Mapping the Sea Floor Geology Offshore of the New York-New Jersey Metropolitan Area
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U.S. Geological Survey Programs in Minnesota
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) maps, describes, and seeks to understand Minnesota's mineral, water, and biological resources. The USGS is known for impartial data collection and data interpretation that enable resource planners and others to make informed decisions. Today's issues are more pressing than ever - understanding natural hazards to minimize their effects on life and property, the continuing need for mineral- and water-resource development, and understanding the effects of human activities on water resources. As the Nation's leading natural-science agency, the USGS works with other Federal agencies and State and local agencies in addressing these issues. Watershed districts; soil- and water-conservation districts; Tribal governments; mining industries; educators; city, county, regional, State, and Federal planning agencies; consulting firms; crop consultants; farmers; and other private citizens use USGS maps, interpretive reports, and data to manage Minnesota's resources.
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Fort Collins Science Center
The U.S. Geological Survey's Fort Collins Science Center (FORT) is one of 17 USGS biological science centers nationwide. FORT conducts research and develops technical applications to assist land managers in understanding and managing biological resources, habitats, and ecosystems. Although the majority of FORT's activities are conducted within the 15-state Central Region of the USGS, many FORT projects are national or international in scope. FORT serves all Department of the Interior land management bureaus and other natural resource agencies. In addition, FORT scientists partner with DOI and other federal entities such as CDC, DOE, EPA, NASA, NIH, and USDA to share expertise and resources. FORT also partners with several universities and works cooperatively with states and nongovernmental organizations. Products and services include reports and publications, predictive models and software, maps and GIS products, and other technical assistance in the form of meetings, workshops, training, field visits, and needs assessments.
Fact Sheet↗
The EDMAP Program: Training the next generation of geologic mappers
Introduction Detailed geologic maps are the basis of most earth science investigations and can be used for natural hazard mitigation, resource identification and exploration, infrastructure planning, and more. As a part of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) congressionally mandated National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program (NCGMP), the EDMAP program (referred to as EDMAP) is a partnership between the USGS and participating colleges and universities that provides mentorship and training opportunities for earth science students nationwide. EDMAP supports graduate students and upper-level undergraduate students—under the guidance of a faculty member who serves as a “principal investigator”—for the training of students to become geologic mappers. Between 1996 and 2021, EDMAP funded geologic mapping educational experiences and training for 1,373 students at more than 170 universities.
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Core data from offshore Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands
I n 2008, as a collaborative effort between Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the U.S. Geological Survey, 20 giant gravity cores were collected from areas surrounding Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The regions sampled have had many large earthquake and landslide events, some of which are believed to have triggered tsunamis. The objective of this coring cruise, carried out aboard the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research vessel Seward Johnson , was to determine the age of several substantial slope failures and seismite layers near Puerto Rico in an effort to map their temporal distribution. Data gathered from the cores collected in 2008 and 11 archive cores from the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory are included in this report. These data include lithologic logs, core summary sheets, x-ray fluorescence, wet-bulk density, magnetic susceptibility, grain-size analyses, radiographs, and radiocarbon age dates.
Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands↗
Arsenic, nitrate, and chloride in groundwater, Oakland County, Michigan
In 1996, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) and nine southeast Michigan counties, began a study of the factors controlling arsenic concentrations in drinking water. The early results of this study raised broader concerns in Oakland County about the quality of groundwater in general and drinking water in particular. In response to these concerns, Oakland County worked with the USGS and the Center for Applied Environmental Research at the University of Michigan - Flint (CAER) to study distributions of arsenic, nitrate and chloride in groundwater, with emphasis on sites where concentrations of these constituents exceeded the Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCLs) and Secondary Maximum Contaminant Levels (SMCLs) set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The maps produced for this report are based on historical data compiled from MDEQ records.
