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USGS1981

Water resources data, Washington, water year 1981: Vol. 2 - Eastern Washington

Water-resources data for the 1981 water year for Washington consist of records of stage, discharge, and water quality of streams; stage, contents, and water quality of lakes and reservoirs; and water levels and water quality of ground-water. This report, in two volumes, contains records for water discharge at 229 gaging stations; stage only at 5 gaging stations; stage and contents at 39 lakes and reservoirs; water quality at 39 gaging stations (including 6 lakes and reservoirs) and 100 wells; and water levels at 164 observation wells. Also included are data for 14 crest-stage and 28 water-quality partial-record stations. Locations of sites in this volume are on figures 4, 5, 6, and 22. Additional water data were collected at various sites not involved in the systematic data-collection program and are published as miscellaneous measurements and analyses. These data represent that part of the national Water Data system operated by the U.S. Geological Survey and cooperating State, local, and Federal agencies in Washington.

Washington↗
USGS1979

Water resources data for Washington, water year 1978, Vol. 2 - Eastern Washington

Water resources data for the 1978 water year for Washington consist of records of stage, discharge, and water quality of streams; stage, contents, and water quality of lakes and reservoirs; and water levels and water quality of ground-water wells. This volume contains records for water discharge at 248 gaging stations; stage only at 4 gaging stations; stage and contents at 44 lakes and reservoirs; water quality at 117 gaging stations (including 6 lakes and reservoirs) and 215 wells; and water levels at 166 observation wells. Also included are data for 96 crest-stage and 89 water-quality partial-record stations. Locations of these sites are shown on figures 4, 5, and 19. Addition-al water data were collected at various sites not involved in the systematic data-collection program and are published as miscellaneous measurements and and analyses. These data together with the data in Volume 1 represent that part of the national Water Data system operated by the U.S. Geological Survey and cooperating State, local, and Federal agencies in Washington.

Washington↗
USGS2012

Updates to watershed modeling in the Potholes Reservoir basin, Washington-a supplement to Scientific Investigation Report 2009-5081

A previous collaborative effort between the U.S. Geological Survey and the Bureau of Reclamation resulted in a watershed model for four watersheds that discharge into Potholes Reservoir, Washington. Since the model was constructed, two new meteorological sites have been established that provide more reliable real-time information. The Bureau of Reclamation was interested in incorporating this new information into the existing watershed model developed in 2009, and adding measured snowpack information to update simulated results and to improve forecasts of runoff. This report includes descriptions of procedures to aid a user in making model runs, including a description of the Object User Interface for the watershed model with details on specific keystrokes to generate model runs for the contributing basins. A new real-time, data-gathering computer program automates the creation of the model input files and includes the new meteorological sites. The 2009 watershed model was updated with the new sites and validated by comparing simulated results to measured data. As in the previous study, the updated model (2012 model) does a poor job of simulating individual storms, but a reasonably good job of simulating seasonal runoff volumes. At three streamflow-gaging stations, the January 1 to June 30 retrospective forecasts of runoff volume for years 2010 and 2011 were within 40 percent of the measured runoff volume for five of the six comparisons, ranging from -39.4 to 60.3 percent difference. A procedure for collecting measured snowpack data and using the data in the watershed model for forecast model runs, based on the Ensemble Streamflow Prediction method, is described, with an example that uses 2004 snow-survey data.

Washington↗
USGS2015

Evaluating turbidity and suspended-sediment concentration relations from the North Fork Toutle River basin near Mount St. Helens, Washington; annual, seasonal, event, and particle size variations - a preliminary analysis.

