SEARCH · Search USGS

Results for “Final Report”

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

SourceResearch connectionFrom yearThrough year

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 1,261 records · Page 70Linked to original sources

USGS2004

Assessment of fish assemblages and minimum sampling effort required to determine botic integrity of large rivers in southern Idaho, 2002

A critical issue surrounding biomonitoring in large rivers (fifth- through seventh-order) is the minimum sampling-reach distance required to collect an adequate number of fish to represent the fish assemblage within a reach. Excessive sampling effort (excessive reach length) is costly in terms of work hours, reduces the number of sites that can be visited, can compromise field-crew safety, can be logistically unfeasible, and can cause unnecessary injury to captured fish. On the other hand, inadequate sampling effort can produce considerable variability in multiple samples collected at a site and may underrepresent the species or river condition present. During the summer of 2002, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, determined the minimum sampling effort required to characterize fish assemblages at 17 large-river sites in southern Idaho. The study was done as part of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program. Electrofishing methods and multiple gear types were used to collect sample populations of fish in river reach lengths representing 40 and 100 times the wetted channel width. Minimum sampling effort was assessed by comparing the relation between reach length and the number of species collected, total individuals collected, and final Index of Biotic Integrity (IBI) scores. Thirty-two species of fish in the families Catostomidae, Centrarchidae, Cottidae, Cyprinidae, Ictaluridae, Percidae, and Salmonidae were collected. Of these, 12 alien species were collected, representing about 38 percent of all species collected during the study. Wetted channel width was determined to be sufficient for collecting an adequate number of fish to estimate species richness and evaluate biotic integrity. At most sites, about 250 fish were needed to effectively represent 95 percent of the species present. Fifty-three percent of the sites assessed, using an IBI developed specifically for large Idaho rivers, received scores of less than 50, indicating poor biotic integrity.

Idaho↗

USGS1978

Stress and recovery of aquatic organisms as related to highway construction along Turtle Creek, Boone County, West Virginia

During and after construction of Appalachian Corridor G, a divided, four-lane highway, five benthic invertebrate samples were collected at each of four sites on Turtle Creek, and, for comparative purposes, three samples were collected at each of two sites on Lick Creek, an adjacent undisturbed stream. Diversity index, generic count, and total count initially indicated severe depletion or destruction of the benthos of Turtle Creek, but, within 1 year after highway construction was completed, the benthic community of Turtle Creek was similar to that of Lick Creek. The greatest degradation occurred near the headwaters of Turtle Creek because of erratic movement of sediment resulting from high streamflow velocity. Diversity indices ranged from 0 to 3.41 near the headwaters in the original channel, but only from 0.94 to 2.42 farther downstream in a freshly cut channel. The final samples from Turtle Creek, which were similar to those taken from Lick Creek at the same time, had generic counts of 10 at the most upstream site and 16 near the mouth. A total of 147 organisms was found near the headwaters, whereas a total of 668 was found near the mouth of the stream. The total number of organisms collected at each site was proportional to the drainage area upstream from the site. As a result of tributary inflow from unaltered drainage areas and organism drift, rapid repopulation and stabilization of the benthic community occurred. Channel relocation, bank recontouring, and reseeding also accelerated the recovery of the benthic community.

Water Supply Paper↗

USGS1914

Profile surveys in Bear River basin, Idaho

Bear River rises on the northern slope of the Uinta Mountains, in the northeastern part of Utah, and after a circuitous course in which it leaves Utah and enters Wyoming, Utah, and Wyoming in turn and makes a long detour in Idaho it returns to Utah and finally discharges its waters into Great Salt Lake. The maximum elevation of the upper rim of the basin is 13,000 feet above sea level. The upper part of the basin comprises a rough, broken country, well drained by numerous short streams, most of which are confined to steep, narrow canyons. The streams are fed by many small springs and by the melting of the snow which forms the greater part of the precipitation. The rocks of the extreme headwater region are chiefly sandstones and quartzites and are covered with a thin layer of soil that supports scattered groves of fir and aspen. A few small lakes lie near the head of the river.

Bear River Basin↗

USGS2010

Development of inferential sensors for real-time quality control of water-level data for the Everglades Depth Estimation Network

The Everglades Depth Estimation Network (EDEN) is an integrated network of real-time water-level gaging stations, ground-elevation models, and watersurface models designed to provide scientists, engineers, and water-resource managers with current (2000-present) water-depth information for the entire freshwater portion of the greater Everglades. The generation of EDEN waterlevel surfaces is derived from real-time data. Real-time data are automatically checked for outliers using minimum, maximum, and rate-of-change thresholds for each station. Smaller errors in the real-time data, such as gradual drift of malfunctioning pressure transducers, are more difficult to immediately identify with visual inspection of time-series plots and may only be identified during on-site inspections of the gages. Correcting smaller errors in the data often is time consuming and water-level data may not be finalized for several months. To provide water-level surfaces on a daily basis, EDEN needed an automated process to identify errors in water-level data and to provide estimates for missing or erroneous waterlevel data. A technology often used for industrial applications is “inferential sensor.” Rather than installing a redundant sensor to measure a process, such as an additional waterlevel gage, an inferential sensor, or virtual sensor, is developed that estimates the processes measured by the physical sensor. The advantage of an inferential sensor is that it provides a redundant signal to the sensor in the field but without exposure to environmental threats. In the event that a gage does malfunction, the inferential sensor provides an estimate for the period of missing data. The inferential sensor also can be used in the quality assurance and quality control of the data. Inferential sensors for gages in the EDEN network are currently (2010) under development. The inferential sensors will be automated so that the real-time EDEN data will continuously be compared to the inferential sensor signal and digital reports of the status of the real-time data will be sent periodically to the appropriate support personnel. The development and application of inferential sensors is easily transferable to other real-time hydrologic monitoring networks.

