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USGS2021

Global cropland-extent product at 30-m resolution (GCEP30) derived from Landsat satellite time-series data for the year 2015 using multiple machine-learning algorithms on Google Earth Engine cloud

Executive Summary Global food and water security analysis and management require precise and accurate global cropland-extent maps. Existing maps have limitations, in that they are (1) mapped using coarse-resolution remote-sensing data, resulting in the lack of precise mapping location of croplands and their accuracies; (2) derived by collecting and collating national statistical data that are often subjective, leading to substantial uncertainties in cropland-area estimates, as well as their locations; and (3) extracted from one or more classes of a land use–land cover product in which cropland classes are not the focus of mapping, leading to their mixing with other classes and creating significant errors of omission and commission. These limitations can be overcome by producing high-resolution cropland-extent maps using satellite-sensor data, such as Landsat 30-m resolution or higher. The most fundamental cropland product is the high-resolution cropland-extent map because all higher level cropland products, such as crop-watering method (that is, whether crops are irrigated or rainfed), crop types, cropping intensities, cropland fallows, crop productivity, and crop-water productivity, are dependent on a precise and accurate cropland-extent product. Given these realities, the overarching goal of this study was to produce a Landsat satellite-derived global cropland-extent product at 30-m resolution. The work, which involved a paradigm shift in how global cropland-extent maps are produced, involved the following five key steps: (1) petabyte-scale computing that involved multiyear, 8- to 16-day, time-series Landsat 30-m resolution data for the global land surface; (2) composition of analysis-ready data (ARD) cubes; (3) creation of a large global-reference data hub for machine learning; (4) use of multiple machine-learning algorithms (MLAs) by writing software and computing in the cloud; and (5) Google Earth Engine (GEE) cloud computing. The five key steps involved nine distinct phases. First, the world was segmented into 74 agroecological zones (AEZs). Second, Landsat 8- to 16-day data were used to time-composite 10-band (blue, green, red, near-infrared, short-wave infrared band 1, short-wave infrared band 2, thermal infrared, enhanced vegetation index, normalized difference water index, and normalized difference vegetation index) Landsat 30-m resolution data cubes for every 2- to 4-month time period during 3- to 4-year periods (stated as nominal-year 2015 or, simply, 2015), along with two additional 30-m resolution bands (Shuttle Radar Topography Mission elevation, and slope) in each of the 74 AEZs. Third, more than 100,000 reference-training data samples were collected using ground data (some of which were collected using a mobile application), as well as submeter- to 5-m-resolution, very high-resolution imagery sourced from other reliable sources. Fourth, reference-training data were used to create a knowledge base for separating cropland from noncropland. Fifth, MLAs such as the pixel-based supervised random forest and support-vector machines were written on the GEE using Python and JavaScript. Sixth, object-based recursive hierarchical segmentation algorithm was used, in addition to MLAs, to overcome uncertainties. Seventh, MLAs used the knowledge base to classify and separate cropland from noncropland. Eighth, accuracy assessment was conducted by generating error matrices for each of the 74 AEZs using 19,171 independent validation-data samples. Ninth, cropland areas were computed for all countries of the world and compared with United Nation’s (UN’s) Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and other national statistics. The outcome was a Landsat-derived global cropland-extent product at 30-m resolution (GCEP30), which has an overall accuracy of 91.7 percent. For the cropland class, producer’s accuracy was 83.4 percent, and user’s accuracy was 78.3 percent. GCEP30 calculated (using direct pixel count) the global net-cropland area (GNCA) for the year 2015 as 1.873 billion hectares (~12.6 percent of the Earth’s terrestrial area). The continental cropland distribution as a percentage of GNCA was Asia, 33 percent; Europe, 25.5 percent; Africa, 16.7 percent; North America, 14.4 percent; South America, 8.1 percent; and Australia and Oceania, 2.4 percent. The worldwide cropland areas in GCEP30 for 2015 were higher by 236 to 299 million hectares (Mha) compared to national statistics reported elsewhere for the same year (for example, in Food and Agriculture Organization’s corporate statistical database [FAOSTAT] and in the monthly irrigated and rainfed crop areas [MIRCA] database). The global cropland area reported for 2015 increased by 344 Mha (22.5 percent), compared to the year 2000. During the same period (2000–2015), the world’s population increased by 20 percent. Whereas some of these areal increases are real increases in cropland areas, others are due to the types of data, methods, and approaches used. Using the highest known resolution (compared to previous coarse-resolution global products) enabled this study to capture fragmented croplands. Coarse-resolution data compute areas on the basis of subpixels, which, for a large proportion of certain land use–land cover classes, will show only a certain percentage of the total pixel area as actual area. Subpixel areas can lead to substantial uncertainties in area computation, as determining the exact fraction of cropland areas within a coarse-resolution pixel is resource intensive and subject to errors. Other innovations in GCEP30 include reference-data hubs, machine learning, and cloud computing. Cropland areas in 214 countries, territories, departments, and regions were calculated for the year 2015 using GCEP30, on the basis of UN’s global administrative unit layers (GAUL) boundaries. The 10 leading countries in terms of cropland area (as a percentage of the GNCA) were India (9.6 percent), United States (8.95 percent), China (8.82 percent), Russia (8.32 percent), Brazil (3.42 percent), Ukraine (2.32 percent), Canada (2.29 percent), Argentina (2.05 percent), Indonesia (2 percent), and Nigeria (1.91 percent). Together, these 10 countries occupy 50 percent of the global cropland, and they have 52 percent of the global population. Their combined cropland area increased by 2 percent between 2000 and 2015, compared to the substantial increase in population of 517 million (15.5 percent). Together, India, United States, China, and Russia encompass 36 percent of the total area. In the United States and Canada, from 2000 to 2015, cropland decreased by about 2 percent, whereas their populations increased by 14 and 13 percent, respectively. The additional food requirements in these 10 countries, which are caused by increased populations, as well as increasing nutritional demands, are met by production increases in existing cropland or through virtual food trade, or both. More than 18 countries, territories, departments, or regions had 60 percent or more of their geographic area as cropland: Republic of Moldova, San Marino, and Hungary had more than 80 percent of the country’s area as cropland; Denmark, Ukraine, Ireland, and Bangladesh, 70 to 80 percent; and Uruguay, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Spain, Lithuania, Poland, Gaza Strip, Czechia, Italy, India, and Azerbaijan, 60 to 70 percent. Europe and South Asia can be considered agricultural capitals of the world, on the basis of their percentages of geographic area as cropland. United States, China, and Russia, which all have high cropland areas, are ranked second, third, and fourth in the world; India is ranked first. However, the amount of cropland as a percentage of the country’s geographic area is relatively very low for United States (18.3 percent), China (17.7 percent), and Russia (9.5 percent), whereas it is 60.5 percent for India. Most African and South American countries, territories, departments, or regions have less than 15 percent of their geographic area as cropland. China and India together house 36 percent of the world’s population; however, between 2000 and 2015, the amount of China’s cropland area fell by 18.9 percent, owing to urban expansion and the abandonment of farmlands caused by demographic changes (that is, the movement of population from villages to cities). In contrast, China’s population grew by 10 percent. The amount of India’s cropland increased by 8.5 percent, whereas its population grew by 20 percent. This study showed that, out of the 10 leading cropland countries, Ukraine, Nigeria, Russia, and Indonesia showed an 18 to 31 percent increase in cropland areas, on the basis of GCEP30 by the year 2015, compared to 2000. Nigeria’s cropland area increased by 25 percent, and its population increased by 31 percent in the same period. In these countries, food security is maintained by cropland expansion, productivity increases, and virtual food trade. Nevertheless, this trend of increasing net-cropland area and productivity will likely become difficult to maintain, owing to diminishing arable lands and plateauing of 50 years of continual yield increases, requiring policymakers to explore novel and data-supported approaches to solving future food security issues. The GCEP30 product, which can be browsed at full resolution at www.croplands.org , has been released for public download and use through U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)–National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (see https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/news/release-of-gfsad-30-meter-cropland-extent-products/ ).