Regression of in-stream turbidity with concurrent sample-based suspended-sediment concentration (SSC) has become an accepted method for producing unit-value time series of inferred SSC (Rasmussen et al., 2009). Turbidity-SSC regression models are increasingly used to generate suspended-sediment records for Pacific Northwest rivers (e.g., Curran et al., 2014; Schenk and Bragg, 2014; Uhrich and Bragg, 2003). Recent work developing turbidity-SSC models for the North Fork Toutle River in Southwest Washington (Uhrich et al., 2014), as well as other studies (Landers and Sturm, 2013, Merten et al., 2014), suggests that models derived from annual or greater datasets may not adequately reflect shorter term changes in turbidity-SSC relations, warranting closer inspection of such relations. In-stream turbidity measurements and suspended-sediment samples have been collected from the North Fork Toutle River since 2010. The study site, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) streamgage 14240525 near Kid Valley, Washington, is 13 river km downstream of the debris avalanche emplaced by the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens (Lipman and Mullineaux, 1981), and 2 river km downstream of the large sediment retention structure (SRS) built from 1987–1989 to mitigate the associated sediment hazard. The debris avalanche extends roughly 25 km down valley from the edifice of the volcano and is the primary source of suspended sediment moving past the streamgage (NF Toutle-SRS). Other significant sources are debris flow events and sand deposits upstream of the SRS, which are periodically remobilized and transported downstream. Also, finer material often is derived from the clay-rich original debris avalanche deposit, while coarser material can derive from areas such as fluvially reworked terraces.

Washington↗
USGS2018

Geologic field-trip guide of volcaniclastic sediments from snow- and ice-capped volcanoes—Mount St. Helens, Washington, and Mount Hood, Oregon

This field guide for the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth’s Interior (IAVCEI) Scientific Assembly 2017 focuses on volcaniclastic sediments from Mount St. Helens in Washington and Mount Hood in Oregon. The trip spends four days in the field and includes nine stops at each volcano. For completeness, this guidebook also includes sixteen optional stops in the Mount St. Helens area and three in the Mount Hood area. These two volcanoes provide excellent depositional records of the broad spectrum of volcanic hazards that involve the flow or fall of volcaniclastic particles. At the field-trip stops we will contrast and compare the different types of deposits—sediments that can be frustratingly difficult to distinguish from one another. Correct identification of deposit origin leads to a better understanding of hazards that can impact vulnerable communities at particular volcanoes. During this four-day field trip, we will spend two days in the Mount St. Helens area and two days near Mount Hood. On the first day, we will visit debris-avalanche and lahar deposits in the Toutle River valley in Washington. The second day will focus on pyroclastic density current, pyroclastic-fall, lahar, and volcano-fluvial deposits in the Lewis River drainage system near Mount St. Helens. On the third day, we will visit hyaloclastites, glacial tills, and other diamicts in the Hood River and Sandy River basins near Mount Hood. The fourth and final day will focus on distal lahar and volcano-fluvial deposits downstream of Mount Hood. What follows is an in-depth introduction to the deposits studied on this field trip. We provide criteria that are observable in the field to aid in differentiating between pyroclastic density current, pyroclastic-fall, debris-avalanche, lahar, water-flood, and glacial deposits. We also introduce the Holocene eruptive histories of Mount St. Helens and Mount Hood and discuss the processes responsible for deposit emplacement. Field-trip stops and features of interest along the route are described in detail in a road log that provides daily cumulative mileage.

Oregon, Washington↗
USGS2011

Geologic map of the Suquamish 7.5' quadrangle and part of the Seattle North 7.5' x 15' quadrangle, Kitsap County, Washington

