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Results for “Washington Geology”

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 109 records · Page 6Linked to original sources
USGS2002

Surficial geology along the Spokane River, Washington and its relationship to the metal content of sediments (Idaho-Washington stateline to Latah Creek confluence)

The purpose of this study is 1. to document the geographic distribution of Holocene (deposited in the last 11,000 years) sedimentary lithologies in and along the Spokane River, 2. to document the downstream variation of metal contents (especially lead [Pb] and zinc [Zn] ) by sedimentary lithology, and 3. to compare the metal contents of different sedimentary lithologies. This data is used to gain some understanding of the physical and chemical processes that control those metal contents. It is hoped this study can be used to guide potential future remedial actions aimed at reducing the biologic impact of metal-enriched sediments in this area. This work was undertaken in cooperation with the Washington Department of Ecology and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Idaho, Washington↗
USGS2013

Transient calibration of a groundwater-flow model of Chimacum Creek Basin and vicinity, Jefferson County, Washington: a supplement to Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5160

A steady-state groundwater-flow model described in Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5160, ”Numerical Simulation of the Groundwater-Flow System in Chimacum Creek Basin and Vicinity, Jefferson County, Washington” was developed to evaluate potential future impacts of growth and of water-management strategies on water resources in the Chimacum Creek Basin. This supplement to that report describes the unsuccessful attempt to perform a calibration to transient conditions on the model. The modeled area is about 64 square miles on the Olympic Peninsula in northeastern Jefferson County, Washington. The geologic setting for the model area is that of unconsolidated deposits of glacial and interglacial origin typical of the Puget Sound Lowlands. The hydrogeologic units representing aquifers are Upper Aquifer (UA, roughly corresponding to recessional outwash) and Lower Aquifer (LA, roughly corresponding to advance outwash). Recharge from precipitation is the dominant source of water to the aquifer system; discharge is primarily to marine waters below sea level and to Chimacum Creek and its tributaries. The model is comprised of a grid of 245 columns and 313 rows; cells are a uniform 200 feet per side. There are six model layers, each representing one hydrogeologic unit: (1) Upper Confining unit (UC); (2) Upper Aquifer unit (UA); (3) Middle Confining unit (MC); (4) Lower Aquifer unit (LA); (5) Lower Confining unit (LC); and (6) Bedrock unit (OE). The transient simulation period (October 1994–September 2009) was divided into 180 monthly stress periods to represent temporal variations in recharge, discharge, and storage. An attempt to calibrate the model to transient conditions was unsuccessful due to instabilities stemming from oscillations in groundwater discharge to and recharge from streamflow in Chimacum Creek. The model as calibrated to transient conditions has mean residuals and standard errors of 0.06 ft ±0.45 feet for groundwater levels and 0.48 ± 0.06 cubic feet per second for flows. Although the expected seasonal trends were observed in model results, the typical observed annual variation of groundwater levels of about 2 feet was not. Streamflow at the most downstream observation point was about three times larger than simulated streamflow. Because the transient version of the model proved inherently unstable, it was not used to simulate forecast conditions for alternate hydrologic or anthropogenic changes. Adaptation of alternate stream simulation packages, such as RIV, or newer versions of MODFLOW, such as MODFLOW-NWT, could possibly assist with achieving calibration to transient conditions.

Washington↗
USGS2005

Verification of 1921 peak discharge at Skagit River near Concrete, Washington, using 2003 peak-discharge data

The 1921 peak discharge at Skagit River near Concrete, Washington (U.S. Geological Survey streamflow-gaging station 12194000), was verified using peak-discharge data from the flood of October 21, 2003, the largest flood since 1921. This peak discharge is critical to determining other high discharges at the gaging station and to reliably estimating the 100-year flood, the primary design flood being used in a current flood study of the Skagit River basin. The four largest annual peak discharges of record (1897, 1909, 1917, and 1921) were used to determine the 100-year flood discharge at Skagit River near Concrete. The peak discharge on December 13, 1921, was determined by James E. Stewart of the U.S. Geological Survey using a slope-area measurement and a contracted-opening measurement. An extended stage-discharge rating curve based on the 1921 peak discharge was used to determine the peak discharges of the three other large floods. Any inaccuracy in the 1921 peak discharge also would affect the accuracies of the three other largest peak discharges. The peak discharge of the 1921 flood was recalculated using the cross sections and high-water marks surveyed after the 1921 flood in conjunction with a new estimate of the channel roughness coefficient (n value) based on an n-verification analysis of the peak discharge of the October 21, 2003, flood. The n value used by Stewart for his slope-area measurement of the 1921 flood was 0.033, and the corresponding calculated peak discharge was 240,000 cubic feet per second (ft3/s). Determination of a single definitive water-surface profile for use in the n-verification analysis was precluded because of considerable variation in elevations of surveyed high-water marks from the flood on October 21, 2003. Therefore, n values were determined for two separate water-surface profiles thought to bracket a plausible range of water-surface slopes defined by high-water marks. The n value determined using the flattest plausible slope was 0.024 and the corresponding recalculated discharge of the 1921 slope-area measurement was 266,000 ft3/s. The n value determined using the steepest plausible slope was 0.032 and the corresponding recalculated discharge of the 1921 slope-area measurement was 215,000 ft3/s. The two recalculated discharges were 10.8 percent greater than (flattest slope) and 10.4 percent less than (steepest slope) the 1921 peak discharge of 240,000 ft3/s. The 1921 peak discharge was not revised because the average of the two recalculated discharges (240,500 ft3/s) is only 0.2 percent greater than the 1921 peak discharge.