Professional Paper↗
USGS2018

A practical primer on geostatistics

Introduction The Challenge —Most geological phenomena are extraordinarily complex in their interrelationships and vast in their geographical extension. Ordinarily, engineers and geoscientists are faced with corporate or scientific requirements to properly prepare geological models with measurements involving a small fraction of the entire area or volume of interest. Exact description of a system such as an oil reservoir is neither feasible nor economically possible. The results are necessarily uncertain. Note that the uncertainty is not an intrinsic property of the systems; it is the result of incomplete knowledge by the observer. The Aim of Geostatistics —The main objective of geostatistics is the characterization of spatial systems that are incompletely known, systems that are common in geology. A key difference from classical statistics is that geostatistics uses the sampling location of every measurement. Unless the measurements show spatial correlation, the application of geostatistics is pointless. Ordinarily the need for additional knowledge goes beyond a few points, which explains the display of results graphically as fishnet plots, block diagrams, and maps. Geostatistical Methods —Geostatistics is a collection of numerical techniques for the characterization of spatial attributes using primarily two tools: probabilistic models, which are used for spatial data in a manner similar to the way in which time-series analysis characterizes temporal data, or pattern recognition techniques. The probabilistic models are used as a way to handle uncertainty in results away from sampling locations, making a radical departure from alternative approaches like inverse distance estimation methods. Differences with Time Series —On dealing with time-series analysis, users frequently concentrate their attention on extrapolations for making forecasts. Although users of geostatistics may be interested in extrapolation, the methods work at their best interpolating. This simple difference has significant methodological implications. Historical Remarks —As a discipline, geostatistics was firmly established in the 1960s by the French engineer Georges Matheron, who was interested in the appraisal of ore reserves in mining. Geostatistics did not develop overnight. Like other disciplines, it has built on previous results, many of which were formulated with different objectives in various fields. Pioneers —Seminal ideas conceptually related to what today we call geostatistics or spatial statistics are found in the work of several pioneers, including: 1940s: A.N. Kolmogorov in turbulent flow and N. Wiener in stochastic processing; 1950s: D. Krige in mining; 1960s: B. Mathern in forestry and L.S. Gandin in meteorology Calculations —Serious applications of geostatistics require the use of digital computers. Although for most geostatistical techniques rudimentary implementation from scratch is fairly straightforward, coding programs from scratch is recommended only as part of a practice that may help users to gain a better grasp of the formulations. Software —For professional work, the reader should employ software packages that have been thoroughly tested to handle any sampling scheme, that run as efficiently as possible, and that offer graphic capabilities for the analysis and display of results. This primer employs primarily the package Stanford Geomodeling Software (SGeMS) - recently developed at the Energy Resources Engineering Department at Stanford University - as a way to show how to obtain results practically. This applied side of the primer should not be interpreted as the notes being a manual for the use of SGeMS. The main objective of the primer is to help the reader gain an understanding of the fundamental concepts and tools in geostatistics. Organization of the Primer —The chapters of greatest importance are those covering kriging and simulation. All other materials are peripheral and are included for better comprehension of these main geostatistical modeling tools. The choice of kriging versus simulation is often a big puzzle to the uninitiated, let alone the different variants of both of them. Chapters 14, 18, and 19 are intended to shed light on those subjects. The critical aspect of assessing and modeling spatial correlation is covered in chapter 7. Chapters 2 and 3 review relevant concepts in classical statistics. Course Objectives —This course offers stochastic solutions to common problems in the characterization of complex geological systems. At the end of the course, participants should have: an understanding of the theoretical foundations of geostatistics; a good grasp of its possibilities and limitations; and reasonable familiarity with the SGeMS software, thus opening the possibility of practically applying geostatistics.

Open-File Report↗
USGS2013

Lithofacies, age, depositional setting, and geochemistry of the Otuk Formation in the Red Dog District, northwestern Alaska

Complete penetration of the Otuk Formation in a continuous drill core (diamond-drill hole, DDH 927) from the Red Dog District illuminates the facies, age, depositional environment, source rock potential, and isotope stratigraphy of this unit in northwestern Alaska. The section, in the Wolverine Creek plate of the Endicott Mountains Allochthon (EMA), is ~82 meters (m) thick and appears structurally uncomplicated. Bedding dips are generally low and thicknesses recorded are close to true thicknesses. Preliminary synthesis of sedimentologic, paleontologic, and isotopic data suggests that the Otuk succession in DDH 927 is a largely complete, albeit condensed, marine Triassic section in conformable contact with marine Permian and Jurassic strata. The Otuk Formation in DDH 927 gradationally overlies gray siliceous mudstone of the Siksikpuk Formation (Permian, based on regional correlations) and underlies black organic-rich mudstone of the Kingak(?) Shale (Jurassic?, based on regional correlations). The informal shale, chert, and limestone members of the Otuk are recognized in DDH 927, but the Jurassic Blankenship Member is absent. The lower (shale) member consists of 28 m of black to light gray, silty shale with as much as 6.9 weight percent total organic carbon (TOC). Thin limy layers near the base of this member contain bivalve fragments (Claraia sp.?) consistent with an Early Triassic (Griesbachian-early Smithian) age. Gray radiolarian chert dominates the middle member (25 m thick) and yields radiolarians of Middle Triassic (Anisian and Ladinian) and Late Triassic (Carnian-late middle Norian) ages. Black to light gray silty shale, like that in the lower member, forms interbeds that range from a few millimeters to 7 centimeters in thickness through much of the middle member. A distinctive, 2.4-m-thick interval of black shale and calcareous radiolarite ~17 m above the base of the member has as much as 9.8 weight percent TOC, and a 1.9-m-thick interval of limy to cherty mudstone immediately above this contains radiolarians, foraminifers, conodonts, and halobiid bivalve fragments. The upper (limestone) member (29 m thick) is lime mudstone with monotid bivalves and late Norian radiolarians, overlain by gray chert that contains Rhaetian (latest Triassic) radiolarians; Rhaetian strata have not previously been documented in the Otuk. Rare gray to black shale interbeds in the upper member have as much as 3.4 weight percent TOC. At least 35 m of black mudstone overlies the limestone member; these strata lack interbeds of oil shale and chert that are characteristic of the Blankenship, and instead they resemble the Kingak Shale. Vitrinite reflectance values (2.45 and 2.47 percent Ro) from two samples of black shale in the chert member indicate that these rocks reached a high level of thermal maturity within the dry gas window. Regional correlations indicate that lithofacies in the Otuk Formation vary with both structural and geographic position. For example, the shale member of the Otuk in the Wolverine Creek plate includes more limy layers and less barite (as blades, nodules, and lenses) than equivalent strata in the structurally higher Red Dog plate of the EMA, but it has fewer limy layers than the shale member in the EMA ~450 kilometers (km) to the east at Tiglukpuk Creek. The limestone member of the Otuk is thicker in the Wolverine Creek plate than in the Red Dog plate and differs from this member in EMA sections to the east in containing an upper cherty interval that lacks monotids; a similar interval is seen at the top of the Otuk Formation ~125 km to the west (Lisburne Peninsula). Our observations are consistent with the interpretations of previous researchers that Otuk facies become more distal in higher structural positions and that within a given structural level more distal facies occur to the west. Recent paleogeographic reconstructions indicate that the Otuk accumulated at a relatively high paleolatitude with a bivalve fauna typical of the Boreal realm. A suite of δ 13 C org (carbon isotopic composition of carbon) data (n=38) from the upper Siksikpuk Formation through the Otuk Formation and into the Kingak(?) Shale in DDH 927 shows a pattern of positive and negative excursions similar to those reported elsewhere in Triassic strata. In particular, a distinct negative excursion at the base of the Otuk (from ‒23.8 to ‒31.3‰ (permil, or parts per thousand)) likely correlates with a pronounced excursion that marks the Permian-Triassic boundary at many localities worldwide. Another feature of the Otuk δ 13 C org record that may correlate globally is a series of negative and positive excursions in the lower member. At the top of the Otuk in DDH 927, the δ 13 C org values are extremely low and may correlate with a negative excursion that is widely observed at the Triassic-Jurassic boundary.