The Suquamish 7.5' quadrangle is in the center of the Puget Lowland, Washington. The quadrangle contains the northern two-thirds of Bainbridge Island and adjacent parts of the Kitsap Peninsula. Puget Sound and contiguous waterways form 35 percent of the map area. Maximum elevation is 137 m in the northwest corner of the quadrangle, west of Suquamish; the modal elevation is 44 m. The center of the quadrangle is 20 km west-northwest of downtown Seattle. Winslow, in the southeast corner of the quadrangle, is a 35-minute ferry ride from Seattle. The Suquamish quadrangle lies within the Salish Lowland physiographic province (Haugerud, 2004), a broad region in the forearc of the Cascade Volcanic Arc that extends from south of Olympia, Washington, to north of Campbell River, British Columbia, and includes both the Puget Lowland of western Washington and the Georgia Depression of northwestern Washington and southwestern British Columbia. To the east are the Cascade Range and Coast Mountains; to the west is the outer-arc high of the Coast Ranges. The Salish Lowland is the locus of late Cenozoic subsidence: Jones (1996) indicates as much as 1 km of unconsolidated fill beneath some areas. The Lowland is crossed by east-west topographic highs formed by bedrock uplifts. A northern San Juan high divides the Lowland into Georgia Depression and Puget Lowland subprovinces. A southern high, which lies athwart the south end of Bainbridge Island immediately south of the map area, coincides with the Seattle Fault Zone along which uplift has brought Eocene rocks to elevations of 800-1,200 m, 8-10 km higher than equivalent strata in the floor of the Seattle structural basin that underlies central and northern Bainbridge Island and areas to the east (Brocher and others, 2001; Blakely and others, 2002). Deformation along the Seattle Fault appears to be driven by north-south shortening of the Cascade forearc (Wells and others, 1998). Pleistocene glacial deposits underlie most of the map area. Most extensive are the various members of the Vashon Drift, deposited in the Vashon stade of the Fraser Glaciation of Armstrong and others (1965) between about about 17,000 years ago. This study was undertaken in response to (1) awareness of the hazard posed by future earthquakes in the Seattle Fault Zone, at the south edge of the quadrangle, and the need to marshal geologic evidence for the rate and style of deformation; (2) increasing population on Bainbridge Island and consequent pressure on groundwater resources; (3) concern about landslide hazards; and (4) awareness of the role that the nearshore zone plays in supporting marine resources.

Washington↗
USGS1984

Between Mount St. Helens and the world: How the U.S. Geological Survey provided news-media information on the 1980 volcanic eruptions

The eruptions of Mount St. Helens volcano, Wash., constituted one of the major national and international news stories of 1980 and involved the U.S. Geological Survey in more news coverage than any other event in its history. Much of the information about the volcano came from monitoring and research by geologists, geophysicists, hydrologists, and other scientists of the U.S. Geological Survey. This scientific information was distributed to the public, through news media, by U.S. Geological Survey personnel. Key members of this group were Mount St. Helens hazards assessment scientists, monitoring scientists, and research scientists; public affairs officers; and the Information Scientist for Mount St. Helens. The Information Scientist, a geologist or geophysicist, assumed the major role of on-site (Vancouver, Wash.) news spokesman about a week after the main eruption of May 18. The Geological Survey released information through news conferences, interviews, news pools of reporters and cameramen on trips to the volcano, special television and radio appearances, news releases, and informal contacts with reporters. Members of the U.S. Forest Service, Federal Emergency Management Agency, State of Washington, and other government agencies cooperated extensively with the Geological Survey. By providing assistance to news representatives, the Geological Survey and these other agencies helped effect rapid dissemination of the background information and daily events of a highly complex story while limiting disruption to the scientific working team and minimizing dangers to reporters and scientists.

Washington↗
USGS1972

U.S. Geological Survey National Center, Reston, Virginia

In 1917 the Geological Survey moved into the newly built Interior Building near the White House in Washington, D. C. Twenty years later a larger building was constructed nearby to house the expanding U. S. Department of the Interior. Height restrictions reduced the planned size of the new building, and the Geological Survey was compelled to remain in the older Interior Building now identified as the General Services Administration Building. Expansion of the Survey's programs, and particularly the overall government need for additional office space in downtown Washington, has resulted in the Survey's activities being presently housed in 30 different buildings, at 17 widely scattered locations throughout the Washington Metropolitan Area.

Virginia↗
USGS1949

Ostracoda from well, shot hole, and outcrop samples in Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 4

The ostracodes described in this report are from material collected in Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 4, northern Alaska. The samples were obtained from well and seismograph shot holes drilled by Arctic Contractors and United States Geophysical Company and from field samples collected by the United States Geological Survey in the period from 1945 to 1948/ The earliest samples were processed for microfossils in Washington, but most of the material was prepared in the Fairbanks Laboratory of the Geological Survey.

