Geology Reports⌕ Search

Geology topics

D. W. Brown

Publications and source records attributed to D. W. Brown.

9 recordsLinked to original sources
USGS1997

Summary of surface-water hydrologic data for the Houston metropolitan area, Texas, water years 1964-89

The study area, a metropolitan area in southeast Texas about 45 miles north of the Gulf of Mexico, has been undergoing extensive urban development since the 1950s. The Houston Urban Runoff Program was begun by the U.S. Geological Survey in water year 1964 to define the magnitude and frequency of flood peaks, to determine the impact of continuing urban development on surface-water hydrologic responses, and to determine variations in stream water quality for different flow conditions, seasons, and urban development. An extensive data base has been developed. During water years 1964-89, the Houston Urban Runoff Program collected information from a total of 54 U.S. Geological Survey streamflow-gaging stations, 30 U.S. Geological Survey water-quality sampling sites, and 102 rain gages (operated by the U.S. Geological Survey, the National Weather Service, and local agencies). In addition, basin characteristics were developed to aid in understanding the effects of urban development on surface-water hydrologic responses. Surface-water hydrologic data on diskettes describe the 54 U.S. Geological Survey streamflow-gaging stations, list annual peaks (and where available, peaks above an arbitrary base) for 50 streamflow sites, tabulate 1,125 storm hydrographs from 43 sites, and document 102 waterquality parameters determined from 3,242 available samples.

Texas↗
USGS1995

Summary statistics and graphical comparisons of specific conductance, temperature, and dissolved oxygen data, Buffalo Bayou, Houston, Texas, April 1986-March 1991

Buffalo Bayou is the major stream that drains the Houston, Texas, metropolitan area. The U.S. Geological Survey has provided specific conductance, temperature, and dissolved oxygen data to the City of Houston for three sites along a 7.7-mile reach of Buffalo Bayou since 1986. Summary statistics and graphical comparisons of the data show substantial variability in the properties during 1986-91. Specific conductance ranged from about 100 microsiemens per centimeter at 25 degrees Celsius at each of the three sites to 17,100 microsiemens per centimeter at 25 degrees Celsius at the most downstream site, at the headwaters of the Houston Ship Channel. Water temperatures ranged from 5 to 33 degrees Celsius. Temperatures were very similar at the two upstream sites and slightly warmer at the most downstream site. Dissolved oxygen ranged from zero at the most downstream site to 11.7 milligrams per liter at the most upstream site.

Texas↗
USGS1987

Hydrologic data for urban studies in the Houston metropolitan area, Texas, 1984

Hydrologic investigations of urban watersheds in Texas were begun by the U.S. Geological Survey in 1954. Studies are now in progress in the Austin and Houston areas, and have been completed in the Dallas-Fort Worth and San Antonio areas. The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the city of Houston, began studies in the Houston metropolitan area in 1964. The program was expanded in 1968 to include collection of water-quality data. The objectives of the Houston urban-hydrology study are as follows: To determine, on the basis of historical data and hydrologic analyses, the magnitude and frequency of flood peaks and flood volumes; To determine the effect of urban development on flood peaks and volumes; and To ascertain the variation in water quality for different flow conditions and different seasons. This report, the twenty-first and last scheduled in a series of reports published annually, is primarily applicable to objective 2. The report presents hydrologic data collected in the Houston urban area for the 1984 water year (October 1, 1983 to September 30, 1984). A report by Johnson and Sayre (1973) utilized records collected from 1965 to 1969 to study the effects of urbanization on floods in the Houston area. That report also summarized various basin parameters. A report by Waddell, Massey, and Jennings (1979) presented data on runoff from the Houston area and computed concentrations and loads of selected water-quality constituents discharged to Galveston Bay. The study utilized a variation of the "STORM" model developed by the Hydrologic Engineering Center of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. A report prepared by Liscum and Massey (1980) presented a technique for estimating the magnitude and frequency of floods in the Houston area from drainage areas, bank-full conveyance, and percentage of urban development. A definition of terms related to streamflow, water quality, and other hydrologic data, as used in this report, are defined in "U.S. Geological Survey, Water-resources data for Texas, water year 1984, volume 2."

