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

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At least 145 records · Page 8Linked to original sources
USGS2026

The Great Lakes Geologic Mapping Coalition—Working collaboratively to understand the geology of the Great Lakes Region

Introduction The Great Lakes Geologic Mapping Coalition (GLGMC), commonly referred to as the “Coalition,” is a partnership between the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the U.S. States of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin and the Canadian province of Ontario. The member States receive funding for geologic mapping work from the USGS National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program (NCGMP), whereas Ontario participates as a nonfunded partner. The mission of the GLGMC is to produce three-dimensional (3D) geologic maps that depict unconsolidated sediments and near-surface bedrock in the Great Lakes region of North America. Geologic maps are the basis of most earth science investigations and help support resource exploration (energy, minerals, groundwater), natural hazard mitigation, infrastructure development, and land-use planning, all of which can be used to advance economic development and strengthen national security in the Great Lakes region. During the last few million years, the Great Lakes region has experienced repeated glacial advances and retreats, leaving behind extensive sediments, abundant natural resources, and widespread effects on the underlying bedrock geology (Swezey and others, 2022). Linked by shared histories of past glaciations, industrial agriculture, and legacy automotive, coal, steel, and manufacturing industries, the GLGMC member States collaborate to improve the understanding of the 3D distribution of the sediments overlying the region’s bedrock (fig. 1). Developing a comprehensive subsurface 3D framework of this glaciated terrain can provide earth science data to policymakers at all levels. These insights facilitate informed decisions on the exploration, use, and protection of vital resources, such as critical minerals, industrial materials, and aquifers, thereby supporting economic prosperity and the well-being of the citizens of this region. Since its inception in 1998, the Coalition has completed more than 100 geologic mapping projects across the Great Lakes region. Each project aims to deliver geologic maps, 3D datasets, and other information that improves understanding of the geology of the Great Lakes region, with an emphasis on economic and water resources. Key deliverables include 3D geologic maps and models typically portraying sediment thickness, often derived from top-of-bedrock and borehole data. These products are developed through a combination of fieldwork, subsurface modeling, and the collection and analysis of rock and sediment cores. To support Coalition goals, member States collaborate with scientists working on related STATEMAP, EDMAP, and FEDMAP projects. Coalition scientists also engage with Tribal Nations in the Great Lakes region to ensure that Tribal interests pertaining to Coalition work are addressed. Through this collaboration, the Coalition unites the efforts of State, Federal, and Tribal Nation stakeholders to advance geologic data production and enhance understanding of the geologic resources of the Great Lakes region.

Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, ↗
USGS2012

The Stanford-U.S. Geological Survey SHRIMP ion microprobe--a tool for micro-scale chemical and isotopic analysis

Answers to many questions in Earth science require chemical analysis of minute volumes of minerals, volcanic glass, or biological materials. Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS) is an extremely sensitive analytical method in which a 5–30 micrometer diameter "primary" beam of charged particles (ions) is focused on a region of a solid specimen to sputter secondary ions from 1–5 nanograms of the sample under high vacuum. The elemental abundances and isotopic ratios of these secondary ions are determined with a mass spectrometer. These results can be used for geochronology to determine the age of a region within a crystal thousands to billions of years old or to precisely measure trace abundances of chemical elements at concentrations as low as parts per billion. A partnership of the U.S. Geological Survey and the Stanford University School of Earth Sciences operates a large SIMS instrument, the Sensitive High-Resolution Ion Microprobe with Reverse Geometry (SHRIMP–RG) on the Stanford campus.

Fact Sheet↗
USGS1992

Toward digital geologic map standards: a progress report

Establishing modern scientific and technical standards for geologic maps and their derivative map products is vital to both producers and users of such maps as we move into an age of digital cartography. Application of earth-science data in complex geographic information systems, acceleration of geologic map production, and reduction of population costs require that national standards be developed for digital geologic cartography and computer analysis. Since December 1988, under commission of the Chief Geologic of the U.S. Geological Survey and the mandate of the National Geologic Mapping Program (with added representation from the Association of American State Geologists), a committee has been designing a comprehensive set of scientific map standards. Three primary issues were: (1) selecting scientific symbology and its digital representation; (2) creating an appropriate digital coding system that characterizes geologic features with respect to their physical properties, stratigraphic and structural relations, spatial orientation, and interpreted mode of origin; and (3) developing mechanisms for reporting levels of certainty for descriptive as well as measured properties. Approximately 650 symbols for geoscience maps, including present usage of the U.S Geological Survey, state geological surveys, industry, and academia have been identified and tentatively adopted. A proposed coding system comprises four-character groupings of major and minor codes that can identify all attributes of a geologic feature. Such a coding system allows unique identification of as many as 105 geologic names and values on a given map. The new standard will track closely the latest developments of the Proposed Standard for Digital Cartographic Data soon to be submitted to the National Institute of Standards and Technology by the Federal Interagency Coordinating Committee on Digital Cartography. This standard will adhere generally to the accepted definitions and specifications for spatial data transfer. It will require separate specifications of digital cartographic quality relating to positional accuracy and ranges of measured and interpreted values such as geologic age and rock composition. Provisional digital geologic map standards will be published for trial implementation. After approximately two years, when comments on the proposed standards have been solicited and modifications made, formal adoption of the standards will be recommended. Widespread acceptance of the new standards will depend on their applicability to the broadest range of earth-science map products and their adaptability to changing cartographic technology.