Florida↗

USGS2012

Local-area-enhanced, 2.5-meter resolution natural-color and color-infrared satellite-image mosaics of the Balkhab mineral district in Afghanistan: Chapter B in Local-area-enhanced, high-resolution natural-color and color-infrared satellite-image mosaics of mineral districts in Afghanistan

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Defense Task Force for Business and Stability Operations, prepared databases for mineral-resource target areas in Afghanistan. The purpose of the databases is to (1) provide useful data to ground-survey crews for use in performing detailed assessments of the areas and (2) provide useful information to private investors who are considering investment in a particular area for development of its natural resources. The set of satellite-image mosaics provided in this Data Series (DS) is one such database. Although airborne digital color-infrared imagery was acquired for parts of Afghanistan in 2006, the image data have radiometric variations that preclude their use in creating a consistent image mosaic for geologic analysis. Consequently, image mosaics were created using ALOS (Advanced Land Observation Satellite; renamed Daichi) satellite images, whose radiometry has been well determined (Saunier, 2007a,b). This part of the DS consists of the locally enhanced ALOS image mosaics for the Balkhab mineral district, which has copper deposits. ALOS was launched on January 24, 2006, and provides multispectral images from the AVNIR (Advanced Visible and Near-Infrared Radiometer) sensor in blue (420-500 nanometer, nm), green (520-600 nm), red (610-690 nm), and near-infrared (760-890 nm) wavelength bands with an 8-bit dynamic range and a 10-meter (m) ground resolution. The satellite also provides a panchromatic band image from the PRISM (Panchromatic Remote-sensing Instrument for Stereo Mapping) sensor (520-770 nm) with the same dynamic range but a 2.5-m ground resolution. The image products in this DS incorporate copyrighted data provided by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (©JAXA,2007,2008), but the image processing has altered the original pixel structure and all image values of the JAXA ALOS data, such that original image values cannot be recreated from this DS. As such, the DS products match JAXA criteria for value added products, which are not copyrighted, according to the ALOS end-user license agreement. The selection criteria for the satellite imagery used in our mosaics were images having (1) the highest solar-elevation angles (near summer solstice) and (2) the least cloud, cloud-shadow, and snow cover. The multispectral and panchromatic data were orthorectified with ALOS satellite ephemeris data, a process which is not as accurate as orthorectification using digital elevation models (DEMs); however, the ALOS processing center did not have a precise DEM. As a result, the multispectral and panchromatic image pairs were generally not well registered to the surface and not coregistered well enough to perform resolution enhancement on the multispectral data. Therefore, it was necessary to (1) register the 10-m AVNIR multispectral imagery to a well-controlled Landsat image base, (2) mosaic the individual multispectral images into a single image of the entire area of interest, (3) register each panchromatic image to the registered multispectral image base, and (4) mosaic the individual panchromatic images into a single image of the entire area of interest. The two image-registration steps were facilitated using an automated control-point algorithm developed by the USGS that allows image coregistration to within one picture element. Before rectification, the multispectral and panchromatic images were converted to radiance values and then to relative-reflectance values using the methods described in Davis (2006). Mosaicking the multispectral or panchromatic images started with the image with the highest sun-elevation angle and the least atmospheric scattering, which was treated as the standard image. The band-reflectance values of all other multispectral or panchromatic images within the area were sequentially adjusted to that of the standard image by determining band-reflectance correspondence between overlapping images using linear least-squares analysis. The resolution of the multispectral image mosaic was then increased to that of the panchromatic image mosaic using the SPARKLE logic, which is described in Davis (2006). Each of the four-band images within the resolution-enhanced image mosaic was individually subjected to a local-area histogram stretch algorithm (described in Davis, 2007), which stretches each band's picture element based on the digital values of all picture elements within a 315-m radius. The final databases, which are provided in this DS, are three-band, color-composite images of the local-area-enhanced, natural-color data (the blue, green, and red wavelength bands) and color-infrared data (the green, red, and near-infrared wavelength bands). All image data were initially projected and maintained in Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) map projection using the target area's local zone (42 for Balkhab) and the WGS84 datum. The final image mosaics were subdivided into two overlapping tiles or quadrants because of the large size of the target area. The two image tiles (or quadrants) for the Balkhab area are provided as embedded geotiff images, which can be read and used by most geographic information system (GIS) and image-processing software. The tiff world files (tfw) are provided, even though they are generally not needed for most software to read an embedded geotiff image. Within the Balkhab study area, one subarea was designated for detailed field investigations (that is, the Balkhab Prospect subarea); this subarea was extracted from the area's image mosaic and is provided as separate embedded geotiff images.

