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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
USGS2024

Unlearning Racism in Geoscience (URGE): Summary of U.S. Geological Survey URGE pod deliverables

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is in a unique position to be a leader in diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in the Earth sciences. As one of the largest geoscience employers, the USGS wields significant community influence and has a responsibility to adopt and implement robust, unbiased policies so that the science it is charged to deliver is better connected to the diverse communities it serves. Meaningful and effective improvements in implementation of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility principles made within the USGS will be seen across the geoscience community. Despite this opportunity, however, the community, including the USGS, has struggled to diversify the geoscience workforce, which does not reflect the Nation’s diversity. This disparity suggests that the implementation of past policies did not achieve their desired outcomes in sustainable ways. The persistent lack of diversity across the geosciences and the racial justice protests of 2020 motivated a group of geoscience scholars to launch a global, virtual initiative known as Unlearning Racism in Geoscience (URGE) in the winter of 2021. The 16-week facilitated URGE curriculum was designed to highlight existing literature, share expert opinions, and foster discussion within groups (pods) around the world to build action plans for affecting change within their home institutions ( https://urgeoscience.org/ ). Whereas most of the approximately 4,500 participants were university faculty and students or from professional societies and nonprofit organizations, 6 pods totaling over 120 participants from the USGS joined the program—the largest participation of any Federal science agency. Summarizing the recommendations of over 100 USGS employees across the USGS who participated in URGE, this Circular represents a grassroots plan for making the USGS workforce more diverse and inclusive. To identify how peer-reviewed best practices could be implemented at the USGS, participants read existing literature, reviewed USGS policies and procedures, explored new and existing demographic data, and listened to and discussed primary interviews with scholars, all facilitated by the URGE program. This Circular leverages the efforts and momentum of the USGS URGE participants to catalyze and support positive, systemic change throughout the organization in a holistic way that represents an achievable departure from past policies that fell short of success. These recommendations are starting points. Reflecting the overall lack of diversity in the USGS workforce, the USGS URGE participants were predominantly White, meaning recommendations in this document can and should continue to evolve to include the lived perspectives and input from the broader USGS community. Finally, this summary document only highlights some of the key findings of these working groups. Additional details that may be more suitable to specific USGS Centers and programs can be found in the primary documents developed by each USGS URGE pod; a list of all registered pods can be found at https://urgeoscience.org/pods/ .

Circular↗
USGS2016

Undergraduate research projects help promote diversity in the geosciences

A workforce that draws from all segments of society and mirrors the ethnic, racial, and gender diversity of the United States population is important. The geosciences (geology, hydrology, geospatial sciences, environmental sciences) continue to lag far behind other science, technology, engineering and mathematical (STEM) disciplines in recruiting and retaining minorities (Valsco and Valsco, 2010). A report published by the National Science Foundation in 2015, “Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering” states that from 2002 to 2012, less than 2% of the geoscience degrees were awarded to African-American students. Data also show that as of 2012, approximately 30% of African-American Ph.D. graduates obtained a bachelor’s degree from a Historic Black College or University (HBCU), indicating that HBCUs are a great source of diverse students for the geosciences. This paper reviews how an informal partnership between Tennessee State University (a HBCU), the U.S. Geological Survey, and Mammoth Cave National Park engaged students in scientific research and increased the number of students pursuing employment or graduate degrees in the geosciences.

Conference Paper↗
USGS1983

The role of digital cartographic data in the geosciences

The increasing demand of the Nation's natural resource developers for the manipulation, analysis, and display of large quantities of earth-science data has necessitated the use of computers and the building of geoscience information systems. These systems require, in digital form, the spatial data on map products. The basic cartographic data shown on quadrangle maps provide a foundation for the addition of geological and geophysical data. If geoscience information systems are to realize their full potential, large amounts of digital cartographic base data must be available. A major goal of the U.S. Geological Survey is to create, maintain, manage, and distribute a national cartographic and geographic digital database. This unified database will contain numerous categories (hydrography, hypsography, land use, etc.) that, through the use of standardized data-element definitions and formats, can be used easily and flexibly to prepare cartographic products and perform geoscience analysis. ?? 1983.

