species ranges, (3) understanding how disturbances affect the landscape, and (4) researching departure from precolonial conditions. Additionally, the all-lands paradigm of LANDFIRE mapping creates spatial data that do not stop at jurisdictional boundaries. The primary research and management applications of LANDFIRE data are detailed in this fact sheet, providing users with a well-rounded understanding of the potential of LANDFIRE’s spatial data layers.

Fact Sheet↗
USGS1996

Satellite imagery of the onset of streaming flow of ice streams C and D, West Antarctica

Five overlapping Landsat multispectral scanner satellite images of the interior of the West Antarctic ice sheet were enhanced with principal component analysis, high-pass filtering, and linear contrast stretching and merged into a mosaic by aligning surface features in the overlap areas. The mosaic was registered to geodetic coordinates, to an accuracy of about 1 km, using the five scene centers as control points. The onset of streaming flow of two tributaries of ice stream C and one tributary of ice stream D is visible in the mosaic. The onset appears to occur within a relatively short distance, less than the width of the ice stream, typically at a subglacial topographic feature, such as a step or ridge. The ice streams extend farther up into the interior than previously mapped. Ice stream D starts about 150 km from the ice divide, at an altitude of about 1500 m, approximately halfway up the convex-upward dome shape of the interior ice sheet. Ice stream D is relatively much longer than ice stream C, possibly because ice stream D is currently active, whereas ice stream C is currently inactive. The grounded portion of the West Antarctic ice sheet is perhaps best conceptualized as an ice sheet in which ice streams are embedded over most of its area, with slow-moving ice converging into fast-moving ice streams in a widely distributed pattern, much like that of streams and rivers in a hydrologic basin. A relic margin appears to parallel most of the south margin of the tributary of ice stream D, separated from the active shear margin by about 10 km or less for a distance of over 200 km. This means there is now evidence for recent changes having occurred in three of the five major ice streams which drain most of West Antarctica (B, C, and D), two of which (B and D) are currently active.

Journal of Geophysical Research C: Oceans↗
USGS1992

Map showing sediment isopachs in the deep-sea basins of the Pacific continental margin, Point Conception to Point Loma