Balkh;Samangan;Sari-Pul↗

USGS2007

Application of FTLOADDS to Simulate Flow, Salinity, and Surface-Water Stage in the Southern Everglades, Florida

The Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan requires numerical modeling to achieve a sufficient understanding of coastal freshwater flows, nutrient sources, and the evaluation of management alternatives to restore the ecosystem of southern Florida. Numerical models include a regional water-management model to represent restoration changes to the hydrology of southern Florida and a hydrodynamic model to represent the southern and western offshore waters. The coastal interface between these two systems, however, has complex surface-water/ground-water and freshwater/saltwater interactions and requires a specialized modeling effort. The Flow and Transport in a Linked Overland/Aquifer Density Dependent System (FTLOADDS) code was developed to represent connected surface- and ground-water systems with variable-density flow. The first use of FTLOADDS is the Southern Inland and Coastal Systems (SICS) application to the southeastern part of the Everglades/Florida Bay coastal region. The need to (1) expand the domain of the numerical modeling into most of Everglades National Park and the western coastal area, and (2) better represent the effect of water-delivery control structures, led to the application of the FTLOADDS code to the Tides and Inflows in the Mangroves of the Everglades (TIME) domain. This application allows the model to address a broader range of hydrologic issues and incorporate new code modifications. The surface-water hydrology is of primary interest to water managers, and is the main focus of this study. The coupling to ground water, however, was necessary to accurately represent leakage exchange between the surface water and ground water, which transfers substantial volumes of water and salt. Initial calibration and analysis of the TIME application produced simulated results that compare well statistically with field-measured values. A comparison of TIME simulation results to previous SICS results shows improved capabilities, particularly in the representation of coastal flows. This improvement most likely is due to a more stable numerical representation of the coastal creek outlets. Sensitivity analyses were performed by varying frictional resistance, leakage, barriers to flow, and topography. Changing frictional resistance values in inland areas was shown to improve water-level representation locally, but to have a negligible effect on area-wide values. These changes have only local effects and are not physically based (as are the unchanged values), and thus have limited validity. Sensitivity tests indicate that the overall accuracy of the simulation is diminished if leakage between surface water and ground water is not simulated. The inclusion of a major road as a complete barrier to surface-water flow influenced the local distribution and timing of flow; however, the changes in total flow and individual creekflows were negligible. The model land-surface altitude was lowered by 0.1 meter to determine the sensitivity to topographic variation. This topographic sensitivity test produced mixed results in matching field data. Overall, the representation of stage did not improve definitively. A final calibration utilized the results of the sensitivity analysis to refine the TIME application. To accomplish this calibration, the friction coefficient was reduced at the northern boundary inflow and increased in the southwestern corner of the model, the evapotranspiration function was varied, additional data were used for the ground-water head boundary along the southeast, and the frictional resistance of the primary coastal creek outlet was increased. The calibration improved the match between measured and simulated total flows to Florida Bay and coastal salinities. Agreement also was improved at most of the water-level sites throughout the model domain.

Scientific Investigations Report↗

USGS2018

Geologic field-trip guide of volcaniclastic sediments from snow- and ice-capped volcanoes—Mount St. Helens, Washington, and Mount Hood, Oregon

This field guide for the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth’s Interior (IAVCEI) Scientific Assembly 2017 focuses on volcaniclastic sediments from Mount St. Helens in Washington and Mount Hood in Oregon. The trip spends four days in the field and includes nine stops at each volcano. For completeness, this guidebook also includes sixteen optional stops in the Mount St. Helens area and three in the Mount Hood area. These two volcanoes provide excellent depositional records of the broad spectrum of volcanic hazards that involve the flow or fall of volcaniclastic particles. At the field-trip stops we will contrast and compare the different types of deposits—sediments that can be frustratingly difficult to distinguish from one another. Correct identification of deposit origin leads to a better understanding of hazards that can impact vulnerable communities at particular volcanoes. During this four-day field trip, we will spend two days in the Mount St. Helens area and two days near Mount Hood. On the first day, we will visit debris-avalanche and lahar deposits in the Toutle River valley in Washington. The second day will focus on pyroclastic density current, pyroclastic-fall, lahar, and volcano-fluvial deposits in the Lewis River drainage system near Mount St. Helens. On the third day, we will visit hyaloclastites, glacial tills, and other diamicts in the Hood River and Sandy River basins near Mount Hood. The fourth and final day will focus on distal lahar and volcano-fluvial deposits downstream of Mount Hood. What follows is an in-depth introduction to the deposits studied on this field trip. We provide criteria that are observable in the field to aid in differentiating between pyroclastic density current, pyroclastic-fall, debris-avalanche, lahar, water-flood, and glacial deposits. We also introduce the Holocene eruptive histories of Mount St. Helens and Mount Hood and discuss the processes responsible for deposit emplacement. Field-trip stops and features of interest along the route are described in detail in a road log that provides daily cumulative mileage.

Oregon, Washington↗

USGS2013

Geochemical and mineralogical data for soils of the conterminous United States

In 2007, the U.S. Geological Survey initiated a low-density (1 site per 1,600 square kilometers, 4,857 sites) geochemical and mineralogical survey of soils of the conterminous United States as part of the North American Soil Geochemical Landscapes Project. Sampling and analytical protocols were developed at a workshop in 2003, and pilot studies were conducted from 2004 to 2007 to test and refine these recommended protocols. The final sampling protocol for the national-scale survey included, at each site, a sample from a depth of 0 to 5 centimeters, a composite of the soil A horizon, and a deeper sample from the soil C horizon or, if the top of the C horizon was at a depth greater than 1 meter, from a depth of approximately 80–100 centimeters. The <2-millimeter fraction of each sample was analyzed for a suite of 45 major and trace elements by methods that yield the total or near-total elemental content. The major mineralogical components in the samples from the soil A and C horizons were determined by a quantitative X-ray diffraction method using Rietveld refinement. Sampling in the conterminous United States was completed in 2010, with chemical and mineralogical analyses completed in May 2013. The resulting dataset provides an estimate of the abundance and spatial distribution of chemical elements and minerals in soils of the conterminous United States and represents a baseline for soil geochemistry and mineralogy against which future changes may be recognized and quantified. This report (1) describes the sampling, sample preparation, and analytical methods used; (2) gives details of the quality control protocols used to monitor the quality of chemical and mineralogical analyses over approximately six years; and (3) makes available the soil geochemical and mineralogical data in downloadable tables.

