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

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At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources
USGS2000

Comparison of precipitation chemistry in the Central Rocky Mountains, Colorado, USA

Volume-weighted mean concentrations of nitrate (NO3-), ammonium (NH4+), and sulfate (SO42-) in precipitation were compared at high-elevation sites in Colorado from 1992 to 1997 to evaluate emission source areas to the east and west of the Rocky Mountains. Precipitation chemistry was measured by two sampling methods, the National Atmospheric Deposition Program/National Trends Network (NADP/NTN) and snowpack surveys at maximum accumulation. Concentrations of NO3- and SO42- in winter precipitation were greater on the western slope of the Rockies, and concentrations of NO3- and NH4+ in summer precipitation were greater on the eastern slope. Summer concentrations in general were almost twice as high as winter concentrations. Seasonal weather patterns in combination with emission source areas help to explain these differences. This comparison shows that high-elevation ecosystems in Colorado are influenced by air pollution emission sources located on both sides of the Continental Divide. It also suggests that sources of nitrogen and sulfur located east of the Divide have a greater influence on precipitation chemistry in the Colorado Rockies. Copyright (C) 2000.

Atmospheric Environment↗
USGS2025

State shifts in the deep Critical Zone drive landscape evolution in volcanic terrains

Understanding the near-surface environment where atmospheric and solid earth processes interact, often termed the “Critical Zone,” is important for assessing resources and building resilient societies. Here, we examine a volcanic landscape in the Oregon Cascade Range, an understudied Critical Zone setting that is host to major regional water resources, pervasive silicate weathering, and significant geohazards. We leverage a bedrock age chronosequence to show that the volcanic Critical Zone undergoes a structural shift, from depth extents of >1 km to meters, over timescales of ~1 My. We map an active groundwater volume comparable to major continental lakes, stored at the Cascade Range crest. This state shift makes volcanic landscape evolution a unique probe of deep coupling between Earth systems.

PNAS↗
USGS1994

Pesticides detected in surface waters and fish of the Red River of the North drainage basin

The Red River of the North drainage basin (herein referred to as Red River Basin) within the United States is a study unit under the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) program. The overall goals of this program, initiated to better define the status and trends of the Nation’s water quality, are to address regional and national water-quality issues in a nationally consistent manner. Pesticide contamination of surface water and fish is one focus of this program. The Red River Basin is about 90,600 square kilometers (km2 ) in area and is composed of rolling prairie with a high density of prairie-pothole wetlands to the west; a very flat glacial lake bed with drainage ditches and meandering streams in the center (Red River Valley Lake Plain); morainal hills with a mosaic of agriculture, lakes, and forest in the southeast; and a flat lake-washed till plain with extensive peatlands in the northeast (fig. 1). Stoner and others (1993) have given a more complete description of the environmental setting of the Red River Basin. Agriculture is a major component of the region’s economy, and is greatest in the Red River Valley Lake Plain. Principal crops are wheat, barley, oats, sunflowers, corn, soybeans, dry beans, potatoes, sugarbeets, alfalfa hay, and other hay. Herbicide, insecticide, and fungicide use depends on crop type and environmental stresses such as crop disease, drought, and periodic insect-pest infestation. This paper focuses on the occurrence, movement, and fate of agricultural pesticides that are applied to crops, but improper disposal, and use of pesticides for household pests, lawn care, golf courses, and home gardening can also result in contamination of the aquatic environment. Furthermore, atmospheric transport is known to transport pesticides to regions far from their source (Kurtz, 1990). Pesticide data have been collected in the Red River Basin by various Federal, State, and local agencies. Tornes and Brigham (1994) recently summarized many of these historical data. This paper summarizes selected data collected as part of the NAWQA program during 1992-93, and briefly compares these data to historical data and to pesticide usage.

Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota↗
USGS2004

Atmospheric wet deposition of trace elements to a suburban environment, Reston, Virginia, USA

Wet deposition from a suburban area in Reston, Virginia was collected during 1998 and analyzed to assess the anion and trace-element concentrations and depositions. Suburban Reston, approximately 26 km west of Washington, DC, is densely populated and heavily developed. Wet deposition was collected bi-weekly in an automated collector using trace-element clean sampling and analytical techniques. The annual volume-weighted concentrations of As, Cd, and Pb were similar to those previously reported for a remote site on Catoctin Mt., Maryland (70 km northwest), which indicated a regional signal for these elements. The concentrations and depositions of Cu and Zn at the suburban site were nearly double those at remote sites because of the influence of local vehicular traffic. The 1998 average annual wet deposition (μg m −2 yr −1 ) was calculated for Al (52,000), As (94), Cd (54), Cr (160), Cu (700), Fe (23,000), Mn (2000), Ni (240), Pb (440), V (430), and Zn (4100). The average annual wet deposition (meq m −2 yr −1 ) was calculated for H + (74), Cl − (8.5), NO 3 − (33), and SO 4 2− (70). Analysis of digested total trace-element concentrations in a subset of samples showed that the refractory elements in suburban precipitation comprised a larger portion of the total deposition of trace elements than in remote areas.

Virginia↗
USGS2022

It’s time for focused in situ studies of planetary surface-atmosphere interactions

A critical gap in planetary observations has been in situ characterization of extra-terrestrial, present-day atmospheric and surface environments and activity. While some surface activity has been observed and some in situ meteorological measurements have been collected by auxiliary instruments on Mars, existing information is insufficient to conclusively characterize the natural processes via concurrent and high-resolution measurement of environmental drivers and activity. Thus, many atmospheric, aeolian, and other surface processes models – which are used to generate key constraints on science and exploration in many areas of planetary investigation—such as surface exposure/erosion estimates, landscape interpretation, and modeling dust storm development—remain untested under non-Earth conditions. Analogous terrestrial processes are often studied intensively via numerical modeling that integrates empirical results from laboratory and/or field studies of process-response interactions between the atmosphere and relevant surface landforms. Incorporation of such in situ measurements into model development has significantly advanced our understanding of atmosphere-surface interactions and related geomorphic processes on Earth, and is poised to do so on other planets. However, to date, such testing and refinement have not been possible in other planetary environments, partially because investigations of this sort require new technologies, mission architectures, and operations designs (e.g., different from large rovers focused on geochemical investigations) to fully address the key gaps in our understanding while keeping cost and risk low. Fortunately, technological developments in the areas of surface access, instrumentation, and onboard processing/memory now enable small spacecraft to accommodate meteorological and aeolian instrumentation that could collect the needed measurements to fill this critical gap while remaining within typical small spacecraft resource budgets. Furthermore, maturity of our understanding of the broader geologic and atmospheric context on Mars provides a ready framework for ingestion of discrete ground truth measurements into our understanding of the broader and multi-scale martian natural systems and processes. These advancements make addressing key science questions with novel mission concepts feasible, promising results that would significantly advance our understanding of extraterrestrial surface-atmosphere interactions. This summary follows from a community-generated white paper for the ongoing Planetary Science/Astrobiology Decadal Survey, small spacecraft concept development at JPL, and numerous JPL and community discussions.

Conference Paper↗
USGS2025

Avian navigation: Comparing the olfactory navigational “map” and the infrasound direction-finding hypotheses to aeronautics

Animal navigation has long been a fascinating but bewildering subject. Humans and animals might well share similar navigational strategies because they developed within the same physical environments. A “map-and-compass” model has been proposed to explain the two-step avian navigational process, but the “map” step has remained elusive. Although scalar values from bicoordinate geomagnetic or atmospheric olfactory gradients have been considered foundational to the avian map, neither has proved convincing engendering decades of controversy. The olfactory map, and an alternative infrasound direction-finding (IDF) hypothesis, are discussed in this review. The olfactory map hypothesis currently requires extensive stable gradients of trace-odor ratios, but such gradients are highly unlikely within a turbulent and rapidly mixed lower atmosphere. The IDF hypothesis, on the other hand, postulates a two-step navigational model analogous to the maritime and aeronautical radio direction-finding technique. This review was also written to encourage further investigation, and direct testing, of the acoustic navigational process. The IDF hypothesis, at present, appears the better explanation of observed avian navigational behavior and accuracy within the atmosphere’s physical environment.