Computers & Geosciences↗
USGS2003

The Role of Geoscience Information in Reducing Catastrophic Loss Using a Web-Based Economics Experiment

What role can geoscience information play in the assessment of risk and the value of insurance, especially for natural hazard type risks? In an earlier, related paper Ganderton and others (2000) provided subjects with relatively simple geoscience information concerning natural hazard-type risks. Their research looked at how subjects purchase insurance when faced with relatively low probability but high loss risks of the kind that characterize natural hazards and now, increasingly, manmade disasters. They found evidence to support the expected utility theory (definitions of economics terms can be found in a glossary at the end of report), yet there remained the implication that subjects with excessive aversion to risk were willing to pay considerably more for insurance than the actuarially fair price plus any reasonable risk premium. Here, we report the results of additional experiments that provide further support for the basic postulates of expected utility theory. However, these new experiments add considerably to the decision environment facing subjects by offering an option to purchase geoscientific information that would assist them when calculating expected losses from hazards more accurately. Using an Internet-based mechanism to present information and gather data in an experimental setting, this research provided subjects with considerable textual and graphical information, and time to process it. Over a period of three months, almost 400 subjects participated in on-line experiments that generated approximately 22,000 usable data points for the empirical analysis discussed in this report. In the design of the experiment, we modeled the decisions to purchase (1) a detailed map giving subjects more information regarding the distribution of losses from a hazard and (2) insurance to indemnify them from any losses should they occur. On the basis of this design, we find strong evidence in support of the expected utility theory. Many of the findings reinforce those found in the early, similar study (Ganderton and others, 2000). However, this research also finds interactions between the decision to become better informed and the decision to insure. We chose an empirical framework that allows for both explicit and implicit (unobservable) correlations between the two decisions. The results suggest that at the end of the computer game subjects recognize the benefits of greater geoscience information. They take advantage of it, but are sensitive to its cost. When subjects use the more detailed information, they are more likely to purchase insurance when it offers a net benefit.

Professional Paper↗
USGS2020

International geoscience collaboration to support critical mineral discovery

The importance of critical minerals and the need to expand and diversify critical mineral supply chains has been endorsed by the Federal governments of Australia, Canada, and the United States. The geoscience organizations of Geoscience Australia, the Geological Survey of Canada and the U.S. Geological Survey have created the Critical Minerals Mapping Initiative to build a diversified critical minerals industry in Australia, Canada, and the United States by developing a better understanding of known critical mineral resources, determining geologic controls on critical mineral distribution for deposits currently producing byproducts, identifying new sources of supply through critical mineral potential mapping and quantitative mineral assessments, and promoting critical mineral discovery in all three countries.

Fact Sheet↗
USGS2023

Applications of natural language processing to geoscience text data and prospectivity modelling

Geological maps are powerful models for visualizing the complex distribution of rock types through space and time. However, the descriptive information that forms the basis for a preferred map interpretation is typically stored in geological map databases as unstructured text data that are difficult to use in practice. Herein we apply natural language processing (NLP) to geoscientific text data from Canada, the U.S., and Australia to address that knowledge gap. First, rock descriptions, geological ages, lithostratigraphic and lithodemic information, and other long-form text data are translated to numerical vectors, i.e., a word embedding, using a geoscience language model. Network analysis of word associations, nearest neighbors, and principal component analysis are then used to extract meaningful semantic relationships between rock types. We further demonstrate using simple Naive Bayes classifiers and the area under receiver operating characteristics plots (AUC) how word vectors can be used to: (1) predict the locations of “pegmatitic” (AUC = 0.962) and “alkalic” (AUC = 0.938) rocks; (2) predict mineral potential for Mississippi-Valley-type (AUC = 0.868) and clastic-dominated (AUC = 0.809) Zn-Pb deposits; and (3) search geoscientific text data for analogues of the giant Mount Isa clastic-dominated Zn-Pb deposit using the cosine similarities between word vectors. This form of semantic search is a promising NLP approach for assessing mineral potential with limited training data. Overall, the results highlight how geoscience language models and NLP can be used to extract new knowledge from unstructured text data and reduce the mineral exploration search space for critical raw materials.