Alaska↗
USGS2024

Shallow faulting and folding beneath south‐central Seattle, Washington State, from land‐based high‐resolution seismic‐reflection imaging

The geologic framework of the Seattle fault zone (SFZ) has been extensively studied, but the structure and fault strand locations in the central portion of the fault zone through the city of Seattle have remained controversial. Much of what is known about the SFZ has come from light detection and ranging (lidar)‐topographic surveys and paleoseismic investigations of fault scarps primarily west of Puget Sound, regional gravity and aeromagnetic modeling, and multiscale marine seismic imaging in waters both west and east of Seattle. We analyze ∼24 km of land‐based P ‐wave seismic‐reflection data that fill in a critical gap in our understanding of the SFZ beneath the urban areas of West Seattle, south‐central Seattle, and Mercer Island. These data image deformed strata in the upper 1 km, including upwarped Tertiary rock and younger sediments. Collectively, these data provide evidence for multiple Quaternary‐active thrust faults, back thrusts, and sub‐basins within the SFZ beneath the city of Seattle. The results indicate that multiple and potentially active back thrusts in the upper ∼500 m extend across the length of the SFZ and the entire urban corridor that may be analogous to those on Bainbridge Island west of Puget Sound.

Washington↗
USGS2012

Mercury species and other selected constituent concentrations in water, sediment, and biota of Sinclair Inlet, Kitsap County, Washington, 2007-10

This report presents data collected for two U.S. Geological Survey field sampling projects related to mercury (Hg) in Sinclair Inlet: (1) the Watersheds Sources Project that evaluated the sources of mercury to Sinclair Inlet during December 2007 to March 2010, and (2) the Methylation and Bioaccumulation Project, a comprehensive examination of mercury biogeochemistry in sediment, water, and zooplankton during August 2008–February 2010. For the Watershed Sources project, nonpoint and point sources of mercury to Sinclair Inlet from the Bremerton naval complex (BNC) were evaluated by using filtered total mercury and particulate total mercury measured in water samples collected from 11 wells, 2 dry dock sump discharges, and a steam plant's effluent at the BNC. Methylmercury sources to the inlet were examined by determining filtered methylmercury concentrations in water samples collected from five wells, two dry dock sump discharges, a steam plant's effluent, five intertidal piezometers, and three stormwater drains on the BNC, as well as in samples from five creeks, two wastewater treatment facilities, and three stormwater drains in the Sinclair Inlet watershed outside of the BNC. An improved understanding of tidally modulated mercury migration to Sinclair Inlet from the BNC was gained through three intensive nearshore (tidal) sampling events of mercury species in groundwater and a nearby stormwater drain. The Methylation and Bioaccumulation Project included a comprehensive field study of mercury biogeochemistry in marine sediment, water, and zooplankton in Sinclair Inlet. Mercury, iron, and sulfur species in sediment porewater from six sites within and three sites outside of Sinclair Inlet were measured to provide insight into the processes that produce methylmercury in the sediments. Total mercury, methylmercury, dissolved organic carbon, and redox-sensitive species were measured in porewaters in the top 2 centimeters of sediment, and these data were paired with sedimentary flux measurements from core incubation experiments to connect sedimentary processes to the water column. A broad-scale study of mercury methylation potential and mercury species at 20-plus stations in Sinclair Inlet was conducted in February 2009 and 2010, June 2009, and August 2009. Sedimentary flux measurements and analysis of mercury and biogeochemicals in sediment porewater and bottom water were made at six of the broad-scale stations. Bioaccumulation processes in the water column in the context of the sedimentary flux of methylmercury were examined using monthly survey data collected between August 2008 and August 2009. The survey data included concentrations of methylmercury and isotope ratios of carbon and nitrogen in bulk zooplankton measured at four stations in Sinclair Inlet in the context of the population of bulk zooplankton ascertained by taxonomical identification. The analysis of filtered total mercury, total particulate mercury, filtered methylmercury, particulate methylmercury, chlorophyll a, isotopes of carbon and nitrogen in suspended matter, and other biogeochemical data will facilitate the examination of the biogeochemistry of mercury in Sinclair Inlet.

Washington↗