Conference Paper↗
USGS2021

Earth Resources Observation and Science Center—Keeping watch over Earth's resources

The Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center is the largest facility of its kind within the U.S. Geological Survey. As both a science and data center, EROS serves a unique and critical role in shaping our understanding of a changing planet. EROS opened its doors in 1973 as a receiving station, data archive, and data distribution hub for the USGS Landsat series of Earth observing satellites. In the nearly five decades since, EROS has grown into a globally recognized leader in land change science.

Fact Sheet↗
USGS2018

Quality-assurance plan for groundwater activities, U.S. Geological Survey Dakota Water Science Center

As the Nation’s principal earth-science information agency, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is depended upon to collect accurate data and produce factual and impartial interpretive reports. Methods for data collection and analysis that were developed by the USGS have become standard techniques used by numerous Federal, State, and local agencies and by private enterprises. The USGS has implemented a program designed to ensure that all scientific work done by or for USGS Water Science Centers is done in accordance with a quality-assurance plan. The implementation of a groundwater quality-assurance plan will enhance groundwater data collected by the USGS. This report is a quality-assurance plan for groundwater activities conducted by the USGS Dakota Water Science Center and is meant to complement qualityassurance plans for surface-water and water-quality activities and similar plans for the Dakota Water Science Center and general project activities throughout the USGS.

Open-File Report↗
USGS2021

Earth Resources Observation and Science Center hosting services

The Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center has a long history of leveraging technology in support of Earth science and business applications including data management, processing, and virtualization and complex solutions to visualize and distribute data. It is the aim of EROS to offer operational excellence and service as a key component to the Federal Cloud-Smart directives and Department of the Interior data center consolidation goals. The EROS Center offers space, network, security, and environmental controls and information technology service management. Included with leveraging technology, the EROS Center has industry-leading staff to assist with supporting Earth science and business applications.

Fact Sheet↗
USGS2012

Probing the Earth's strength: Can we measure small stress at high pressure?

Simulating the conditions and processes that occur in the Earth's deep interior has been a major goal of experimental geophysics since the 1920s. In particular, pioneers such as P. W. Bridgman, David Griggs, Hugh Heard, Mervyn Paterson, William Brace, and their colleagues sought to establish the basic relations between differential stresses and rock and mineral deformation under pressure-temperature conditions that favor such inelastic processes as brittle fracture, frictional sliding, plastic deformation, and dynamic metamorphism. This work has been applied to diverse problems in the Earth sciences, including the physical nature of earth quake sources, the forces that drive and resist plate movement, deformation under partial-melting conditions at the tops of mantle plumes, the flexure of the lithosphere, post-glacial rebound, and the origin of the preferred orientation of minerals and the resultant seismic anisotropy and metamorphic textures.

Eos, Transactions, American Geophysical Union↗
USGS2011

USGS St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center--Research activities in the U.S. Virgin Islands

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center in Florida investigates earth-science processes related to coastal and marine environments as well as to societal implications of natural hazards, resource sustainability, and environmental change. The Center is conducting ongoing research in and around the U.S. Virgin Islands that is providing baseline information for resource management and for assessing the health of and environmental changes to vital ecosystems such as coral reefs. In particular, projects are improving the understanding of coral health, advancing the ability to forecast future changes in coral reef ecosystems, and acquiring topographic data for use in inventorying, monitoring, and conserving coastal and marine environments.

Virgin Islands↗
USGS2011

New land surface digital elevation model covers the Earth

Land surface elevation around the world is reaching new heights—as far as its description and measurement goes. A new global digital elevation model (DEM) is being cited as a significant improvement in the quality of topographic data available for Earth science studies. Land surface elevation is one of the Earth's most fundamental geophysical properties, but the accuracy and detail with which it has been measured and described globally have been insufficient for many large-area studies. The new model, developed at the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) EROS Data Center (EDC), has changed all that.

