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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 1,531 records · Page 85Linked to original sources
USGS1985

ANNIE - INTERACTIVE PROCESSING OF DATA BASES FOR HYDROLOGIC MODELS.

ANNIE is a data storage and retrieval system that was developed to reduce the time and effort required to calibrate, verify, and apply watershed models that continuously simulate water quantity and quality. Watershed models have three categories of input: parameters to describe segments of a drainage area, linkage of the segments, and time-series data. Additional goals for ANNIE include the development of software that is easily implemented on minicomputers and some microcomputers and software that has no special requirements for interactive display terminals. Another goal is for the user interaction to be based on the experience of the user so that ANNIE is helpful to the inexperienced user and yet efficient and brief for the experienced user. Finally, the code should be designed so that additional hydrologic models can easily be added to ANNIE.

Conference Paper↗
USGS1984

PROCESSING OF SCANNED IMAGERY FOR CARTOGRAPHIC FEATURE EXTRACTION.

Digital cartographic data are usually captured by manually digitizing a map or an interpreted photograph or by automatically scanning a map. Both techniques first require manual photointerpretation to describe features of interest. A new approach, bypassing the laborious photointerpretation phase, is being explored using direct digital image analysis. Aerial photographs are scanned and color separated to create raster data. These are then enhanced and classified using several techniques to identify roads and buildings. Finally, the raster representation of these features is refined and vectorized. 11 refs.

Conference Paper↗
USGS1988

Ice gouge processes in the Alaskan Beaufort Sea

A generalized picture of ice gouge characteristics from shallow inshore depths to the outer shelf at about 60 m of water is presented. Data from recent studies show that the size and quantity of gouging increases in an offshore direction to depths of about 45 m where this trend then reverses and the features decrease in size and quantity as the shelf break is approached. Ice gouges are oriented east-west and this suggests that most gouging is caused by ice approaching from the east, possibly driven by the Beaufort Sea gyre. The most intense gouging occurs in the stamukhi zone, between 20 and 40 m of water, and is caused by a high rate of ice keel production owing to shearing forces between mobile and stable sea ice. Inshore of the stamukhi zone, ice gouging still presents a significant hazard but their greatly decreased size and number make it possible to design against this hazard.

Technical Council on Cold Regions Engineering Mono↗
USGS1987

GEOMETRIC PROCESSING OF DIGITAL IMAGES OF THE PLANETS.

New procedures and software have been developed for geometric transformations of images to support digital cartography of the planets. The procedures involve the correction of spacecraft camera orientation of each image with the use of ground control and the transformation of each image to a Sinusoidal Equal-Area map projection with an algorithm which allows the number of transformation calculations to vary as the distortion varies within the image. When the distortion is low in an area of an image, few transformation computations are required, and most pixels can be interpolated. When distortion is extreme, the location of each pixel is computed. Mosaics are made of these images and stored as digital databases.

Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing↗
USGS1988

Composition of massive sulfide deposits from the sediment-covered floor of Escanaba Trough, Gorda Ridge: implications for depositional processes

Massive sulfide deposits with two distinct compositions are spatially related to volcanic edifices that penetrate up to 500 m of turbiditic sediment in Escanaba Trough (ET), southern Gorda Ridge. The mineralogy, metal content, sulfur isotope composition, and hydrocarbon content of massive sulfides from ET reflect the extensive interaction between underlying turbiditic sediment and hydrothermal fluid. Pyrrhotite-rich sulfide mounds are inferred to have formed under gentle temperature and chemical gradients related to diffuse, low-velocity flow through disrupted sediment near the sediment-capped hills.

