Publications
This list of Water Resources Mission Area publications includes both official USGS publications and journal articles authored by our scientists. A searchable database of all USGS publications can be accessed at the USGS Publications Warehouse.
Filter Total Items: 18468
Multivariate geostatistical analysis of ground-water contamination: A case history
A case history is presented for the application of multivariate geostatistical methods to the problem of estimating pesticide concentrations in ground water from measured concentrations of nitrate and pesticide, when pesticide is under‐sampled. The shallow, poorly confined, sand and gravel aquifer underlying the lower Malheur River basin near Ontario, Oregon is contaminated by nitrate and metaboli
Authors
Jonathan D. Istok, Jeffrey D. Smyth, Alan L. Flint
Management Systems Evaluation Areas: An overview
No abstract available.
Authors
J.L. Hatfield, J. L. Anderson, E.E. Alberts, Tony Prato, D.G. Watts, Andy Ward, G. N. Delin, Robert Swank
Groundwater as a nonpoint source of atrazine and deethylatrazine in a river during base flow conditions
Alluvial groundwater adjacent to the main stem river is the principal nonpoint source of atrazine and deethylatrazine in the Cedar River of Iowa after the river has been in base flow conditions for 5 days. Between two sites along a 116-km reach of the Cedar River, tributaries contributed about 25% of the increase in the atrazine and deethylatrazine load, whereas groundwater from the alluvial aquif
Authors
Paul J. Squillace, E.M. Thurman, Edward T. Furlong
Rainfall-threshold conditions for landslides in a humid-tropical system
Landslides are triggered by factors such as heavy rainfall, seismic activity, and construction on hillslopes. The leading cause of landslides in Puerto Rico is intense and/or prolonged rainfall. A rainfall threshold for rainfall-triggered landsliding is delimited by 256 storms that occurred between 1959 and 1991 in the central mountains of Puerto Rico, where mean annual rainfall is close to or in
Authors
Matthew C. Larsen, Andrew Simon
An improved method for quantifying soil macroporosity
Quantitative information on macroporosity is needed to predict water flow and solute transport in field soils. A method was developed for determining the number, shape, and size distribution of soil macropores. Horizontal serial sections sawed from paraffin-impregnated soil cores were photographed under ultraviolet (UV) light. Anthracene, mixed with the paraffin, fluoresces a bright bluish white u
Authors
V. R. Vermeul, J.D. Istok, A. L. Flint, J.L. Pikul Jr.
A Geographic Information System procedure to quantify drainage-basin characteristics
The Basin Characteristics System (BCS) has been developed to quantify characteristics of a drainage basin. The first of four main BCS processing steps creates four geographic information system (GIS) digital maps representing the drainage divide, the drainage network, elevation contours, and the basin length. The drainage divide and basin length are manually digitized from 1:250,000-scale topogra
Authors
David A. Eash
A laboratory and field evaluation of a portable immunoassay test for triazine herbicides in environmental water samples
The usefulness and sensitivity, of a portable immunoassay test for the semiquantitative field screening of water samples was evaluated by means of laboratory and field studies. Laboratory results indicated that the tests were useful for the determination of atrazine concentrations of 0.1 to 1.5 μg/L. At a concentration of 1 μg/L, the relative standard deviation in the difference between the regres
Authors
P.A. Schulze, P. D. Capel, P. J. Squillace, D.R. Helsel
Hydrologic budget and nitrogen distribution for an agricultural study plot in claypan soil and glacial till near Centralia, Mo.--May 1991 to May 1992
No abstract available.
Authors
Brian P. Kelly, L.N. Plummer
Understanding the toxicity of contaminants in sediments: beyond the bioassay-based paradigm
No abstract available.
Authors
Samuel N. Luoma, James L. Carter
Aspects of the biogeochemistry of methane in Mono Lake and the Mono Basin of California
Above-ambient levels of methane and higher hydrocarbons were detected in the atmosphere of the Mono Basin. These gases emanated from several different sources, including natural gas seeps (thermogenic and biogenic), and methanogenic activity in sediments. Seeps were distributed over nearly 33% of the lake bottom and were also present in the exposed former lakebed. They originated from one or more
Authors
Ronald S. Oremland, Laurence G. Miller, Charles Colbertson, S.W. Robinson, Richard L. Smith, D. R. Lovley, Michael J. Whiticar, G. King, Ronald P. Kiene, Niels Iversen, Melinda Sargent
Ground-water models: Validate or invalidate
The word validation has a clear meaning to both the scientific community and the general public. Within the scientific community the validation of scientific theory has been the subject of philosophical debate. The philosopher of science, Karl Popper, argued that scientific theory cannot be validated, only invalidated. Popper’s view is not the only opinion in this debate; however, many scientists
Authors
J. D. Bredehoeft, Leonard F. Konikow
Environmental tracers for age dating young ground water
No abstract available.
Authors
L.N. Plummer, R. L. Michel, E.M. Thurman, Pierre D. Glynn