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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 127 records · Page 7Linked to original sources
USGS2014

Review of the work of W. J. McGee on ground‐water levels

W J McGee was a scientist of broad‐interests, large vision, and unbounded enthusiasm for science and its application to human welfare. He was one of the earliest champions of the conservation of our natural resources. He rose from humble origin, by rigorous self‐discipline, to outstanding national leadership. He was absorbed by zeal for service to mankind. His life had a heroic quality, as is well portrayed in the sympathetic and interesting memoir by F. H. Knowlton (Geol. Soc Amer. Bull., v. 24, pp. 18–29, 1913).

Eos, Earth and Space Science News↗
USGS2014

River meanders and vorticity theorem

T he serpentine windings of rivers, which in certain reaches attain a remarkable symmetry and are then called meanders, must represent one aspect of the tendency for establishment of quasi-equilibrium in natural streams. With the increase in knowledge of the interaction of forces operating in rivers, this tendency toward equilibrium has assumed a greater significance.

Eos, Earth and Space Science News↗
USGS2015

Aurora painting pays tribute to Civil War's end

This year marks the sesquicentennial anniversary of the end of the American Civil War, a conflict that Abraham Lincoln called a “mighty scourge.” It was one of the most poignant periods in U.S. history, laying bare political, economic, social, and moral divergence between Northern and Southern states. The cause of the divergence that led to war was slavery [e.g., McPherson , 1988, chap. 3]—an institution that, by the 19th century, had been effectively abolished in the North but remained firmly entrenched in the South. War erupted in 1861 after a confederacy of Southern states declared secession from the Union of the United States. When the war finally ended in 1865, the Union had prevailed, and afterward, slavery was abolished throughout the United States. This outcome was obtained at the cost of 750,000 American lives and substantial destruction, especially in the South [e.g., Gugliotta , 2012]. In 1865, the same year the war ended, the American landscape artist Frederic Edwin Church unveiled Aurora Borealis (pictured above), a dramatic and mysterious painting that can be interpreted in terms of 19th century romanticism, scientific philosophy, and Arctic missions of exploration. Aurora Borealis can also be viewed as a restrained tribute to the end of the Civil War—a moving example of how science and current events served as the muses of late romantic artists [e.g., Carr , 1994, p. 277; Avery , 2011; Harvey , 2012].

Eos, Earth and Space Science News↗
USGS2008

Slowing of coastal subsidence is good news for restoration of Louisiana's wetlands

Every year, volunteers use thousands of discarded Christmas trees to build brush fences in the coastal waters of Louisiana. The fences slow down waves and trap sediment, allowing aquatic vegetation to take root in the still water and stimulating the growth of new marsh. This is one of many efforts to counteract wetland loss (the loss of saline, brackish, intermediate, and freshwater marshes) that has plagued coastal Louisiana since the mid-20th century. U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists recently announced good news for Louisiana's coastal-restoration projects: using a combination of historical and recently released data, they discovered that subsidence of coastal land in the Mississippi River delta plain appears to have slowed considerably since the 1990s. This discovery means that new marshlands created by the Christmas tree program and other restoration projects may persist—that is, stay above sea level—longer than previously thought.

Louisiana↗
USGS1999

Scientists in action!

News about careers in the natural sciences—from mapping the planets to sampling the ocean floor, from protecting wildlife to forecasting volcanic eruptions.

Report↗
USGS2005

Scientists in action

News about careers in the natural sciences -- from mapping the planets to sampling the ocean floor, from protecting wildlife to forecasting volcanic eruptions.