Michigan↗
The Earth Mapping Resources Initiative (Earth MRI): Mapping the Nation’s critical mineral resources
The Earth Mapping Resources Initiative (Earth MRI; formerly known as 3DEEP) is planned as a partnership between the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the Association of American State Geologists (AASG), and other Federal, State, and private-sector organizations. The goal of the effort is to improve our knowledge of the geologic framework in the United States and to identify areas that have the potential to contain undiscovered critical mineral resources. Enhancement of our domestic mineral supply will decrease our reliance on foreign sources of minerals that are fundamental to the Nation’s security and economy. The intent of Earth MRI is to leverage the USGS’s existing relationships with States and the private sector to conduct state-of-the-art geologic mapping and airborne geophysical and topographic (lidar) surveys. Analyses of these datasets could point to potential buried critical mineral deposits.
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Flood of May 26-27, 1984 in Tulsa, Oklahoma
The greatest flood disaster in the history of Tulsa, Oklahoma occurred during 8 hours from 2030 hours May 26 to 0430 hours May 27, 1984, as a result of intense rainfall centered over the metropolitan area. Storms of the magnitude that caused this flood are not uncommon to the southern great plains. Such storms are seldom documented in large urban areas. Total rainfall depth and rainfall distribution in the Tulsa metropolitan area during the May 26-27 storm were recorded by 16 recording rain gages. This report presents location of recording rain gages with corresponding rainfall histograms and mass curves, lines of equal rainfall depth (map A), and flood magnitudes and inundated areas of selected streams within the city (map B). The limits of the study areas (fig. 1) are the corporate boundaries of Tulsa, an area of about 185 square miles. Streams draining the city are: Dirty Butter, Coal, and Mingo Creeks which drain northward into Bird Creek along the northern boundary of the city; and Cherry, Crow, Harlow, Joe Haikey, Fry, Vensel, Fred, and Mooser Creeks which flow into the Arkansas River along the southern part of the city. Flooding along Haikey, Fry, Fred, Vensel, and Mooser Creeks was not documented for this report. The Arkansas River is regulated by Keystone Dam upstream from Tulsa (fig. 1). The Arkansas River remained below flood stage during the storm. Flooded areas in Tulsa (map B) were delineated on the topographic maps using flood profiles based on surveys of high-water marks identified immediately after the flood. The flood boundaries show the limits of stream flooding. Additional areas flooded because of overfilled storm drains or by sheet runoff are not shown in this report. Data presented in this report, including rainfall duration and frequency, and flood discharges and elevations, provide city officials and consultants a technical basis for making flood-plain management decisions.
Hydrologic Atlas↗
Archive of post-Hurricane Charley coastal oblique aerial photographs collected during U.S. Geological Survey field activity 04CCH01 from Marco Island to Fort DeSoto, Florida, August 15, 2004
On August 15, 2004, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) conducted an oblique aerial photographic survey off the southwest coast of Florida, from Marco Island to Fort DeSoto, aboard a Navajo Chieftain airplane, tail number N2KK, at an altitude of 500 ft and approximately 1000 ft offshore. These photographs were used to document coastal changes such as beach erosion and overwash caused by Hurricane Charley. They will also be used as baseline data for future coastal change. The oblique photography also served as qualitative ground truthing for the Experimental Advanced Airborne Research Lidar (EAARL) coastal topography and bathymetry data collected on August 16, 2004 (Bonisteel and others, 2009). This report serves as an archive of photographs collected during the August 15, 2004, post-Hurricane Charley coastal oblique aerial survey along with associated flight path maps, KML files, navigation files, digital Field Activity Collection System (FACS) logs, and Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) metadata. Refer to the Acronyms page for expansions of all acronyms and abbreviations used in this report. The USGS St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center (SPCMSC) assigns a unique identifier to each cruise or field activity. For example, 04CCH01 tells us the data were collected in 2004 for the Coastal Change Hazards (CCH) study and the data were collected during the first field activity for that project in that calendar year. Refer to http://walrus.wr.usgs.gov/infobank/programs/html/definition/activity.html for a detailed description of the method used to assign the ID number. Two separate records of flight navigation were collected during the survey. The first was a continuous ASCII text file from the PLGR that recorded only latitudes, longitudes, and altitudes every 30 sec for the entire flight. No time values were recorded by the PLGR. The second navigation record