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Research about Massachusetts

Source-linked reports with geographic coverage including Massachusetts.

At least 649 records · Page 36Linked to original sources
USGS1974

Evaluation of data availability and examples of modeling for ground-water management on Cape Cod, Massachusetts

Cape Cod is a seashore resort area of national renown. It is a hookshaped peninsula which extends 40 miles into the Atlantic Ocean and is separated from the mainland by Cape Cod Canal, a salt-water channel connecting Buzzards Bay and Cape Cod Bay (fig. 1). It is 440 square miles in area and is underlain by unconsolidated earth materials that contain a lens-like reservoir of fresh ground water "floating" on salty ground water. The fresh ground-water reservoir is the principal source of supply for the rapidly growing population of Cape Cod. Because of increasing resident population and increasing numbers of summer vacationers, there is local and State concern for problems of meeting increased water demands, deterioration of water quality, changes of water table and pond levels, and changes in ecology owing to changes in salinity of water in brackish-water bodies.

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USGS1974

Hydrologic data of the Hoosic River basin, Massachusetts

The Hoosic River has its headwaters in northwestern Massachusetts and southern Vermont and flows northwestward through southern Vermont into New York, where it is tributary to the Hudson River. Upstream from the Massachusetts State line the Hoosic River drains a total of 205 mi 2 (531 km 2 ) of which 164 mi 2 (425 km 2 ) are in Massachusetts, 29 mi 2 (101 km 2 ) are in Vermont, and 2 mi 2 (5 km 2 ) are in New York. This report contains hydrologic data for that part inside Massachusetts and includes all, or parts of, the towns of Adams, Cheshire, Clarksburg, Dalton, Florida, Hancock, Lanesborough, New Ashford, North Adams, Savoy, Williamstown, and Windsor. The data tabulated here were collected during an investigation of the water resources of the Hoosic River basin in Massachusetts by the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the Massachusetts Water Resources Commission. This report is released to make available to the public basic hydrologic and related information that will facilitate the planning of water-resources development and complements an interpretive report of the area (Hansen and others, 1973). Data presented include selected information on wells, test borings, springs, seismic surveys, streamflow records, chemical analyses of surface and ground water and of rainfall, and suspended-sediment concentrations of surface water. (See Plate 1 for locations of all hydrologic-data collection sites.) The authors wish to acknowledge the public officials, consulting firms, industrial concerns, well drillers, and individual homeowners who have given their time and information to this study.

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USGS1973

Hydrologic Data of the Neponset and Weymouth River Basins, Massachusetts

The Neponset, Weymouth Fore, and Weymouth Back River basins occupy an area of 183 square miles in eastern Massachusetts south of Boston and Braintree, Brockton, Canton, Dedham, Dover, Foxborough, Hingham, Holbrook, Medfield, Milton, Norwood, Quincy, Randolph, Rockland, Sharon, Stoughton, Walpole, Westwood, and Weymouth. Hydrologic data presented in this report were collected during an investigation of the water resources in the areas of these basins that are upstream from tide effect or heavy urbanization. This investigation was conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the Massachusetts Water Resources Commission. The data are released in order to make available to the public basic hydrologic and related information that will facilitate the planning of water-resources development and will complement an interpretive report, "Hydrology and water resources of the Neoponset and Weymouth River basins, Massachusetts" (HA-484). The well and boring data contained herein were selected from a larger group of data in order to minimize redundancy of information for intensely drilled areas. All of the data are on filed and available for inspection at the office of the U.S. Geological Survey, Water Resources Division, Boston, Massachusetts.

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USGS1973

Contour map of the bedrock surface, Ludlow Quadrangle, Massachusetts

Contours show the altitude of the bedrock surface. The position of the contours is based largely on data from wells and test holes supplemented by knowledge of the geologic history of the region. The map show the configuration of the bedrock surface if all unconsolidated earth materials were removed.

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USGS1973

Map showing changes in shoreline of Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, during the past 200 years

The history of the coast of Martha's Vineyard is mostly a story of erosion, although locally the shore has alternately advanced and retreated. Erosion of the island's shores has, in fact, been going on for thousands of years, and although we know little about the erosion of distant times, it is quite possible that the rate of erosion was about the same as now; about 16 acreas are lost to the sea every year, about 13 of which are lost on the south shore alone.

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USGS1973

Effect of septic-tank wastes on quality of water, Ipswich and Shawsheen River basins, Massachusetts

Many housing projects in the metropolitan area of Boston are beyond the reach of municipal sewer systems. Waste water disposed of through septic-tank or cesspool systems percolates to ground-water reservoirs and eventually reaches the streams. The dissolved-solids load in the streams receiving septic-tank effluent is increased by an amount that can be predicted from the housing density. In the study area, highway deicing salts are the only materials other than septic-tank discharge that contribute to water-quality degradation. The effect of these salts on the relationship with housing density is eliminated by subtracting the specific conductance due to sodium chloride from the measured specific conductance of a water sample. The difference is called residual conductance and is proportional to the dissolved-solids content minus the concentration of sodium chloride.

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USGS1971

Radiometric age (Late Ordovician) of the Quincy, Cape Ann, and Peabody Granites from eastern Massachusetts

A geochronologic study of several intrusive bodies of alkalic granite from eastern Massachusetts yields the following radiometric ages (in millions of years). Rock unit Amphibole K-Ar Whole-rock Rb-Sr isochron Pb 207 /Pb 206 zircon Quincy Granite 430-458 313 ± 22 437 ± 32 Cape Ann Granite 374-397 435 ± 6 452 ± 10 Peabody Granite 350-403 367 ± 24 435 + 12 445 ± 22 The zircon ages show only mild internal discordancies and most diffusion models used to discuss U-Th-Pb isotopic systematics would give a true age about equal to that of the Pb 207 /Pb 206 value. When plotted on a concordia diagram, the zircon data indicate a time of emplacement of 450 ± 25 m.y. for all three granite bodies. This Late Ordovician age for post-tectonic granites suggests that revisions in the commonly accepted geologic interpretation of eastern Massachusetts may be required. Previously, because of their massive, undeformed nature, the alkalic rocks were generally regarded as being Mississippian or Devonian in age and younger than the Early to Middle Devonian Acadian orogeny. The amphibole K-Ar and whole-rock Rb-Sr systems have responded in a complex way to postcrystallization disturbances. We interpret the pattern of ages for the Quincy Granite to reflect a late Paleozoic(?), low-temperature alteration that accompanied extensive faulting, and the patterns of ages for the Cape Ann and Peabody Granites to reflect a Devonian heating possibly related to contact metamorphism by a nearby mafic pluton.

Massachusetts↗
USGS1971

Effects of introducing foxes and raccoons on herring gull colonies

Red foxes ( Vulpes fulva ) and raccoons ( Procyon lotor ) released at colonies of herring gulls ( Larus argentatus ) on islands off the Massachusetts coast effectively eliminated the production of young gulls. Annual predator introductions for 2-4 years caused major reductions in colony size and occasionally total abandonment of the island as a colony site. Observations of the experimental islands for 2 years after cessation of predator introductions showed slow repopulation of the islands and lower breeding success than on control islands. The size of the regional population was reduced largely because of the movements of gulls off the experimental islands. The introduced predators are, in most cases, difficult to maintain on the islands; this restricts their utility in population management.

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