Data Series↗

USGS2021

A paradoxical knowledge gap in science for critically endangered fishes and game fishes during the sixth mass extinction

Despite unprecedented scientific productivity, Earth is undergoing a sixth mass extinction. The disconnect between scientific output and species conservation may be related to scientists studying the wrong species. Given fishes have a high extinction rate, we assessed the paradox between scientific productivity and science needed for conservation by comparing scientific output created for critically endangered fishes and game fishes. We searched 197,866 articles (1964 – 2018) in 112 journals for articles on 460 critically endangered fishes, 297 game fishes, and 35 fishes classified as critically endangered and game fish — our analysis included freshwater and marine species. Only 3% of the articles in the final database were on critically endangered fishes; 82% of critically endangered fishes had zero articles. The difference between the number of articles on game fishes and critically endangered fishes increased temporally with more articles on game fishes during the extinction crisis. Countries with 10 or more critically endangered fishes averaged only 17 articles from 1964 through 2018. Countries with the most critically endangered fishes are most in need of science. More scientific knowledge is needed on critically endangered fishes to meet the challenges of conserving fishes during the sixth mass extinction.

Scientific Reports↗

USGS2014

The shallow stratigraphy and sand resources offshore from Cat Island, Mississippi

In collaboration with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center collected over 487 line kilometers (> 300 miles) of high-resolution geophysical data around Cat Island, Mississippi, to improve understanding of the island's geologic evolution and identify potential sand resources for coastal restoration. In addition, 40 vibracores were collected on and around the island, generating more than 350 samples for grain-size analysis. The results indicate that the geologic evolution of Cat Island has been influenced by deltaic, lagoonal/estuarine, tidal, and oceanographic processes, resulting in a stratigraphic record that is quite complex. The region north of the island is dominated by lagoonal/estuarine deposition, whereas the region south of the island is dominated by deltaic and tidal deposition. In general, the veneer of modern sediment surrounding the island is composed of newly deposited sediment and highly reworked relict sediments. The region east of the island shows the interplay of antecedent barrier-island change with delta development despite a significant ravinement of sediments. The data show from little to no modern sediment east of the island, exposing relict sediments at the seafloor. Finally, the data reveal four subaqueous sand units around the island. Two of the units are northwest of the modern island and one is southwest. Given the dominant, westward, longshore transport along the Mississippi and Alabama barrier islands, the geographic location of these three units suggests that they do not contribute to the modern sediment budget of Cat Island. The last unit is directly east of the island and represents the antecedent island platform that has supplied sand over geologic time for creation of the spits that form the eastern shoreline. Because of its location east of the island, the antecedent island unit may still supply sediment to the island today.

Mississippi↗

USGS2015

Delineation of marsh types from Corpus Christi Bay, Texas, to Perdido Bay, Alabama, in 2010

Coastal zone managers and researchers often require detailed information regarding emergent marsh vegetation types (that is, fresh, intermediate, brackish, and saline) for modeling habitat capacities and needs of marsh dependent taxa (such as waterfowl and alligator). Detailed information on the extent and distribution of emergent marsh vegetation types throughout the northern Gulf of Mexico coast has been historically unavailable. In response, the U.S. Geological Survey, in collaboration with the Gulf Coast Joint Venture, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Ducks Unlimited, Inc., and the Texas A&M University-Kingsville, produced a classification of emergent marsh vegetation types from Corpus Christi Bay, Texas, to Perdido Bay, Alabama. This study incorporates about 9,800 ground reference locations collected via helicopter surveys in coastal wetland areas. Decision-tree analyses were used to classify emergent marsh vegetation types by using ground reference data from helicopter vegetation surveys and independent variables such as multitemporal satellite-based multispectral imagery from 2009 to 2011, bare-earth digital elevation models based on airborne light detection and ranging (lidar), alternative contemporary land cover classifications, and other spatially explicit variables. Image objects were created from 2010 National Agriculture Imagery Program color-infrared aerial photography. The final classification is a 10-meter raster dataset that was produced by using a majority filter to classify image objects according to the marsh vegetation type covering the majority of each image object. The classification is dated 2010 because the year is both the midpoint of the classified multitemporal satellite-based imagery (2009–11) and the date of the high-resolution airborne imagery that was used to develop image objects. The seamless classification produced through this work can be used to help develop and refine conservation efforts for priority natural resources.

Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas↗

USGS2018

One-meter topobathymetric digital elevation model for Majuro Atoll, Republic of the Marshall Islands, 1944 to 2016

Atoll and island coastal communities are highly exposed to sea-level rise, tsunamis, storm surges, rogue waves, king tides, and the occasional combination of multiple factors, such as high regional sea levels, extreme high local tides, and unusually strong wave set-up. The elevation of most of these atolls averages just under 3 meters (m), with many areas roughly at sea level. The lack of high-resolution topographic data has been identified as a critical data gap for hazard vulnerability and adaptation efforts and for high-resolution inundation modeling for atoll nations. Modern topographic survey equipment and airborne lidar surveys can be very difficult and costly to deploy. Therefore, unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) were investigated for collecting overlapping imagery to generate topographic digital elevation models (DEMs). Medium- and high-resolution satellite imagery (Landsat 8 and WorldView-3) was investigated to derive nearshore bathymetry. The Republic of the Marshall Islands is associated with the United States through a Compact of Free Association, and Majuro Atoll is home to the capital city of Majuro and the largest population of the Republic of the Marshall Islands. The only elevation datasets currently available for the entire Majuro Atoll are the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission and the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer Global Digital Elevation Model Version 2 elevation data, which have a 30-m grid-cell spacing and a 8-m vertical root mean square error (RMSE). Both these datasets have inadequate spatial resolution and vertical accuracy for inundation modeling. The final topobathymetric DEM (TBDEM) developed for Majuro Atoll is derived from various data sources including charts, soundings, acoustic sonar, and UAS and satellite imagery spanning over 70 years of data collection (1944 to 2016) on different sections of the atoll. The RMSE of the TBDEM over the land area is 0.197 m using over 70,000 Global Navigation Satellite System real-time kinematic survey points for validation, and 1.066 m for Landsat 8 and 1.112 m for WorldView-3 derived bathymetry using over 16,000 and 9,000 lidar bathymetry points, respectively.

Majuro Atoll↗

USGS2012

Design and maintenance of a network for collecting high-resolution suspended-sediment data at remote locations on rivers, with examples from the Colorado River

Management of sand and finer sediment in fluvial settings has become increasingly important for reasons ranging from endangered-species habitat to transport of sediment-associated contaminants. In all rivers, some fraction of the suspended load is transported as washload, and some as suspended bed material. Typically, the washload is composed of silt-and-clay-size sediment, and the suspended bed material is composed of sand-size sediment. In most rivers, as a result of changes in the upstream supply of silt and clay, large, systematic changes in the concentration of the washload occur over time, independent of changes in water discharge. Recent work has shown that large, systematic, discharge-independent changes in the concentration of the suspended bed material are also present in many rivers. In bedrock canyon rivers, such as the Colorado River in Grand Canyon National Park, changes in the upstream tributary supply of sand may cause large changes in the grain-size distribution of the bed sand, resulting in changes in both the concentration and grain-size distribution of the sand in suspension. Large discharge-independent changes in suspended-sand concentration coupled to discharge-independent changes in the grain-size distribution of the suspended sand are not unique to bedrock canyon rivers, but also occur in large alluvial rivers, such as the Mississippi River. These systematic changes in either suspended-silt-and-clay concentration or suspended-sand concentration may not be detectable by using conventional equal-discharge- or equal-width-increment measurements, which may be too infrequently collected relative to the time scale over which these changes in the sediment load are occurring. Furthermore, because large discharge-independent changes in both suspended-silt-and-clay and suspended-sand concentration are possible in many rivers, methods using water discharge as a proxy for suspended-sediment concentration (such as sediment rating curves) may not produce sufficiently accurate estimates of sediment loads. Finally, conventional suspended-sediment measurements are both labor and cost intensive and may not be possible at the resolution required to resolve discharge-independent changes in suspended-sediment concentration, especially in more remote locations. For these reasons, the U.S. Geological Survey has pursued the use of surrogate technologies (such as acoustic and laser diffraction) for providing higher-resolution measurements of suspended-sediment concentration and grain size than are possible by using conventional suspended-sediment measurements alone. These factors prompted the U.S. Geological Survey's Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center to design and construct a network to automatically measure suspended-sediment transport at 15-minute intervals by using acoustic and laser-diffraction surrogate technologies at remote locations along the Colorado River within Marble and Grand Canyons in Grand Canyon National Park. Because of the remoteness of the Colorado River in this reach, this network also included the design of a broadband satellite-telemetry system to communicate with the instruments deployed at each station in this network. Although the sediment-transport monitoring network described in this report was developed for the Colorado River in Grand Canyon National Park, the design of this network can easily be adapted for use on other rivers, no matter how remote. In the Colorado River case-study example described in this report, suspended-sediment concentration and grain size are measured at five remote stations. At each of these stations, surrogate measurements of suspended-sediment concentration and grain size are made at 15-minute intervals using an array of different single-frequency acoustic-Doppler side-looking profilers. Laser-diffraction instruments are also used at two of these stations to measure both suspended-sediment concentrations and grain-size distributions. Cross-section calibrations of these instruments have been constructed and verified by using either equal-discharge-increment (EDI) or equal-width-increment (EWI) measurements of the velocity-weighted suspended-sediment concentration and grain-size distribution. The suspended-silt-and-clay concentration parts of these calibration relations have also included information from EDI- or EWI-calibrated samples collected by automatic pump samplers. Three of the monitoring stations are equipped with two-way satellite broadband telemetry systems that operate once a day to remotely monitor and program the instruments and download data. Data from these stations are typically downloaded twice per month; data from stations without satellite-telemetry systems are downloaded during site visits, which occur every 2 months or semiannually, depending on the remoteness of the site. Upon downloading and processing, suspended-silt-and-clay concentration, suspended-sand concentration, and suspended-sand median grain size are posted on the World Wide Web. Satellite telemetry in combination with the high-resolution sediment surrogate measurements can generate near-real-time suspended-sediment-concentration and grain-size data (limited only by the time required to download the instruments and process the data). The approach for measuring suspended-sediment concentration and grain size using this monitoring network is more practical, and can be done at a much lower cost and with higher temporal resolution, than any other method.