Texas↗
USGS1978

Studies of hydroxyaluminum complexes in aqueous solution

The coagulating ability of partly neutralized AlCl 3 solutions used in water treatment depends on their basicity, expressed here as the ratio NaOH/AlC 3 . This work presents an identification of the aluminum species active in the coagulation process. The results give rise to an interpretative model which is consistent with those models proposed for high ionic strength by other investigators.

Journal of Research of the U.S. Geological Survey↗
USGS1977

Solubility of natural fluorite at 25°C

The solubility products of two samples of natural fluorite from Rosiclare, Ill., and from Madoc, Ontario, were determined at 25°C by analyses of calcium and fluoride in sodium perchlorate solutions of varying ionic strength over a period of 3 years. Calcium concentrations were analyzed by atomic absorption spectrophotometry, fluoride concentrations were measured colorimetrically, and fluoride activities were measured using a specific ion electrode. The solubility products at the end of 3 years were determined by extrapolation to zero ionic strength. The final solubility product was found to be 10 -10.58±0.17 .

Journal of Research of the U.S. Geological Survey↗
USGS1959

Ground-water conditions and storage capacity in the San Joaquin Valley, California

The San Joaquin Valley includes roughly the southern two-thirds of the Great Central Valley of California. It is a broad structural trough surrounded by mountains. The northern part of the valley drains through the San Joaquin River northward to San Francisco Bay ; the southern part of the valley normally is a basin of interior drainage tributary to evaporation sumps in the trough of the valley, chiefly Tulare and Buena Vista Lake beds. In years of normal discharge most of the streamflow in the southern part of the valley not diverted for irrigation finds its way to Tulare and Buena Vista Lake beds. In the historic past, however, during years of heavy floods the low divide between Buena Vista and Tulare Lakes and the low divide between Tulare Lake and the San Joaquin River were overtopped and through-flowing drainage occurred over the full length of the valley. Because the Tulare Lake bed is the lowest point and also the largest sump, this whole basin of interior drainage is commonly referred to as the Tulare Lake drainage basin. Average annual precipitation ranges from more than 15 inches in the north- eastern part of the valley to less than 4 inches in the southwestern part. The precipitation decreases from north to south and from east to west across the valley. Streamflow, the critical quantity in the water supply, depends almost wholly on the amount and distribution of precipitation in the Sierra Nevada to the east. Much of this precipitation falls as snow, and the snowpack acts as a natural reservoir retaining much of the annual runoff until late spring and early summer. The mean seasonal runoff to the San Joaquin Valley is nearly 10 million acre- feet, of which about two-thirds is tributary to the San Joaquin River; the remaining third is tributary to Tulare Lake drainage basin. In 1952 about 8.5 million acre-feet of surface water was diverted for irrigation. Withdrawals of ground water for irrigation in 1952 approximated 7.5 million acre-feet. The surface of the San Joaquin Valley is not a featureless plain but is characterized by various types of physiography such as dissected uplands, low alluvial plains and fans, river flood plains and channels, and overflow lands and lake bottoms. The dissected uplands fringe the valley along its mountain borders. They are underlain by unconsolidated to semiconsolidated continental deposits of late Tertiary and early Quaternary age which have been moderately tilted and folded. The topography of these uplands ranges from deeply dissected hill land having a relief of several hundred feet to gently rolling land whose relief Is only a few feet. The low plains and fans border the dissected uplands along their valley- ward margins. They are generally fiat to gently undulating and featureless and are underlain by undeformed to slightly deformed alluvial deposits of Quaternary age. The river flood plains and channels lie along the San Joaquia and Kings Rivers in the axial part of the valley and along the major east-side streams. Where the rivers are incised below the general land surface, the flood plains are well defined; but in the axial trough of the valley, where the rivers are flanked by low-lying overflow lands, the flood-plain and channel deposits are confined to the stream channel and to the natural levees that slope away from the river. Overflow lands and lake bottoms include the historic beds of Tulare, Buena Vista, and Kern Lakes in the southern part of the valley, and the low-lying lands in the axial trough between the low alluvial plains and fans and the natural levees of the San Joaquin River and its major tributaries. They are level and featureless and are underlain by lake and swamp deposits of Recent age. The San Joaquin Valley is a great structural downwarp between the tilted block of the Sierra Nevada on the east and the complexly folded and faulted Coast Ranges on the we

Water Supply Paper↗