Journal of Comparative Physiology A↗
USGS2016

Toward a national animal telemetry network for aquatic observations in the United States

Animal telemetry is the science of elucidating the movements and behavior of animals in relation to their environment or habitat. Here, we focus on telemetry of aquatic species (marine mammals, sharks, fish, sea birds and turtles) and so are concerned with animal movements and behavior as they move through and above the world’s oceans, coastal rivers, estuaries and great lakes. Animal telemetry devices (“tags”) yield detailed data regarding animal responses to the coupled ocean–atmosphere and physical environment through which they are moving. Animal telemetry has matured and we describe a developing US Animal Telemetry Network (ATN) observing system that monitors aquatic life on a range of temporal and spatial scales that will yield both short- and long-term benefits, fill oceanographic observing and knowledge gaps and advance many of the U.S. National Ocean Policy Priority Objectives. ATN has the potential to create a huge impact for the ocean observing activities undertaken by the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) and become a model for establishing additional national-level telemetry networks worldwide.

Animal Biotelemetry↗
USGS2021

DGMETA (version 1)—Dissolved gas modeling and environmental tracer analysis computer program

DGMETA (Dissolved Gas Modeling and Environmental Tracer Analysis) is a Microsoft Excel-based computer program that is used for modeling air-water equilibrium conditions from measurements of dissolved gases and for computing concentrations of environmental tracers that rely on air-water equilibrium model results. DGMETA can solve for the temperature, salinity, excess air, fractionation of gases, or pressure/elevation of water when it is equilibrated with the atmosphere. Models are calibrated inversely using one or more measurements of dissolved gases such as helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon, and nitrogen. Excess nitrogen gas, originating from denitrification or other sources, also can be included as a fitted parameter or as a separate calculation from the dissolved gas modeling results. DGMETA uses the air-water equilibrium models to separate measured concentrations of gases and isotopes of gases into components that are used for tracing water in the environment. DGMETA calculates atmospheric dry-air mole fractions (mixing ratios) for transient atmospheric gas tracers such as chlorofluorocarbons, sulfur hexafluoride, and bromotrifluoromethane (Halon-1301); and concentrations of tritiogenic helium-3 and radiogenic helium-4, which accumulate from the decay of tritium in water and the decay of uranium and thorium in rocks, respectively. Sample data can be graphed to identify applicable models of excess air, samples that contain excess nitrogen gas, or samples that have partially degassed, for example. Monte Carlo analysis of errors associated with dissolved gas equilibrium model results can be carried through computations of environmental tracer concentrations to provide robust estimates of error. In addition, graphical routines for separating helium sources using helium isotopes are included to refine estimates of tritiogenic helium-3 when terrigenic helium from mantle or crustal sources is present in samples. Environmental tracer concentrations and their errors computed from DGMETA can be used with other programs, such as TracerLPM (Jurgens and others, 2012), to determine groundwater ages and biogeochemical reaction rates. DGMETA also produces output files in a format that meets the U.S. Geological Survey open data requirements for documentation of model inputs and outputs. DGMETA is a versatile and adaptable program that allows users to add solubility data for new gases, modify the existing set of gas solubility data, modify the default set of gases used for modeling, choose calculations based on real (non-ideal) gas behavior, and select various concentration units for data entry and results to match laboratory reports and study objectives. DGMETA comes with a set of gases widely used in hydrology and oceanography and many gases include multiple solubilities from previous work. Seventeen dissolved gases are included in the default version of the program: noble gases (helium, neon, argon, krypton, and xenon), reactive gases (nitrogen, oxygen, methane, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, hydrogen, and nitrous oxide), and environmental tracers (chlorofluorocarbon-11, chlorofluorocarbon-12, chlorofluorocarbon-113, sulfur hexafluoride, and Halon-1301).