Alaska↗
USGS1988

Glaciers of Antarctica

Of all the world's continents Antarctica is the coldest, the highest, and the least known. It is one and a half times the size of the United States, and on it lies 91 percent (30,109,800 km 3 ) of the estimated volume of all the ice on Earth. Because so little is known about Antarctic glaciers compared with what is known about glaciers in populated countries, satellite imagery represents a great leap forward in the provision of basic data. From the coast of Antarctica to about 81?south latitude, there are 2,514 Landsat nominal scene centers (the fixed geographic position of the intersection of orbital paths and latitudinal rows). If there were cloud-free images for all these geographic centers, only about 520 Landsat images would be needed to provide complete coverage. Because of cloud cover, however, only about 70 percent of the Landsat imaging area, or 55 percent of the continent, is covered by good quality Landsat images. To date, only about 20 percent of Antarctica has been mapped at scales of 1:250,000 or larger, but these maps do include about half of the coastline. The area of Antarctica that could be planimetrically mapped at a scale of 1:250,000 would be tripled if the available Landsat images were used in image map production. This chapter contains brief descriptions and interpretations of features seen in 62 carefully selected Landsat images or image mosaics. Images were chosen on the basis of quality and interest; for this reason they are far from evenly spaced around the continent. Space limitations allow less than 15 percent of the Landsat imaging area of Antarctica to be shown in the illustrations reproduced in this chapter. Unfortunately, a wealth of glaciological and other features of compelling interest is present in the many hundreds of images that could not be included. To help show some important features beyond the limit of Landsat coverage, and as an aid to the interpretation of certain features seen in the images, 38 oblique aerial photographs have been included. Again, these represent only a small fraction of the large number of aerial photographs now available in various national collections. The chapter is divided into five geographic sections. The first is the Transantarctic Mountains in the Ross Sea area. Some very large outlet glaciers flow from the East Antarctic ice sheet through the Transantarctic Mountains to the Ross Ice Shelf. Byrd Glacier, one of the largest in the world, drains an area of more than 1,000,000 km 2 . Next, images from the Indian Ocean sector are discussed. These include the Lambert Glacier- Amery Ice Shelf system, so large that about 25 images must be mosaicked to cover its complex system of tributary glaciers. Shirase Glacier, a tidal outlet glacier in the sector, flows at a speed of 2.5 km a -l . About 200 km inland and 200 km west of Shirase Glacier lie the Queen Fabiola ("Yamato") Mountains, whose extensive exposures of `blue ice' lay claim to being the world's most important meteorite-collecting locality, with more than 4,700 meteorite fragments discovered since 1969. The Atlantic Ocean sector is fringed by ice shelves into which flow large ice streams like Jutulstraumen, Stancomb-Wills, Slessor, and Recovery Glaciers. Filchner and Ronne Ice Shelves together cover an area two-thirds the size of Texas. From the western margin of the Ronne Ice Shelf, the north-trending arc of the Antarctic Peninsula, with its fjord and alpine landscape and fringing ice shelves, stretches towards South America. The Pacific Ocean sector begins with the Ellsworth Mountains, which include the highest peaks (Vinson Massif at 4,897 m) in Antarctica. The area between the Ellsworth Mountains and the eastern margin of the Ross Ice Shelf is fringed with small ice shelves and some major outlet glaciers. One of these, Pine Island Glacier, was found from comparing 1973 and 1975 images to have an average ice-front velocity of 2.4 km a -1 . This part of Antarctica contains many dormant volcanoes; the summits of servers, such as Mount Takahe with its 8-km-wide summit caldera, protrude through the West Antarctic ice sheet.

Professional Paper↗
USGS2001

U.S. Geological Survey Activities Related to American Indians and Alaska Natives Fiscal Year 2001

Information is a resource that can help Native American governments and their people. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) makes available technical expertise, reports, and other impartial information sources that can benefit Native Americans interested in subsistence issues, water, land use, and the health of many parts of the environment. The USGS works in cooperation with American Indian and Alaska Native governments, conducting research on water and mineral resources, animals and plants of environmental, economic, or subsistence importance, natural hazards, and geologic resources. Digital data on cartography, mineral resources, stream flow, biota, and other topics are available to American Indian and Alaska Native individuals and institutions. The USGS recognizes the need to learn from and share knowledge with Native peoples. This report describes most of the activities that the USGS conducted with American Indian and Alaska Native governments, educational institutions, and individuals during Federal fiscal year 2001. Some of these USGS activities were carried out in concert with the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). Others were conducted by Tribes and the USGS. In 2001, the USGS began examining its activities related to American Indians and Alaska Natives to determine how it can better serve these customers within its mandates. A growing number of Tribal governments, educational institutions, and other Tribal organizations have begun using geographic information systems and other digital technologies in recent years. As Tribes become more interested in and more adept at managing digital information, they are seeking relevant data from the USGS more frequently. Using digital technologies provides Tribal governments with additional means of managing lands and resources for the benefit of current and future generations. The USGS recognizes the need to make its information available to Tribal governments, and to work with those governments and other institutions to advance data management capabilities. The USGS is responding to this need by increasing the transfer of scientific information to American Indian and Alaska Native governments and by training employees of those governments to conduct and improve scientific studies. The USGS is also encouraging American Indians and Alaska Natives to pursue careers in science, and seeking ways to hire Indian and Native students. By identifying, improving, and disseminating information about available hiring mechanisms, the USGS is working to make hiring such students easier, and therefore more likely, for USGS managers. The U.S. Geological Survey is the Federal science bureau within the Department of the Interior (DoI). The USGS is non-regulatory and is not a significant manager of Federal or Trust lands or assets. However, there are two types of USGS activities that do involve American Indians, Alaska Natives, and their lands. The first type of activity is the course of formal studies, conducted through existing USGS programs, that involves collection of specific types of data as well as investigative and research projects. These projects typically last 2 or 3 years, although a few are parts of longer-term activities. Some projects are funded through cooperative agreements, from monies provided to the USGS by individual Tribal governments or by the BIA. The USGS provides matching funds for cooperative projects. These formal projects may also receive funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Indian Health Service (part of the Department of Health and Human Services), or other Federal agencies. The USGS routinely works with its sister bureaus in the Department of the Interior to provide the scientific information and expertise needed to meet the Department's science priorities. Within this context, the USGS and the BIA are cooperating to use USGS information resources to benefit American Indian and Alaska Native peoples and their lands. The second type of USGS activity is less formal, based on initiatives designed and conducted by USGS employees. Frequently involving educational activities, these endeavors are prompted by employee interests, often as collateral issues, that result from one or more USGS employees identifying and responding to an observed need. In these activities, USGS employees help fulfill a mission of the USGS-to make science relevant-while helping their fellow citizens. USGS employees have also taken the initiative in assisting American Indians and Alaska Natives through participation in several organizations that were created to foster awareness of science among Native peoples and to help build support and communication networks. One such group is the American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES). This group sponsors an annual national meeting in which USGS employees participate. USGS employees join this organization on a voluntary basis, bringing the benefits of this expanded network to the USGS, as many employees do with other professional organizations. Each part of the USGS has identified an American Indian/Alaska Native liaison. Furthermore, the USGS has instituted a regional organizational structure, with Western, Central, and Eastern Regions. The regions work in concert with specific scientific disciplines to conduct the scientific mission of the USGS. The regional structure is intended to bring us closer to our customers; we hope that Native Americans and Alaska Natives will use the contacts listed at the end of this report.

Report↗
USGS2000

U.S. Geological Survey Activities Related to American Indians and Alaska Natives Fiscal Year 2000

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is an impartial scientific organization that strives to produce scientific results that are relevant to the people of the United States and their land and resource managers. USGS does not improve the quality of its customers' lives; it provides the informational tools for American Indians, Alaska Natives, and other customers to understand and improve their own lives. In cooperation with American Indian and Alaska Native governments, the USGS conducts research on water and mineral resources, animals and plants of environmental, economic, or subsistence importance, natural hazards, and geologic resources. Digital data on cartography, mineral resources, stream flows, biota, and other data sets are available to American Indian and Alaska Native institutions. The USGS recognizes the need to learn from and share knowledge with Native peoples. This report describes most of the activities that the USGS conducted with American Indian and Alaska Native governments, educational institutions, and individuals during Federal Fiscal Year 2000. Some of these USGS activities were conducted in concert with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Others were conducted by Tribes and the USGS. In the year 2000, the USGS began examining its activities related to American Indians and Native Alaskans to determine how it can better serve these customers within its mandates. More Tribal governments, educational institutions, and other Tribal organizations are using geographic information systems and other digital technologies in recent years. As Tribes become more interested and more adept at managing digital information, they are seeking such data from the USGS with greater frequency. The increasing use of such technologies allows Tribal governments additional means of managing lands and resources for the benefit of current and future generations. The USGS recognizes the need to make its information available to Tribal governments, and to work with those governments and other institutions to advance data management capabilities. The USGS is responding to this need by increasing the transfer of scientific information to American Indian and Alaska Native governments and by training employees of these governments to conduct and improve scientific studies. The USGS is also encouraging American Indians and Alaska Natives to pursue careers in science, and seeking ways to hire Indian and Native students. By identifying, improving, and disseminating information about available hiring mechanisms, the USGS is working to make hiring such students easier, and therefore more likely, for USGS managers. The U.S. Geological Survey is the Federal science bureau within the Department of the Interior (DoI). The USGS is non-regulatory and is not a significant manager of Federal or Trust lands or assets. However, there are two types of USGS activities that do involve American Indians, Alaska Natives, and their lands. The first type of activity is the course of formal studies, conducted through existing USGS programs, that involve collection of specific types of data as well as investigative and research projects. These projects have a duration of two or three years, although a few are parts of longer-term activities. Some are funded through cooperative agreements or reimbursable accounts, from monies provided to the USGS by individual Tribal governments or by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). The USGS provides matching funds for cooperative projects. These formal projects may also receive funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Indian Health Service (part of the Department of Health and Human Services), or other Federal agencies. The USGS routinely works with its sister bureaus in the Department of the Interior to provide the scientific information and expertise needed to meet the Department's science priorities. Within this context, the USGS and the Bureau of Indian Affairs are cooperating to use USGS knowledge for the benefit of American Indian and Native peoples and their lands. The second type of USGS activity is less formal, based on initiatives designed and conducted by USGS employees. Frequently involving educational activities, these endeavors are prompted by employee interests, often as collateral issues, that result from an individual or group of USGS employees identifying and responding to an observed need. In these activities, USGS employees help us fulfill a mission of the USGS, to make science relevant, while helping their fellow citizens. USGS employees have also taken the initiative to assist American Indians and Alaska Natives through participation in several organizations that were created to foster knowledge of science among Native peoples and to help build support and communication networks. One such group is the American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES). This group sponsors an annual national meeting in which USGS employees participate. USGS employees join this organization on a voluntary basis, paying the costs themselves, yet bringing the benefits of this expanded network to the USGS, as many employees do with other professional organizations. Each part of the USGS has identified an American Indian/Alaska Native liaison. As USGS moves to a more regional organizational structure, it will establish contacts in the Western, Central, and Eastern Regions. Within the USGS, this report will help in developing outreach, educational, and program documents for use in future years. It is hoped that USGS employees, American Indians, and Alaska Natives will adapt these activities in new areas and will use the USGS contacts to expand the relevance of the USGS to more Americans.