Arizona;Nevada;Utah↗

USGS2013

Local-area-enhanced, 2.5-meter resolution natural-color and color-infrared satellite-image mosaics of the Kandahar mineral district in Afghanistan

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Defense Task Force for Business and Stability Operations, prepared databases for mineral-resource target areas in Afghanistan. The purpose of the databases is to (1) provide useful data to ground-survey crews for use in performing detailed assessments of the areas and (2) provide useful information to private investors who are considering investment in a particular area for development of its natural resources. The set of satellite-image mosaics provided in this Data Series (DS) is one such database. Although airborne digital color-infrared imagery was acquired for parts of Afghanistan in 2006, the image data have radiometric variations that preclude their use in creating a consistent image mosaic for geologic analysis. Consequently, image mosaics were created using ALOS (Advanced Land Observation Satellite; renamed Daichi) satellite images, whose radiometry has been well determined (Saunier, 2007a,b). This part of the DS consists of the locally enhanced ALOS image mosaics for the Kandahar mineral district, which has bauxite deposits. ALOS was launched on January 24, 2006, and provides multispectral images from the AVNIR (Advanced Visible and Near-Infrared Radiometer) sensor in blue (420-500 nanometer, nm), green (520-600 nm), red (610-690 nm), and near-infrared (760-890 nm) wavelength bands with an 8-bit dynamic range and a 10-meter (m) ground resolution. The satellite also provides a panchromatic band image from the PRISM (Panchromatic Remote-sensing Instrument for Stereo Mapping) sensor (520-770 nm) with the same dynamic range but a 2.5-m ground resolution. The image products in this DS incorporate copyrighted data provided by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency ((c)JAXA,2006,2007,2008), but the image processing has altered the original pixel structure and all image values of the JAXA ALOS data, such that original image values cannot be recreated from this DS. As such, the DS products match JAXA criteria for value added products, which are not copyrighted, according to the ALOS end-user license agreement. The selection criteria for the satellite imagery used in our mosaics were images having (1) the highest solar- elevation angles (near summer solstice) and (2) the least cloud, cloud-shadow, and snow cover. The multispectral and panchromatic data were orthorectified with ALOS satellite ephemeris data, a process which is not as accurate as orthorectification using digital elevation models (DEMs); however, the ALOS processing center did not have a precise DEM. As a result, the multispectral and panchromatic image pairs were generally not well registered to the surface and not coregistered well enough to perform resolution enhancement on the multispectral data. Therefore, it was necessary to (1) register the 10-m AVNIR multispectral imagery to a well-controlled Landsat image base, (2) mosaic the individual multispectral images into a single image of the entire area of interest, (3) register each panchromatic image to the registered multispectral image base, and (4) mosaic the individual panchromatic images into a single image of the entire area of interest. The two image- registration steps were facilitated using an automated control-point algorithm developed by the USGS that allows image coregistration to within one picture element. Before rectification, the multispectral and panchromatic images were converted to radiance values and then to relative- reflectance values using the methods described in Davis (2006). Mosaicking the multispectral or panchromatic images started with the image with the highest sun-elevation angle and the least atmospheric scattering, which was treated as the standard image. The band-reflectance values of all other multispectral or panchromatic images within the area were sequentially adjusted to that of the standard image by determining band-reflectance correspondence between overlapping images using linear least-squares analysis. The resolution of the multispectral image mosaic was then increased to that of the panchromatic image mosaic using the SPARKLE logic, which is described in Davis (2006). Each of the four-band images within the resolution-enhanced image mosaic was individually subjected to a local-area histogram stretch algorithm (described in Davis, 2007), which stretches each band's picture element based on the digital values of all picture elements within a 500-m radius. The final databases, which are provided in this DS, are three-band, color-composite images of the local-area- enhanced, natural-color data (the blue, green, and red wavelength bands) and color-infrared data (the green, red, and near-infrared wavelength bands). All image data were initially projected and maintained in Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) map projection using the target area's local zone (42 for Kandahar) and the WGS84 datum. The final image mosaics were subdivided into eight overlapping tiles or quadrants because of the large size of the target area. The eight image tiles (or quadrants) for the Kandahar area are provided as embedded geotiff images, which can be read and used by most geographic information system (GIS) and image-processing software. The tiff world files (tfw) are provided, even though they are generally not needed for most software to read an embedded geotiff image. Within the Kandahar study area, two subareas were designated for detailed field investigations (that is, the Obatu-Shela and Sekhab-Zamto Kalay subareas); these subareas were extracted from the area's image mosaic and are provided as separate embedded geotiff images.

Kandahar Mineral District↗

USGS2015

Thermal maturity of Tasmanites microfossils from confocal laser scanning fluorescence microscopy

We report here, for the first time, spectral properties of Tasmanites microfossils determined by confocal laser scanning fluorescence microscopy (CLSM, using Ar 458 nm excitation). The Tasmanites occur in a well-characterized natural maturation sequence ( R o 0.48–0.74%) of Devonian shale ( n = 3 samples) from the Appalachian Basin. Spectral property λ max shows excellent agreement ( r 2 = 0.99) with extant spectra from interlaboratory studies which used conventional fluorescence microscopy techniques. This result suggests spectral measurements from CLSM can be used to infer thermal maturity of fluorescent organic materials in geologic samples. Spectra of regions with high fluorescence intensity at fold apices and flanks in individual Tasmanites are blue-shifted relative to less-deformed areas in the same body that have lower fluorescence intensity. This is interpreted to result from decreased quenching moiety concentration at these locations, and indicates caution is needed in the selection of measurement regions in conventional fluorescence microscopy, where it is common practice to select high intensity regions for improved signal intensity and better signal to noise ratios. This study also documents application of CLSM to microstructural characterization of Tasmanites microfossils. Finally, based on an extant empirical relation between conventional λ max values and bitumen reflectance, λ max values from CLSM of Tasmanites microfossils can be used to calculate a bitumen reflectance equivalent value. The results presented herein can be used as a basis to broaden the future application of CLSM in the geological sciences into hydrocarbon prospecting and basin analysis.

