SEARCH · Geology Reports
Search indexed USGS publications on groundwater, aquifers, geologic maps, mineral resources and earthquakes. Explore source records by subject and place.
Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
No abstract available.
This report presents a FORTRAN computer program that generates simulated time-series data as output from the U.S. Geological Survey Modular Finite-Difference Ground-Water Flow Model at user-specified point locations or a collection of points that compose a profile through the modeled region. The program can save time-series data at user-specified locations for simulated water levels, drawdown, critical head, compaction, subsidence, streamflow, streamflow stage, and streamflow leakage. A set of locations also can be specified to create time-series profiles through the model. These data can be used to establish the performance of the model and can help with model calibration and other forms of flow-system and water-resource analysis.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
No abstract available.
No abstract available.
Liquid wastes from an enriched-uranium cold-scrap recovery plant at Wood River Junction, Rhode Island, were discharged to the environment through evaporation ponds and trenches from 1966 through 1980. Leakage from the ponds and trenches resulted in a plume of contaminated ground water extending northwestward to the Pawcatuck River through a highly permeable sand and gravel aquifer of glacial origin.
The 18-year Desert Winds Project established instrumented field sites in the five major regions of the North American Desert to obtain meteorological, geological, and vegetation data for natural desert sites affected by wind erosion. The eight chapters in this volume describe the settings and operation of the stations and summarize eolian-related research to date around the stations. The report includes studies of the sand-moving effectiveness of storm winds, wind-erosion susceptibility of different ground-surface types, relations of dust storms to meteorological conditions, mediation of wind erosion by vegetation, remote sensing to detect vegetation changes related to climate change, and comparison of regional dust deposition to that near Owens (dry) Lake.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
The 2004-6 eruption of Mount St. Helens produced dacite that contains 40-50 volume percent phenocrysts of plagioclase, amphibole, low-Ca pyroxene, magnetite, and ilmenite in a groundmass that is nearly totally crystallized. Phenocrysts of amphibole and pyroxene range from 3 to 5 mm long and are cyclically zoned, with one to three alternations of Fe- and Al-rich to Mg- and Si-rich layers showing little indication of phenocryst dissolution between zones. Similar-size plagioclase phenocrysts also contain several cyclic zones ranging between ~An 68 and An 45-35 . Textural evidence indicates that amphibole, pyroxene, and ilmenite began to crystallize before the most An-rich plagioclase. Magnetite and ilmenite phenocrysts are small (less than 100 μm), vary somewhat in composition from grain to grain, and are sporadically zoned. Magnetite-ilmenite pairs yield temperatures of equilibration ranging from 820°C to 890°C and f O2 values of NNO +1 log unit. Magnetite compositions suggest that the 2004-6 magma was formed by mingling of magmas less than 5-8 weeks before eruption and that the magma last equilibrated within this temperature range. The amphibole phenocryst zoning involves approximately equal amounts of a pressure-sensitive Al-Tschermak molecular substitution and a temperature-sensitive edenite substitution in one cycle of growth. Hydrothermal experiments done on the natural dacite show that crystallization of the Fe- and Al-rich amphibole end member requires pressures of 200-300 MPa at temperatures of 900°C, conditions approaching the upper temperature limit of amphibole stability. The dacitic magma crystallizes the An 68 plagioclase when the pressure drops to 200 MPa at 900°C. The magma must cool at this depth to produce a complete An 68 -An 40 plagioclase zone and a Mg-rich layer on the amphiboles before the magma is cycled back to a high pressure, when a new layer of Fe-rich amphibole is acquired. The amphibole crystallizing in the dacite experiments at less than 200 MPa is lower in aluminum than any compositions in the natural cyclically zoned phenocrysts. The outer rim on some 2004-6 amphibole phenocrysts appears to have formed in the 100-200 MPa range, as do some phenocrysts in the May 1980 dacite pumice. Plagioclase rims of An 35 in the 2004-6 magmas indicate that phenocryst growth continued until the pressure decreased to 130 MPa and that ascent was slow until this depth. Magma then entered the conduit for a relatively rapid ascent to the surface as indicated by the very thin (less than 5 μm) decompression-induced rims on the amphibole phenocrysts.