Report↗
USGS2003

Irrigation-induced contamination of water, sediment, and biota in the western United States-synthesis of data from the National Irrigation Water Quality Program

In October 1985 the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI), through the National Irrigation Water Quality Program (NIWQP), began a series of field investigations at 26 areas in the Western United States to determine whether irrigation drainage has had harmful effects on fish, wildlife, and humans or has reduced beneficial uses of water. In 1992 NIWQP initiated the Data Synthesis Project to evaluate data collected during the field investigations. Geologic, climatologic, and hydrologic data were evaluated and water, sediment, and biota from the 26 areas were analyzed to identify commonalities and dominant factors that result in irrigation-induced contamination of water and biota. Data collected for the 26 area investigations have been compiled and merged into a common data base. The structure of the data base is designed to enable assessment of relations between contaminant concentrations in water, sediment, and biota. The data base is available to the scientific community through the World Wide Web at URL http://www.usbr.gov/niwqp. Analysis of the data base for the Data Synthesis included use of summary statistics, factor analysis, and logistic regression. A Geographic Information System was used to store and analyze spatially oriented digital data such as land use, geology and evaporation rates. In the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) study areas, samples of water, bottom sediment, and biota were collected for trace-element and pesticide analysis. Contaminants most commonly associated with irrigation drainage were identified by comparing concentrations in water with established criteria. For surface water, the criteria used were typically chronic criteria for the protection of freshwater aquatic life. Because ground water can discharge to the surface where wildlife can be exposed to it, the criteria used for ground water were both the maximum contaminant levels (MCL's) for drinking water and the chronic criteria for the protection of freshwater aquatic life. Data collected by the NIWQP studies indicated that, in surface water, filtered and unfiltered samples had nearly the same concentrations of arsenic, boron, molybdenum, and selenium for concentrations greater than about 10 micrograms per liter. Therefore, in this concentration range, filtered concentrations can be directly compared to biological-effect levels developed for unfiltered samples. In the range of 1 to 10 micrograms per liter there may be a tendency for unfiltered arsenic concentrations to be greater than filtered concentrations. For selenium, however, the data suggest differences from equality in that range result from analytical imprecision and not a general tendency for unfiltered concentrations to be greater than filtered concentrations. This relation may not be true in lentic, nutrient-rich waters because in such settings algae can bioaccumulate large amounts of selenium and other trace elements. Selenium was the trace element in surface water that most commonly exceeded chronic criteria for the protection of freshwater aquatic life; more than 40 percent of the selenium concentrations in surface-water samples exceeded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) aquatic-life chronic criterion (5 micrograms per liter). In 12 of the 26 areas at least 25 percent of the surface water-samples had selenium concentrations that either equaled or exceeded the chronic criterion (5 micrograms per liter). More than 28 percent of boron concentrations and almost 17 percent of the molybdenum concentrations exceeded the aquatic life criteria established by the State of California (550 and 19 micrograms per liter, respectively). In ground water, more than 22 percent of the arsenic concentrations and more than 35 percent of the selenium concentrations exceeded the MCL (10 and 50 micrograms per liter, respectively). Few samples of uranium in surface water exceeded a criterion for the protection of aquatic life (300 micrograms per liter), but 44 percent

Professional Paper↗
USGS1960

The Foraminiferal Genus Orbitolina in North America

The foraminiferal genus Orbitolina has been useful as an index fossil in the Cretaceous rocks of the circumglobal equatorial belt for nearly a century. In Europe and the Near and Middle East enough work has been done on the species to allow their use for approximate correlations within the Cretaceous sedimentary rocks. The study of American specimens of Orbitolina, had been almost neglected although they were used in a rather cursory fashion for markers of the Lower Cretaceous Trinity strata. Three species had been described and assigned to Orbitolina in the United States, but the validity of each of the species had been questioned. A study of the genus Orbitolina, its type species, its morphology and the stratigraphic and geographic distribution in North America are presented in this report. Stratigraphic sections were measured throughout the area of Lower Cretaceous outcrop in Texas, New Mexico. and Arizona, and samples of Orbitolina were taken from these measured sections. Several thousand thin sections were prepared from which 8 species of Orbitolina, 7 of them new, were recognized. Orbitolina texana (Roemer) was found to be confined to the lower part of the Glen Rose limestone and its equivalents. Orbitolina, minuta n. sp. is essentially confined to the upper part of the Glen Rose limestone and its equivalents. Four of the species are known only from the Arizona and New Mexico region. The species of Orbitolina are useful stratigraphically, but all their characters-internal as well as external-must be considered. The use of thin sections for the study of Orbitolina is essential. One of the first things that had to be determined was the correct concept of the genus Orbitolina. The type species had not been determined by earlier authors, although four species had been suggested at various times. With careful study of the early literature, it became apparent that the type species is Orbitulites lenticulata Lamarck, 1816=Madreporites lenticularis Blumenbach, 1805 by monotypy. The type species had never been studied using modern techniques. This paper presents the first description and illustrations of the type species based on internal as well as external characters. The American forms of Orbitolina had been referred to the species Orbitolina concava (Lamarck) by Silvestri and others. The necessity of understanding O. concava was apparent. Many misconceptions about O. concava had been developed and propagated until the modern concept no longer included the original material on which the svecies was based. Topotype material of Orbulites concava Lamarck, 1816, was restudied. For the first time both the internal and the external characters are described and illustrated. Orbitolina concava (Lamarck) is not conspecific with any of the North American forms. A thorough knowledge of the morphology of Orbitolina is essential to the interpretation of the features as seen in thin section. Carefully oriented sections were prepared and models built up illustrating the morphology. A new technique was adapted for multiple sectioning of specimens of Orbitolina. Using this technique, several oriented sections can be prepared from one specimen, enabling the correlation of features seen in axial, basal, and tangential sections. This technique should prove useful in the study of similar small objects, and therefore is described and illustrated. The early chambers of microspheric and megalospheric specimens were not well known. A technique for their study was developed and is described. The morphology of the early chambers of both generations is described and illustrated. The nature of the nepionic and neanic chambers of the microspheric generation is described and documented for the first time. The previous supposition of an early trochoid spire in microspheric specimens is rejected in favor of a flaring planispiral coil. This discovery must be considered in a study of the phylogeny. Charts are presented showing the strat

Professional Paper↗
USGS2012

The Novarupta-Katmai eruption of 1912 - largest eruption of the twentieth century; centennial perspectives