The U.S. Geological Survey conducted a series of cruises, EEZSCAN 84 (EEZ-SCAN 84 Scientific Staff, 1986), to collect reconnaissance data on the newly proclaimed Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), the area out to 200 nautical miles from the coastline of the United States. The cruises systematically surveyed the entire conterminous United States west coast EEZ using the Geological Long-Range Inclined Asdic (GLORIA) side-scan sonar, a 160-in 3 airgun seismic-reflection profiler, a 3.5-kHz high-resolution seismic-reflection profiler, a 10-kHz echo sounder, and a proton-precession magnetometer. The nominal trackline spacing throughout the survey was 30 km. Derivative maps of sediment thickness (I-2089-A, I-2090-A, I-2091-A) and depth to basement (I-2089-B, I-2090-B, I-2091-B) in the basins of the west coast EEZ were compiled from both the sonar-image dala and the deep-penetration seismic data obtained on these cruises. Only EEZ-SCAN 84 data were used for the map compilations because available data from other cruises in this region are sparsely located, have poor navigational control, or were obtained with seismic systems that were not powerful enough to resolve oceanic basement. For this map series, sediment thickness and depth to basement were determined only in the deep-ocean basin regions because the seismic system used on the EEZ-SCAN 84 cruises could not resolve oceanic basement beneath the thick sediments of the continental slope. All the data used to compile the maps are presented in the "Atlas of the Exclusive Economic Zone, Western Conterminous United States" (EEZ-SCAN 84 Scientific Staff, 1986). Basement Outcrops GLORIA imagery was used to locate areas of basement outcrop throughout the region. Where possible, sediment thickness on and immediately adjacent to basement outcrops was measured from seismic data. Where there was no bathymetric or seismic control, a seamount peak was assumed to have no sediment cover. A pattern is used on the map to indicate all basement outcrops. Data Reduction Acoustic basement in the basins, invariably oceanic Layer 2, was observed on all of the seismic records. One-way traveltime was measured from the sea floor to acoustic basement. Because the trackline spacing of about 30 km is relatively large compared to the data density along track, we chose to measure the sediment thickness every 0.5 hour or at an interval of approximately 7.5 km. Water depth was measured with a 10-kHz profiler. Depth to basement was calculated using the sea surface as the zero datum and adding the corrected water depth (Carter, 1980) to the sediment thickness. Acoustic travel times were converted to depths by first calculating a regression equation from the interval velocity versus depth data of Connard and others (1984). Their data base comprises a compilation of all available Deep Sea Drilling Project data plus wide-angle refraction data, which were collected in Cascadia Basin west of Oregon and represents the best data set available for the United States west coast EEZ. The regression equation was integrated to determine sediment thickness as a function of one-way traveltime . The resulting equation is z = 1400t + 0 .5t 2 where z is sediment thickness in meters, and t is one-way traveltime in seconds. Sediment thicknesses calculated using this equation were compared to values calculated from the general equation of Carlson and others (1986). Values for sediment thickness calculated by the two equations differed by no greater than 10 percent throughout the range of travel times. Bathymetry The bathymetry is from Chase and others (1981). The bathymetric data were compiled from a variety of sources, and data quality is inconsistent. Because of differences in navigational precision and density of coverage, the bathymetric contours of a feature may be at a different location than the corresponding isopleths derived from the EEZ-SCAN 84 data, or a feature may not be indicated on the bathymetry at all. These situations occur because either the feature is poorly located in the bathymetric data set or, especially in the outer EEZ, the bathymetric data are too sparse to have defined the existence of a feature. Acknowledgments Topographic digital data bases were corrected and verified by Christina Lief. Gerald Evenden developed the computer software system MAPGEN, used to compose this map. Reviews, suggestions, and technical contributions from Edward C. Escowitz and Florence Wong and advice about cartographic design from Will Stettner substantially improved the quality of this map. References Cited Carlson, R.L., Gangi, A.F., and Snow, K.R., 1986, Empirical reflection-traveltime/ depth and velocity/depth functions for the deep-sea sediment column: Journal of Geophysical Research, v. 91, no. B8, p. 8249-8266. Carter, D.J.T., 1980, Echo-sounding correction tables: Taunton, United Kingdom, Hydrographic Department, Ministry of Defence, 150 p. Chase, T.E., Wilde, Pat, Normark, W.R, Miller, C.P., Seekins, B.A., and Young, J.D., 1981, Offshore topography of the Western United States between 32° and 49° North latitudes: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 81-443, scale 1:864,518 at 38° latitude, 2 sheets. Connard, G., Couch, R., Keeling , K., Roy, J., and Troseth, S., 1984, Abyssal plain and continental net-objective sedimentary thicknesses, in Kulm, L.D., and others, eds., Western North America continental margin and adjacent ocean floor off Oregon and Washington, Atlas 1 of Regional Atlas Series, Ocean Margin Drilling Program: Woods Hole, Mass., Marine Science International, sheet 7. EEZ-SCAN 84 Scientific Staff, 1986, Atlas of the Exclusive Economic Zone, Western Conterminous United States: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Investigations Series I-1792, scale 1:500,000, 152 p. index map for I-2089-A See Also "U.S. Pacific West Coast Field Activities" (Paskevich and others, 2011; http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2010/1332/htmldocs/pc/pc_overview.html). Paskevich, V.F., Wong, F.L., O?Malley, J.J., Stevenson, A.J., and Gutmacher, C.E., 2011, GLORIA sidescan-sonar imagery for parts of the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone and adjacent areas: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2010?1332, available at http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2010/1332/.

IMAP↗
USGS1992

Map showing depth to basement in the deep-sea basins of the Pacific continental margin, Point Conception to Point Loma

