USGS ScienceSearch

Geology topics

Research about Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, Vermont

Source-linked reports with geographic coverage including Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, Vermont.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

Geomyces destructans sp. nov. associated with bat white-nose syndrome

We describe and illustrate the new species Geomyces destructans . Bats infected with this fungus present with powdery conidia and hyphae on their muzzles, wing membranes, and/or pinnae, leading to description of the accompanying disease as white-nose syndrome, a cause of widespread mortality among hibernating bats in the northeastern US. Based on rRNA gene sequence (ITS and SSU) characters the fungus is placed in the genus Geomyces , yet its distinctive asymmetrically curved conidia are unlike those of any described Geomyces species.

Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, Vermont

Application of electromagnetic logging to contamination investigations in glacial sand-and-gravel aquifers

Electromagnetic (EM) logging provides an efficient method for high‐resolution, vertical delineation of electrically conductive contamination in glacial sand‐and‐gravel aquifers. LM. gamma, and lithologic logs and specific conductance data from sand‐and‐gravel aquifers at five sites in the northeastern United States were analyzed to define the relation of KM conductivity to aquifer lithology and water quality. Municipal waste disposal, septic waste discharge, or highway deicing salt application at these sites has caused contaminant plumes in which the dissolved solids concentration and specific conductance of ground water exceed background levels by as much as 10 to 20 limes. The major hydrogeologic factors that affected KM log response at the five sites were the dissolved solids concentration of the ground water and the silt and clay content in the aquifer. KM conductivity of sand and gravel with uncontaminated water ranged from less than 5 to about 10 millisiemens per meter (mS/m); that of silt and clay zones ranged from about 15 to 45 mS/m: and that of the more highly contaminated zones in sand and gravel ranged from about 10 to more than 80 mS/m. Specific conductance of water samples from screened intervals in sand and gravel at selected monitoring well installations was significantly correlated with KM conductivity. CM logging can be used in glacial sand‐and‐gravel aquifer investigations to (1) determine optimum depths for the placement of monitoring well screens: (2) provide a nearly continuous vertical profile of specific conductance to complement depth‐specific water quality samples; and (3) identify temporal changes in water quality through sequential logging. Detailed lithologic or gamma logs, preferably both, need to be collected along with the F.M logs to define zones in which elevated EM conductivity is caused by the presence of sill and clay beds rather than contamination.

Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, Vermont

Configuration of Precambrian rocks in southeastern New York and adjacent New England from aeromagnetic data

Two aeromagnetic anomalies of regional extent outline two previously unknown buried masses of highly magnetic, probably Precambrian, rocks in southeastern New York and adjacent Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. The northern mass extends northeastward from Albany, New York, to Bennington, Vermont, where it appears to be buried beneath weakly magnetic Precambrian rocks of the Green Mountains. The southern mass extends north-northeastward from Beacon, New York, through Stissing Mountain, to Copake, New York, and appears to be the buried northeast extension of the Reading Prong. The shape of the Beacon-Copake magnetic anomaly indicates that the source is near the surface and has a sharp boundary, probably a fault, on its northwestern side; the shape also indicates that the source becomes deeply buried to the southeast and thus supports a parautochthonous interpretation for the northern part of the Reading Prong. In southwestern Massachusetts, the highly magnetic Beacon-Copake mass appears to be overstepped on the east by a buried slice of weakly magnetic Precambrian rocks which, in turn, is overstepped on the east by imbricate slices of weakly magnetic Precambrian rocks exposed along the western front of the Berkshire Highlands. Precambrian rocks exposed in the Green Mountains, the Berkshire and Housatonic Highlands, the eastern part of the Hudson Highlands, and the Manhattan Prong have a remarkably lower amplitude magnetic pattern than those in the Adirondack Mountains and the Reading Prong. This difference in magnetic character appears to represent more than different thicknesses of Precambrian rocks and may reflect a different sequence of Precambrian rocks to the east, a lower grade of Precambrian metamorphism to the east, or possibly a reduction in magnetite content in the eastern Precambrian rocks because of Paleozoic metamorphism.

Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, Vermont