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At least 721 records · Page 40Linked to original sources
USGS1961

Exploratory drilling for ground water in the Mountain Iron-Virginia area, St. Louis County, Minnesota

The Mountain Iron-Virginia area is a broad, southwest-trending valley in the central part of the Mesabi Range. The valley, which heads in the Laurentian Divide, and covers about 120 square miles, coincides approximately with a bedrock valley filled with as much as 150 feet of glacial deposits. A complex sequence of glacioaqueous sediments made up of clay, silt, sand, and gravel was delineated from test holes drilled at 238 sites. These sediments range in thickness from 0 to 125 feet and can be considered a hydrologic unit, bounded below by sandy till or bedrock and above by as much as 60 feet of clayey till. The piezometric surface ranges from 0 to about 70 feet below land surface, thus, the glacioaqueous deposits are not everywhere completely saturated. In places, however, the water is under artesian pressure. Within the Mountain Iron-Virginia area about 50 square miles are underlain by deposits 20 feet or more in thickness of silt, sand, or gravel that constitute an aquifer that is a large potential source for additional water supplies. Except for iron and manganese, which are present in excessive amounts in some wells, the water meets U.S. Public Health Service standards for municipal supplies. Pumping tests of wells in the permeable sand or gravel deposits at five sites indicate that yields of several hundred gallons per minute and possibly as much as 2,000 gpm (gallons per minute) can be expected.

Minnesota↗
USGS1961

Aquifers in melt-water channels along the southwest flank of the Des Moines Lobe, Lyon County, Minnesota

During the Gary and Mankato substages of Wisconsin glaciation the Des Moines lobe advanced southeastward through the broad lowland of the Minnesota River valley of southwestern Minnesota, and thence southward to central Iowa. Among the most prominent topographic features in Lyon County, Minn., are five southeastward-trending end moraines, two of which are associated with and parallel to belts of surficial outwash that are approximately half a mile to a mile wide. Test drilling indicated that one of the belts of outwash is underlain by a complex system of buried melt-water channels. The other is the upper part of a series of deposits in an incised channel. The channels are filled with till, glaciolacustrine deposits, and outwash, which includes permeable deposits of water-bearing sand and gravel. Associated with the surficial melt-water channels is a pronounced southeastward-trending linear drainage pattern. By studying the lineation of streams and lakes, analyzing the available water-well data, and drilling test holes, several elongate deposits of buried outwash having little or no topographic expression were located. The long axes of the deposits are generally parallel to the lineation of the drainage and the end moraines. The melt-water channels in Lyon County trend southeastward because the flank of the ice sheet was confined by a landmass that sloped to the northeast. Similar buried channels may be present elsewhere along the southwest flank of the Des Moines lobe. If so, they probably can be located by the methods described.

Minnesota↗
USGS1961

Ground-water resources of Olmsted Air Force Base, Middletown, Pennsylvania

Olmsted Air Force Base is underlain by the Gettysburg shale of Triassic age. The Gettysburg shale at the Air Force Base consists of interbedded red sandstone, siltstone, and shale. The average strike of the strata is N. 43° E., and the strata dip to the northwest at an average angle of 26°. The transmissibility of known aquifers in the warehouse area of the Air Force Base is low. Therefore, wells in the warehouse area have low specific capacities and yield only small supplies of water. Wells on the main base, however, yield relatively large supplies of water because the transmissibilities of the aquifers are relatively high. Pumping tests in the warehouse area and the eastern area of the main base indicated the presence of impermeable boundaries in both areas. Pumping tests in the central and western parts of the main base revealed that the Susquehanna River probably is acting as a source of recharge (forms a recharge boundary) for wells in those areas. Data obtained during this investigation indicate that additional supplies of ground water for Olmsted Air Force Base could best be obtained from the western part of the main base.

