1972 earthquake summary reported by NEIC
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For the second consecutive year, earthquake activity in the United States and around the world was below the long term average according to the National Earthquake Information Service (NEIS) in Golden, Colorado. However, more than 5,300 earthquake-related deaths were reported in 1974, up sharply from the approximately 650 deaths in 1973. On the basis of data collected by nearly 600 cooperating seismograph stations around the world, the NEIS reported 13 major shocks and no great shocks as compared with a long term average of 18 major and one great earthquake per year.
Abstract not available
Abstract not available
The Sierra Nevada region is critical to the environment and economy of California. Its places and peoples provide essential natural resources including fresh water, clean power, working lands, and famous wilderness. The region encompasses tremendous geographical, climatological, and ecological diversity that spans majestic mountains to deep desert basins. The climate consists of cool, wet winters and warm, dry summers with large differences due to latitude (e.g., the southern Sierra is snowier than northern Sierra) and topography (e.g., the Westside is wetter than the Eastside). Variability is another notable feature of the climate with the region experiencing some of the largest year-to-year climatic fluctuations in the United States. Herein we summarize our assessment of climate-change vulnerabilities and adaptation actions in the region.
Whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) grows at high elevations and in subalpine communities in the Pacific Northwest and Northern Rocky Mountains. Limber pine (Pinus flexilis) occurs in western North America across a broad elevational gradient from the Canadian Rocky Mountains into parts of New Mexico and Arizona and from southern California eastward to the few, isolated populations existing on the western boundary of the Dakotas and Nebraska (Steele 1990, Schoettle and Rochelle 2000). Both of these five-needle pine species play a variety of ecological roles and are considered key components in the their environments. Currently, whitebark pine and limber pine are being impacted by multiple ecological disturbances. White pine blister rust, caused by the introduced fungus Cronartium ribicola, mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae), dwarf mistletoe (Arceuthobium spp.), wildfires, and drought all pose significant threats to the persistence of healthy five-needle populations. An effort was initiated in 2013 by the National Park Service and the Wyoming Bureau of Land Management (WYBLM) to evaluate and monitor the long-term health trajectory of five-needle pines on WYBLM lands within the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE). With guidance from the Interagency Whitebark Pine Monitoring Program protocol, and employing a rapid assessment survey technique specifically designed for this endeavor, we monitored whitebark pine trees in 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017. We estimated the proportion of live, five-needle pine trees (>1.4 m tall) infected with white pine blister rust, documented blister rust infection severity by the occurrence and location of persisting and new infections, determined mortality of five-needle pine trees and described potential factors contributing to the death of trees, and assessed the multiple components of recruitment of understory five-needle pine into the reproductive population. White pine blister rust was widespread throughout WYBLM lands within the GYE. Using a combined ratio estimator we found that the proportion of live, >1.4 m tall five-needle pine trees infected with white pine blister rust was 0.156 (±0.054 SE; this estimate combines all surveyed trees). Bole cankers were 25% more prevalent than branch cankers in all five-needle pines observed. Mortality of surveyed trees on WYBLM lands was predominantly attributed to mountain pine beetle. For seedlings and saplings, a total of 4003 live, ≤1.4 m tall five-needle pines were documented. Cones or cone scars were recorded on 745 of the live trees. Of these reproducing trees, 44 were recorded with white pine blister rust infection. Long-term monitoring on five-needle pines on WYBLM lands will continue into the future.
Scenario planning provides a structured framework that can be used in strategic planning to help manage risk and prioritize actions (Schwartz 1996; Peterson et al. 2003). By providing a mechanism to communicate about complex situations, scenario planning encourages “out-of-the-box” thinking to help groups assess the impacts of plausible future scenarios on a target or resource. The outcomes from scenario planning can be used to improve management decisions, highlight data gaps, and/or identify future science priorities (Star et al. 2015; Borggaard et al. 2019). The application of scenario planning by resource management organizations (e.g., Borggaard et al. 2019; Runyon et al. 2020; Star et al. 2015) and the urgency surrounding the recovery of the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis), led to a 2018 NOAA Fisheries scenario planning initiative for the species. In addition to complementing the many management and conservation efforts already underway, this initiative was designed to address the uncertainties around future anthropogenic and environmental changes and how these uncertainties may impact species recovery. We used a scenario planning framework to explore plausible future conditions for North Atlantic right whales and to develop possible options to address those conditions and improve recovery. Specific objectives were to: 1) better understand the challenges of right whale management in a changing climate; 2) identify potential research activities and recovery needs across the species’ range; 3) increase coordination and collaboration related to recovery efforts; and 4) explore how scenario planning can be used to support decisions. Using projected changes in ocean conditions coupled with anthropogenic stressors, we built four plausible future scenarios for right whales. These scenarios helped identify priority research and management actions that NOAA Fisheries and our partners can undertake to improve right whale recovery. We identified priority actions related to science, management, and partnerships including, but not limited to, 1) research on shifting spatial and temporal distributions of right whales and prey in a changing climate; 2) development of technology to further reduce impacts from human activities; 3) continuation of ongoing management efforts related to vessel traffic and fishing; and 4) continued maintenance of existing and development of new partnerships (e.g., industry engagement in problem solving). This scenario planning exercise helped prioritize North Atlantic right whale management and science needs in light of changing ocean conditions and anthropogenic impacts. It can also serve as a reference for how NOAA Fisheries and its partners can better prepare for multiple plausible futures while complementing other on-going initiatives. Priorities identified here can be considered in conjunction with implementation and monitoring actions such as with the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team (ALWTRT) and/or regional Right Whale U.S. Implementation Teams. The framework can also be repeated and improved upon as additional information becomes available to support future exercises.