General Information Product↗
USGS2015

National Earthquake Information Center systems overview and integration

Overview The primary mission of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC) is comprehensive global earthquake monitoring (M4.5 or larger) and complete seismic monitoring of the United States for all significant earthquakes (M3.0 or larger or felt). In recent years, the NEIC has assumed a more prominent role in local and regional seismic monitoring, backup capabilities, and special studies. The NEIC uses numerous scientific algorithms to produce information products for local, national, and international disaster responders; infrastructure corporations (for example, utility providers and insurers); U.S. embassies worldwide; news agencies; national and international earth science research communities; and millions of public users. To support this mission, the NEIC operates a constant service to derive numerous information products as rapidly and accurately as possible. Derived information products and data sets provide a wealth of related earthquake information and include products such as location, magnitude, maps of shaking intensity, moment tensors, phase arrivals, and loss and damage reports. These information products are automatically derived in near real-time and refined over time. Earthquake information products vary from well formatted text files, to binary files, to directories full of many files. A team of analysts, who provide constant coverage, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, review the acquired data and automatically derived products (1) in near real-time for rapid release and (2) in the weeks following events to produce historical catalogs of global earthquakes in support of scientific research. Data and products are reviewed both in near real-time for rapid release and in the weeks following events to produce historical catalogs of global earthquakes in support of scientific research. At the present time, the NEIC publishes data for approximately 25,000 earthquakes annually. The NEIC software system that supports this service and mission comprises many subsystems. The internals of each subsystem are often complex, but the integration between all of the subsystems is well defined, standardized, and straightforward. This Open-File Report describes the systems’ integration infrastructure and how all the subsystems fit together. It provides summary views of the system as a whole, along with detailed views of the inputs, outputs, and dependencies for each subsystem. It also outlines the many shared data services that support these subsystems and applications as well as external customers. The NEIC systems-integration effort is ongoing. Additional integration steps, needed to reach our goals, are discussed. It is important to note that this document provides a brief introduction to the work of dozens of software developers and IT specialists, spanning in many cases more than a decade. References to significant amounts of supporting documentation, code, and information are supplied within.

Open-File Report↗
USGS2015

Getting out of harm's way - evacuation from tsunamis

Scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) have developed a new mapping tool, the Pedestrian Evacuation Analyst , for use by researchers and emergency managers to estimate how long it would take for someone to travel on foot out of a tsunami-hazard zone. The ArcGIS software extension, released in September 2014, allows the user to create maps showing travel times out of hazard zones and to determine the number of people that may or may not have enough time to evacuate. The maps take into account the elevation changes and the different types of land cover that a person would encounter along the way. Maps of travel time can be used by emergency managers and community planners to identify where to focus evacuation training and tsunami education. The tool can also be used to examine the potential benefits of vertical-evacuation structures, which are buildings or berms designed to provide a local high ground in low-lying areas of the hazard zone.

Sound Waves: Coastal science and research news fro↗
USGS2005

USGS scientists study sediment deposited by 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami

In January, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists traveled to countries on the Indian Ocean to study sediment deposited by the devastating tsunami of December 26, 2004. They hope to gain knowledge that will help them to identify ancient tsunami deposits in the geologic record—which extends much farther into the past than written records—and so compile a history of tsunamis that can be used to assess a region's future tsunami risk.

Sound Waves: Coastal science and research news fro↗
USGS2022

Education initiatives to support earthquake early warning: A retrospective and a roadmap

As of May 2021, public alerting is now operational for the ShakeAlert earthquake early warning system for the West Coast of the United States in California, Oregon, and Washington. Successful early warning systems require the scientific and technical implementation to be coupled with social and humanitarian considerations, including education and outreach campaigns. Community engagement with the over 50 million people who live in ShakeAlert states is important to increase public safety, security, and awareness of local earthquake hazards, how to prepare, and how ShakeAlert earthquake early warning can help. Here, we describe the efforts of the ShakeAlert Educational Resources Working Group around the rollout of public alerting in the Pacific Northwest for Oregon in March 2021 and Washington in May 2021, respectively. Our initial approach was to engage in formative dialogue with community members in each ShakeAlert state, develop educational activities and animations based on the collective feedback, and then to disseminate our resources in both formal (K‐16) and informal (free choice) learning environments through workshops and outreach events. The rollout of public alerting in the Pacific Northwest provided an opportunity to directly engage with various publics around a specific event, and to collaborate with local news and social media, communications and social science professionals, educators, emergency managers, and scientific and technical experts on the ShakeAlert system. Following the rollouts, we developed a strategic plan for the next five years of ShakeAlert to promote earthquake early warning, as the importance of earthquake preparedness competes with the stressors of everyday life. Because earthquake early warning systems are rapidly expanding worldwide, our education and outreach efforts provide a roadmap for building successful education and outreach campaigns, leading up to public alerting and maintaining earthquake preparedness in the public consciousness following rollout.