Fuel↗

USGS2013

Local-area-enhanced, 2.5-meter resolution natural-color and color-infrared satellite-image mosaics of the Nalbandon mineral district in Afghanistan: Chapter L in Local-area-enhanced, high-resolution natural-color and color-infrared satellite-image mosaics of mineral districts in Afghanistan

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Defense Task Force for Business and Stability Operations, prepared databases for mineral-resource target areas in Afghanistan. The purpose of the databases is to (1) provide useful data to ground-survey crews for use in performing detailed assessments of the areas and (2) provide useful information to private investors who are considering investment in a particular area for development of its natural resources. The set of satellite-image mosaics provided in this Data Series (DS) is one such database. Although airborne digital color-infrared imagery was acquired for parts of Afghanistan in 2006, the image data have radiometric variations that preclude their use in creating a consistent image mosaic for geologic analysis. Consequently, image mosaics were created using ALOS (Advanced Land Observation Satellite; renamed Daichi) satellite images, whose radiometry has been well determined (Saunier, 2007a,b). This part of the DS consists of the locally enhanced ALOS image mosaics for the Nalbandon mineral district, which has lead and zinc deposits. ALOS was launched on January 24, 2006, and provides multispectral images from the AVNIR (Advanced Visible and Near-Infrared Radiometer) sensor in blue (420–500 nanometer, nm), green (520–600 nm), red (610–690 nm), and near-infrared (760–890 nm) wavelength bands with an 8-bit dynamic range and a 10-meter (m) ground resolution. The satellite also provides a panchromatic band image from the PRISM (Panchromatic Remote-sensing Instrument for Stereo Mapping) sensor (520–770 nm) with the same dynamic range but a 2.5-m ground resolution. The image products in this DS incorporate copyrighted data provided by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (©JAXA, 2007, 2008, 2010), but the image processing has altered the original pixel structure and all image values of the JAXA ALOS data, such that original image values cannot be recreated from this DS. As such, the DS products match JAXA criteria for value added products, which are not copyrighted, according to the ALOS end-user license agreement. The selection criteria for the satellite imagery used in our mosaics were images having (1) the highest solar-elevation angles (near summer solstice) and (2) the least cloud, cloud-shadow, and snow cover. The multispectral and panchromatic data were orthorectified with ALOS satellite ephemeris data, a process which is not as accurate as orthorectification using digital elevation models (DEMs); however, the ALOS processing center did not have a precise DEM. As a result, the multispectral and panchromatic image pairs were generally not well registered to the surface and not coregistered well enough to perform resolution enhancement on the multispectral data. Therefore, it was necessary to (1) register the 10-m AVNIR multispectral imagery to a well-controlled Landsat image base, (2) mosaic the individual multispectral images into a single image of the entire area of interest, (3) register each panchromatic image to the registered multispectral image base, and (4) mosaic the individual panchromatic images into a single image of the entire area of interest. The two image-registration steps were facilitated using an automated control-point algorithm developed by the USGS that allows image coregistration to within one picture element. Before rectification, the multispectral and panchromatic images were converted to radiance values and then to relative-reflectance values using the methods described in Davis (2006). Mosaicking the multispectral or panchromatic images started with the image with the highest sun-elevation angle and the least atmospheric scattering, which was treated as the standard image. The band-reflectance values of all other multispectral or panchromatic images within the area were sequentially adjusted to that of the standard image by determining band-reflectance correspondence between overlapping images using linear least-squares analysis. The resolution of the multispectral image mosaic was then increased to that of the panchromatic image mosaic using the SPARKLE logic, which is described in Davis (2006). Each of the four-band images within the resolution-enhanced image mosaic was individually subjected to a local-area histogram stretch algorithm (described in Davis, 2007), which stretches each band’s picture element based on the digital values of all picture elements within a 500-m radius. The final databases, which are provided in this DS, are three-band, color-composite images of the local-area-enhanced, natural-color data (the blue, green, and red wavelength bands) and color-infrared data (the green, red, and near-infrared wavelength bands). All image data were initially projected and maintained in Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) map projection using the target area’s local zone (41 for Nalbandon) and the WGS84 datum. The final image mosaics were subdivided into ten overlapping tiles or quadrants because of the large size of the target area. The ten image tiles (or quadrants) for the Nalbandon area are provided as embedded geotiff images, which can be read and used by most geographic information system (GIS) and image-processing software. The tiff world files (tfw) are provided, even though they are generally not needed for most software to read an embedded geotiff image. Within the Nalbandon study area, two subareas were designated for detailed field investigations (that is, the Nalbandon District and Gharghananaw-Gawmazar subareas); these subareas were extracted from the area’s image mosaic and are provided as separate embedded geotiff images.