The explosive outburst at Novarupta (Alaska) in June 1912 was the 20th century's most voluminous volcanic eruption. Marking its centennial, we illustrate and document the complex eruptive sequence, which was long misattributed to nearby Mount Katmai, and how its deposits have provided key insights about volcanic and magmatic processes. It was one of the few historical eruptions to produce a collapsed caldera, voluminous high-silica rhyolite, wide compositional zonation (51-78 percent SiO 2 ), banded pumice, welded tuff, and an aerosol/dust veil that depressed global temperature measurably. It emplaced a series of ash flows that filled what became the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes, sustaining high-temperature metal-transporting fumaroles for a decade. Three explosive episodes spanned ~60 hours, depositing ~17 km 3 of fallout and 11±2 km 3 of ignimbrite, together representing ~13.5 km 3 of zoned magma. No observers were nearby and no aircraft were in Alaska, and so the eruption narrative was assembled from scattered villages and ship reports. Because volcanology was in its infancy and the early investigations (1915-23) were conducted under arduous expeditionary conditions, many provocative misapprehensions attended reports based on those studies. Fieldwork at Katmai was not resumed until 1953, but, since then, global advances in physical volcanology and chemical petrology have gone hand in hand with studies of the 1912 deposits, clarifying the sequence of events and processes and turning the eruption into one of the best studied in the world. To provide perspective on this century-long evolution, we describe the geologic and geographic setting of the eruption - in a remote, sparsely inhabited wilderness; we review the cultural and scientific contexts at the time of the eruption and early expeditions; and we compile a chronology of the many Katmai investigations since 1912. Products of the eruption are described in detail, including eight layers of regionwide fallout, nine packages of ash flows, and three lava domes that followed the explosive pyroclastic episodes. Changes in the proportions of coerupting rhyolite, dacite, and andesite pumice documented for the fallout and ash-flow successions, which are locally interbedded, permit close correlation of those synchronously emplaced sequences and their varied facies. Petrological correlation of the sequence of deposits near Novarupta with ash layers at Kodiak village, 170 km downwind, where three episodes of ashfall were recorded (to the hour), provides key constraints on timing of the eruptive events. Syneruptive collapse of a kilometer-deep caldera took place atop Mount Katmai, a stratovolcano centered 10 km east of the eruption site at Novarupta, owing to drainage of magma from beneath the Katmai edifice. Correlation of ~50 earthquakes recorded at distant seismic stations (including 14 shocks of magnitude 6.0 to 7.0) to fitful caldera collapse provides further constraints on eruption timing, because layers of nonjuvenile breccia and mud ejected from Mount Katmai during collapse pulses are intercalated with the pumice-fall layers from Novarupta. Structure of the Novarupta vent, a 2-km-wide depression backfilled by welded tuff and inferred to be funnel-shaped at depth, is described in detail, as is the 4-km-wide caldera at Mount Katmai. Discussions are also provided concerning: (1) the impact on global climate of the great mass of sulfur-poor but halogen-rich aerosol ejected into the atmosphere by the rhyolite-dominated eruption; (2) chemical and mineralogical effects of the fumarolic acid gases; and (3) the timing of several syneruptive landslide deposits sandwiched within the pumice-fall sequence. Secondary posteruption phenomena characterized include impounded lakes, ash-rich debris flows, phreatic craters on the ignimbrite sheet, responses of glaciers to the fallout blanket and to beheading by caldera collapse, growth of new glaciers inside the caldera, and gradual filling of the caldera lake. Structure, composition, and ages of the several andesite-dacite stratovolcanoes, closely clustered near Novarupta, all of which remain fumarolically and seismically active, are summarized. But among them only Mount Katmai extends compositionally to include basalt and rhyolite. The petrological affinities of 1912 magmas erupted at Novarupta with pre-1912 Katmai lavas are outlined, and various chemical, mineralogical, isotopic, and experimental data are assembled to construct a model of preeruptive magma storage beneath Mount Katmai. The monograph concludes by comparing the 1912 eruption with several other well-studied large explosive eruptions, 14 of them historical and 9 prehistoric. Finally, we retrospectively review the historical difficulties in understanding what had actually taken place at Katmai in 1912 and the century of progress in volcano science that has allowed most of it to be figured out.

Alaska;British Columbia;Washington;Yukon↗
USGS2006

Rates, trends, causes, and consequences of urban land-use change in the United States

Over the past 200 years, changes to the Nation's urban areas have been dramatic. Changes that have occurred relate both to the location of urban centers, as well as to the spatial extent of land dedicated to urban uses. Urban areas at the beginning of the 19th century were located primarily along major rivers or bodies of water, as waterways provided the most efficient means for transporting goods and people. As railroads became prominent, urban areas were able to expand or develop away from the water's edge. Geographic features such as steep slopes, wetlands, and lack of freshwater impeded settlement. In 1902, the National Reclamation Act was passed and with it came funding for the construction of water storage and transportation systems. This encouraged urban expansion in the arid west. After World War II, the Nation's urban areas continued to expand outward away from the city center as populations migrated to the margins of urban areas, where land was less expensive and the environment was less polluted. In 1956, the Federal Highway Act and the building of Interstate highways further facilitated urban expansion across the Unite States. Rural towns, small industrial centers, and farmland were engulfed by expanding urban centers. Over the past 200 years, numerous social, cultural, economic, and political incentives have encouraged urban expansion. In the 1800s, the industrial revolution influenced where people lived and worked. Many people shifted from agricultural production in rural areas to factory work in urban centers. Advances in transportation systems, such as rail transport in the 19th and early 20th centuries, followed by the mass production of the automobile and convenient air travel, facilitated a mobile society and a national economy. Economic growth and a population boom after World War II spurred increased suburbanization-the shifting of residential areas to the outlying section of a city or to a separate municipality-on the fringe of urban areas. Other economic and political incentives that shaped the urban environment included Federally backed home loans, credit and tax mechanisms that encouraged new development, and less restrictive municipal ordinances regarding building codes, environmental laws, and zoning regulations. Throughout the past two centuries land use changes associated with increasing urbanization have had impacts that resonate at local, regional, and even national scales. Landscape changes resulting from urbanization can be mapped and studied over time. Understanding these changes requires a study of the causes of change as related to social, economic, and political influences. Understanding these changes also requires analysis of how urbanization physically spreads across the landscape. The knowledge gained from studying urban land-use change can be helpful when it flows into local, regional, and national decisionmaking that relates to land-use decisions that impact the people, the economy, and the environment. Deriving a correlation between physical change and the explanations of the causes of change can help anticipate and mitigate the impacts of future change. Throughout the past two centuries changes to the Nation's urban areas are inextricably linked to population changes. The Nation's population started growing slowly along the eastern seaboard during the 17th and 18th centuries, accelerated in the second half of the 19th century, and then continued steadily spreading westward throughout the next hundred years. Currently, nearly 80 percent of the U.S. population resides in urban areas. Land area dedicated to urban use continues to expand, although differently than it has in the past. Most newly urbanized areas are much less densely populated and less intensively developed than they were 50 to 100 years ago.

Professional Paper↗
USGS2008

Glaciers of North America - Glaciers of Alaska

Glaciers cover about 75,000 km 2 of Alaska, about 5 percent of the State. The glaciers are situated on 11 mountain ranges, 1 large island, an island chain, and 1 archipelago and range in elevation from more than 6,000 m to below sea level. Alaska's glaciers extend geographically from the far southeast at lat 55 deg 19'N., long 130 deg 05'W., about 100 kilometers east of Ketchikan, to the far southwest at Kiska Island at lat 52 deg 05'N., long 177 deg 35'E., in the Aleutian Islands, and as far north as lat 69 deg 20'N., long 143 deg 45'W., in the Brooks Range. During the 'Little Ice Age', Alaska's glaciers expanded significantly. The total area and volume of glaciers in Alaska continue to decrease, as they have been doing since the 18th century. Of the 153 1:250,000-scale topographic maps that cover the State of Alaska, 63 sheets show glaciers. Although the number of extant glaciers has never been systematically counted and is thus unknown, the total probably is greater than 100,000. Only about 600 glaciers (about 1 percent) have been officially named by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names (BGN). There are about 60 active and former tidewater glaciers in Alaska. Within the glacierized mountain ranges of southeastern Alaska and western Canada, 205 glaciers (75 percent in Alaska) have a history of surging. In the same region, at least 53 present and 7 former large ice-dammed lakes have produced jokulhlaups (glacier-outburst floods). Ice-capped volcanoes on mainland Alaska and in the Aleutian Islands have a potential for jokulhlaups caused by subglacier volcanic and geothermal activity. Because of the size of the area covered by glaciers and the lack of large-scale maps of the glacierized areas, satellite imagery and other satellite remote-sensing data are the only practical means of monitoring regional changes in the area and volume of Alaska's glaciers in response to short- and long-term changes in the maritime and continental climates of the State. A review of the literature for each of the 11 mountain ranges, the large island, the island chain, and the archipelago was conducted to determine both the individual and the regional status of Alaskan glaciers and to characterize changes in thickness and terminus position of representative glaciers in each mountain range or island group. In many areas, observations used for determining changes date from the late 18th or early 19th century. Temperature records at all Alaskan meteorological recording stations document a 20th century warming trend. Therefore, characterizing the response of Alaska's glaciers to changing climate helps to quantify potential sea-level rise from past, present, and future melting of glacier ice (deglaciation of the 14 glacierized regions of Alaska), understand present and future hydrological changes, and define impacts on ecosystems that are responding to deglacierization. Many different types of data were scrutinized to determine baselines and to assess the magnitude of glacier change. These data include the following: published descriptions of glaciers (1794-2000), especially the comprehensive research by Field (1975a) and his colleagues in the Alaska part of Mountain Glaciers of the Northern Hemisphere, aerial photography (since 1926), ground photography (since 1884), airborne radar (1981-91), satellite radar (1978-98), space photography (1984-94), multispectral satellite imagery (since 1972), aerial reconnaissance and field observations made by many scientists during the past several decades, and various types of proxy data. The published and unpublished data available for each glacierized region and individual glacier varied significantly. Geospatial analysis of digitized U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) topographic maps is used to statistically define selected glaciological parameters in the eastern part of the Alaska Range. The analysis determined that every mountain range and island group investigated can be characterized by significant glacier retreat, thinning, and (or) stagnation, especially those glaciers that end at lower elevations. At some locations, glaciers completely disappeared during the 20th century. In other areas, retreat that started as early as the early 18th century has continued into the 21st century. Ironically, in several areas, retreat is resulting in an increase in the total number of glaciers; even though individual glaciers are separating, the volume and area of ice continue to decrease.