was recorded by a Trimble Centurion GPS and converted to subtitles on the video, using a Compix Titler unit. The video was shot continuously during the survey. The video subtitles recorded day, month, year, latitude, longitude, and time in hours, minutes, and seconds. In order to produce a digital record of the navigation values that included latitude, longitude, and time, each was manually extracted from the video every 5 min, and these values were matched to the latitude and longitude in the PLGR file. Next, the time was interpolated between these 5-min fixes using Excel to produce time values for each navigation fix recorded in the PLGR file. The location of each photograph taken was determined in the following manner. A Nikon MF-14 data back marks the time each photograph was acquired on the lower right corner of the image in day, hour, and minute format (in UTC). These values were entered from the photographs into an Excel spreadsheet. It is assumed for the purposes of locating the images that the photographs were taken at a constant rate during any given minute of flight. To assign the time value in seconds to each photograph, the number of photographs taken during each minute was evenly distributed across that minute. For example, if 15 photographs were taken during minute 19:00:00, we assume that a picture was taken every 4 sec. The photographs were assigned the time values 19:00:00, 19:00:04, 19:00:08, and so on. The video time navigation file was then merged with the new interpolated photograph file based on time to produce the point of which each photograph was collected. As a result, the positions assigned to each photograph are an estimate of the aircraft position, not the location of the landmark photographed. The photographs provided here are JPEG scanned images of the analog slides. The metadata values for photo creation time, GPS latitude, GPS longitude, GPS position, keywords, credit, artist, caption, copyright, and contact were added to each photograph's EXIF header using EXIFtools (see the Software page). Photographs can be opened directly with any JPEG-compatible image viewer by clicking on a thumbnail on the contact sheet, or, when viewing the Google Earth KML file, by clicking on the marker and then clicking on either the thumbnail or the link below the thumbnail. The KML files were created using the photographic navigation files and the CreateKML JavaScript (see the Software page). To view the survey maps and navigation files, and for more information about these items, see the Navigation page. Figure 1 displays the acquisition geometry. The tables provide detailed information about the assigned location, name, data, and time the photograph was taken along with links to the photo and corresponding 5-min contact sheet. Refer to table 1 and table 2 for details of the northern and southern county photographs, respectively.
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Investigation into the Origin and Character of Surficial Sedimentary Deposits at the Midshore Regional Solid Waste Facility near Easton, Maryland
A temporary exposure at the Midshore Regional Solid Waste Facility near Easton, MD, provided an opportunity to document the characteristics of the complex assemblage of surficial facies in that area. This unusually large cross section allowed interpretation of the changing processes that shaped the landscape in response to climate change through the late Pleistocene. Eight stratigraphic units were recognized: (1) gray, fossiliferous, muddy silt of the marine Miocene Choptank Formation; (2) coarse, crossbedded conglomerate of the late Miocene to Pliocene fluvial Pensauken Formation; (3) bioturbated muddy conglomerate interpreted as deposits of small colluvial fans; (4) pebbly, quartzose sand overlying a planar erosional surface reflecting a marine transgression; (5) irregular pods and lenses of sand and gravel deformed into bowl-shaped folds and faulted, which are interpreted as wind deposits over a semipermanent snow cover (niveo-aeolian deposits); (6) crossbedded sand and conglomerate with abundant mud partings indicating tidal influences on sinuous stream channels; (7) heavily bioturbated silt and sand with abundant root casts and flattened vesicles interpreted as aeolian loess deposits in marshy fens; and (8) pebbly sand and mud with scattered boulders and cobbles that reflect modern infill of the excavation by the operators. Soils formed on units 3, 4, and 7. Superimposed on units 4, 5, and 7 is evidence of deep freezing and permafrost development and subsequent thermokarst development after thawing, which includes large, complexly filled wedge-shaped cracks, deformed bedding and faults, fluid-injection structures, and spherical blobs of sand and mud. Each of the stratigraphic units has irregular distributions and lateral changes. The results of this study provide a unique insight into the geometry of surficial deposits that will help facilitate mapping of units, interpretation of cored intervals, and understanding of ground-penetrating radar profiles. The study also documents the widespread effects of permafrost during the last glacial episode well south of the maximum advance of ice sheets.