Scientific Investigations Report↗
USGS2024

ShakeAlert® and schools: Incorporating earthquake early warning in school districts in Alaska, California, Oregon, and Washington

The U.S. Geological Survey-managed ShakeAlert® earthquake early warning system is the first public alerting system in the United States to provide rapid mass notification when an earthquake is detected. Although public alert delivery via mobile phones began in California in 2019 followed by Oregon and Washington in 2021, little is known about what might drive widespread implementation in at-risk institutional settings such as schools. For example, there has been limited research on how to best integrate earthquake early warning into existing emergency plans, alert systems, and drills to keep school children and personnel safe in an earthquake. To address this gap, in the spring of 2022, every school district superintendent in Alaska, California, Oregon, and Washington was sent a 15-min online survey. The survey assessed superintendent knowledge of ShakeAlert, preferences for alert messaging, and perceived opportunities and barriers to incorporating the system in schools. The results showed that superintendents had low awareness of ShakeAlert but held positive perceptions of the system's potential to enable life-saving protective actions. A major barrier to adoption included the perceived financial cost of implementing and maintaining the system. There were some statistically significant differences in state responses, and future research could investigate the specific needs of each state based on school district size and composition, hazard exposure, and earthquake experience. Together these findings can help inform targeted strategies to increase ShakeAlert adoption in schools and ultimately improve the safety of school children and staff during earthquakes.

Alaska, California, Oregon, Washington↗
USGS1998

Digital Geologic Map of the Rosalia 1:100,000 Quadrangle, Washington and Idaho: A Digital Database for the 1990 S.Z. Waggoner Map

The geologic map of the Rosalia 1:100,000-scale quadrangle was compiled in 1990 by S.Z. Waggoner of the Washington state Division of Geology and Earth Resources. This data was entered into a geographic information system (GIS) as part of a larger effort to create regional digital geology for the Pacific Northwest. The intent was to provide a digital geospatial database for a previously published black and white paper geologic map. This database can be queried in many ways to produce a variety of geologic maps. Digital base map data files are not included: they may be obtained from a variety of commercial and government sources. This database is not meant to be used or displayed at any scale larger than 1:100,000 (e.g., 1:62,500 or 1:24,000) as it has been somewhat generalized to fit the 1:100,000 scale map. The map area is located in eastern Washington and extends across the state border into western Idaho. This open-file report describes the methods used to convert the geologic map data into a digital format, documents the file structures, and explains how to download the digital files from the U.S. Geological Survey public access World Wide Web site on the Internet. We wish to thank J. Eric Schuster of the Washington Division of Geology and Earth Resources for providing the original stable-base mylar and the funding for it to be scanned. We also thank Dick Blank and Barry Moring of the U.S. Geological Survey for reviewing the manuscript and digital files, respectively.

Open-File Report↗
USGS1998

Geologic framework of the Willamette Lowland aquifer system, Oregon and Washington

This report describes the Cenozoic geology of the Willamette Lowland physiographic province, and the geologic framework of the regional ground-water flow system. Five regional hydrogeologic units are identified and described. The report includes maps showing the altitude of the top and the thickness of each hydrogeologic unit.

Professional Paper↗
USGS2012

Assessing fish predation on migrating juvenile steelhead and a retrospective comparison to steelhead survival through the Priest Rapids Hydroelectric Project, Columbia River, Washington, 2009-11

