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Search indexed USGS publications on groundwater, aquifers, geologic maps, mineral resources and earthquakes. Explore source records by subject and place.

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At least 577 records · Page 32Linked to original sources
USGS1997

What are volcano hazards?

Volcanoes give rise to numerous geologic and hydrologic hazards. U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists are assessing hazards at many of the almost 70 active and potentially active volcanoes in the United States. They are closely monitoring activity at the most dangerous of these volcanoes and are prepared to issue warnings of impending eruptions or other hazardous events.

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USGS2000

Global ice-core research: Understanding and applying environmental records of the past

One way to study Earth’s past environmental conditions is to look at ice cores recovered from glaciers. Every year a layer of snow accumulates on glaciers, like a page in a history book, and eventually turns to ice. Like reading the pages of a history book, analyzing the layers in a glacial ice core for specific chemical and physical components is a way of “reading” the environmental changes of the past. Information from ice cores collected from Greenland and Antarctica already has provided important historical clues toward a better understanding of modern global environmental changes (Dansgaard and Oeschger, 1989; Lorius and others, 1989). Environmental changes are of major concern at low- or mid-latitude regions of our Earth simply because this is where 80 to 90 percent of the world’s human population live. Ice cores collected from isolated polar regions are, at best, proxy indicators of low- and mid-latitude environmental changes. Because polar icecore research is limiting in this sense, ice cores from low- and mid-latitude glaciers are being used to study past environmental changes in order to better understand and predict future environmental changes that may affect the populated regions of the world.

Idaho;Wyoming↗
USGS2001

Center for Integration of Natural Disaster Information

The U.S. Geological Survey's Center for Integration of Natural Disaster Information (CINDI) is a research and operational facility that explores methods for collecting, integrating, and communicating information about the risks posed by natural hazards and the effects of natural disasters. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is mandated by the Robert Stafford Act to warn citizens of impending landslides, volcanic eruptions, and earthquakes. The USGS also coordinates with other Federal, State, and local disaster agencies to monitor threats to communities from floods, coastal storms, wildfires, geomagnetic storms, drought, and outbreaks of disease in wildlife populations.

Fact Sheet↗
USGS1997

USGS research on saline waters co-produced with energy resources

The United States energy industry faces the challenge of satisfying our expanding thirst for energy while protecting the environment. This challenge is magnified by the increasing volumes of saline water produced with oil and gas in the Nation's aging petroleum fields. Ultimately, energy-producing companies are responsible for disposing of these waters. USGS research provides basic information, for use by regulators, industry, and the public, about the chemistry of co-produced waters and environmentally acceptable ways of handling them.

Fact Sheet↗
USGS1998

Changes in sediment and nutrient storage in three reservoirs in the lower Susquehanna River Basin and implications for the Chesapeake Bay

The Susquehanna River contributes nearly 50 percent of the freshwater discharge to the Chesapeake Bay in a year of normal or average streamflow. The river also transports the greatest amount of nutrients (estimates of nearly 66 percent of the nitrogen and 40 percent of the phosphorus load) from all nontidal areas in the Chesapeake Bay Basin. Excessive nutrients in the Bay result in algal blooms that decrease the amount of light reaching submerged aquatic vegetation, and upon decomposition, deplete the oxygen in the water. In a normal-flow year, the Susquehanna River also contributes about 25 percent of the sediment load from non-tidal areas to the Bay. Suspended sediments also reduce light needed by submerged aquatic vegetation and can smother living-resource habitat and obstruct fish gills. A reservoir system consisting of Lake Clarke, Lake Aldred, and Conowingo Reservoir is formed by three consecutive hydroelectric dams on the Lower Susquehanna River. Safe Harbor Dam, which forms Lake Clarke, was built in 1931. Holtwood Dam, the smallest of the three, was built in 1910 to form Lake Aldred. The largest and most downstream dam, Conowingo Dam, was built in 1928 and forms Conowingo Reservoir. Since construction, the reservoirs have been filling with sediment and sediment-associated nutrients. The upper two reservoirs have reached their capacity to store sediments and generally no longer trap nutrients and sediments. Conowingo Reservoir has not reached storage capacity, however, and is currently trapping about 70 percent of the suspended-sediment load, 2 percent of the total-nitrogen load, and 40 percent of the total-phosphorus load that would otherwise be discharged to the Chesapeake Bay (Ott and others, 1991). In 1990, 1993, and 1996, the U.S. Geological Survey collected information on the depth to sediment in the reservoirs to determine the remaining sediment-storage capacity in the reservoir system and to estimate when the reservoirs will reach sediment-storage capacity. In addition, sediment cores were collected and analyzed in 1993 and 1996 to determine the nutrient mass remaining in the Conowingo Reservoir. The 1996 data collection followed a major flood in the Susquehanna River Basin.

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USGS1999

Alaska

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Fact Sheet↗
USGS2001

Health effects of toxic organic compounds from coal; the case Balkan endemic nephropathy (BEN)

Balkan endemic nephropathy (BEN) is a serious kidney disease that occurs only in clusters of rural villages located in tributary valleys of the Danube River in the Balkan Peninsula. It is believed that at least 25,000 persons are suffering from BEN or are suspected of having the disease and that the total number of people at risk may exceed 100,000. BEN was first described as a distinct medical entity in 1956, but it may have existed undescribed for many centuries. The geographic distribution of the disease has not changed significantly since the 1950's. Villages afflicted in the past continue to have cases of BEN, while villages with no history of BEN (some of which are only a few miles from affected villages) have remained free of this disease. Work by the U.S. Geological Survey and others in the early 1990's noted the close correspondence between the location of the affected villages and the occurrence of coal deposits, specifically lignites deposited in the Pliocene Epoch 5.3 million to 1.6 million years ago.

Fact Sheet↗
USGS2002

Coal resources of selected coal beds and zones in the Northern and Central Appalachian Basin

The Appalachian Basin is one of the most important coal-producing regions in the world. Bituminous coal has been mined in the basin for the last three centuries, and the cumulative production is estimated at 34.5 billion short tons. Annual production in 1998 was about 452 million short tons; the basin's production is mostly in the northern (32 percent) and central (63 percent) coal regions. The coal is used primarily within the Eastern United States for electric power generation, but some of it is suitable for metallurgical uses. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is completing a National Coal Resource Assessment of five coal-producing regions of the United States, including the Appalachian Basin. The USGS, in cooperation with the State geological surveys of Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia, has completed a digital coal resource assessment of five of the top-producing coal beds and coal zones in the northern and central Appalachian Basin coal regions -- the Pittsburgh coal bed, the Upper Freeport coal bed, the Fire Clay and Pond Creek coal zones, and the Pocahontas No. 3 coal bed. Of the 93 billion short tons of original coal in these units, about 66 billion short tons remain.

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