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The possibility of seiemic measurement of the rotation of the Earth's core

The calculations of Inglis show that the rate of transfer of angular momentum to the Earth's (liquid) core may be small enough to permit the axis of rotation of the core to lag about 2° behind that of the rock‐mantle in the precessional motion of the Earth. The travel‐time of P′ would be altered by about one‐fifth of a second, which is too small to be detected by a single observation made with even the best instrument, but can be brought out statistically when we have accumulated about three thousand clear measurements, on sensitive vertical‐component seismographs, of the P′‐waves from accurately located earthquakes.

Eos, Transactions, American Geophysical Union

The effect of a well on the flow of a nearby stream

In many irrigation‐districts where the supplies of surface‐water from a stream nave been entirely appropriated, pumping from wells has been resorted to in order to supplement the surface‐supply. Where the pumps are near a stream that has a flow during the irrigation‐season, either because of normal ground‐water flow or because of return flow from surface‐water irrigation, the pumping is likely to diminish the stream‐flow. Conversely, diversions of water from a stream may diminish the supply of wells that were formerly supplied indirectly by seepage from the stream, but the problem involved is of a different nature than its converse and will not be discussed here.

Eos, Transactions, American Geophysical Union

Ground‐water inventory in the Upper Gila River Valley, New Mexico and Arizona: Scope of investigation and methods used

The Division of Ground Water of the Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior, has been making an inventory of the water‐resources of the upper Gila River since January 1, 1940. Funds for the project are furnished under a cooperative agreement with the Arizona State Water Commissioner, supplemented by a substantial grant from the United States Engineer Office of the War Department. The State of Arizona wants information regarding the quantity of ground‐water available to supplement surface‐water irrigation. The Army Engineers would like to know the effect that flood‐control structures which may be built on the upper Gila will have on existing relations between river‐flow and ground‐water storage.

Eos, Transactions, American Geophysical Union

Coefficients of storage and transmissibility obtained from pumping tests in the Houston District, Texas

An investigation of the ground‐water supply of the Houston District, in Texas, has been in progress since December, 1930, under the general direction of O. E. Meinzer, Geologist‐in‐Charge of the Division of Ground Water of the Geological Survey. The Houston District, as the term is used here, comprises all of Harris County and parts of Montgomery, Waller, and Fort Bend counties, lying between the Trinity and Brazos rivers. The investigation in this area has consisted primarily of inventorying well‐logs and pumpage‐records, of obtaining water‐level data and information regarding the chemical character of the ground‐water, and wherever possible of correlating these data.

Texas

Application of coefficients of transmissibility and storage to regional problems in the Houston District, Texas

The Houston District, as the term is used in this paper, comprises an area between the Trinity and Brazos rivers in Harris County and parts of Montgomery, Waller, and Fort Bend counties, Texas. It consists of a plain of low relief that lies not far above sea‐level, and is a part of the West Gulf Coastal Plain. A part of the District is shown in Figure 1. Large quantities of ground‐water are pumped in the Houston District from a succession of beds of sand that occur between 300 and 1,900 feet below the surface. These sands are interbedded with relatively impermeable clays. The formations range in age from Miocene to Recent and were deposited during several cycles of marine and continental deposition. They may be classified into several zones which are predominantly clay or predominantly sand, but in which the individual beds at most horizons can not be traced very far. Most of the beds interfinger and grade into one another laterally and vertically in short distances, the thinner beds in many places changing character or pinching out within a few hundred feet. The formations dip to the southeastward, the dip ranging from about 35 feet to the mile in the older formations to about 20 feet to the mile in the younger. In the outcrop‐areas of the formations, and for considerable distances down the dip, the sediments are in general dominantly sandy. Far to the southeastward, in the direction of the Gulf, clay predominates.

Texas

Factors producing a nine‐year decline in ground‐water levels in Scott County, Kansas

In the south‐central part of Scott County, Kansas, there is an area of shallow water‐table in which the ground‐water levels have declined steadily since 1932 (Fig. 1). In this area water has been withdrawn from wells for irrigation in increasing amounts during the last decade and the precipitation has been considerably below normal for the last seven years. Thus, the problem of interpreting the downward trend of the water‐table has been complicated by the presence of two competent causes.