Nalbandon Mineral District↗

USGS2013

Local-area-enhanced, 2.5-meter resolution natural-color and color-infrared satellite-image mosaics of the Herat mineral district in Afghanistan: Chapter T in Local-area-enhanced, high-resolution natural-color and color-infrared satellite-image mosaics of mineral districts in Afghanistan

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Defense Task Force for Business and Stability Operations, prepared databases for mineral-resource target areas in Afghanistan. The purpose of the databases is to (1) provide useful data to ground-survey crews for use in performing detailed assessments of the areas and (2) provide useful information to private investors who are considering investment in a particular area for development of its natural resources. The set of satellite-image mosaics provided in this Data Series (DS) is one such database. Although airborne digital color-infrared imagery was acquired for parts of Afghanistan in 2006, the image data have radiometric variations that preclude their use in creating a consistent image mosaic for geologic analysis. Consequently, image mosaics were created using ALOS (Advanced Land Observation Satellite; renamed Daichi) satellite images, whose radiometry has been well determined (Saunier, 2007a,b). This part of the DS consists of the locally enhanced ALOS image mosaics for the Herat mineral district, which has barium and limestone deposits. ALOS was launched on January 24, 2006, and provides multispectral images from the AVNIR (Advanced Visible and Near-Infrared Radiometer) sensor in blue (420–500 nanometer, nm), green (520–600 nm), red (610–690 nm), and near-infrared (760–890 nm) wavelength bands with an 8-bit dynamic range and a 10-meter (m) ground resolution. The satellite also provides a panchromatic band image from the PRISM (Panchromatic Remote-sensing Instrument for Stereo Mapping) sensor (520–770 nm) with the same dynamic range but a 2.5-m ground resolution. The image products in this DS incorporate copyrighted data provided by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (©JAXA,2007,2008,2009), but the image processing has altered the original pixel structure and all image values of the JAXA ALOS data, such that original image values cannot be recreated from this DS. As such, the DS products match JAXA criteria for value added products, which are not copyrighted, according to the ALOS end-user license agreement. The selection criteria for the satellite imagery used in our mosaics were images having (1) the highest solar-elevation angles (near summer solstice) and (2) the least cloud, cloud-shadow, and snow cover. The multispectral and panchromatic data were orthorectified with ALOS satellite ephemeris data, a process which is not as accurate as orthorectification using digital elevation models (DEMs); however, the ALOS processing center did not have a precise DEM. As a result, the multispectral and panchromatic image pairs were generally not well registered to the surface and not coregistered well enough to perform resolution enhancement on the multispectral data. For this particular area, PRISM image orthorectification was performed by the Alaska Satellite Facility, applying its photogrammetric software to PRISM stereo images with vertical control points obtained from the digital elevation database produced by the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (Farr and others, 2007) and horizontal adjustments based on a controlled Landsat image base (Davis, 2006). The 10-m AVNIR multispectral imagery was then coregistered to the orthorectified PRISM images and individual multispectral and panchromatic images were mosaicked into single images of the entire area of interest. The image coregistration was facilitated using an automated control-point algorithm developed by the USGS that allows image coregistration to within one picture element. Before rectification, the multispectral and panchromatic images were converted to radiance values and then to relative-reflectance values using the methods described in Davis (2006). Mosaicking the multispectral or panchromatic images started with the image with the highest sun-elevation angle and the least atmospheric scattering, which was treated as the standard image. The band-reflectance values of all other multispectral or panchromatic images within the area were sequentially adjusted to that of the standard image by determining band-reflectance correspondence between overlapping images using linear least-squares analysis. The resolution of the multispectral image mosaic was then increased to that of the panchromatic image mosaic using the SPARKLE logic, which is described in Davis (2006). Each of the four-band images within the resolution-enhanced image mosaic was individually subjected to a local-area histogram stretch algorithm (described in Davis, 2007), which stretches each band's picture element based on the digital values of all picture elements within a 1,000-m radius. The final databases, which are provided in this DS, are three-band, color-composite images of the local-area-enhanced, natural-color data (the blue, green, and red wavelength bands) and color-infrared data (the green, red, and near-infrared wavelength bands). All image data were initially projected and maintained in Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) map projection using the target area's local zone (41 for Herat) and the WGS84 datum. The final image mosaics were subdivided into eight overlapping tiles or quadrants because of the large size of the target area. The eight image tiles (or quadrants) for the Herat area are provided as embedded geotiff images, which can be read and used by most geographic information system (GIS) and image-processing software. The tiff world files (tfw) are provided, even though they are generally not needed for most software to read an embedded geotiff image. Within the Herat study area, one subarea was designated for detailed field investigations (that is, the Barium-Limestone subarea); this subarea was extracted from the area's image mosaic and is provided as separate embedded geotiff images.

Herat↗

USGS2002

Preliminary gravity inversion model of Frenchman Flat Basin, Nevada Test Site, Nevada

The depth of the basin beneath Frenchman Flat is estimated using a gravity inversion method. Gamma-gamma density logs from two wells in Frenchman Flat constrained the density profiles used to create the gravity inversion model. Three initial models were considered using data from one well, then a final model is proposed based on new information from the second well. The preferred model indicates that a northeast-trending oval-shaped basin underlies Frenchman Flat at least 2,100 m deep, with a maximum depth of 2,400 m at its northeast end. No major horst and graben structures are predicted. Sensitivity analysis of the model indicates that each parameter contributes the same magnitude change to the model, up to 30 meters change in depth for a 1% change in density, but some parameters affect a broader area of the basin. The horizontal resolution of the model was determined by examining the spacing between data stations, and was set to 500 square meters.

Nevada↗