Alaska↗
USGS2009

Eocene total petroleum system — North and East of the Eocene West Side Fold Belt Assessment Unit of the San Joaquin Basin Province

The North and East of Eocene West Side Fold Belt Assessment Unit (AU) of the Eocene Total Petroleum System of the San Joaquin Basin Province comprises all hydrocarbon accumulations within the geographic and stratigraphic limits of this confirmed AU. Oil and associated gas accumulations occur in Paleocene through early middle Miocene marine to nonmarine sandstones found on the comparatively stable northeast shelf of the basin. The assessment unit is located north and east of the thickest accumulation of Neogene sediments and the west side fold belt. The area enclosed by the AU has been affected by only mild deformation since Eocene time. Traps containing known accumulations are mostly low-relief domes, anticlines, and up-dip basin margin traps with faulting and stratigraphic components. Map boundaries of the assessment unit are shown in figures 19.1 and 19.2; this assessment unit replaces the Northeast Shelf of Neogene Basin play 1006, the East Central Basin and Slope North of Bakersfield Arch play 1010, and part of the West Side Fold Belt Sourced by Pre-middle Miocene Rocks play 1005 considered by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in their 1995 National Assessment (Beyer, 1996). Stratigraphically, the AU includes rocks from the uppermost crystalline basement to the topographic surface. In the region of overlap with the Central Basin Monterey Diagenetic Traps Assessment Unit, the North and East of Eocene West Side Fold Belt AU extends from basement rocks to the top of the Temblor Formation (figs. 19.3 and 19.4). In map view, the northern boundary of the assessment unit corresponds to the northernmost extent of Eocene-age Kreyenhagen Formation. The northeast boundary is the eastern limit of possible oil reservoir rocks near the eastern edge of the basin. The southeast boundary corresponds to the pinch-out of Stevens sand of Eckis (1940) to the south, which approximately coincides with the northern flank of the Bakersfield Arch (fig. 19.1). The AU is bounded on the southwest by the limit of major west side structural deformation and to the northwest by the San Andreas Fault and the limit of hydrocarbon-prospective strata in the Coast Ranges. As described by Gautier and others (this volume, chapter 2), existing oil fields in the San Joaquin Basin Province were assigned to assessment units based on the identified petroleum system and reservoir rocks in each field. Vallecitos oil field in the extreme northwest corner of the basin was assigned to the Eocene Total Petroleum System, because oil analyses conducted for this San Joaquin Basin assessment indicate that Eocene oil charged the reservoir rocks (Lillis and Magoon, this volume, chapter 9). Some literature classifies the Vallecitos oil field as part of the northernmost fold of the basin’s west side fold belt (see, for example, Rentschler, 1985; Bartow, 1991), but because of the oil field’s spatial separation and differing trend from the west side fold belt, Vallecitos field was considered here to be within the North and East of Eocene West Side Fold Belt Assessment Unit rather than in the other assessment unit in the Eocene Total Petroleum System, the Eocene West Side Fold Belt. Primary fields in the assessment unit are defined as those containing hydrocarbon resources greater than the USGS minimum threshold for assessment (0.5 million barrels of oil); secondary fields contain smaller volumes of oil but constitute a significant show of hydrocarbons.

California↗
USGS2011

Depositional setting and geochemistry of phosphorites and metalliferous black shales in the Carboniferous-Permian Lisburne Group, Northern Alaska

Phosphatic rocks are distributed widely in the Lisburne Group, a mainly Carboniferous carbonate succession that occurs throughout northern Alaska. New sedimentologic, paleontologic, and geochemical data presented here constrain the geographic and stratigraphic extent of these strata and their depositional and paleogeographic settings. Our findings support models that propose very high oxygen contents of the Permo-Carboniferous atmosphere and oceans, and those that suggest enhanced phosphogenesis in iron-limited sediments; our data also have implications for Carboniferous paleogeography of the Arctic. Lisburne Group phosphorites range from granular to nodular, are interbedded with black shale and lime mudstone rich in radiolarians and sponge spicules, and accumulated primarily in suboxic outer- to middle-ramp environments. Age constraints from conodonts, foraminifers, and goniatite cephalopods indicate that most are middle Late Mississippian (early Chesterian; early late Visean). Phosphorites form 2- to 40-cm-thick beds of sand- to pebble-sized phosphatic peloids, coated grains, and (or) bioclasts cemented by carbonate, silica, or phosphate that occur through an interval =12 m thick. High gamma-ray response through this interval suggests strongly condensed facies related to sediment starvation and development of phosphatic hardgrounds. Phosphorite textures, such as unconformity-bounded coated grains, record multiple episodes of phosphogenesis and sedimentary reworking. Sharp bed bases and local grading indicate considerable redeposition of phosphatic material into deeper water by storms and (or) gravity flows. Lisburne Group phosphorites contain up to 37 weight percent P2O5, 7.6 weight percent F, 1,030 ppm Y, 517 ppm La, and 166 ppm U. Shale-normalized rare earth element (REE) plots show uniformly large negative Ce anomalies Ce/Ce*=0.11 + or - 0.03) that are interpreted to reflect phosphate deposition in seawater that was greatly depleted in Ce due to increased oxygenation of the atmosphere and oceans during the Carboniferous evolution of large vascular land plants. Black shales within the phosphorite sections have up to 20.2 weight percent Corg and are potential petroleum source rocks. Locally, these strata also are metalliferous, with up to 1,690 ppm Cr, 2,831 ppm V, 551 ppm Ni, 4,670 ppm Zn, 312 ppm Cu, 43.5 ppm Ag, and 12.3 ppm Tl; concentrations of these metals covary broadly with Corg, suggesting coupled redox variations. Calculated marine fractions (MF) of Cr, V, and Mo, used to evaluate the paleoredox state of the bottom waters, show generally high CrMF/MoMF and VMF/MoMF ratios that indicate deposition of the black shales under suboxic denitrifying conditions; Re/Mo ratios also plot mainly within the suboxic field and support this interpretation. Predominantly seawater and biogenic sources are indicated for Cr, V, Mo, Zn, Cd, Ni, and Cu in the black shales, with an additional hydrothermal contribution inferred for Zn, Cd, Ag, and Tl in some samples. Lisburne Group phosphorites formed in the Ikpikpuk Basin and along both sides of the mud- and chert-rich Kuna Basin, which hosts giant massive sulfide and barite deposits of the Red Dog district. Lisburne Group phosphatic strata are coeval with these deposits and formed in response to a nutrient-rich upwelling regime. Phosphate deposition occurred mainly in suboxic bottom waters based on data for paleoredox proxies (Cr, V, Mo, Re) within contemporaneous black shales. Recent global reconstructions are consistent with Carboniferous upwelling in northern Alaska, but differ in the type of upwelling expected (zonal versus meridional). Paleoenvironmental data suggest that meridional upwelling may better explain phosphorite deposition in the Lisburne Group.