The U.S. Geological Survey conducted a series of cruises, EEZSCAN 84 (EEZ-SCAN 84 Scientific Staff, 1986), to collect reconnaissance data on the newly proclaimed Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), the area out to 200 nautical miles from the coastline of the United States. The cruises systematically surveyed the entire conterminous United States west coast EEZ using the Geological Long-Range Inclined Asdic (GLORIA) side-scan sonar, a 160-in 3 airgun seismic-reflection profiler, a 3.5-kHz high-resolution seismic-reflection profiler, a 10-kHz echo sounder, and a proton-precession magnetometer. The nominal trackline spacing throughout the survey was 30 km. Derivative maps of sediment thickness (I-2089-A, I-2090-A, I-2091-A) and depth to basement (I-2089-B, I-2090-B, I-2091-B) in the basins of the west coast EEZ were compiled from both the sonar-image dala and the deep-penetration seismic data obtained on these cruises. Only EEZ-SCAN 84 data were used for the map compilations because available data from other cruises in this region are sparsely located, have poor navigational control, or were obtained with seismic systems that were not powerful enough to resolve oceanic basement. For this map series, sediment thickness and depth to basement were determined only in the deep-ocean basin regions because the seismic system used on the EEZ-SCAN 84 cruises could not resolve oceanic basement beneath the thick sediments of the continental slope. All the data used to compile the maps are presented in the "Atlas of the Exclusive Economic Zone, Western Conterminous United States" (EEZ-SCAN 84 Scientific Staff, 1986). Basement Outcrops GLORIA imagery was used to locate areas of basement outcrop throughout the region. Where possible, sediment thickness on and immediately adjacent to basement outcrops was measured from seismic data. Where there was no bathymetric or seismic control, a seamount peak was assumed to have no sediment cover. A pattern is used on the map to indicate all basement outcrops. Data Reduction Acoustic basement in the basins, invariably oceanic Layer 2, was observed on all of the seismic records. One-way traveltime was measured from the sea floor to acoustic basement. Because the trackline spacing of about 30 km is relatively large compared to the data density along track, we chose to measure the sediment thickness every 0.5 hour or at an interval of approximately 7.5 km. Water depth was measured with a 10-kHz profiler. Depth to basement was calculated using the sea surface as the zero datum and adding the corrected water depth (Carter, 1980) to the sediment thickness. Acoustic travel times were converted to depths by first calculating a regression equation from the interval velocity versus depth data of Connard and others (1984). Their data base comprises a compilation of all available Deep Sea Drilling Project data plus wide-angle refraction data, which were collected in Cascadia Basin west of Oregon and represents the best data set available for the United States west coast EEZ. The regression equation was integrated to determine sediment thickness as a function of one-way traveltime . The resulting equation is z = 1400t + 0 .5t 2 where z is sediment thickness in meters, and t is one-way traveltime in seconds. Sediment thicknesses calculated using this equation were compared to values calculated from the general equation of Carlson and others (1986). Values for sediment thickness calculated by the two equations differed by no greater than 10 percent throughout the range of travel times. Bathymetry The bathymetry is from Chase and others (1981). The bathymetric data were compiled from a variety of sources, and data quality is inconsistent. Because of differences in navigational precision and density of coverage, the bathymetric contours of a feature may be at a different location than the corresponding isopleths derived from the EEZ-SCAN 84 data, or a feature may not be indicated on the bathymetry at all. These situations occur because either the feature is poorly located in the bathymetric data set or, especially in the outer EEZ, the bathymetric data are too sparse to have defined the existence of a feature. Acknowledgments Topographic digital data bases were corrected and verified by Christina Lief. Gerald Evenden developed the computer software system MAPGEN, used to compose this map. Reviews, suggestions, and technical contributions from Edward C. Escowitz and Florence Wong and advice about cartographic design from Will Stettner substantially improved the quality of this map. References Cited Carlson, R.L., Gangi, A.F., and Snow, K.R., 1986, Empirical reflection-traveltime/ depth and velocity/depth functions for the deep-sea sediment column: Journal of Geophysical Research, v. 91, no. B8, p. 8249-8266. Carter, D.J.T., 1980, Echo-sounding correction tables: Taunton, United Kingdom, Hydrographic Department, Ministry of Defence, 150 p. Chase, T.E., Wilde, Pat, Normark, W.R, Miller, C.P., Seekins, B.A., and Young, J.D., 1981, Offshore topography of the Western United States between 32° and 49° North latitudes: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 81-443, scale 1:864,518 at 38° latitude, 2 sheets. Connard, G., Couch, R., Keeling , K., Roy, J., and Troseth, S., 1984, Abyssal plain and continental net-objective sedimentary thicknesses, in Kulm, L.D., and others, eds., Western North America continental margin and adjacent ocean floor off Oregon and Washington, Atlas 1 of Regional Atlas Series, Ocean Margin Drilling Program: Woods Hole, Mass., Marine Science International, sheet 7. EEZ-SCAN 84 Scientific Staff, 1986, Atlas of the Exclusive Economic Zone, Western Conterminous United States: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Investigations Series I-1792, scale 1:500,000, 152 p. index map for I-2089-A See Also "U.S. Pacific West Coast Field Activities" (Paskevich and others, 2011; http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2010/1332/htmldocs/pc/pc_overview.html). Paskevich, V.F., Wong, F.L., O?Malley, J.J., Stevenson, A.J., and Gutmacher, C.E., 2011, GLORIA sidescan-sonar imagery for parts of the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone and adjacent areas: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2010?1332, available at http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2010/1332/.

