USGS Science⌕ Search

Geology topics

Research about Kentucky

Source-linked reports with geographic coverage including Kentucky.

At least 289 records · Page 16Linked to original sources
USGS1961

An aquifer test in the southwestern part of the Louisville area, Kentucky

The unconsolidated sand and gravel deposits along the Ohio River at Louisville, Ky. contain a large quantity of ground water. Parts of the aquifer have been overdeveloped in recent years, however, and at the present time great emphasis is being placed on proper location, development, and use of ground-water supplies. The present trend of industrial growth is to the southwest of the city in the undeveloped area along the Ohio River, where the yields to individual wells are higher and relatively large supplies can be developed. The average coefficient of permeability and storage coefficient of the aquifer here are 1,500 gallons per day per square foot and 0.2, respectively.

Kentucky↗
USGS1957

Geology of the Cane Branch and Helton Branch watershed areas, McCreary County, Kentucky

Cane Branch and Helton Branch in McCreary County, Kentucky, are about 1.4 miles apart (fig. 1). Can Branch, which is about 2.1 miles long, emptied into Hughes Fork of Beaver Creek. Its watershed area of about 1.5 square miles lies largely in the Wiborf 7 1/2-minute quadrangle (SW/4 Cumberland Falls 15-minute quadrangle), but the downstream part of the area extends northward into the Hail 7 1/2-minute quadrangle (NW/4 Cumberland Falls 15-minute quadrangle). Helton Branch, which is about 1.1 miles long, has two tributaries and empties into Little Hurricane Fork of Beaver Creek. It drains an area of about 0.8 square mile of while about 0.5 square mile is in the Hail quadrangle and the remainder in the Wilborg quadrangle. The total relief in the Can Branch area is about 500 feet and in the Helton Branch area about 400 feet. Narrow, steep-sided to canyon-like valley and winding ridges, typical of the Pottsville escarpment region, are characteristic of both areas. Thick woods and dense undergrowth cover much of the two areas. Field mapping was done on U.S. Geological Survey 7 1/2-minute maps having a scale of 1:24,000 and a contour interval of 20 feet. Elevations of lithologic contacts were determined with a barometer and a hand level. Aerial photographs were used principally to trace the cliffs formed by sandstone and conglomerate ledges. Exposures, except for those of the cliff- and ledge-forming sandstone and conglomerates, are not abundant. The most complete stratigraphic sections (secs. 3 and 4, fig. 2) in the two areas are exposed in cuts of newly completed Forest Service roads, but the rick in the upper parts of the exposures is weathered. To supplement these sections, additional sections were measured in cuts along the railroad and main highways in nor near the watersheds.

Kentucky↗
USGS1956

Reservoir capacity of mississippian limestones in the hopkinsville Quadrangle, Kentucky

Beds composed of oölites or of shell fragments are more soluble than beds of fine-grained or earthy limestone. Vertical crevices are most likely to develop where joints traverse the more soluble beds; bedding-plane crevices in the same beds are likely to form directly above shale partings that are somewhat thicker than average. In the Hopkinsville quadrangle 80 per cent of the wells drilled in limestone of Mississippian (Carboniferous) age obtain adequate water supplies for home or farm needs, because of the extensive development of the bedding-plane crevices. Data from 146 wells reveal a fairly uniform distribution of crevices to an average depth of about 80 feet; the frequency of crevices declines rapidly at greater depth. A rapid increase in mineral content of water below 100 feet signals a decrease in rate of circulation that must be attributed to a decrease either in number of or size of crevices, or to a combination of both. Ratio between the lowering of water level in observation wells and the gaged stream discharge during rainless periods (base flow) gives a storage coefficient of 0.005—that is, 0.5 per cent of drainable open space in creviced limestone. The average seasonal range of fluctuation of the water table is about 13 feet; thus the ground-water reservoir stores less than an inch of water in the interval between high and low water levels.

Kentucky↗