Techniques and Methods↗
USGS2024

Geologic sources and well integrity impact methane emissions from orphaned and abandoned oil and gas wells

The 160-year history of oil and gas drilling in the United States has left a legacy of unplugged orphaned and abandoned wells, some of which are leaking methane and other hazardous chemicals into the environment. The locations of around 120,000 documented orphaned wells are currently known with the number of undocumented orphaned wells possibly ranging towards a million. The bulk of methane emissions originate from only 10 % of orphaned and abandoned wells, while the remaining wells have undetectable emissions. Understanding the sources of methane emissions from orphaned wells is key to estimating emission rates and prioritizing plugging. In this article, we identify key studies reporting methane emission measurements from orphaned and abandoned wells in the published literature and analyze previously published isotopic methane data to categorize the sources of methane emissions. Three primary geologic sources provide methane to a leaking well that can migrate from geologic formations into or along the wellbore to contaminate groundwater, the surface environment, and the atmosphere. These geologic sources of methane are petroleum (oil and gas) sourced reservoirs, coal seams, and methanogenesis occurring in and around the wellbore. Thermogenic petroleum gas reservoirs are associated with the highest emission rates measured to date. The next highest rates are from coalbed methane sources, while biogenic sources are the lowest based on the publicly available measured emissions data. Well conditions that could potentially enable methane transport include decay of the wellhead and surface infrastructure, wellbore deterioration from corrosive fluids in the subsurface, delamination of the casing and cement, damage from seismicity, and new fracture networks created by hydraulic fracturing of newly drilled neighboring wells. With an understanding of these geologic sources and well conditions, we can (1) better identify areas where high-emitting wells are likely to be present, (2) improve emission rate estimates from orphaned and abandoned wells, and (3) better prioritize wells for plugging.

Science of the Total Environment↗
USGS2026

Aquatic reflectance derived from Sentinel-2 Multispectral Imager data for inland waters in the conterminous United States

Satellite-based earth observation is a robust tool for tracking change in ecosystems. While terrestrially focused applications of remote sensing have empowered wide adoption for research and management, remote sensing of inland aquatic ecosystems remains comparably nascent. This divergence, in part, stems from the lack of standardized, accessible, and near real-time remotely sensed surface reflectance, atmospherically corrected for aquatic environments. To date, surface reflectance products at national scales and with minimal latency are typically designed exclusively for terrestrial environments. Rectifying this situation can be accomplished by applying aquatic-focused atmospheric correction algorithms independent of those used for terrestrial ecosystems. As a first step to filling this data gap, we present the first national scale, dynamically updated, analysis-ready, aquatic reflectance dataset for inland water derived from Sentinel-2 for the conterminous United States.

conterminous United States↗
USGS2022

Isotopic discrimination of natural and anthropogenic perchlorate sources in groundwater in a semi-arid region of northeastern Oregon (USA)

Perchlorate (ClO4−) has synthetic and natural sources. Synthetic ClO4− is released to the environment from its use as an oxidant in military and aerospace applications, and from its presence in a variety of common commercial products, such as safety flares, chlorate herbicides, and fireworks. Natural sources of ClO4− in the environment include imported nitrate fertilizers derived from salt deposits in the Atacama Desert of Chile and indigenous natural ClO4− that accumulates in unsaturated soils and groundwaters in other arid and semi-arid environments, largely from atmospheric deposition. The stable isotope ratios of chlorine (37Cl/35Cl) and oxygen (18O/16O, 17O/16O) and the isotopic abundance of radioactive 36Cl in ClO4− can be used to discriminate these different sources. Perchlorate was previously detected at relatively high concentrations (3.8–34.7 μg/L) in groundwater from many wells in the Boardman-Umatilla area near the Columbia River in northeastern Oregon, which is a semi-arid, highly agricultural, heavily irrigated area that includes several past and current military installations. Eight representative groundwater wells were sampled throughout this region and isotopic characteristics of ClO4− collected from each well were measured along with other chemical and isotopic parameters including tritium and other groundwater age indicators. Isotopic data indicate that indigenous natural ClO4− was present in groundwater from all sampled wells and was the predominant source in five of the wells. Synthetic ClO4− was present in the three remaining wells with natural ClO4−, and a minor fraction of Atacama-fertilizer-derived ClO4− was indicated in one of the wells. Data from this study expand the geographic area of the USA in which indigenous natural ClO4− has been detected to include the semi-arid northwest. This study also illustrates the role of irrigation recharge as a mechanism for producing relatively high concentrations of indigenous natural ClO4− in groundwater by flushing accumulated salts from the unsaturated zone.

