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At least 667 records · Page 37Linked to original sources
USGS1984

Floods of May 1978 in southeastern Montana and northeastern Wyoming

Heavy rain and some snow fell on previously saturated ground over southeastern Montana and northeastern Wyoming during May 16-19, 1978. The maximum amount of 7.60 inches within a 72-hour period observed at Lame Deer, Montana, set a record for the month of May in that region. Heavy flooding occurred in the drainages of the Yellowstone River and its tributaries as well as the Belle Fourche, Cheyenne, and North Platte Rivers. The previous maximum flood of record was exceeded at 48 gaged sites, and the 1-percent chance flood was equaled or exceeded at 24 sites. Flood damage was extensive, exceeding $33 million. Nineteen counties in the two States were declared major disaster areas. Mean daily suspended-sediment discharges exceeded previously recorded maximum mean daily values at four sites on the Powder River. The maximum daily suspended-sediment discharge of 2,810,000 tons per day occurred on May 20 at the Site Powder River near Arvada, Wyoming. (USGS)

Professional Paper↗
USGS1983

Historical surface deformation near Oildale, California

Historical surface deformation recognized in the southern San Joaquin Valley and adjacent Sierra Nevada foothills near Oildale, Calif., includes: normal and apparently aseismic dip slip along four faults; subsidence within or adjacent to the Kern Front, Poso Creek, Mount Poso, and Fruitvale oil fields; and uplift of much of the area within and north of the Kern River oil field. As much as 0.34 m of vertical separation has been observed along a 5.2-km segment of the Kern Front fault, the structural barrier separating the Kern Front oil field on the west from the Kern River field to the east. Similar separations of as much as 0.15 m and 0.32 m, respectively, have also been identified along the surface traces of two en echelon faults between the Premier and Enas areas of the Poso Creek oil field and the fault that defines the southeast flank of the Premier area. The measured height changes are based on both unadjusted observed elevations and minimally constrained adjusted elevations developed from repeated control levelings referred to a relatively stable local bench mark; measurement error in the reported vertical movements probably is less than 0.05 m. Differential subsidence of at least 0.31 m (1903-68) and 0.05 m (1926/27/30/31-59) has occurred within the Kern Front and Fruitvale oil fields, respectively; subsidence of as much as 0.33 m (1903-53) and 0.19 m (1931-63) has also been measured along the north edge of the Premier area of the Poso Creek oil field and the south edge of the Main area of the Mount Poso field, respectively. Differential uplift of as much as 0.11 m and 0.13 m occurred within and immediately north of the Kern River oil field between 1903 and 1968, and similar uplift of as much as 0.19 m was measured along the north edge of the Dominion area of the Mount Poso field between 1931 and 1963. Differential subsidence within the Kern Front and Fruitvale oil fields and along the edges of the Poso Creek and Mount Poso fields is attributable to subsurface compaction owing to fluid withdrawal; absence of subsidence within the much larger Kern River field probably is the result of either production from compaction-resistant materials or natural water flooding that has acted to preserve reservoir fluid pressures in the generally shallow producing beds. Contemporary displacements on the Kern Front fault and those along the faults within and adjacent to the Poso Creek oil field are attributable largely or entirely to changes in the subsurface stress regime associated with reservoir compaction; accumulated elastic strain of tectonic derivation conceivably contributed to the development of these displacements. The apparent uplift within and north of the Kern River oil field and along the north edge of the Mount Poso field probably is due in part to compaction of as much as 0.055 m beneath the reference bench mark; most of this apparent uplift, however, is interpreted as an effect of tectonic tilting.

California↗
USGS1983

Stratigraphy and paleontology of Mid-Cretaceous rocks in Minnesota and contiguous areas

PART A: Molluscan fossils are locally abundant at outcrops of Upper Cretaceous rocks in eastern North and South Dakota, northeastern Nebraska, northwestern Iowa, and western and northern Minnesota. Other Cretaceous mollusks have been found in the glacial deposits in Minnesota, Iowa, and Illinois. The oldest well dated marine mollusks are of earliest late Cenomanian age and occur in northwestern Iowa. Mollusks of marginal marine and nonmarine environments in northwestern Iowa and south-central Minnesota are probably of slightly younger late Cenomanian age. The youngest mollusks treated in this report are bivalves of Santonian age found in the Niobrara Formation in eastern North and South Dakota. The collections indicate the presence or former presence of the following ammonite zones in the northeastern part of the Western Interior seaway: Santonian: Scaphites depressus-Clioscaphites choteauensis Coniacian: Scaphites uentrocosus; Scaphites preuentricosus Turonian: Scaphites coruensis; Scaphites whitfieldi; Prionocyclus hyatti; Subprionocyclus percarinatus; Collignoniceras woollgari; Watinoceras coloradoense Cenomanian: Dunueganoceras albertense; Dunueganoceras pondi PART B: Sedimentary rocks of early Late Cretaceous age occur in the eastern parts of North Dakota, South Dakota, and Nebraska, and in Minnesota and western Iowa. They are generally included in, from oldest to youngest, the Dakota Formation, Graneros Shale, Greenhorn Formation, Carlile Shale, and Niobrara Formation. However, in eastern North Dakota, they are also assigned to, in ascending order, the Belle Fourche Shale, Greenhorn Formation, Carlile Shale, and Niobrara Formation. The Graneros Shale and laterally equivalent strata in the Belle Fourche Shale grade eastward into the Coleraine Formation of northeastern Minnesota and probably into the Windrow Formation of southeastern Minnesota. Cretaceous beds locally overlie rocks of Precambrian, Paleozoic, and Jurassic ages, and they are generally overlain by glacial drift and alluvium of Quaternary age. In Minnesota and adjoining areas, formations of mid-Cretaceous age commonly overlap the dissected surface of Precambrian rocks. The thickness of the lower Upper Cretaceous sequence ranges from about 223 m in eastern North Dakota and about 200 m in northeastern Nebraska to a featheredge in Minnesota and Iowa. These lower Upper Cretaceous formations are composed mainly of shale, siltstone, sandstone, and limestone units of marine and nonmarine origin and were deposited near the eastern shore of a transgressing and regressing epicontinental sea in Cenomanian Turonian Coniacian. and Santonian time. During the late Cenoanian, the strandline was in Minnesota and was oriented generally northnortheast. Interpretations of the depositional environments of the strata and of fossils from outcrops and from clasts in glacial drift indicate that the Cretaceous seaway extended from this region northeastward across Canada to Greenland in the Turonian Coniacian, and Santonian. The Cretaceous formations are deformed into broad, shallow synclines in eastern North and South Dakota and in northeastern Nebraska. A west-trending anticline, the Sioux uplift, separates the synclines in southeastern South Dakota. Sparse evidence of minor faulting in the formations exists in northeastern South Dakota, along the strike of a major southwest-trending zone of tectonism in the Precambrian basement rocks. The structural relief in the region, on the top of the Greenhorn Formation, is at least 250 m between eastern North Dakota and northeastern Minnesota, and at least 200 m between northeastern Nebraska and northwestern Iowa. A comparison of the Cretaceous stratigraphy of the Minnesota region and of areas in Wyoming indicates that some marine transgressions and regressions were synchronous in the two regions. The transgression during Greenhorn time, the regression during early Carlile time, and the transgression dur

Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dak↗