This study uses a combination of absolute and relative locations from earthquake multiplets to investigate the seismicity associated with the eruptive sequence at Mount St. Helens between September 23, 2004, and November 20, 2004. Multiplets, a prominent feature of seismicity during this time period, occurred as volcano-tectonic, hybrid, and low-frequency earthquakes spanning a large range of magnitudes and lifespans. Absolute locations were improved through the use of a new one-dimensional velocity model with excellent shallow constraints on P-wave velocities. We used jackknife tests to minimize possible biases in absolute and relative locations resulting from station outages and changing station configurations. In this paper, we show that earthquake hypocenters shallowed before the October 1 explosion along a north-dipping structure under the 1980-86 dome. Relative relocations of multiplets during the initial seismic unrest and ensuing eruption showed rather small source volumes before the October 1 explosion and larger tabular source volumes after October 5. All multiplets possess absolute locations very close to each other. However, the highly dissimilar waveforms displayed by each of the multiplets analyzed suggest that different sources and mechanisms were present within a very small source volume. We suggest that multiplets were related to pressurization of the conduit system that produced a stationary source that was highly stable over long time periods. On the basis of their response to explosions occurring in October 2004, earthquakes not associated with multiplets also appeared to be pressure dependent. The pressure source for these earthquakes appeared, however, to be different from the pressure source of the multiplets.
Augustine Volcano is an active stratovolcano located in southwestern Cook Inlet, about 280 kilometers southwest of Anchorage, Alaska. The volcano produced six significant explosive eruptions between 1812 and 1986. Augustine eruptions typically have an explosive onset followed by dome building. The most recent eruption began on January 11, 2006. We applied the small baseline subset (SBAS) interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) technique to measure ground surface deformation during 1992-2005 with the use of European Remote Sensing Satellites 1 and 2 (ERS-1 and ERS-2) radar imagery. Through a multiple-interferogram approach, atmospheric delay artifacts, which hinder conventional InSAR measurements, are significantly reduced by spatial and temporal filtering. This allows us to retrieve time-series deformation over coherent points at millimeter-scale accuracy. The deformation results from two independent satellite tracks agree with each other, suggesting 2 to 8 cm wholesale uplift of Augustine Volcano from 1992 to 2005. Global Positioning System (GPS) data acquired in September 2004 and October 2005 confirm the SBAS InSAR results. A preliminary model consisting of a contracting source at 2 to 4 km depth and an inflating source at 7 to 12 km depth fits the observed deformation reasonably well. We interpret the deeper source as a long-term magma storage zone and the shallower source as a subsidiary reservoir that was tapped during the 2006 eruption. The shallow source corresponds approximately to the location of the volcano-tectonic earthquakes that preceded and followed the 1976 and 2006 eruptions, respectively.
Four watersheds with differing geology and land cover in eastern Puerto Rico have been studied on a long-term basis by the U.S. Geological Survey to evaluate water, energy, and biogeochemical budgets. These watersheds are typical of tropical, island-arc settings found in many parts of the world. Two watersheds are located on coarse-grained granitic rocks that weather to quartz- and clay-rich, sandy soils, and two are located on fine-grained volcanic rocks and volcaniclastic sedimentary rocks that weather to quartz-poor, fine-grained soils. For each bedrock type, one watershed is covered with mature forest, and the other watershed, like most of Puerto Rico, has transformed from relatively undisturbed pre-European forest to intensive agriculture in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and further to ongoing reforestation that began in the middle of the 20th century. The comparison of water chemistry and hydrology in these watersheds allows an evaluation of the effects of land-use history and geology on hydrologic regimes and erosion rates. This chapter describes the physiography, geology, and land cover of the four watersheds and provides background information for the remaining chapters in this volume.