Natural Resources Research↗
USGS2011

Geophysical Research Letters: New policies improve top-cited geosciences journal

Geophysical Research Letters (GRL) is the American Geophysical Union's premier journal of fast, groundbreaking communication. It rapidly publishes high- impact,letter-length articles, and it is the top-cited multidisciplinary geosciences journal over the past 10 years, with an impact factor that increased again in 2009, to 3.204. For manuscripts submitted to GRL, the median time to first and final decision is 23 and 27 days, respectively—a 35% improvement since 2007—and the median time from submission to publication is 13 weeks for 90% of GRL papers—a 25% improvement since 2007. Among high-impact publications in the geosciences, GRL has the fastest turnaround.

Eos, Transactions, American Geophysical Union↗
USGS2023

Differentiable modelling to unify machine learning and physical models for geosciences

Process-based modelling offers interpretability and physical consistency in many domains of geosciences but struggles to leverage large datasets efficiently. Machine-learning methods, especially deep networks, have strong predictive skills yet are unable to answer specific scientific questions. In this Perspective, we explore differentiable modelling as a pathway to dissolve the perceived barrier between process-based modelling and machine learning in the geosciences and demonstrate its potential with examples from hydrological modelling. ‘Differentiable’ refers to accurately and efficiently calculating gradients with respect to model variables or parameters, enabling the discovery of high-dimensional unknown relationships. Differentiable modelling involves connecting (flexible amounts of) prior physical knowledge to neural networks, pushing the boundary of physics-informed machine learning. It offers better interpretability, generalizability, and extrapolation capabilities than purely data-driven machine learning, achieving a similar level of accuracy while requiring less training data. Additionally, the performance and efficiency of differentiable models scale well with increasing data volumes. Under data-scarce scenarios, differentiable models have outperformed machine-learning models in producing short-term dynamics and decadal-scale trends owing to the imposed physical constraints. Differentiable modelling approaches are primed to enable geoscientists to ask questions, test hypotheses, and discover unrecognized physical relationships. Future work should address computational challenges, reduce uncertainty, and verify the physical significance of outputs.

Nature Reviews Earth & Environment↗
USGS2000

U.S. Geological Survey, remote sensing, and geoscience data: Using standards to serve us all

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) advocates the use of standards with geosciences and remotely sensed data and metadata for its own purposes and those of its customers. In activities that range from archiving data to making a product, the incorporation of standards makes these functions repeatable and understandable. More important, when accepted standards are followed, data discovery and sharing can be more efficient and the overall value to society can be expanded. The USGS archives many terabytes of digital geoscience and remotely sensed data. Several million photographs are also available to the research community. To manage these vast holdings and ensure that strict preservation and high usability criteria are observed, the USGS uses standards within the archival, data management, public access and ordering, and data distribution areas. The USGS uses Federal and international standards in performing its role as the U.S. National Satellite Land Remote Sensing Data Archive and in its mission as the long-term archive and production center for aerial photographs and cartographic data covering the United States.

Conference Paper↗
USGS2010

Geoinformatics: Transforming data to knowledge for geosciences

An integrative view of Earth as a system, based on multidisciplinary data, has become one of the most compelling reasons for research and education in the geosciences. It is now necessary to establish a modern infrastructure that can support the transformation of data to knowledge. Such an information infrastructure for geosciences is contained within the emerging science of geoinformatics, which seeks to promote the utilizetion and integration of complex, multidisciplinary data in seeking solutions to geosciencebased societal challenges.

