Conference Papers
Science Quality and Integrity
The USGS provides unbiased, objective, and impartial scientific information upon which our audiences, including resource managers, planners, and other entities, rely.
The USGS provides unbiased, objective, and impartial scientific information upon which our audiences, including resource managers, planners, and other entities, rely.
Browse almost 5,000 conference papers authored by our scientists and refine search by topic, location, year, and advanced search.
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Biology characterization breakout report
The primary goal of the biology characterization breakout group was to identify the strategies, tools, data priorities, and key partnerships needed to conduct baseline biological characterizations of deep-sea benthic environments across the U.S. EEZ in the Pacific. Discussions focused primarily on priorities for the
characterization of deep-water (>200-meter depths) benthic biological communities;
Authors
Amanda Demopoulos, Daniel Wagner, Amy Baco-Taylor, David Itano, Diva Amon, Erik E. Cordes, Lisa Levin, Peter H. Edwards, Randall Kosaki, Shirley Pomponi, Steve Gittings
Evaluating and optimizing the use of logistic regression for tree mortality models in the First Order Fire Effects Model (FOFEM)
Wildland fires burn millions of forested hectares annually around the world, affecting biodiversity, carbon storage, hydrologic processes, and ecosystem services largely through fire-induced tree mortality (Bond-Lamberty et al. 2007; Dantas et al. 2016). In spite of this widespread importance, the underlying mechanisms of fire-caused tree mortality remain poorly understood, (Hood et al. 2018). Pos
Authors
C. Alina Cansler, Sharon Hood, J. Morgan Varner, Phillip J. van Mantgem
Extension directions in the Colorado River extensional corridor compared to fragmentation of a structurally disrupted caldera in the Sacramento Mountains, southeastern California
The northwest trend of the southern Colorado River extensional corridor in the southwestern USA veers northward between 34° and 35° north latitude. The tilt axes of early Miocene west-tilted volcanic strata in the west-central Sacramento Mountains mirror this bend. Steeply dipping early Miocene strata and volcanics north and south of the bend indicate the strong respectively westward to southwestw
Authors
Keith A. Howard, Charles A. Ferguson
He-CO2-N2 isotope and relative abundance characterization of geothermal fluids from the Ethiopian Rift
We report He-CO2-N2 isotopic and relative abundances in free gases and dissolved gas phase of geothermal fluids from the Ethiopian Rift. Fluid samples were collected from ~30 geothermal localities from three key regions throughout rifted and non-rifted areas of Ethiopia. The majority of samples, including off-rift samples, indicate a strong contribution of mantle-derived He-C-N to the fluid sample
Authors
S. A. Halldórsson, P. Scarsi, T. Abebe, T. Evans, Justin T. Kulongoski, P. R. Castillo, P. H. Barry
Improving the positional and vertical accuracy of named summits above 13,000 ft in the United States
The National Map (TNM) portal provides public access to U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) high-resolution topographic datasets, and maps from the Historical Topographic Map Collection (HTMC). Elevation values shown on HTMC maps were obtained from ground spot elevation measurements, as compared to today’s elevation measurements derived from more efficient methods, such as lidar, radar, or sonar. These
Authors
Samantha Arundel, Gaurav Sinha, Arthur Chan
Machine learning for natural resource assessment: An application to the blind geothermal systems of Nevada
A study is underway to apply machine learning methods to evaluate natural resource potential. In particular, we are considering the search for blind geothermal systems in Nevada. Beginning with the data and experience from the previous Nevada play fairway analysis project, we are building models in TensorFlow/Keras and gaining experience toward predicting the geothermal resource potential as a pro
Authors
Stephen C. Brown, Mark F. Coolbaugh, Jacob DeAngelo, James E. Faulds, Michael Fehler, Chen Gu, John H. Queen, Sven Treitel, Connor M. Smith, Eli Mlawsky
Rapid sensitivity analysis for reducing uncertainty in landslide hazard assessments
One of the challenges in assessing temporal and spatial aspects of landslide hazard using process-based models is estimating model input parameters, especially in areas where limited measurements of soil and rock properties are available. In an effort to simplify and streamline parameter estimation, development of a simple, rapid approach to sensitivity analysis relies on field measurements of lan
Authors
Rex L. Baum
Creating annotations for web ontology language ontology generated from relational databases
Many approaches that have been proposed that allow users to create a Web Ontology Language (OWL) ontology from a relational database fail to include metadata that are inherent to the database tables. Without metadata, the resulting ontology lacks annotation properties. These properties are key when performing ontology alignment. This paper proposes a method to include relevant metadata through ann
Authors
Matthew Edward Wagner, Tanner Edward Fry, Jacques Jules Bourquin, Dalia E. Varanka
Selecting three components of ground motions from Conditional Spectra for multiple stripe analyses
For complex structures where the seismic response depends appreciably on the vertical (V) component of ground motion (GM) (e.g., base-isolated buildings, long-span bridges, dams, nuclear power plants), incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) is commonly utilized to estimate seismic risk, where the V components of GM are selected and scaled based on the corresponding horizontal (H) components. The resul
Authors
N. Simon Kwong, Kishor S. Jaiswal, Nicolas Luco, J. W. Baker
Mapping stream and floodplain geomorphic characteristics with the Floodplain and Channel Evaluation Tool (FACET) in the Mid-Atlantic Region, United States
Quantifying channel and floodplain geomorphic characteristics is essential for understanding and modeling sediment and nutrient dynamics in fluvial systems. The increased availability of high-resolution elevation data from light detection and ranging (lidar) has helped improve methods for extracting these metrics at a greater accuracy across regional scales. The Floodplain and Channel Evaluation T
Authors
Marina Metes, Kristina G. Hopkins, Labeeb Ahmed, Samuel Lamont, Peter R. Claggett, Gregory Noe
Assessing the long-term earthquake risk for the US National Bridge Inventory (NBI)
We estimate annualized earthquake loss associated with over 600,000 bridges located throughout the contiguous United States. Each year, the Federal Highway Administration, in partnership with State Departments of Transportation, undertake a massive exercise to update the National Bridge Inventory (NBI) by combining data from states, federal agencies, local jurisdictions, and tribal governments. Th
Authors
Kishor S. Jaiswal, N. Simon Kwong, S. S. Yen, D. Bausch, Kuo-wan Lin, Nicolas Luco, David J. Wald, J. Rozelle
Using video survey to examine the effect of habitat on gag grouper encounter
Gag is a reef fish that was declared overfished in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) in 2009. Although Gag are no longer listed as overfished, fisheries managers are concerned that stocks may not be recovering. Our objective was to identify habitat characteristics important to Gag, and their effect on the probability of Gag occurrence. We obtained data from three separate fisheries-independent video survey
Authors
G. Alvarez, D. Gandy, Brian J. Irwin, Cecil A. Jennings, Adam Fox