Kansas

Ground‐water dams created by faulting of alluvial sediments in the hurricane fault‐zone, Utah

Ground‐water dams are recognized in the unconsolidated sediments of two intermontane valleys in southwestern Utah. Parowan Valley is about 30 miles long and has a general northeasterly trend; Cedar City Valley lies west and south of Parowan Valley, is somewhat larger, and has a more nearly north‐south trend. Great accumulations of boulders, gravel, sand, and clay have been brought into both valleys by the streams that drain the surrounding highlands, and the valleys have become topographic basins whose lowest parts are occupied by lakes or dry alkali flats, rimmed on all sides with the alluvial fans and cones that have been formed by the streams tributary to the valleys. Ground‐water occurs principally in these unconsolidated sediments, and in both valleys a large proportion of the irrigated lands is dependent upon water pumped from wells.

Utah

Depth of active solution by ground‐waters in the Pecos Valley, New Mexico

The Pecos River Drainage‐Basin is underlain by a thick series of Permian rocks consisting largely of limestone, gypsum (or anhydrite), and halite. The beds have a regional eastward or southeastward dip of 40 to 80 feet to the mile and successively younger beds are exposed at the surface from west to east across the Basin (Fig, 1). The beds of the San Andres formation and the Chalk Bluff formation or its equivalents crop out over most of the broad western part of the Basin (Fig. 1). Most of the eastern part of the Basin is immediately underlain by the redbeds was sandstone of the Dockum group, of Triassic age, which, south of Acme, are separated from the Chalk Bluff formation by the Salado and Rustler formations. North of Acme the Dockum group overlaps successively older formations ana northwest of Santa Rosa it rests upon beds in the lower part of the San Andres formation.

New Mexico

Notes on the elasticity of the Lloyd sand on Long Island, New York

The Lloyd sand is a productive artesian aquifer underlying all of Long Island except the westernmost part. It rests unconformably upon a floor of crystalline rock that slopes toward the southeast at about 100 feet to the mile. Locally the bed‐rock surface has a relief of more than 100 feet. The Lloyd sand consists of white quartz‐sand and gravel, with some layers of clay. It is considered to be part of the Raritan—the basal formation of the Upper Cretaceous series. At Rockaway Park, on the south shore of the Island, the Lloyd is about 200 feet thick and is overlain by 300 feet of clays of Raritan age. The Raritan clays are in turn overlain by about 150 feet of sands, believed to be of Magothy age, and about 315 feet of Pleistocene sediments.

New York

Report of committee on the chemistry of natural waters, 1840–41

The membership of the Committee during the past year was as follows: I. A. Dennison. Bureau of Standards; C. S. Scofield, Department of Agriculture; D. G. Thompson, Geological Survey; T. G. Thompson, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington; and C. S. Howard, United States Geological Survey, Washington, D.C. (Chairman).

Eos, Transactions, American Geophysical Union

Report of committee on glaciers, 1940–41

The personnel of the Committee is now as follows: Harry Fielding Reid, Professor Emeritus of Geology, Johns Hopkins University, 608 Cathedral Street, Baltimore, Maryland; William H. Hobbs, Professor Emeritus of Geology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan; Lawrence Martin, Chief of the Division of Maps, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; J. E. Church, Professor of Meteorology, Agricultural Experiment Station, University of Nevada, Reno, Nevada; Wm. Osgood Field, Jr., Explorer, 18 West Twelfth Street, New York, New York; Oliver Kehrlein, Chairman, Committee on Glacier Studies of Sierra Club, 1050 Mills Tower, 220 Bush Street, San Francisco, California; Kenneth N. Phillips, Associate Hydraulic Engineer, Water Resources Branch, United States Geological Survey, Chairman, Research Committee of the Mazamas, 606 Post‐Office Building, Portland, Oregon; William S. Cooper, Professor of Botany, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota; Gerald Fitzgerald, Senior Topographic Engineer, Alaska Branch, United States Geological Survey, Washington, D.C.; Laurence M. Gould, Professor of Geology, Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota; Dr. Max Demorest, Department of Geology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut; François E. Matthes (Chairman), Senior Geologist, Section of Glacial Geology, United States Geological Survey, Washington, D.C.

Eos, Transactions, American Geophysical Union

Report of committee on runoff, 1940–41

The Committee members are the same as last year, namely: H. K. Barrows; Merrill Bernard; E. S. Cullings; R. S. Goodridge; G. A. Hathaway; Joseph Jacobs; F. T. Havis; H. S. Riesbol; Waldo E. Smith; F. F. Snyder; and H. G. Wilm. During the year one addition was made, namely, AURELIO BENASSINI of Mexico City and associated with the Mexican Government. One of Mr. Benassini's associates, Mr. Quintero, was appointed on Mr. Bernard's Rainfall Committee, and in view of the fact that we have common hydrologic problems with Mexico, it seems desirable to have representatives of the Mexican Government on both the Rainfall and the Runoff Committees.