GSA Today↗
USGS2007

Antarctic Multibeam Bathymetry and Geophysical Data Synthesis: an on-line digital data Resource for marine geoscience research in the Southern Ocean

The Antarctic Multibeam Bathymetry and Geophysical Data Synthesis(AMBS) is a web-accessible data resource for marine geoscience research in the Southern Ocean. The primary focusisto preserve and provide public accessto multibeam bathymetry acquired during expeditions of research vesselssupported by the U.S. National Science Foundation. Since itsinception in 2003, our primary goal has been to facilitate visualization and exploration of the subsea landscape to the full detail of the original data by both specialists and non-specialists. Visualization across a widerange of map scales at high latitudesis made possible by dynamic accessto a gridded synthesisin both Polar and Mercator projections. A second goal isto support multi-disciplinary research needs by offering data discovery and visualization of numerous complementary geoscience datasets.In thisreport, we describe the design objectives and architecture of the AMBS, as well asrecent developmentsregarding data submission and delivery via Web Services

Open-File Report↗
USGS2007

Integrated geoscience studies in the Greater Yellowstone Area - Volcanic, tectonic, and hydrothermal processes in the Yellowstone geoecosystem

Yellowstone National Park, rimmed by a crescent of older mountainous terrain, has at its core the Quaternary Yellowstone Plateau, an undulating landscape shaped by forces of volcanism, tectonism, and later glaciation. Its spectacular hydrothermal systems cap this landscape. From 1997 through 2003, the United States Geological Survey Mineral Resources Program conducted a multidisciplinary project of Yellowstone National Park entitled Integrated Geoscience Studies of the Greater Yellowstone Area, building on a 130-year foundation of extensive field studies (including the Hayden survey of 1871, the Hague surveys of the 1880s through 1896, the studies of Iddings, Allen, and Day during the 1920s, and NASA-supported studies starting in the 1970s—now summarized in USGS Professional Paper 729 A through G) in this geologically dynamic terrain. The project applied a broad range of scientific disciplines and state-of-the-art technologies targeted to improve stewardship of the unique natural resources of Yellowstone and enable the National Park Service to effectively manage resources, protect park visitors from geologic hazards, and better educate the public on geologic processes and resources. This project combined a variety of data sets in characterizing the surficial and subsurface chemistry, mineralogy, geology, geophysics, and hydrothermal systems in various parts of the park. The sixteen chapters presented herein in USGS Professional Paper 1717, Integrated Geoscience Studies in the Greater Yellowstone Area—Volcanic, Tectonic, and Hydrothermal Processes in the Yellowstone Geoecosystem , can be divided into four major topical areas: (1) geologic studies, (2) Yellowstone Lake studies, (3) geochemical studies, and (4) geophysical studies. The geologic studies include a paper by Ken Pierce and others on the influence of the Yellowstone hotspot on landscape formation, the ecological effects of the hotspot, and the human experience and human geography of the greater Yellowstone ecosystem as influenced by the Yellowstone hotspot. Another paper by Paul Carrara describes the recent movement of a large landslide block dated by tree-ring analyses in the Tower Falls area. The section under Yellowstone Lake studies begins with a classic paper by J. David Love and others on ancestral Lake Yellowstone. Other papers in this section include results and interpretation of the high-resolution bathymetric, seismic reflection, and submersible studies by Lisa Morgan and others. Ken Pierce and others describe results from their studies of shorelines along Yellowstone Lake and their interpretation of inflation-deflation cycles, tilting, and faulting in the Yellowstone caldera. The influence of sublacustrine hydrothermal vent fluids on the geochemistry of Yellowstone Lake is described by Laurie Balistrieri and others. In Pat Shanks and others’ chapter, hydrothermal reactions, stable-isotope systematics, sinter deposition, and spire formation are related to the geochemistry of sublacustrine hydrothermal deposits in Yellowstone Lake. The geochemical studies section considers park-wide geochemical systems in Yellowstone National Park. In Bob Rye and Alfred Truesdell’s paper, the question of recharge to the deep thermal reservoir underlying the geysers and hot springs of Yellowstone National Park is discussed. Irving Friedman and Dan Norton report on the chloride flux emissions from Yellowstone in their paper questioning whether Yellowstone is losing its steam. Wildlife issues as addressed by examining trace-element and stable-isotope geochemistry are discussed in a chapter by Maurice Chaffee and others. In another chapter by Chaffee and others, natural and anthropogenic anomalies and their potential impact on the environment using geochemistry is reported. Pam Gemery-Hill and others present geochemical data for selected rivers, lake waters, hydrothermal vents, and subaerial geysers for the time interval of 1996–2004. The life cycle of gold deposits near the northeast corner of the park is discussed by Brad Van Gosen. Under the geophysical studies segment, Ray Kokaly and others use AVIRIS (Airborne Visible and Infrared Spectroscopy) data to map vegetation cover and microbial communities in Yellowstone National Park. Eric Livo and others report their results using AVIRIS data on hydrothermally altered rock and hot-spring deposits. In his final paper following a half century of scientific research, Irving Friedman presents data on monitoring changes in geothermal activity at Norris Geyser Basin using satellite telemetry. These papers summarize a near-decade-long effort by the USGS from the late 1990s to mid-2000s. In 2001, the USGS in cooperation with the National Park Service (Yellowstone National Park) and the University of Utah established the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, the 5th volcano observatory in the United States.