Water Supply Paper↗
USGS1963

Geology and ground-water resources of the Lake Dakota Plain area, South Dakota

The Lake Dakota plain area is a nearly flat surface that includes parts of Spink, Brown, Marshall, and Day Counties in northeastern South Dakota. Agriculture is the principal occupation. Because precipitation often is insufficient for maximum crop production, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has developed a plan for irrigation of the area. Most of the irrigation water would be conveyed by canal from a reservoir on the Missouri River, about 100 miles to the west, but some would be obtained locally from the James River. The surface of the Precambrian rocks, which underlie the area at a depth of 1,200 to 1,500 feet, is the lower limit to which water wells are drilled. Most of the producing wells in the area tap the Dakota sandstone, which has an average thickness of about 400 feet and rests on the Precambrian rocks. The Dakota is not recharged locally; water percolates into the Lake Dakota plain area principally from areas of recharge to the west. Because the aggregate discharge from wells tapping the Dakota exceeds the estimated rate of lateral percolation into the area, some of the discharged water probably is derived from storage. Although the artesian pressure is still sufficient to cause wells to flow, it is much less now than it was when the first wells were drilled in the 1880's. Water from the Dakota is highly mineralized; the specific conductance of water from 71 wells ranged from 2,590 to 4,380 micromhos per centimeter. Most of the water was of the sodium sulfate type and was soft. By recognized standards the water is chemically unsuitable for most uses, but for many years it has been the principal source of supply both on farms and in the municipalities. Use of the water for irrigation is reported to have made the soil unproductive. The Dakota is overlain by younger Cretaceous rocks aggregating 700 to 800 feet in thickness. These rocks, which consist of shale and limestone, generally are too nearly impermeable to be a source of water supply. Unconsolidated deposits of Quaternary age mantle the Cretaceous rocks. Although they consist mostly of material that is too fine grained to yield water freely to wells, the Quaternary deposits contain bodies of moderately to highly permeable material that yield water copiously. Such bodies may be located only by exploratory drilling or, possibly, geophysical methods. The water differs widely in amount of mineralization and in chemical composition; the specific conductance of water from 322 wells ranged from 246 to 13,300 micromhos per centimeter. In most of the report area the water is of unsuitable quality for irrigation and domestic use. The principal source of recharge to the Quaternary deposits is infiltrating precipitation. Evapotranspiration accounts for nearly all the water discharged; the amount of water discharging into stream channels and withdrawn from wells is almost negligible by comparison. Irrigation of the area would increase the rate of recharge to the Quaternary deposits and would cause the water table to rise. Probably it would also cause an increase in the concentration of dissolved minerals in much of the ground water. Artificial drainage would be necessary to prevent waterlogging of cropland.

South Dakota↗
USGS1963

Geology and ground-water resources of Hale County, Texas

Hale County, in the southern High Plains of Texas, has an area of 1,033 square miles. The land surface is one of low relief, and the regional slope is about 10 feet per mile toward the southeast. Surface runoff drains into numerous playa lakes and two intermittent streams: Running Water Draw and the Double Mountain Fork of the Brazos River. The Ogallala formation of Tertiary age is the principal water-bearing formation in the county. The Ogallala lies on red beds of Triassic age throughout most of the county and on rocks of Cretaceous age in approximately the southern fifth of the county. The Triassic and underlying Permian rocks are not fresh water bearing in the county. The Cretaceous rocks, on the other hand, are in direct hydraulic connection with the Ogallala, and a few wells tapping them yield large quantities of water from cracks and solution channels in the limestones. The Ogallala formation is overlain by thin deposits of sand, gravel, silt, and clay of Pleistocene and Recent age. These younger rocks are, for the most part, above the water table and, consequently, are not water bearing. The water in the Ogallala formation occurs principally as unconfined water in layers and lenses of sand and gravel. The hydraulic properties of the Ogallala were determined by a long-term aquifer test at Plainview, where coefficients of transmissibility ranging from 24,000 to 38,000 gpd per foot were measured. The coefficient of storage was determined to be about 0.14. The aquifer is recharged from precipitation in Hale County and in the southern High Plains northwest of the county. The water moves generally southeastward at about 2 inches a day. Ground water in Hale County is used principally for irrigation. In 1955 more than 3,700 wells were used to irrigate 470,000 acres; about 560,000 acre-feet of water was pumped. About 5,000 acre-feet was pumped for other purposes, including municipal, industrial, stock, and domestic uses. The water in the Ogallala formation in Hale County is suitable chemically for irrigation and most other uses; however, it should be softened for more satisfactory domestic use. The high silica content indicates that the water may be unsuitable for use in boilers. The fluoride content is excessive. It is estimated that in 1955 about 39 million acre-feet of water was in storage in the Ogallala formation in Hale County; however, only about 16 million is theoretically available to wells, and a somewhat smaller amount is practically available. About 3 million acre-feet was removed from storage during 1938-55. Water levels in wells have declined more or less steadily since 1938, and it is apparent that the ground-water resources of the county are insufficient to support large-scale perennial irrigation such as that of 1955.

Water Supply Paper↗
USGS1960

Double-mass curves, with a section fitting curves to cyclic data

The double.-mass curve is used to check the consistency of many kinds of hydrologic data by comparing data for a single station with that of a pattern composed of the data from several other stations in the area The double-mass curve can be used to adjust inconsistent precipitation data. The graph of the cumulative data of one variable versus the cumulative data of a related variable is a straight line so long as the relation between the variables is a fixed ratio. Breaks in the double-mass curve of such variables are caused by changes in the relation between the variables. These changes may be due to changes in the method of data collection or to physical changes that affect the relation. Applications of the double-mass curve to precipitation, streamflow, and sediment data, and to precipitation-runoff relations are described. A statistical test for significance of an apparent break in the slope of the double-mass curve is described by an example. Poor correlation between the variables can prevent detection of inconsistencies in a record, but an increase in the length of record tends to offset the effect of poor correlation. The residual-mass curve, which is a modification of the double-mass curve, magnifies imperceptible breaks in the double-mass curve for detailed study. Of the several methods of fitting a smooth curve to cyclic or periodic data, the moving-arc method and the double-integration method deserve greater use in hydrology. Both methods are described in this manual. The moving-arc method has general applicability, and the double integration method is useful in fitting a curve to cycles of sinusoidal form.

Water Supply Paper↗