Alaska↗
USGS2014

Thermal maturity patterns (conodont color alteration index and vitrinite reflectance) in Upper Ordovician and Devonian rocks of the Appalachian basin: A major revision of USGS Map I-917-E using new subsurface collections

Introduction The conodont color alteration index (CAI) introduced by Epstein and others (1977) and Harris and others (1978) is an important criterion for estimating the thermal maturity of Ordovician to Mississippian rocks in the Appalachian basin. Consequently, the CAI isograd maps of Harris and others (1978) are commonly used by geologists to characterize the thermal and burial history of the Appalachian basin and to better understand the origin and distribution of oil and gas resources in the basin. The main objectives of this report are to present revised CAI isograd maps for Ordovician and Devonian rocks in the Appalachian basin and to interpret the geologic and petroleum resource implications of these maps. The CAI isograd maps presented herein complement, and in some areas replace, the CAI-based isograd maps of Harris and others (1978) for the Appalachian basin. The CAI data presented in this report were derived almost entirely from subsurface samples, whereas the CAI data used by Harris and others (1978) were derived almost entirely from outcrop samples. Because of the different sampling methods, there is little geographic overlap of the two data sets. The new data set is mostly from the Allegheny Plateau structural province and most of the data set of Harris and others (1978) is from the Valley and Ridge structural province, east of the Allegheny structural front (fig. 1). Vitrinite reflectance, based on dispersed vitrinite in Devonian black shale, is another important parameter for estimating the thermal maturity in pre-Pennsylvanian-age rocks of the Appalachian basin (Streib, 1981; Cole and others, 1987; Gerlach and Cercone, 1993; Rimmer and others, 1993; Curtis and Faure, 1997). This chapter also presents a revised percent vitrinite reflectance (%R 0 ) isograd map based on dispersed vitrinite recovered from selected Devonian black shales. The Devonian black shales used for the vitrinite studies reported herein also were analyzed by RockEval pyrolysis and total organic carbon (TOC) content in weight percent. Although the RockEval and TOC data are included in this chapter (table 1), they are not shown on the maps. The revised CAI isograd and percent vitrinite reflectance isograd maps cover all or parts of Kentucky, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia (fig. 1), and the following three stratigraphic intervals: Upper Ordovician carbonate rocks, Lower and Middle Devonian carbonate rocks, and Middle and Upper Devonian black shales. These stratigraphic intervals were chosen for the following reasons: (1) they represent target reservoirs for much of the oil and gas exploration in the Appalachian basin; (2) they are stratigraphically near probable source rocks for most of the oil and gas; (3) they include geologic formations that are nearly continuous across the basin; (4) they contain abundant carbonate grainstone-packstone intervals, which give a reasonable to good probability of recovery of conodont elements from small samples of drill cuttings; and (5) the Middle and Upper Devonian black shale contains large amounts of organic matter for RockEval, TOC, and dispersed vitrinite analyses. Thermal maturity patterns of the Upper Ordovician Trenton Limestone are of particular interest here, because they closely approximate the thermal maturity patterns in the overlying Upper Ordovician Utica Shale, which is the probable source rock for oil and gas in the Upper Cambrian Rose Run Sandstone (sandstone), Upper Cambrian and Lower Ordovician Knox Group (Dolomite), Lower and Middle Ordovician Beekmantown Group (dolomite or Dolomite), Upper Ordovician Trenton and Black River Limestones, and Lower Silurian Clinton/Medina sandstone (Cole and others, 1987; Jenden and others, 1993; Laughrey and Baldassare, 1998; Ryder and others, 1998; Ryder and Zagorski, 2003). The thermal maturity patterns of the Lower Devonian Helderberg Limestone (Group), Middle Devonian Onondaga Limestone, and Middle Devonian Marcellus Shale-Upper Devonian Rhine street Shale Member-Upper Devonian Ohio Shale are of interest, because they closely approximate the thermal maturity patterns in the Marcellus Shale, Upper Devonian Rhinestreet Shale Member, and Upper Devonian Huron Member of the Ohio Shale, which are the most important source rocks for oil and gas in the Appalachian basin (de Witt and Milici, 1989; Klemme and Ulmishek, 1991). The Marcellus, Rhinestreet, and Huron units are black-shale source rocks for oil and (or) gas in the Lower Devonian Oriskany Sandstone, the Upper Devonian sandstones, the Middle and Upper Devonian black shales, and the Upper Devonian-Lower Mississippian(?) Berea Sandstone (Patchen and others, 1992; Roen and Kepferle, 1993; Laughrey and Baldassare, 1998).

Appalachian basin↗
USGS1997

Hydrogeology and ground-water flow in the Edwards-Trinity aquifer-system, west-central, Texas

Two finite-element ground-water flow models were developed for the Edwards–Trinity aquifer system, west-central Texas, to gain a better understanding of the flow system; one ground-water flow model was developed at a large scale to simulate the regional system and contiguous, hydraulically connected units, and one model was constructed at a smaller more detailed scale to simulate the most active areas of the system. The study area is divided into four geographic subareas: the Trans-Pecos (9,750 square miles), the Edwards Plateau (23,750 square miles), the Hill Country (5,500 square miles), and the Balcones fault zone (3,000 square miles). The major aquifers within the study area are the Edwards–Trinity aquifer underlying the Trans-Pecos and Edwards Plateau, the Trinity aquifer underlying the Hill Country, and the Edwards aquifer in the Balcones fault zone. Hydraulically connected aquifers include the High Plains aquifer north of the Edwards Plateau, and the Cenozoic Pecos alluvium aquifer adjacent to both the Trans-Pecos and the Edwards Plateau along the Pecos River. Minor contiguous aquifers include the Dockum, Ellenburger– San Saba, Marble Falls, Hickory, and Lipan, which is adjacent to the Colorado River in Tom Green and Concho Counties, Texas. The ground-water flow equations solved by the finite-element method are based on conservation of mass and energy. The equation for ground-water flow assumes laminar flow through a porous media. In places, the Edwards–Trinity aquifer system is a fractured karst system in which ground water flows through caverns and other features of secondary porosity development. The regional and subregional models were constructed to synthesize the known hydrologic boundaries and geologic structures into a heterogeneous continuum model of the karst ground-water flow system, rather than simulate the flow through specific fractures and caverns. A heterogeneous continuum or equivalent porous media approach uses an effective transmissivity and anisotropy for each element of the models. The models are calibrated both on water levels (representing potential energy) and estimates of recharge and discharge (for a realistic mass balance). A two-dimensional one-layer large-scale model (55,600 square miles) was developed for the Edwards–Trinity aquifer system and contiguous, hydraulically connected units, in westcentral Texas. A quasi-three-dimensional, multilayer more detailed scale ground-water flow model (12,300 square miles) was applied to the major aquifers of the Edwards–Trinity aquifer system in the Hill Country and the Balcones fault zone, and in part of the Edwards Plateau. The ground-water flow system in most of the study area within the Trans-Pecos and Edwards Plateau can be approximated with a one-layer regional model under steady-state conditions. Regionally, the Edwards–Trinity aquifer system in the Trans-Pecos and Edwards Plateau has been relatively static. Potentiometric maps from predevelopment and postdevelopment (winter 1974–75) indicate small differences in water levels. In local areas in the Trans-Pecos (in Pecos and Reeves Counties), ground-water withdrawals have exceeded recharge resulting in more than 300 feet of drawdown. Measurable differences between the 1974 and predevelopment potentiometric surfaces have been observed in small areas in the Trans-Pecos and in the northwestern part of the Edwards Plateau. The largest water-level declines in the Trans-Pecos have been observed in Pecos and Reeves Counties, and declines greater than 300 feet have been measured in Reeves County. Comparison of pre- and postdevelopment water budgets for the regional model indicates that the increase in groundwater withdrawals has captured 20 percent of the water that would have naturally discharged to streams, and 30 percent of the natural discharge to springs after ground-water development. Induced recharge from streams to the ground-water system increased by 12 percent in the postdevelopment simulation compared to the predevelopment simulation.