Open-File Report↗
Identifying major sedimentary basins beneath the West Antarctic ice sheet from aeromagnetic data analysis
In the Ross Sea, large sedimentary basins reflect primarily the major extensional event associated with the Late Cretaceous breakup of Gondwana. Within the Interior Ross Embayment, no similar large basins have been identified to date. We have used aerogravity and Werner deconvolution methods applied to aeromagnetic data to map depth to magnetic basement, which helped delineate three major sedimentary basins, the Bentley Subglacial, Onset, and Trunk D Basins.
Book chapter↗
Terrestrial ecosystems: national inventory of vegetation and land use
The Gap Analysis Project (GAP)/Landscape Fire and Resource Management Planning Tools (LANDFIRE) National Terrestrial Ecosystems Data represents detailed data on the vegetation and land-use patterns of the United States, including Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico. This national dataset combines detailed land cover data generated by the GAP with LANDFIRE data (http://www.landfire.gov/). LANDFIRE is an interagency vegetation, fire, and fuel characteristics mapping program sponsored by the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service.
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International geoscience collaboration to support critical mineral discovery
The importance of critical minerals and the need to expand and diversify critical mineral supply chains has been endorsed by the Federal governments of Australia, Canada, and the United States. The geoscience organizations of Geoscience Australia, the Geological Survey of Canada and the U.S. Geological Survey have created the Critical Minerals Mapping Initiative to build a diversified critical minerals industry in Australia, Canada, and the United States by developing a better understanding of known critical mineral resources, determining geologic controls on critical mineral distribution for deposits currently producing byproducts, identifying new sources of supply through critical mineral potential mapping and quantitative mineral assessments, and promoting critical mineral discovery in all three countries.
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Geochemical maps showing the distribution and abundance of gold in stream sediments and of gold and silver in heavy-mineral concentrates in the Seward and Blying Sound quadrangles, Alaska
Reconnaissance geochemical and mineralogical sampling was done in the Seward and Blying Sound quadrangles during 1975 and 1976 as part of the Alaska Mineral Resources Assessment Program (AMRAP). These maps show the distribution and abundance of gold and silver in heavy-mineral concentrates. Stream-sediment and heavy-mineral concentrate samples were collected from active stream channels and locally, from the interface of streambeds with intermediate- to low-tide beaches. Most of the stream sediment is fine- to coarse-grained sand, with a clay-silt fraction in streams discharging from glaciers. Stream sediment samples were air dried and sieved through a 80-mesh (0.2 mm) sieve, and the minus-80 mesh fraction was saved for analysis. A split of each sample was analyzed for gold by a 10 gram atomic-absorption method (Ward and others, 1969). Another split was analyzed for 16 elements by a semiquantitative spectrographic method (Grimes and Marranzino, 1968). The heavy-mineral concentrates were obtained by panning stream sediments in the field to remove most of the light minerals. The panned samples were sieved though a 20-mesh (0.8 mm) screen in the laboratory, and the minus-20 mesh fraction was further separated with bromoform (specific gravity: 2.86) to remove any remaining light-mineral grains. Magnetite and other strongly magnetic heavy minerals were removed from the heavy-mineral fraction by use of a hand magnet. The remaining sample was passed through a Frantz Isodynamic Separator 1 and a nonmagnetic fraction was obtained at a setting of 0.6 amperes. A split of this fraction was pulverized and analyzed for 16 elements including gold and silver by semiquantitative spectrographic method used for analyzing the stream sediment. The remaining split of the nonmagnetic fraction was examined for its mineralogic composition using a binocular microscope and X-ray diffraction. The nonmagnetic concentrates primarily contain muscovite, sphene, zircon, apatite, rutile, and anatase. Ore minerals such as gold, scheelite, minium, and most sulfides are also found in this fraction. Sample sites and gold and silver values (in parts per million) are indicated by symbols as defined in the histograms. The maps show two populations for gold in stream sediments and for gold and silver heavy mineral concentrates. One population consists of generally higher gold and silver values found in samples collected in the sedimentary terrane in the western half of the area. The other population consists of generally lower gold and silver values found in samples collected in areas of sheeted basalt dikes, pillow basalts, and sedimentary terrane in the eastern half of the area. The anomalous silver values found on Knight Island and Latouche Island are associated with chalcopyright- and pyrite-bearing rocks. 1 The use of trade names is for descriptive purposes only and does not constitute endorsement of those products by the U.S. Geological Survey.