IMAP↗
USGS2004

Geologic Map of the Poverty Bay 7.5' quadrangle, King and Pierce counties, Washington

The Poverty Bay quadrangle lies near the center of the region?s intensively developing urban core. Less than 20 km north lies the city of Seattle; downtown Tacoma lies just southwest of the quadrangle. The map area expresses much of the tremendous range of Quaternary environments and deposits found throughout the central Puget Lowland. Much of the ground surface is mantled by a rolling surface of glacial till deposited during the last occupation of the Puget Lowland by a great continental ice sheet about 14,000 years ago. A complex sequence of older unconsolidated sediments extends far below sea level across most of the quadrangle, with no bedrock exposures at all.

Scientific Investigations Map↗
USGS2001

New mapping techniques help assess the health of Hawaii's coral reefs

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is working closely with academic institutions and state and Federal agencies to assess the factors that affect the health of Hawaii's and our Nation's coral reefs. In order to establish a basis from which scientists can objectively detect changes in reef health, the USGS and its cooperators are applying many new techniques to the mapping and monitoring of coral reefs in Hawaii.

Fact Sheet↗
USGS2009

Land Treatment Digital Library

A dynamic system to enter, store, retrieve, and analyze Federal land-treatment data. More information and access to data available at: http://greatbasin.wr.usgs.gov/ltdl Across the country, public land managers make hundreds of decisions each year that influence landscapes and ecosystems within the lands they manage. Many of these decisions involve vegetation manipulations known as land treatments. Land treatments include activities such as removal or alteration of plant biomass, seeding burned areas, and herbicide applications. Data on these land treatments are usually stored at local offices, and gathering information across large spatial areas can be difficult. There is a need to centralize and store treatment data for Federal agencies involved in land treatments because these data are useful to land managers for policy and management and to scientists for developing sampling designs and studies. The Land Treatment Digital Library (LTDL) was created by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to catalog information about land treatments on Federal lands in the western United States for all interested parties. The flexible framework of the library allows for the storage of a wide variety of data in different formats. The LTDL currently stores previously established land treatments or what often are called legacy data. The project was developed and has been refined based on feedback from partner agencies and stakeholders, with opportunity for the library holdings to expand as new information becomes available. The library contains data in text, tabular, spatial, and image formats. Specific examples include project plans and implementation reports, monitoring data, spatial data files from geographic information systems, digitized paper maps, and digital images of land treatments. The data are entered by USGS employees and are accessible through a searchable web site. The LTDL can be used to respond to information requests, conduct analyses and other forms of information syntheses, produce maps, and generate reports for DOI managers and scientists and other authorized users.

Fact Sheet↗
USGS2010

Visualizing NetCDF Files by Using the EverVIEW Data Viewer

Over the past few years, modelers in South Florida have started using Network Common Data Form (NetCDF) as the standard data container format for storing hydrologic and ecologic modeling inputs and outputs. With its origins in the meteorological discipline, NetCDF was created by the Unidata Program Center at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, in conjunction with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and other organizations. NetCDF is a portable, scalable, self-describing, binary file format optimized for storing array-based scientific data. Despite attributes which make NetCDF desirable to the modeling community, many natural resource managers have few desktop software packages which can consume NetCDF and unlock the valuable data contained within. The U.S. Geological Survey and the Joint Ecosystem Modeling group, an ecological modeling community of practice, are working to address this need with the EverVIEW Data Viewer. Available for several operating systems, this desktop software currently supports graphical displays of NetCDF data as spatial overlays on a three-dimensional globe and views of grid-cell values in tabular form. An included Open Geospatial Consortium compliant, Web-mapping service client and charting interface allows the user to view Web-available spatial data as additional map overlays and provides simple charting visualizations of NetCDF grid values.