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USGS1989

Geology of the Arabian Peninsula; shield area of western Saudi Arabia

Western Arabia lies within the low-latitude desert of north Africa and the Middle East, the core being the Arabian segment of the African Shield. The core of complex basement rocks accounts for about 670,000 km 2 , or one-third of the Arabian Peninsula. Reconnaissance mapping of these crystalline rocks, together with bordering sedimentary rocks and volcanic flows, begun in 1950, resulted during the next 13 years in a series of geologic and geographic maps without extensive texts. The maps served as general guides for development of natural resources, including water supplies, ore deposits, and building materials. An intensive exploration program that began in 1963 and involved numerous geologists has vastly increased geologic information. Rainfall in Arabia is meager and episodic, and vegetation is sparse except in isolated copses on the crest of the Hejaz Range. Comparison of flora with similar species in the Sudan, where records of rainfall have long been kept, allows evaluation of mean annual precipitation. Wandering bedouin following fodder created a delicate balance between population and water supply-now disturbed by wells drilled in alluvium and lava fields. A trapezoidal region of Precambrian crystalline rocks lies along the northeast flank of the Red Sea, with two long prongs extending northwest and southeast for a total of 1,800 km. These basement rocks of the Arabian Shield are well exposed on the uplands, scarp mountains, and coastal pediments where the Phanerozoic cover rocks have been stripped as a result of Paleozoic epeirogeny and Tertiary ramping. The shield outcrops are divided into three tectonic provinces by N. 45°W.- trending shear zones of the Najd fault system of latest Proterozoic and possibly earliest Paleozoic time. The southwestern province, the 'Asir1 upland, was sharply uplifted and tilted to the northeast during the Neogene. The northwestern province, consisting of the Ash Shifa'- Hisma upland as well as Jabal Shammar farther east, similarly was uplifted and tilted. These two provinces are separated by the flat-lying median N ajd province, which is chiefly bounded by the principal Najd faults. The outcrops of the shield rocks are of the Late Proterozoic Eonupper Riphean to Vendian or Infracambrian epochs, including the Ediacarian System. The most reliable isotopic ages range from about 900 to 560 m.y., but some Middle Proterozoic rocks may be present in the easternmost shield. The rocks are divided into six lithostratigraphic sequences, two plutonic suites, and an ophiolitic suite. The mafic and ultramafic volcanic and plutonic rocks of the ophiolitic suite everywhere were emplaced tectonically and are probably of different ages in different places. Some ophiolite occurs as obducted blocks, but most is highly deformed and altered to serpentinite in fault zones that mostly define sutures between different tectonic blocks or terranes within the shield. Three of the lithostratigraphic sequences consist of mafic to silicic volcanic rocks and volcanic-derived clastic rocks which, with their subvolcanic plutonic rocks of a dioritic suite, probably formed in oceanic island arcs during convergent plate tectonism. These rocks make up the primary, or first-formed, crust of the shield. Chemical analyses show that the primary shield rocks, regardless of age, are principally calc-alkalic with some associated tholeiitic varieties. Most of the layered rocks are andesitic, but they range from basalt to dacite and in places contain intercalated pillow basalt, marble, chert, and carbonaceous or graphitic schist. Most of the plutonic rocks of the dioritic suite are dioritic, but they range from gabbro to trondhjemite and rarely contain potassium feldspar. The sequences and an associated dioritic suite become younger toward the eastern shield, that is, the primary crust of the shield youngs toward the east. Two western sequences consist of the Jiddah (Samran) and BaishBahah Groups and range in radiometric age from about 900 to 800 m.y.; the eastern sequence consists of the Halaban (Hulayfah) Group and ranges from 800 to about 700 m.y. During subsequent orogeny, most of the rocks were intensely deformed and mostly metamorphosed to upper greenschist facies, but rising in places to the almandine-amphibolite facies. Two other lithostratigraphic sequences with an associated plutonic granitic suite are the products of two mountain-building episodes during which the primary crust was greatly thickened and converted into craton. The two sequences, including largely the Ablah (Al Ays) and Murdama (Shammar) Groups, consist of abundant sedimentary rocks, commonly arkosic, that are the erosional products of the orogenic mountains. They are several thousand meters thick. Less abundant calc-alkalic to alkalic volcanic rocks, commonly dacitic and rhyolitic, are intercalated with the sedimentary rocks. The plutonic rocks of the granitic suite in association with both sequences have syntectonic and posttectonic phases, are products of the orogenies, and are the principal new ingredients making up the craton. Gneiss domes were a significant part of these cratonization orogenies. In association with orogenic crustal heating, some of the low-density, more silicic tonalitic and trondhjemitic rocks of the primary crust rose as gneiss domes. Partial melting in the middle or lower crust below the gneiss domes produced large volumes of granitic magma that intruded the gneiss domes as granodioritic batholiths. The Ablah Group and the older part of the granitic suite are about 775 to 740 Ma old and are associated with the Ablah orogeny and early cratonization in the western and earlier formed half of the shield. The Murdama (Shammar) Group and the younger part of the granitic suite are about 660 to 580 Ma old and are associated with the culminant orogeny and late cratonization that was shieldwide. The granitic suite during both orogenies consists of early, syntectonic granodiorite batholiths associated with the gneiss domes and late, posttectonic monzogranite plutons. Only during the culminant orogeny, late magmatic evolution produced syenogranite and alkali-feldspar granite commonly in circular and ring-structured plutons and with associated explosive volcanic deposits (Shammar Group); final products, some of which have economic potential, were peralkalic and peraluminous. The late plutonism of the culminant orogeny was distinctly bimodal in that subordinate gabbroic rocks are associated with the granites. Various building blocks or terranes of the andesitic and dioritic primary crust were collisionally agglomerated during the Ablah orogeny, early cratonization, whereas the entire shield as currently exposed was further collisionally accreted and compressionally consolidated during the culminant orogeny, final cratonization. Thousands of kilometers of oceanic crust had to be subducted in about 300 m.y. to form the large primary crust of the Arabian Shield. The inevitable collisional events during consumption of such a large volume of oceanic crust invariably led to numerous collisional orogenies that collectively encompass the widely known Pan African tectonic episode. The youngest lithostratigraphic sequence, the Jubaylah Group, is essentially postcratonic, although it is the end product of the collisional culminant orogeny. Final east-west compression of the entire shield from about 580 to 560 m.y. caused the craton to fracture along the large northwest-trending, left-lateral faults and elsewhere along lesser, northeast-trending, right-lateral, conjugate faults of the N ajd fault system. Erosional products of this more localized deformation were the sedimentary rocks of the Jubaylah Group, which also includes intercalated andesitic to basaltic volcanic rocks of a mafic alkalic compositional trend. The collisional edge of an old continental plate (or tectonic fragments thereof), suspected on the eastern edge of the Arabian Shield, has not been shown with certainty to be exposed. Presumably, widespread contamination from such an old continental crust affects U/Pb, Sm/Nd, Rb/Sr, and common lead ratios in the young plutonic rocks of the easternmost shield. One mass of anorthosite near Jabal Khida' on the central eastern edge of the shield may be a fragment of this old continental plate in that associated granodiorite may be as old as 1,600 to 1,800 Ma. Epeirogenic uplift, erosion, and cooling of the uppermost shield during Early and Middle Cambrian time is indicated by an average fission track age of 510±52 m.y., on sphene from diorite (hornblende K-Ar age of 615±12 m.y.) in the southwestern part of the shield. The hiatus was followed by extensive deposition of the Cambro-Ordovician Saq Sandstone in the north and northeast and the Wajid Sandstone in the southeast and south of the shield. The Cambrian Siq Sandstone had already been deposited in the northern part. During the middle and late Paleozoic, broad epeirogeny caused further erosion of the shield until marine transgression deposited the Upper Permian Khuff Formation at least in the eastern part of the shield. In the southwestern shield, the nonmarine Upper Triassic Khums Sandstone was deposited variably on Wajid or Precambrian rocks and is overlain by limestone of the middle Upper Jurassic Amran Formation. Except for shallow marine sandstone of problematic Cretaceous age deposited on the Amran Formation in the south.western shield and on Precambrian rocks in the northwestern shield, the younger beds on the shield are Paleocene and younger, with the possibility that the lowermost are upper Maestrichtian. The early Tertiary beds contain vertebrate fossils of coastal marine or estuarine environment 250 km east of the Red Sea in the central shield. Marginal marine sediments were deposited in a western tongue of the latest Tethys Sea as late as Eocene on the western shield and at least as far south as Jiddah. The great harrats of flood basalt erupted on th~ western shield during late Oligocene and early Miocene at the same time a 2,000-kmlong continental rift valley developed along the future Red Sea axis. Within this rift valley, Baid freshwater tuffaceous lakebeds were deposited between mafic and silicic volcanoes. During late early Miocene time, the Red Sea opened at a rate of 4.4 cm/yr in a firststage movement while continental dikes and swarms of oceanic tholeiitic dikes, gabbro, and granophyre plutonic rocks were intruded into the rift sedimentary and volcanic rocks at the newly formed continental margin. The continental margin was deformed and greatly extended at this time. About 14 or 15 m.y., as the first-stage spreading stopped, the Red Sea Escarpment rose; its erosion caused deposition of coarse conglomerate of the Bathan Formation. About 3,000 m of evaporite was deposited on the young Red Sea oceanic crust during the late Miocene desiccation crisis. A second stage of sea-floor spreading about 4-5 m.y. produced the Red Sea axial trough, consisting of oceanic crust, as well as renewed uplift and tilting of the three tectonic provinces in response to compression from counterclockwise rotation against the Dead Sea Rift. This late movement caused widespread major stream capture, especially along the wadis that formerly drained southwesterly or northwesterly, the channels turning westward through narrow gorges to the coastal plain and the Red Sea.

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