Eos, Transactions, American Geophysical Union

Ground‐water studies in the Southwest

Geologists are concerned with the rock‐systems that form the crust of the Earth. The groundwater geologists are concerned with the rock‐systems specifically because the open spaces which the rocks contain serve as reservoirs and conduits for water—water which performs a large part of the geologic work that is in progress today and has been in progress during past ages; water which affects profoundly the whole hydrologic cycle and is still the principal source of water‐supply for mankind, as it has been for primitive man and the other land animals before the time of artificial waterworks.

Eos, Transactions, American Geophysical Union

Recharge and discharge of the ground‐water reservoirs on the High Plains in Texas

The High Plains in Texas occupy an area of about 35,000 square miles extending from the northern boundary of the Panhandle southward about 300 miles, and from the New Mexico line eastward an average distance of about 120 miles to a boundary which in most places is sharply defined by a bold escarpment several hundred feet in height. The region is noted for its abundant supply of ground‐water, most of which is found in the Ogallala formation, a sandy deposit lying at or near the surface throughout most of the region, and reaching a depth of between 200 and 300 feet. The Ogallala formerly extended over a much greater area, but it has been removed by erosion from much of the territory it once occupied. The areas in which it remains are the High Plains, which are bounded by prominent escarpments both on the east and on the west, and are traversed in Texas by the Canadian River, which is deeply entrenched in the older rocks. The water‐bearing sands of the Ogallala in both segments are cut off in all directions from any underground connection, except through the underlying older rocks which contain highly mineralized water unlike the fresh water in the Ogallala. The source of the fresh water, therefore, is within the High Plains themselves, and is from the rain and snow that falls on the surface of the Plains.

Eos, Transactions, American Geophysical Union

Solution‐phenomena in the Pecos basin in New Mexico

The drainage‐basin of the Pecos River in New Mexico is a broad asymmetric trough extending from the Sangre de Cristo Mountains southward into Texas (see Fig. 1). It is bounded on the east by the westward facing escarpment of the High Plains and on the west by the crests of the Guadalupe, Sacramento and Sierra Blanca mountains, and a poorly defined divide extending northward through Gallinas Mountain and Pedernal Mountain to Glorieta Mesa. Most of the basin is formed by extensive upland erosion‐surfaces that slope gently toward the river. The valley proper, through much of its length, is relatively narrow and is bounded by steep marginal bluffs, but in some sections, notably between Acme and Lakewood (the Roswell artesian basin) and between Carlsbad and Black River, it is considerably expanded and the lowlands adjoining the river extend from 3 to 16 miles back from the river.

New Mexico

Results of pumping tests of the Carrizo sand in the Lufkin area, Texas

The Lufkin Area, as the term is used in this paper, is comprised of Angelina and Nacogdoches counties, Texas, and parts of adjoining counties. Its surface is gently rolling, with a maximum relief of about 150 feet and a maximum altitude of less than 400 feet. The average annual rainfall is about 45 inches. Practically all of the water‐supplies in the area come from ground‐water and it has been found that the Carrizo sand contains water of better quality and is more productive than any other water‐bearing formation in the area [see 1 of “References” at end of paper]. Figure 1 is a map of the area, showing the positions of the cities of Lufkin and Nacogdoches, the wells of the Southland Paper Mill, and other wells mentioned in this paper.

Texas

Recharge to ground‐water from floods in a typical desert wash, Pinal County, Arizona

Queen Creek, considered in this paper, is a typical large desert wash. It rises in the Pinal Mountains near the mining town of Superior and enters the outwash‐plain at Black Point about three miles north of Florence Junction (see Fig. 1). Thence it passes over the desert in a southwesterly direction toward Chandler, spreads over the lowlands, and disappears. The flow of the stream consists almost entirely of storm‐water and is of the quick, flashy type common to the deserts of the Southwest. In ordinary years the stream is dry most of the time. Formerly the flood‐waters spread over the floor of the desert and did no harm. Now, however, they invade highly cultivated lands that are irrigated with water from Salt River or from wells, and cause serious damage to both crops and canals. The damage could be prevented by storing the stormwaters in a reservoir formed by a dam at or above Black Point.

Arizona

Runoff in the Santa Ynez River Basin, California, following the excessive rainfall of 1940–41

This paper reports briefly on the runoff‐characteristics of the Santa Ynez River in Santa Barbara County, California, following the excessive rainfall in the winter of 1940–41; also, it contrasts these conditions of 1940–41 with earlier years of less rainfall. The data for this report were compiled in connection with an investigation of the water‐resources of Santa Barbara County which is being conducted by the United States Geological Survey in cooperation with the County of Santa Barbara.

California