Oregon↗
USGS2003

The Marine Realms Information Bank, a coastal and marine digital library at USGS

The Marine Realms Information Bank (MRIB) is a distributed geolibrary of the USGS Coastal and Marine Geology Program that (1) prioritizes search and display of information by place (location on the Earth's surface), and (2) links information existing in distributed and independent sources. The MRIB aims to provide easy access to knowledge pertaining to the ocean and the associated atmospheric and terrestrial environments to scientists, decision-makers, and the interested members of the public.

Open-File Report↗
USGS2004

Carbon, sulfur, and mercury - A biogeochemical axis of evil

I welcome this opportunity to come and preach the gospel according to Aiken, which is that to really understand ecosystems we need to pay much more attention to reactions involving natural organic matter. It's taken me many years to convince my colleagues of the important role of dissolved organic matter (DOM) in the methylation of mercury. Methylmercury is a nasty player - it's a very efficient bioaccumulator that rockets up through the food chain, so even the very low concentrations (nanograms per liter) found in many ecosystems are significant. In most aquatic environments mercury is atmospherically deposited. Here in the Delta, we also have mercury from naturally occurring deposits, as well as from historic mercury and gold mining, coming in from the upstream watershed. Methylmercury is produced at the sediment-water interface by sulfate-reducing bacteria.

Conference Paper↗
USGS2014

Investigation of hurricane Ivan using the coupled ocean-atmosphere-wave-sediment transport (COAWST) model

The coupled ocean–atmosphere–wave–sediment transport (COAWST) model is used to hindcast Hurricane Ivan (2004), an extremely intense tropical cyclone (TC) translating through the Gulf of Mexico. Sensitivity experiments with increasing complexity in ocean–atmosphere–wave coupled exchange processes are performed to assess the impacts of coupling on the predictions of the atmosphere, ocean, and wave environments during the occurrence of a TC. Modest improvement in track but significant improvement in intensity are found when using the fully atmosphere–ocean-wave coupled configuration versus uncoupled (e.g., standalone atmosphere, ocean, or wave) model simulations. Surface wave fields generated in the fully coupled configuration also demonstrates good agreement with in situ buoy measurements. Coupled and uncoupled model-simulated sea surface temperature (SST) fields are compared with both in situ and remote observations. Detailed heat budget analysis reveals that the mixed layer temperature cooling in the deep ocean (on the shelf) is caused primarily by advection (equally by advection and diffusion).

Ocean Dynamics↗
USGS2007

Atmospheric bromine flux from the coastal Abu Dhabi sabkhat: A ground-water mass-balance investigation

A solute mass-balance study of ground water of the 3000 km2 coastal sabkhat (salt flats) of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, documents an annual bromide loss of approximately 255 metric tons (0.0032 Gmoles), or 85 kg/km2. This value is an order of magnitude greater than previously published direct measurements from the atmosphere over an evaporative environment of a salar in Bolivia. Laboratory evidence, consistent with published reports, suggests that this loss is by vapor transport to the atmosphere. If this bromine flux to the atmosphere is representative of the total earth area of active salt flats then it is a significant, and generally under recognized, input to the global atmospheric bromide flux.