Canadian Mineralogist↗
USGS1989

Spectral analysis and filtering techniques in digital spatial data processing

A filter toolbox has been developed at the EROS Data Center, US Geological Survey, for retrieving or removing specified frequency information from two-dimensional digital spatial data. This filter toolbox provides capabilities to compute the power spectrum of a given data and to design various filters in the frequency domain. Three types of filters are available in the toolbox: point filter, line filter, and area filter. Both the point and line filters employ Gaussian-type notch filters, and the area filter includes the capabilities to perform high-pass, band-pass, low-pass, and wedge filtering techniques. These filters are applied for analyzing satellite multispectral scanner data, airborne visible and infrared imaging spectrometer (AVIRIS) data, gravity data, and the digital elevation models (DEM) data. -from Author

Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing↗
USGS1992

Study of salt transport processes in Delaware Bay

The study described here is a subset of a broader climate-related study, and is focused primarily on salinity intrusion into Delaware Bay and River. Given changes in freshwater discharge into the Delaware River as determined from the larger study, and given probable sea level rise estimates, the purpose here is to calculate the distribution of salinity within Delaware Bay and River. The approach adopted for this study is composed of two parts: an analysis of existing physical data in order to derive a basic understanding of the salt dynamics, and numerical simulation of future conditions based on this analysis. There are two important constraints in the model used: it must resolve the spatial scales important to the salt dynamics, and it must be sufficiently efficient to allow extensive sensitivity studies. This has led to the development of a 3D model that uses harmonic decomposition in time and irregular finite elements in space. All nonlinear terms are retained in the governing equations, including quadratic bottom stress, advection, and wave transport (continuity nonlinearity). These equations are coupled to the advection-diffusion equation for salt so that density gradient forcing is included in the momentum equations. Although this study is still in progress, the model has reproduced sea level variations and the 3D structure of tidal and residual currents very well. In addition, the study has addressed the effects of a 1-meter rise in mean sea level on hydrodynamics of the study area. Current work is focused on salt dynamics.

Conference Paper↗
USGS1993

Beach profile modification and sediment transport by ice: an overlooked process on Lake Michigan

Coastal lake ice includes a belt of mobile crash and slush ice and a stable nearshore-ice complex (NIC). Sediment concentrations indicate that the NIC and the belt of brash and slush contains 180 to 280 t (113 to 175m3) of sand per kilometer of coast. This static sediment load is roughly equivalent to the average amount of sand eroded from the bluffs and to the amount accumulating in the deep lake basin each year. Sediment is being rafted alongshore in the mobile brash and slush at rates of 10 to 30 cm/sec. -from Authors

Journal of Coastal Research↗
USGS1997

Physical processes affecting the sedimentary environments of Long Island Sound

A modeling study was undertaken to simulate the bottom tidal-, wave-, and wind-driven currents in Long Island Sound in order to provide a general physical oceanographic framework for understanding the characteristics and distribution of seafloor sedimentary environments. Tidal currents are important in the funnel-shaped eastern part of the Sound, where a strong gradient of tidal-current speed was found. This current gradient parallels the general westward progression of sedimentary environments from erosion or non-deposition, through bedload transport and sediment sorting, to fine-grained deposition. Wave-driven currents, meanwhile, appear to be important along the shallow margins of the basin, explaining the occurrence of relatively coarse sediments in regions where tidal currents alone are not strong enough to move sediment. Finally, westerly wind events are shown to locally enhance bottom currents along the axial depression of the sound, providing a possible explanation for the relatively coarse sediments found in the depression despite tide- and wave-induced currents below the threshold of sediment movement. The strong correlation between the near-bottom current intensity based on the model results and the sediment response as indicated by the distribution of sedimentary environments provides a framework for predicting the long-term effects of anthropogenic activities.

Conference Paper↗
USGS2003

Aeolian processes in Proctor Crater on Mars: Sedimentary history as analyzed from multiple data sets

