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USGS Polar Temperature Logging System, Description and Measurement Uncertainties

This paper provides an updated technical description of the USGS Polar Temperature Logging System (PTLS) and a complete assessment of the measurement uncertainties. This measurement system is used to acquire subsurface temperature data for climate-change detection in the polar regions and for reconstructing past climate changes using the 'borehole paleothermometry' inverse method. Specifically des
Authors
Gary D. Clow

Three-Dimensional Geologic Model of Complex Fault Structures in the Upper Seco Creek Area, Medina and Uvalde Counties, South-Central Texas

This multimedia report shows and describes digital three-dimensional faulted geologic surfaces and volumes of the lithologic units of the Edwards aquifer in the upper Seco Creek area of Medina and Uvalde Counties in south-central Texas. This geologic framework model was produced using (1) geologic maps and interpretations of depositional environments and paleogeography; (2) lithologic descriptions
Authors
Michael P. Pantea, J. C. Cole, Bruce D. Smith, Jason R. Faith, Charles D. Blome, David V. Smith

Potential effects of a scenario earthquake on the economy of southern California: Baseline county-level migration characteristics and trends 1995-2000 and 2001-2010

The Multi-Hazards Demonstration Project (MHDP) is a collaboration between the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and various partners from the public and private sectors and academia, meant to improve Southern California's resiliency to natural hazards. In support of the MHDP objectives, the ShakeOut Scenario was developed. It describes a magnitude 7.8 earthquake along the southernmost 300 kilometers (
Authors
Benson C. Sherrouse, D. J. Hester

Potential effects of a scenario earthquake on the economy of southern California: Labor market exposure and sensitivity analysis to a magnitude 7.8 earthquake

The Multi-Hazards Demonstration Project (MHDP) is a collaboration between the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and various partners from the public and private sectors and academia, meant to improve Southern California's resiliency to natural hazards (Jones and others, 2007). In support of the MHDP objectives, the ShakeOut Scenario was developed. It describes a magnitude 7.8 (M7.8) earthquake along t
Authors
Benson C. Sherrouse, D. J. Hester, Anne M. Wein

Potential effects of a scenario earthquake on the economy of southern California: Small business exposure and sensitivity analysis to a magnitude 7.8 earthquake

The Multi-Hazards Demonstration Project (MHDP) is a collaboration between the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and various partners from the public and private sectors and academia, meant to improve Southern California's resiliency to natural hazards (Jones and others, 2007). In support of the MHDP objectives, the ShakeOut Scenario was developed. It describes a magnitude 7.8 (M7.8) earthquake along t
Authors
Benson C. Sherrouse, D. J. Hester, Anne M. Wein

Preliminary Geologic Map of the Culebra Peak Area, Sangre de Cristo Mountains, Las Animas and Costilla Counties, Colorado

This geologic map provides new geologic mapping at 1:50,000-scale in the Culebra Peak area of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of south-central Colorado. The map area includes all of the El Valle Creek, Stonewall, Culebra Peak, and Torres 7.5' quadrangles. Paleoproterozoic crystalline basement rocks are exposed along the crest of the Culebra Range which include a calc-alkaline gneiss sequence and a
Authors
Christopher J. Fridrich, Robert M. Kirkham

Preliminary Geologic Map of the North-Central Part of the Alamosa 30' x 60' Quadrangle, Alamosa, Conejos and Costilla Counties, Colorado

This geologic map presents new polygon (geologic map unit contacts) and line (terrace and lacustrine spit/barrier bar) vector data for a map comprised of four 7.5' quadrangles in the north-central part of the Alamosa, Colorado, 30' x 60' quadrangle. The quadrangles include Baldy, Blanca, Blanca SE, and Lasauses. The map database, compiled at 1:50,000 scale from new 1:24,000-scale mapping, provides
Authors
Michael N. Machette, Ren A. Thompson, Theodore R. Brandt

Digital elevation models of the Pre-Eruption 2000 Crater and 2004-07 Dome-Building Eruption at Mount St. Helens, Washington, USA

Presented in this report are 27 digital elevation model (DEM) datasets for the crater area of Mount St. Helens. These datasets include pre-eruption baseline data collected in 2000, incremental model subsets collected during the 2004–07 dome building eruption, and associated shaded-relief image datasets. Each dataset was collected photogrammetrically with digital softcopy methods employing a combin
Authors
James A. Messerich, Steve P. Schilling, Ren A. Thompson

Late Pleistocene through Holocene landscape evolution of the White River Badlands, South Dakota

Badlands are common arid and semiarid landscapes long recognized in slope development and erosion rate studies by preeminent geomorphologists including Gilbert, Davis, and Schumm. The trip described here will examine in detail Quaternarystrata and landscape evolution in arguably the most famous badlands, the White River Badlands of South Dakota, which were pivotal during development of vertebrate
Authors
Patrick A. Burkhart, Jack Livingston, J. E. Rawling, Paul R. Hanson, Shannon A. Mahan, Rachel Benton, Erin Heffron, Michael Jahn, Travis Anderson, Bryan Page

Increasing eolian dust deposition in the western United States linked to human activity

Mineral aerosols from dust are an important influence on climate and on marine and terrestrial biogeochemical cycles. These aerosols are generated from wind erosion of surface soils. The amount of dust emission can therefore be affected by human activities that alter surface sediments. However, changes in regional- and global-scale dust fluxes following the rapid expansion of human populations and
Authors
J. C. Neff, A. P. Ballantyne, G. L. Farmer, N. M. Mahowald, C. C. Landry, J. T. Overpeck, T. H. Painter, C. R. Lawrence, Richard L. Reynolds

Magmatic and tectonic evolution of the Caetano caldera, north-central Nevada: A tilted, mid-Tertiary eruptive center and source of the Caetano Tuff

The Caetano Tuff is a late Eocene, rhyolite ash-flow tuff that crops out within an ∼90-km-long, east-west–trending belt in north-central Nevada, previously interpreted as an elongate graben or “volcano-tectonic trough.” New field, petrographic, geochemical, and geochronologic data show that: (1) the east half of the “trough” is actually the Caetano caldera, formed by eruption of the Caetano Tuff a
Authors
David John, Christopher D. Henry, Joseph Colgan

Palaeoclimate

This chapter assesses palaeoclimatic data and knowledge of how the climate system changes over interannual to millennial time scales, and how well these variations can be simulated with climate models. Additional palaeoclimatic perspectives are included in other chapters. Palaeoclimate science has made significant advances since the 1970s, when a primary focus was on the origin of the ice ages, th
Authors
Eystein Jansen, Jonathan Overpeck, Keith R. Briffa, Jean-Claude Duplessy, Fortunat Joos, Valerie Masson-Delmotte, Daniel Olago, Bette Otto-Bliesner, W. Richard Peltier, Stefan Rahmstorf, Rengaswamy Ramesh, Dominique Raynaud, David Rind, Olga Solomina, Ricardo Villalba, De'er Zhang, Jean-Marc Barnola, Eva M. Bauer, Esther Brady, Mark Chandler, Julia E. Cole, Edward R. Cook, Esla Cortijo, Trond Dokken, Dominik Fleitmann, Masa Kageyama, Myriam Khodri, Laurent Labeyrie, Alexander Laine, Anders Levermann, E. Mosley-Thompson, Daniel R. Muhs, Raimund Muscheler, Tim Osborn, Oyvind Paasche, Frederic Parrenin, Gian-Kasper Plattner, Henry Pollack, Renato Spahni, Lowell D. Stott, Lonnie Thompson, Claire Waelbroeck, Gregory Wiles, James Zachos, Zhangteng Guo