Geophysical Research Letters↗
USGS2017

Terrestrial subaqueous seafloor dunes: Possible analogs for Venus

Dunes on Venus, first discovered with Magellan Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) in the early 1990s, have fueled discussions about the viability of Venusian dunes and aeolian grain transport. Confined to two locations on Venus, the existence of the interpreted dunes provides evidence that there could be transportable material being mobilized into aeolian bedforms at the surface. However, because of the high-pressure high-temperature surface conditions, laboratory analog studies are difficult to conduct and results are difficult to extrapolate to full-sized, aeolian bedforms. Field sites of desert dunes, which are well-studied on Earth and Mars, are not analogous to what is observed on Venus because of the differences in the fluid environments. One potentially underexplored possibility in planetary science for Venus-analog dune fields could be subaqueous, seafloor dune fields on Earth. Known to the marine geology communities since the early 1960s, seafloor dunes are rarely cited in planetary aeolian bedform literature, but could provide a necessary thick-atmosphere extension to the classically studied aeolian dune environment literature for thinner atmospheres. Through discussion of the similarity of the two environments, and examples of dunes and ripples cited in marine literature, we provide evidence that subaqueous seafloor dunes could serve as analogs for dunes on Venus. Furthermore, the evidence presented here demonstrates the usefulness of the marine literature for thick-atmosphere planetary environments and potentially for upcoming habitable worlds and oceanic environment research program opportunities. Such useful cross-disciplinary discussion of dune environments is applicable to many planetary environments (Earth, Mars, Venus, Titan, etc.) and potential future missions.

Aeolian Research↗
USGS2011

Structural and functional effects of herbicides on non-target organisms in aquatic ecosystems with an emphasis on atrazine

Herbicide use has increased dramatically around the world over the past 6 decades (Gianessi and Reigner, 2007). Few herbicides were in use in the 1950s. However, by 2001 approximately 1.14 billion kilograms of herbicides were applied globally for the control of undesireable vegetation in agricultural, silvicultural, lawncare, aquacultural, and irrigation/recreational water management activities (Kiely et al., 2004). Twenty-eight percent of the total mass of herbicides is applied in the United States, with the remaining 72 percent being applied elsewhere around the globe (Kiely et al., 2004). Herbicides represent 36% of global pesticide use, followed by insecticides (25%), fungicides (10%) and other chemical classes (Kiely et al., 2004). Agricultural production accounts for approximately 90% of herbicide use in the U.S. (Kiely et al., 2004). Gianessi and Reigner (2007) indicated that herbicides are routinely used on more than 90% of the area designated for large commercial crops including corn, soybeans, cotton, sugar beets, peanuts, and rice. Increased farm mechanization, technological advancements in production of inexpensive sources of inorganic nitrogen fertilizer (e.g., anhydrous ammonia), and conversion of forest, grassland, and wetland habitats to cropland has led to a tremendous increase in global food production over the past half-century. Herbicides have augmented advances in large-scale agricultural systems and have largely replaced mechanical and hand-weeding control mechanisms (Gianessi and Reigner, 2007). The wide-spread use of herbicides in agriculture has resulted in frequent chemical detections in surface and groundwaters (Gilliom, 2007). The majority of herbicides used are highly water soluble and are therefore prone to runoff from terrestrial environments. In additon, spray drift and atmospheric deposition can contribute to herbicide contamination of aquatic environments. Lastly, selected herbicides are deliberately applied to aquatic environments for controlling nuisance aquatic vegetation. Although aquatic herbicide exposure has been widely documented, these exposures are not necessarily related to adverse non-target ecological effects on natural communities in aquatic environments. This chapter evaluates the potential for effects of herbicides on the structure and function of aquatic envrionments at the population, community, and ecosystem levels of biological organization. In this manuscript I examine several critical aspects of the subject matter area: primary herbicides in use and chemical modes of action; the regulatory process used for registration and risk assessment of herbicides; data regarding non-target risks and the relative sensitivity of aquatic plants, inveretebrates, and fish to herbicides; and emerging areas of science regarding the potential for endocrine-disrupting effects of herbicides on aquatic vertebrates. Much of the focus of this paper is on atrazine due to the extensive database which exists regarding its fate and effects.

Book chapter↗