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) have been working with the Public Utility District No. 2 of Grant County, Washington (Grant PUD), to increase their understanding of predator-prey interactions in the Priest Rapids Hydroelectric Project (PRP), Columbia River, Washington. For this study, the PRP is defined as the area approximately 6 kilometers upstream of Wanapum Dam to the Priest Rapids Dam tailrace, 397.1 miles from the mouth of the Columbia River. Past year’s low survival numbers of juvenile steelhead ( Oncorhynchus mykiss ) through Wanapum and Priest Rapids Dams has prompted Grant PUD, on behalf of the Priest Rapids Coordinating Committee, to focus research efforts on steelhead migration and potential causal mechanisms for low survival. Steelhead passage survival in 2009 was estimated at 0.944 through the Wanapum Development (dam and reservoir) and 0.881 through the Priest Rapids Development and for 2010, steelhead survival was 0.855 for Wanapum Development and 0.904 for Priest Rapids Development. The USGS and WDFW implemented field collection efforts in 2011 for northern pikeminnow ( Ptychocheilus oregonensis ), smallmouth bass ( Micropterus dolomieu ), and walleye ( Sander vitreus , formerly Stizostedion vitreum ) and their diets in the PRP. For predator indexing, we collected 948 northern pikeminnow, 237 smallmouth bass, 18 walleye, and two largemouth bass ( Micropterus salmoides ). The intent of this study was to provide standardized predation indices within individual reaches of the PRP to discern spatial variability in predation patterns. Furthermore, the results of the 2011 study were compared to results of a concurrent steelhead survival study. Our results do not indicate excessively high predation of Oncorhynchus spp. occurring by northern pikeminnow or smallmouth bass in any particular reach throughout the study area. Although we found Oncorhynchus spp. in the predator diets, the relative proportion was small. Predation index values in 2011 were highest in the Priest Rapids mid-reservoir reach for northern pikeminnow and smallmouth bass. Predation indices generally were high in the tailrace areas for northern pikeminnow, and high in the forebay areas for smallmouth bass. Steelhead survival in 2011 was consistently high throughout the study period and the PRP, although predation indices were relatively low, which suggests that fish predation did not significantly affect steelhead survival throughout the study area. Our efforts to correlate retrospective predation indices with survival estimates for 2009 and 2010 did provide some evidence for high predation occurring in some of the same reaches, which had low steelhead survival, such as the Priest Rapids tailrace in 2009. However, for 2010, our results indicated that the loss of salmonids to predation were more contradictory to the survival results, where predation indices were higher for reaches in the Priest Rapids Development than in the Wanapum Development. Establishing correlations between steelhead survival and observed predation indices for previous research years, in 2009 and 2010 was confounded by the lack of coordination of these two studies during the initial study design, implementation period for such an analysis. Future efforts to correlate steelhead survival with fish predation would benefit from efforts to better coordinate the studies with consistent study reaches, and better timing of concurrent efforts.

Washington↗
USGS2020

Assessment of existing groundwater quality data in the Green-Duwamish watershed, Washington

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) provided technical support to the Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology) in their assessment of the role groundwater plays in contributing pollutant loading to the Green-Duwamish River near Seattle, Washington. Ecology is developing watershed hydrology models of the Green-Duwamish watershed, and need to assign realistic contaminant concentrations to the various Hydrologic Response Units represented in their models. The USGS compiled existing groundwater quality data in the Green-Duwamish watershed, and this report summarizes results and interpretation of the dataset, including identifying data gaps and needs for further research and monitoring. The sources of existing data were the USGS’s National Water Information System, Ecology’s Environmental Information Management System, and a compilation of several studies by Leidos, a scientific research company. The water-quality parameters of interest included polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) Aroclors and congeners, phthalates, carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (cPAHs), arsenic, copper, and zinc. Results were grouped into the four subwatersheds delineated in Ecology’s hydrology models: Duwamish, Lower Green, Soos, and Upper Green. Results from the Duwamish subwatershed were further sub-divided by the USGS into the Lower Duwamish, containing land adjacent to the Lower Duwamish Waterway Superfund site, and the Upper Duwamish, containing the remaining area of the Duwamish subwatershed. Groundwater quality data in the Lower Duwamish were treated separately because there is known contamination in this area. The availability of water quality data varied by subwatershed as follows: phthalate data was only available within the Duwamish, PCB data was available within the Duwamish and Lower Green, cPAH data was available within the Duwamish, Lower Green, and Soos, and data for arsenic, copper, and zinc were available within all four subwatersheds. More than 99 percent of the available data was within the Duwamish subwatershed, identifying a need for additional monitoring of groundwater quality in the other subwatersheds.

Washington↗
USGS2010

Bedrock geologic map of the Montpelier and Barre West quadrangles, Washington and Orange Counties, Vermont

The bedrock geology of the Montpelier and Barre West quadrangles consists of Silurian and Devonian metasedimentary rocks of the Connecticut Valley-Gaspe synclinorium (CVGS) and metasedimentary, metavolcanic, and metaintrusive rocks of the Cambrian and Ordovician Moretown and Cram Hill Formations. Devonian granite dikes occur throughout the two quadrangles but are more abundant in the Silurian and Devonian rocks. The pre-Silurian rocks are separated from the rocks of the CVGS by the informally named 'Richardson Memorial Contact,' historically interpreted as either an unconformity or a fault. The results of this report represent mapping by G.J. Walsh, Jonathan Kim, and M.H. Gale from 2002 to 2005. S.M. King assisted Kim and Gale from 2002 to 2003. A.M. Satkoski (Indiana University) assisted Walsh, and L.R. Pascale (University of Vermont) and C.M. Orsi (Middlebury College) assisted Kim and Gale as summer interns in 2003. This study was designed to map the bedrock geology in the area. This map supersedes a preliminary map of the Montpelier quadrangle (Kim, Gale, and others, 2003). A companion study in the Barre West quadrangle (Walsh and Satkoski, 2005) determined the levels of naturally occurring radioactivity in the bedrock from surface measurements at outcrops during the course of 1:24,000-scale geologic mapping to identify which rock types were potential sources of radionuclides. Results of that study indicate that the carbonaceous phyllites in the CVGS have the highest levels of natural radioactivity.

Vermont↗