Sediment Laboratories

The USGS maintains sediment laboratories at the Water Science Centers and offices listed below. The services provided vary according to the needs and expertise of the specific laboratory and are available for internal USGS use or by contract between the USGS and other government agencies by virtue of cooperative agreements for work being performed with the USGS. USGS sediment laboratory chiefs coordinate and collaborate to promote consistency in sediment analytical practices across the Nation.

• California Water Science Center (Stephen Low, Laboratory Chief)

• Cascades Volcano Observatory  (Dan Gooding, Laboratory Chief)

• Central Midwest Water Science Center (Julie Nason, Laboratory Chief)

• Lower Mississippi-Gulf Water Science Center (Marlon Johnson, Laboratory Chief)

• Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Water Science Center (Nadine Lepore, Laboratory Chief)

• New Mexico Water Science Center (Jessica Stiles, Laboratory Chief)

Typical sediment sample analyses include suspended-sediment concentration, sand/fine break, grain size analysis, and organic content (loss on ignition). Some USGS sediment laboratories offer specialty analysis such as mineral density, bulk density, imaging analysis, and scanning electron microscopy. Key USGS publications on sediment analytical methods and method comparisons are listed below.

Additionally, USGS sediment laboratories participate in the Sediment Quality Assurance (SLQA) Project to improve and assess data quality produced by the USGS and to enable comparisons among laboratories. Additional information and historical quality assurance test results are available from the SLQA website.

Selected publications relating to laboratory analysis of sediment

Guy, Harold P., 1969, Laboratory theory and methods for sediment analysis: Techniques of Water-Resources Investigations of the U.S. Geological Survey, Book 5, Chapter C1, 64 p. This report describes laboratory methods for analyzing sediment concentration and particle size distribution in samples. The USGS hopes to publish an update to this report in the coming years, as some of the described methods are no longer used (such as bottom withdrawal), and some new methods are not covered (such as laser diffraction and digital image analysis).

Thatcher, L.L., and Janzer, V.J., 1977, Methods for determination of radioactive substances in water and fluvial sediments: Techniques of Water-Resources Investigations of the U.S. Geological Survey, Book 5, Chapter A5, 94 p. This report describes laboratory methods for analyzing natural and artificial radioactivity in water and sediment. The methods are particularly applicable to age dating and source identification (fingerprinting) sediment studies.

Fishman, M.J., and Friedman, L.C., 1989, Methods for determination of inorganic substances in water and fluvial sediments: Techniques of Water-Resources Investigations of the U.S. Geological Survey, Book 5, Chapter A1, 3rd ed., 545 p. This report describes laboratory analytical methods for determining the recoverable and total concentrations of inorganic constituents in water-suspended sediment and bottom material samples.

Freidman, L.C., and Erdmann, D.E., 1982, Quality assurance practices for the chemical and biological analyses of water and fluvial sediments: Techniques of Water-Resources Investigations of the U.S. Geological Survey, Book 5, Chapter A6, 181 p.  This report describes practices used by USGS to assure the quality of analytical data for water, fluvial sediment, and aquatic organisms processed by field and laboratory personnel.

Gray, John R., Glysson, G. Douglas, Turcios, Lisa M., and Schwarz, Gregory E., 2000: Comparability of suspended-sediment concentration and total suspended solids data: Water Resources Investigations Report 00-4191, 14 p. This report describes the differences between suspended-sediment concentration (SSC) and total suspended solids (TSS) analyses and cautions users on the bias inherent to TSS results. When USGS personnel collect a sample to be analyzed for TSS, they are required to collect a concurrent sample to be analyzed for SSC to quantify the differences in results. Issues associated with TSS data also are described in USGS Office of Surface Water Policy SW 01.03.

Reports published by the USGS National Water Quality Laboratory cover a range of analytical methods for analyzing constituents in water and sediment. A list of relevant publications, organized by USGS report series or type, is available here.