Fact Sheet↗
USGS2011

Mapping perennial vegetation cover in the Mojave Desert

Scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey's Western Geographic Science Center have recently created a regional map of perennial vegetation cover for the Mojave Desert. The scientists used existing field data collected for a variety of previous studies and satellite data available for free through USGS archives to create a calibrated model of percent vegetation cover, an important attribute of desert ecosystems. This map is being used to inform ongoing scientific investigations and land-management efforts, including endangered species habitat mapping and vulnerability and recoverability studies of desert landscapes in the arid Southwest.

California;Nevada;Utah;Arizona↗
USGS2018

Changes in Earth’s gravity reveal changes in groundwater storage

Changes in the amount of water stored in underground aquifers cause small changes in Earth’s gravitational field. The U.S. Geological Survey’s Southwest Gravity Program has developed methods for measuring terrestrial gravity changes with part-per-billion precision. The measurements allow scientists to map changes in groundwater storage and to improve models that simulate groundwater flow.

Fact Sheet↗
USGS2013

Lidar-revised geologic map of the Olalla 7.5' quadrangle, King, Kitsap, and Pierce Counties, Washington

The Olalla 7.5' quadrangle, which lies almost in the center of the Puget Lowland, displays the broad range of geologic environments typical of the region. The upland plain is fluted by the passage of the great continental ice sheet that last covered the area about 17,000 (14,000 radiocarbon) years ago. The plain is cut by channel deposits, both late glacial and postglacial in age, and it is cleaved even more deeply by one of the major arms of Puget Sound, Colvos Passage, which here separates the west coast of Vashon Island from the Kitsap Peninsula. Beneath the deposits of the last ice sheet is a complex sequence of older Quaternary-age sediments that extends about 400 m below the modern ground surface. These older sediments are best exposed along the shorelines and beach cliffs of Puget Sound, where wave action and landslides maintain relatively fresh exposures. The older sediments typically are compact, having been loaded by ice during one or more episodes of glaciation subsequent to their deposition. Locally these sediments are also cemented by iron and manganese oxides and hydroxides, a consequence of many tens or hundreds of thousands of years of weathering and groundwater movement. Our map is an interpretation of a 6-ft resolution lidar-derived digital elevation model combined with the geology depicted on the "Geologic map of the Olalla 7.5' quadrangle, King, Kitsap, and Pierce Counties, Washington," by Booth and Troost (2005), which was described, interpreted, and located on the 1953 1:24,000-scale topographic map of the Olalla 7.5-minute quadrangle. The original topographic base map, derived from 1951 aerial photographs, has 20-ft contours, nominal horizontal resolution of circa 40 ft (12 m), and nominal mean vertical accuracy of circa 13 ft (4 m). This new DEM has a horizontal resolution of 6 ft (2 m) and mean vertical accuracy circa 1 ft (0.3 m). The greater resolution and accuracy of the lidar DEM facilitated a much-improved interpretation of many aspects of the surficial geology, especially the distribution and relative age of landforms and the materials inferred to comprise them.

Washington↗
USGS1982

Mineral resource potential map of the Shining Rock Wilderness, Haywood County, North Carolina

The Shining Rock Wilderness is in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Haywood County, N. C., and is underlain by complexly folded, high-grade metamorphic rocks. These rocks contain a few small, subeconomic deposits of sheet muscovite mica that have a small potential for scrap mica. Quartz as a source of silica (SiO2) and gneiss and schist suitable for common building stone and crushed rock are the only identified economic mineral resources. Other minerals and rocks, including kaolin, soapstone, copper, corundum, and dunite, have been prospected or mined nearby, but either they do not occur or have no current economic potential in the wilderness. A possibility exists for the presence of natural gas at depths greater than 5,000 ft (1,500 m).

North Carolina↗
USGS2022

The National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program’s U.S. GeoFramework Initiative — Delivering a digital database of geologic map information by 2030

The U.S. Geological Survey's National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program's U.S. GeoFramework Initiative responds to Congressional direction to implement the National Geologic Map Database Phase Three. The U.S. GeoFramework Initiative aims to create and deliver a new digital geologic framework of the United States by 2030. This Fact Sheet outlines the collaborations needed and plans taken to achieve that goal.

Fact Sheet↗