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This is the second annual report of a three year project to clarify the earthquake history of California for the period before 1900. More than four thousand additional newspaper issues were searched for earthquake reports, bringing the total number of issues examined to more than eleven thousand. About one quarter of the issues searched have provided earthquake reports. Summaries of these reports, emphasizing the information used to assign earthquake intensities, were prepared. The strength and spatial distribution of the reported earthquake effects were used to estimate the magnitude and epicentral location of the earthquakes. The third annual report, projected for August 1981, will provide isoseismal maps showing the distribution of the intensity reports which control the estimates of magnitude and epicenter.
Summary of Major Findings This report summarizes results of a water-resources study for White Pine County, Nevada, and adjacent areas in east-central Nevada and western Utah. The Basin and Range carbonate-rock aquifer system (BARCAS) study was initiated in December 2004 through Federal legislation (Section 131 of the Lincoln County Conservation, Recreation, and Development Act of 2004) directing the Secretary of the Interior to complete a water-resources study through the U.S. Geological Survey, Desert Research Institute, and State of Utah. The study was designed as a regional water-resource assessment, with particular emphasis on summarizing the hydrogeologic framework and hydrologic processes that influence ground-water resources. The study area includes 13 hydrographic areas that cover most of White Pine County; in this report however, results for the northern and central parts of Little Smoky Valley were combined and presented as one hydrographic area. Hydrographic areas are the basic geographic units used by the State of Nevada and Utah and local agencies for water-resource planning and management, and are commonly defined on the basis of surface-water drainage areas. Hydrographic areas were further divided into subbasins that are separated by areas where bedrock is at or near the land surface. Subbasins represent subdivisions used in this study for estimating recharge, discharge, and water budget. Hydrographic areas represent the subdivision used for reporting summed and tabulated subbasin estimates.
The 2015 India National Gas Hydrate Program (NGHP) Expedition 02 was conducted to obtain new information on the occurrence of gas hydrate systems and to advance the understanding of geologic controls on the formation of gas hydrate accumulations in the offshore of India. The ultimate goal of the NGHP effort is to assess the energy resource potential of marine gas hydrates in India. The Guest Editors for this special thematic issue of the Journal of Marine and Petroleum Geology (JMPG) have worked with more than 100 scientists and engineers to prepare the 45 individual reports included in this special issue to address the operational and technical contributions of the NGHP-02 Expedition. This thematic issue on natural gas hydrates in the offshore of India is built on the foundation of five previous JMPG thematic issues that focused on the scientific results of other marine gas hydrate expeditions. These foundational contributions include: (1) the “Scientific Results of the 2005 USDOE-Chevron JIP Drilling for Methane Hydrates Objectives in the Gulf of Mexico” (Volume 25, Issue 9, November 2008), (2) the “Resource and Hazard Implications of Gas Hydrates in the Northern Gulf of Mexico: Results of the 2009 Joint Industry Project Leg II Drilling Expedition” (Volume 34, Issue 1, June 2012), (3) the “Scientific Results of the Second Gas Hydrate Drilling Expedition in the Ulleung Basin (UBGH2), East Sea of Korea” (Volume 47, November 2013), (4) “Geologic Implications of Gas Hydrates in the Offshore of India: Results of the National Gas Hydrate Program Expedition 01” (Volume 58, Part A, December 2014), and (5) “Gas Hydrate Drilling in Eastern Nankai” (Volume 66, Part 2, September 2015). The NGHP-02 Expedition was conducted from 03-March- 2015 to 28-July- 2015 off the eastern coast of India. The first two months of the expedition were dedicated to establishing 25 new research sites that featured the drilling of a dedicated downhole logging hole at each site. The next three months of the NGHP-02 Expedition were dedicated to sediment coring and other downhole measurement operations at 10 of the sites established during the expedition’s first phase. The results of downhole logging, coring and formation pressure testing operations during NGHP-02 have confirmed the presence of large, highly concentrated gas hydrate accumulations in coarse-grained, sand-rich depositional systems throughout large portions of the Krishna-Godavari Basin. Post expedition research and reporting efforts included collaborative analysis of the unprecedented number of shipboard acquired data sets and core samples obtained during NGHP-02. The presentation of the scientific results of the NGHP-02 Expedition has culminated in the publication of the NGHP Expedition 02 Scientific Results Volume, which is represented by this Special Issue of the Journal of Marine and Petroleum Geology. This Special Issue features a series of four reports that summarize the operational and scientific results of NGHP-02 Expedition that are presented in the 41 technical reports included this Special Issue. The first summary report, “India National Gas Hydrate Program Expedition 02: Operational and Technical Summary,” focuses on reviewing the tools and operational procedures for the NGHP-02 Expedition that led to the acquisition of an unprecedented amount of high-quality downhole logging and core data from numerous pore-filling, fracture-filling, and sediment-displacement type gas hydrate occurrences. The summary report titled “India National Gas Hydrate Program Expedition 02 Summary of Scientific Results: Gas Hydrate Systems Along the Eastern Continental Margin of India” documents gas hydrate occurrences discovered during the NGHP-02 Expedition and examines geologic controls on the gas hydrate systems along the Eastern Continental Margin of India.