Idaho, Montana, Wyoming↗
USGS2022

What did they just say? Building a Rosetta stone for geoscience and machine learning

Modern advancements in science and engineering are built upon multidisciplinary projects that bring experts together from different fields. Within their respective disciplines, researchers rely on precise terminology for specific ideas, principles, methods, and theories. Hence, the potential for miscommunication is substantial, especially when common words have been adopted by one (or both) group(s) to represent very specific, precise, but, perhaps, different concepts. Under the best circumstances, misunderstanding key terms will lead toward a breakdown of efficiency. Under less optimal conditions, miscommunication will sow frustration, lead to errors, and inhibit scientific breakthroughs. Here, our research group of geoscientists and machine learning experts presents a process to help geoscientists understand the fundamentals of supervised learning by describing the general workflow (i.e., a conceptual pipeline) for supervised learning that must be understood by all the parties involved in a geoscience-machine learning endeavor. Terms critical for machine learning are introduced, defined, and used within the context of an overly simplified mock hydrological study to illustrate their appropriate usage, and then used again in the context of a published geothermal-machine learning study. These key terms are divided into two groups, which are 1) essential to the field of machine learning but are predominantly absent in geoscience or 2) homonyms (i.e., words with the same spelling or pronunciation but with different meanings) between the fields. Lastly, we discuss a few other important homonyms that were not introduced in the general workflow but arise regularly in machine learning applications

Conference Paper↗
USGS2013

Crustal P-wave velocity structure from Altyn Tagh to Longmen mountains along the Taiwan-Altay geoscience transect

Based upon the seismic experiments along Geoscience Transect from the Altyn Tagh to the Longmen Mountains, the crustal P-wave velocity structure was derived to outline the characteristics of the crust in the eastern margin of Tibetan Plateau. The section shows a few significant features. The crustal thickness varies dramatically, and is consistent with the tectonic settings. The Moho boundary abruptly drops to 73km depth beneath the southern Altyn Tagh from 50km in the Tarim basin, then rises again to about 58km depth beneath the Qaidam basin. The Moho drops again to about 70km underneath the Songpan-Garzê Terrane, then rises stepwise to 60km near Longmen Mountains. To further southeast, the crust thins to 52km beneath the Sichuan basin in the southeast of Longmen Mountains. In the north of the Kunlun Fault, a low-velocity zone,which may be a layer of melted rocks due to high temperature and pressure in the depth,exists in the the bottom of the middle crust.The two depressions of the Moho correlate with the Qilian and Songpan-Garzê Terranes, implying that these two mountains have deep roots. According to our results, it is deduced that the thick crust of the northeastern Tibetan Plateau probably is a result of east-west and northwest-southeast crustal shortening since the Mesozoic during the collision of the Asian and Indian plates.