Oregon↗
USGS2020

USGS Cascades Volcano Observatory news media management guide — General protocols and templates

This guide describes general protocols and provides templates for news media management at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Cascades Volcano Observatory (CVO) and is intended for use by the CVO scientist-in-charge, communications staff, scientists, and guest communications colleagues. This public version, with CVO names and contact information removed, may be useful to other agencies developing their own protocols and templates. This guide evolved from a smaller document hastily assembled out of necessity during the complex and overwhelming news media interest in the 2004–2008 Mount St. Helens eruption. News media interest exceeded the need for life-saving crisis communication and foretold of the need for future multi-faceted and well-coordinated news media and social media responses during future volcanic events. This guide accompanies the USGS Volcano Science Center’s (VSC’s) general guidelines and protocols for how communications staff at all VSC observatories will work together to respond to news media requests. The protocols and templates are applicable to (1) normal conditions when CVO has an opportunity to be proactive with its messages and to raise general awareness, (2) general responses to news media and TV documentary inquiries, (3) intense news media interest where the responsibility to communicate information and hazards rests primarily with staff at CVO, and (4) intense and overwhelming news media interest that requires a multiagency response. This guide reflects general protocols in effect at the time of publication. The information will be modified as conditions change. Although “news media” generally refers to traditional outlets such as TV, radio, and newspapers, the protocols used to engage these traditional outlets apply also when responding to bloggers, online news services, and social media comments.

Circular↗
USGS2014

Limnogeology, news in brief

We've invited Michael R. Rosen, water quality specialist within the USGS Water Science Field Team in Carson City and Elizabeth Gierlowski-Kordesch, professor of geology at Ohio University, to take a look at the intriguing new developments that are emerging in limnogeologic studies. These studies are increasing our understanding of how climate and movements of the Earth's surface influence terrestrial environments, as well as how contaminants are distributed and retained in the environment. They present a selection of recent significant research on sediments, rock, and biota that have been preserved in modern and ancient lake basins.

Environmental Earth Sciences↗
USGS1998

Carbon storage and late Holocene chronostratigraphy of a Mississippi River deltaic marsh, St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana

Today, the causes, results, and time scale(s) of climate change, past and potential, are the focus of much research, news coverage, and pundit speculation. Many of the US government scientific agencies have some funds earmarked for research into past and (or) future climate change (National Science and Technology Council, 1997). The Mississippi Basin Carbon Project (MBCP) is part of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) effort in global change research . The project is motivated by the need to increase our understanding of the role of terrestrial carbon in the global carbon cycle, particularly in the temperate latitudes of North America. The global land area between 30 O and 60 O N is thought to be a large sink for atmospheric CO2 (IPCC, 1996). The identity of this sink is unknown, but is in part the soil and sediment that makes up the upper several meters of the Earth's surface. The MBCP focuses on the Mississippi River basin, the third largest river system in the world (fig. 1), that drains an area of 3.3 x 10 6 km 2 (1.27 x 10 6 mi 2 ). The Mississippi River basin includes more than 40 percent of the land surface, and is the home of more than one-third of the population, of the conterminous United States. Because climate, vegetation, and land use vary greatly within the Mississippi River basin, the primary terrestrial sinks for carbon need to be identified and quantified for representative parts of the basin. The primary goal of the MBCP is to quantify the interactive effects of land-use, erosion, sedimentation, and soil development on carbon storage and nutrient cycles within the Mississippi River basin. The project includes spatial analysis of a wide variety of geographic data, estimation of whole-basin and sub-basin carbon and sediment budgets, development and implementation of terrestrial carbon-cycle models, and site-specific field studies of relevant processes. Areas can be studied and compared, and estimates can be made for whole-basin carbon storage and flux.

Open-File Report↗
USGS2000

Diana H. Wall, ESA President 1999-2000

A more polite term for workaholic is over-achiever, and Diana Harrison Wall could easily serve as the type specimen for both words. Her ability to multi-task is a great boon for the Ecological Society of America. That characteristic drive has also been essential to Wall’s own personal success, since it pushed her to persevere during the lean years when a woman’s place was NOT in the field or laboratory. Diana is a very strong role model for young ecologists through her enthusiasm for science, her remarkable scientific achievements, and her leadership skills. In addition to advising her many graduate students, Diana-as-role-model has been featured in many news media, including PBS TV shows such as “Horizons” and “Discovery,” National Geographic magazine, and the New York Times. She is highlighted on the ESA Web site: “What Do Ecologists Do? Focus on Ecologists.”

Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America↗