Alaska↗
Hydrologic overlay maps of the Titusville Quadrangle, Brevard County, Florida
Brevard County is an area of some 1,300 square miles located on the east coast of central Florida. The Titusville quadrangle, in northern Brevard, includes part of the Atlanta Coastal Ridge, an area of relatively high sand ridges that are generally above 30 feet in altitude (sheet 1). Approximately the western one third of the quadrangle is in relatively low marshlands of the St. Johns River valley. The eastern part of the quadrangle contains estuarine waters of the Indian River and a small portion of the John F. Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island.
Florida↗
Saturn's dynamic D ring
The Cassini spacecraft has provided the first clear images of the D ring since the Voyager missions. These observations show that the structure of the D ring has undergone significant changes over the last 25 years. The brightest of the three ringlets seen in the Voyager images (named D72), has transformed from a narrow, <40-km wide ringlet to a much broader and more diffuse 250-km wide feature. In addition, its center of light has shifted inwards by over 200 km relative to other features in the D ring. Cassini also finds that the locations of other narrow features in the D ring and the structure of the diffuse material in the D ring differ from those measured by Voyager. Furthermore, Cassini has detected additional ringlets and structures in the D ring that were not observed by Voyager. These include a sheet of material just interior to the inner edge of the C ring that is only observable at phase angles below about 60°. New photometric and spectroscopic data from the ISS (Imaging Science Subsystem) and VIMS (Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer) instruments onboard Cassini show the D ring contains a variety of different particle populations with typical particle sizes ranging from 1 to 100 microns. High-resolution images reveal fine-scale structures in the D ring that appear to be variable in time and/or longitude. Particularly interesting is a remarkably regular, periodic structure with a wavelength of ~30 km extending between orbital radii of 73,200 and 74,000 km. A similar structure was previously observed in 1995 during the occultation of the star GSC5249-01240, at which time it had a wavelength of ~60 km. We interpret this structure as a periodic vertical corrugation in the D ring produced by differential nodal regression of an initially inclined ring. We speculate that this structure may have formed in response to an impact with a comet or meteoroid in early 1984.
Icarus↗
Historical Mapping
Maps become out of date over time. Maps that are out of date, however, can be useful to historians, attorneys, environmentalists, genealogists, and others interested in researching the background of a particular area. Local historians can compare a series of maps of the same area compiled over a long period of time to learn how the area developed. A succession of such maps can provide a vivid picture of how a place changed over time.
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Mapping a flood before it happens
What's missing from flood forecasts? Maps—The only maps generally available today are maps used for planning. They are maps of theoretical floods, not maps of flooding forecast for an approaching storm. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the National Weather Service (NWS) have developed a way to bring flood forecasting and flood mapping together, producing flood maps for tomorrow's flood today...and getting them on the Internet in time for those in harm's way to react.
Fact Sheet↗