Taiwan-Altay geoscience transect↗
USGS2002

History of the recognition of organic geochemistry in geoscience

The discipline of organic geochemistry is an outgrowth of the application of the principles and methods of organic chemistry to sedimentary geology. Its origin goes back to the last part of the nineteenth century and the first part of the twentieth century concurrent with the evolution of the applied discipline of petroleum geochemistry. In fact, organic geochemistry was strongly influenced by developments in petroleum geochemistry. Now, however, organic geochemistry is considered an umbrella geoscience discipline of which petroleum geochemistry is an important component.

Organic Geochemistry↗
USGS2023

The National Geologic Map Database: An accessible archive of the Nation's standardized geoscience information

Ready access to published geologic maps and reports can be critical to professionals who need information about, for example, geohazards that could threaten the success of a site's planned development, or a roadway or pipeline routing. The National Geologic Map Database, or NGMDB, provides rapid access to well-documented and standardized geoscience information that can be used to support understanding and decisions on a wide range of societal issues. [The NGMDB's origins as a mandated partnership between state geological surveys and the U.S. Geological Survey are found in the National Geologic Mapping Act of 1992. This and other background information can be found at ngmdb.usgs.gov/Info/reports .]

Geostrata↗
USGS1990

Digitization of a geologic map for the Quebec-Maine-Gulf of Maine global geoscience transect

The Bedrock Geologic Map of Maine was digitized and combined with digital geologic data for Quebec and the Gulf of Maine for the Quebec-Maine-Gulf of Maine Geologic Transect Project. This map is being combined with digital geophysical data to produce three-dimensional depictions of the subsurface geology and to produce cross sections of the Earth's crust. It is an essential component of a transect that stretches from the craton near Quebec City, Quebec, to the Atlantic Ocean Basin south of Georges Bank. The transect is part of the Global Geosciences Transect Project of the International Lithosphere Program. The Digital Line Graph format is used for storage of the digitized data. A coding scheme similar to that used for base category planimetric data was developed to assign numeric codes to the digitized geologic data. These codes were used to assign attributes to polygon and line features to describe rock type, age, name, tectonic setting of original deposition, mineralogy, and composition of igneous plutonic rocks, as well as faults and other linear features. The digital geologic data can be readily edited, rescaled, and reprojected. The attribute codes allow generalization and selective retrieval of the geologic features. The codes allow assignment of map colors based on age, lithology, or other attribute. The Digital Line Graph format is a general transfer format that is supported by many software vendors and is easily transferred between systems.

Circular↗
USGS2007

Geoscience for Alaska's D-1 lands: A preliminary report

Purpose of This Report This interim report follows from the June 2006 recommendations to Congress by the BLM concerning disposition of the d-1 lands. That report recommended lifting of a significant number of d-1 PLOs, through the ongoing land management process within the BLM (e.g. resource management planning areas), or through Congressional action. The strategic actions outlined in this document refer only to Federal lands under US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) jurisdiction that 1) are affected by temporary withdrawals from mineral entry and mineral leasing by PLOs made pursuant to the Section 17(d)(1) of the ANCSA; 2) have been identified by the BLM as candidates for possible lifting of these PLOs and restrictions (U.S. Bureau of Land Management, 2006); and 3) lie outside of current Federal parks, preserves, monuments, refuges, reserves, wilderness areas and military installations that are closed to mineral entry, because within those areas the potential lifting of the d-1 restrictions has no practical effect. The resulting lands discussed here comprise approximately 121,000 km2 (29.9 million acres) of Alaska (Table 1) that, pending final resolution of Native and State land claims, will or may remain under Federal (BLM) control, and could be opened to mineral entry. For the purposes of this report, only these 29.9 million acres will hereafter be referred to as 'd-1' lands. This report gives a brief overview of the spatial distribution and physiographic setting, mineral occurrences, and mineral resource potential of the d-1lands. It outlines further geoscience information which could be compiled, collected, and evaluated in order to make a more accurate and comprehensive examination of the potential for undiscovered, locatable mineral resources on these Federal lands. This information is intended to provide guidance to USGS program managers and Federal land managers on matters of future exploration, access needs, and consequences of land status changes.

Alaska↗