Eos, Earth and Space Science News↗
USGS2015

The U.S. Geological Survey Geologic Collections Management System (GCMS)—A master catalog and collections management plan for U.S. Geological Survey geologic samples and sample collections

**Updated guidance is available in USGS Instructional Memorandum CSS 2019-01 .** Abstract The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is widely recognized in the earth science community as possessing extensive collections of earth materials collected by research personnel over the course of its history. In 2006, a Geologic Collections Inventory was conducted within the USGS Geology Discipline to determine the extent and nature of its sample collections, and in 2008, a working group was convened by the USGS National Geologic and Geophysical Data Preservation Program to examine ways in which these collections could be coordinated, cataloged, and made available to researchers both inside and outside the USGS. The charge to this working group was to evaluate the proposition of creating a Geologic Collections Management System (GCMS), a centralized database that would (1) identify all existing USGS geologic collections, regardless of size, (2) create a virtual link among the collections, and (3) provide a way for scientists and other researchers to obtain access to the samples and data in which they are interested. Additionally, the group was instructed to develop criteria for evaluating current collections and to establish an operating plan and set of standard practices for handling, identifying, and managing future sample collections. Policies and procedures promoted by the GCMS would be based on extant best practices established by the National Science Foundation and the Smithsonian Institution. The resulting report—USGS Circular 1410, “The U.S. Geological Survey Geologic Collections Management System (GCMS): A Master Catalog and Collections Management Plan for U.S. Geological Survey Geologic Samples and Sample Collections”—has been developed for sample repositories to be a guide to establishing common practices in the collection, retention, and disposal of geologic research materials throughout the USGS. While constructing this report, the GCMS’s potential customers and their needs were considered. Two critical definitions have been clarified: a repository is a facility for the long-term management of geologic collections, and a collection is a set of specimens that have been brought together on the basis of some common characteristic. Required sample metadata for newly collected samples, as well as for older collections, were also stipulated and are listed and explained in this report. Several basic policies are also recommended by the GCMS in order to standardize operations among the physical repositories where collections are currently housed. The GCMS Collection Management Plan provides a set of protocols and templates for the management of scientific collections, including access, storage, transfer, and disposal of physical geologic samples and data. This plan is flexible to allow each repository to adapt the practices best suited to its collections. The general consideration for implementation of the GCMS is that all active USGS geologic sample repositories will form the core of GCMS and that participating science centers will develop procedures based on proposed GCMS methodologies. The GCMS is a collective resource for the entire USGS community and the users who discover the geologic materials kept in these repositories and seek to access them.

Circular↗
USGS2002

Basis and methods of NASA airborne topographic mapper lidar surveys for coastal studies

This paper provides an overview of the basic principles of airborne laser altimetry for surveys of coastal topography, and describes the methods used in the acquisition and processing of NASA Airborne Topographic Mapper (ATM) surveys that cover much of the conterminous US coastline. This form of remote sensing, also known as "topographic lidar", has undergone extremely rapid development during the last two decades, and has the potential to contribute within a wide range of coastal scientific investigations. Various airborne laser surveying (ALS) applications that are relevant to coastal studies are being pursued by researchers in a range of Earth science disciplines. Examples include the mapping of "bald earth" land surfaces below even moderately dense vegetation in studies of geologic framework and hydrology, and determination of the vegetation canopy structure, a key variable in mapping wildlife habitats. ALS has also proven to be an excellent method for the regional mapping of geomorphic change along barrier island beaches and other sandy coasts due to storms or long-term sedimentary processes. Coastal scientists are adopting ALS as a basic method in the study of an array of additional coastal topics. ALS can provide useful information in the analysis of shoreline change, the prediction and assessment of landslides along seacliffs and headlands, examination of subsidence causing coastal land loss, and in predicting storm surge and tsunami inundation.

Journal of Coastal Research↗
USGS2017

Geomagnetically induced currents: Science, engineering, and applications readiness

This paper is the primary deliverable of the very first NASA Living With a Star Institute Working Group, Geomagnetically Induced Currents (GIC) Working Group. The paper provides a broad overview of the current status and future challenges pertaining to the science, engineering, and applications of the GIC problem. Science is understood here as the basic space and Earth sciences research that allows improved understanding and physics-based modeling of the physical processes behind GIC. Engineering, in turn, is understood here as the “impact” aspect of GIC. Applications are understood as the models, tools, and activities that can provide actionable information to entities such as power systems operators for mitigating the effects of GIC and government agencies for managing any potential consequences from GIC impact to critical infrastructure. Applications can be considered the ultimate goal of our GIC work. In assessing the status of the field, we quantify the readiness of various applications in the mitigation context. We use the Applications Readiness Level (ARL) concept to carry out the quantification.