Proctor Crater is a 150 km diameter crater in Noachis Terra, within the southern highlands of Mars. The analysis leading to the sedimentary history incorporates several data sets including imagery, elevation, composition, and thermal inertia, mostly from the Mars Global Surveyor mission. The resulting stratigraphy reveals that the sedimentary history of Proctor Crater has involved a complex interaction of accumulating and eroding sedimentation. Aeolian features spanning much of the history of the crater interior dominate its surface, including large erosional pits, stratified beds of aeolian sediment, sand dunes, erosional and depositional streaks, dust devil tracks, and small bright bed forms that are probably granule ripples. Long ago, up to 450 m of layered sediment filled the crater basin, now exposed in eroded pits on the crater floor. These sediments are probably part of an ancient deposit of aeolian volcaniclastic material. Since then, some quantity of this material has been eroded from the top layers of the strata. Small, bright dune forms lie stratigraphically beneath the large dark dune field. Relative to the large dark dunes, the bright bed forms are immobile, although in places, their orientations are clearly influenced by the presence of the larger dunes. Their prevalence in the crater and their lack of compositional and thermal distinctiveness relative to the crater floor suggests that these features were produced locally from the eroding basin fill. Dust devil tracks form during the spring and summer, following a west-southwesterly wind. Early in the spring the dust devils are largely restricted to dark patches of sand. As the summer approaches, dust devil tracks become more plentiful and spread to the rest of the crater floor, indicating that the entire region acquires an annual deposit of dust that is revealed by seasonal dust devils. The dark dunes contain few dust devil tracks, suggesting that accumulated dust is swept away directly by saltation, rather than by the passage of dust devils. Spectral deconvolution indicates that the dark dunes have infrared spectra consistent with basalt-like materials. The average thermal inertia calculated from Thermal Emission Spectrometer bolometric temperatures is 277 ?? 17 J m-2 s-0.5 K-1, leading to an effective grain size of 740 ?? 170 ??m, which is consistent with coarse sand and within the range expected for Martian sand. The coarse sand that composes the large dune field may have originated from outside the crater, saltating in from the southwest. Most of the transport pathway that delivered this sand to the dune field has since been eroded away or buried. The sand was transported to the east center of the crater floor, where beneath the present-day dunes a 50 m high mound of sand has accumulated. Dune slip faces indicate a wind regime consisting of three opposing winds. Some of these wind directions are correlated with the orientations of dust devil tracks and bright bed forms. The combination of a tall mound of sand and three opposing winds is consistent with a convergent wind regime, which produces the large reversing transverse and star dunes that dominate the dune field. The dark dunes have both active slip faces and seemingly inactive slip faces, suggesting that the dunes vary spatially in their relative activity. Nevertheless, the aeolian activity that has dominated the history of Proctor Crater still continues today. Copyright 2003 by the American Geophysical Union.

Journal of Geophysical Research E: Planets↗
USGS2004

Holocene alluvium around Lefkosia (Nicosia), Cyprus: An archive of land-use, tectonic processes, and climate change

Holocene alluvium of the Pedhicos River around Lefkosia (Nicosia), Cyprus, was studied. Alluvial stratigraphy was found to present serial flood deposits underlying river terraces and an extensive alluvial fan. It was found that the stratigraphy and geomorphology of the alluvium can be interpreted to distinguish not only the effects of climate change, but also land-use change, and the impact of particular engineering works. It was suggested that details of the physical properties of the flood deposit sequences and paleosols can contribute to modeling various geophysical and engineering properties and in predicting response to vertical acceleration during earthquakes.

Conference Paper↗
USGS2004

Continuous thermochemical conversion process to produce oil from swine manure

Thermochemical conversion (TCC) of livestock manure is a novel technology that has shown very promising results in treating waste and producing oil. A batch TCC system that was previously developed successfully converted 70% of swine manure volatile solids to oil and reduced manure chemical oxygen demand by ??? 75%. The necessary retention time to achieve an oil product was largely dependent on the operating temperature. The highest oil production efficiency was 80% of the volatile solids (or 70 wt % of the total solids). The average carbon and hydrogen contents were ??? 72 and 9%, respectively. The heating values for 80% of the oil products ranged from 32,000 to 36,700 kJ/kg. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the AWMA 97th Annual Conference and Exhibition (Indianapolis, IN 6/22-25/2004).

Conference Paper↗
USGS2006

Modelling and understanding volcanic processes using high-quality seismological data

At an active volcano, Very-Long-Period (VLP) seismicity (with typical periods in the range 2-100 s) reflects pressure fluctuations resulting from unsteady mass transport in the sub-surface plumbing system, and hence provides a glimpse of the internal dynamics of the volcanic edifice. Understanding the fundamental fluid-flow mechanisms involved in the generation of VLP seismic events is, therefore, key to improving eruption prediction and developing insight into the dynamics of fluid movement in volcanoes.

Géosciences↗