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The Long Term Resource Monitoring Program (LTRMP) completed 2,653 collections of fishes from stratified random and permanently fixed sampling locations in six study reaches of the Upper Mississippi River System during 1994. Collection methods included day and night electrofishing, hoop netting, fyke netting (two net sizes), gill netting, seining, and trawling in select aquatic area classes. The six LTRMP study areas are Pools 4 (excluding Lake Pepin), 8, 13, and 26 of the Upper Mississippi River, and unimpounded reach of the Mississippi River near Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and the La Grange Pool of the Illinois River. A total of 61-79 fish species were detected in each study area. For each of the six LTRMP study areas, this report contains summaries of (1) sampling efforts in each combination of gear type and aquatic area class, (2) total catches of each species from each gear type, (3) mean catch-per-unit of gear effort statistics and standard errors for common species from each combination of aquatic area class and selected gear type, and (4) length distributions of common species from selected gear types.
The Long Term Resource Monitoring Program (LTRMP) completed 1,994 collections of fishes from stratified random and permanently fixed sampling locations in six study reaches of the Upper Mississippi River System during 1993. Collection methods included day and night electrofishing, hoop netting, fyke netting (two net sizes), gill netting, seining, and trawling in select aquatic area classes. The six LTRMP study reaches are Pools 4 (excluding Lake Pepin), 8, 13, and 26 of the Upper Mississippi River, an unimpounded reach of the Mississippi River near Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and the La Grange Pool of the Illinois River. A total of 62-78 fish species were detected in each study reach. For each of the six LTRMP study reaches, this report contains summaries of: (1) sampling efforts in each combination of gear type and aquatic area class, (2) total catches of each species from each gear type, (3) mean catch-per-unit of gear effort statistics and standard errors for common species from each combination of aquatic area class and selected gear type, and (4) length distributions of common species from selected gear types.
The Potomac Tributary Report summarizes change over time in a suite of monitored tidal water quality parameters and associated potential drivers of those trends for the time period 1985 – 2018, and provides a brief description of the current state of knowledge explaining these observed changes. Water quality parameters described include surface total nitrogen (TN), surface total phosphorus (TP), spring and summer surface chlorophyll a, summer bottom dissolved oxygen (DO) concentrations, and Secchi disk depth (a measure of water clarity). Results for annual surface water temperature, bottom TP, bottom TN, surface ortho-phosphate (PO4), surface dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN), surface total suspended solids (TSS), and summer surface DO concentrations are provided in an Appendix. Drivers discussed include physiographic watershed characteristics, changes in N, P, and sediment loads from the watershed to tidal waters, expected effects of changing land use, and implementation of nutrient management and natural resource conservation practices. Factors internal to estuarine waters that also play a role as drivers are described including biogeochemical processes, physical forces such as wind-driven mixing of the water column, and biological factors such as phytoplankton biomass and the presence of submersed aquatic vegetation. Total nutrient concentrations have been decreasing at most stations in the Potomac River over the long-term, with improvements persisting in the last 10 years as well. These trends follow from the decreasing discharge from TN and TP sources in the watershed. The TP source reductions are not as apparent in the direct loads to the river, which may be part of the reason that tidal nutrient concentrations are not decreasing at as many stations in the short-term as the long-term. While degrading chlorophyll a and Secchi depth trends at several Potomac monitoring stations are concerning, recent improvements in summer oxygen concentrations are promising. The findings that chlorophyll a concentrations in the lower Potomac have either leveled out or improved may suggest a smaller amount of phytoplankton biomass available to fuel summer oxygen depletion. The responses of chlorophyll a, Secchi depth, and bottom DO are mixed in the Potomac tidal waters, but there are multiple possible reasons for this lag in response. Continuing to track water quality response and investigating these possibilities are important steps to understanding water quality patterns and changes in the Potomac River.
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