Space Weather↗
USGS1992

Selected papers in the applied computer sciences 1992

This compilation of short papers reports on technical advances in the applied computer sciences. The papers describe computer applications in support of earth science investigations and research. This is the third volume in the series "Selected Papers in the Applied Computer Sciences." Listed below are the topics addressed in the compilation: Integration of geographic information systems and expert systems for resource management, Visualization of topography using digital image processing, Development of a ground-water data base for the southeastern Uited States using a geographic information system, Integration and aggregation of stream-drainage data using a geographic information system, Procedures used in production of digital geologic coverage using compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM) technology, and Automated methods for producing a technical publication on estimated water use in the United States.

Bulletin↗
USGS2004

The Cottage Lake aeromagnetic lineament: A possible onshore extension of the southern Whidbey Island fault, Washington

The northwest-striking southern Whidbey Island fault zone (SWIF) was mapped previously using borehole data and potential-field anomalies on Whidbey Island and marine seismic surveys beneath surrounding waterways. Abrupt subsidence at a coastal marsh on south-central Whidbey Island suggests that the SWIF experienced a MW 6.5 to 7.0 earthquake about 3000 years ago. Southeast of Whidbey Island, a hypothesized southeastward projection of the SWIF would make landfall between the cities of Seattle and Everett. As part of systematic, ongoing studies by the U.S. Geological Survey, University of Washington, and other earth science organizations to evaluate potentially active faults and other earth hazards throughout the Puget Lowland, we test this hypothesis using aeromagnetic, lidar, and borehole data. Linear, northwest-striking magnetic anomalies traversing the mainland region project southeastward toward the communities of Woodinville and Maltby, Washington. All of these magnetic anomalies are low in amplitude and best illuminated in residual magnetic fields. The most prominent of the residual magnetic anomalies extends at least 16 km, lies approximately on strike with the SWIF on Whidbey Island, and passes near Crystal and Cottage Lakes, about 27 km southeast of downtown Everett. In places, this magnetic anomaly is associated with topographic lineaments, but spectral analysis indicates that the source of the anomaly extends to depths greater than 2 km and cannot be explained entirely by topographic effects. The Alderwood #1 oil exploration well located on strike with the Cottage Lake aeromagnetic lineament shows evidence of deformation over a total depth range of 3000 m; some beds within this interval exhibit intense fracturing and shearing, although deformation within the well can only be constrained as post-early Oligocene and pre-Pleistocene. Boreholes acquired as part of a wastewater tunnel project show evidence of soil disturbance at locations where some topographic and aeromagnetic lineaments cross the tunnel alignment. Some of the disturbance is likely tectonic in origin, although other explanations are possible. Some of the soil disturbance demonstrably predates the 15-13 ka Fraser glaciation of the Puget Lowland; other samples have inconclusive ages and may be younger. Subtle scarps in Pleistocene surfaces are visible on high-resolution lidar topography at a number of locations along the Cottage Lake aeromagnetic lineament. Collectively, the scarps are parallel to the trend of the aeromagnetic lineament and extend a total distance of 18 km. In the field, scarps exhibit 1 to 5 m of north-side-up offset. The scarps provide targets for future paleoseismic trenching studies to test the hypothesis that they have a tectonic origin.

Washington↗
USGS2025

Impact of a place-based role-playing exercise on student sense of classroom community and science identity in a hydrology class

Fostering a sense of classroom community in earth science classes supports students’ sense of belonging within the classroom and the broader scientific community, helping them build a sense of identity as a geoscientist. This study examines the effects of incorporating a 2-week, collaborative role-playing activity on sense of classroom community and science identity in an introductory hydrology class. Students assumed roles of residents, medical center representatives, government employees, and environmental activists to learn about flooding through a community-centered lens, focusing on a flood event in Harris County, Texas during Tropical Storm Allison. Pre-post-surveys were given immediately before and after the learning module to evaluate classroom community, science identity using Likert scales, and hydrologist identity using a pictorial scale. Qualitative analysis of a short-answer question in which students defined “hydrologist” provided context for quantitative identity data. Post-survey data on classroom community shows an increase in mean agreement as compared to the pre-survey. This increase was statistically significant for four classroom community statements. Paired science identity data show small effect size and no significant change, but pictorial identity as a hydrologist shows significant growth. Social aspects of the role-playing activity did not significantly alter student’s already high science identity but altered their conceptions of the social implications of hydrology and increased identity as hydrologists. The significant increase in classroom community has important implications for using role-playing as an active learning strategy to enhance student learning experience by creating a positive classroom climate and connecting hydrology concepts to community needs.

Journal of Geoscience Education↗