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: 18470
Evidence for high salinity of Early Cretaceous sea water from the Chesapeake Bay crater
High salinity groundwater more than 1000 metres deep in the Atlantic Coastal Plain of the United States has been documented in several locations1,2, most recently within the 35 million-year-old Chesapeake Bay impact crater3,4,5. Suggestions for the origin of increased salinity in the crater have included evaporite dissolution6, osmosis6, and evaporation from heating7 associated with the bolide imp
Authors
Ward E. Sanford, Michael W. Doughten, Tyler B. Coplen, Andrew G. Hunt, Thomas D. Bullen
Large dams and alluvial rivers in the Anthropocene: The impacts of the Garrison and Oahe Dams on the Upper Missouri River
The Missouri River has had a long history of anthropogenic modification with considerable impacts on river and riparian ecology, form, and function. During the 20th century, several large dam-building efforts in the basin served the needs for irrigation, flood control, navigation, and the generation of hydroelectric power. The managed flow provided a range of uses, including recreation, fisheries,
Authors
Katherine Skalak, Adam J. Benthem, Edward R. Schenk, Cliff R. Hupp, Joel M. Galloway, Rochelle A. Nustad, Gregg J. Wiche
Ambient changes in tracer concentrations from a multilevel monitoring system in Basalt
Starting in 2008, a 4-year tracer study was conducted to evaluate ambient changes in groundwater concentrations of a 1,3,6-naphthalene trisulfonate tracer that was added to drill water. Samples were collected under open borehole conditions and after installing a multilevel groundwater monitoring system completed with 11 discrete monitoring zones within dense and fractured basalt and sediment layer
Authors
Roy C. Bartholomay, Brian V. Twining, Peter E. Rose
Atmospheric rivers as drought busters on the U.S. west coast
Atmospheric rivers (ARs) have, in recent years, been recognized as the cause of the large majority of major floods in rivers all along the U.S. West Coast and as the source of 30%–50% of all precipitation in the same region. The present study surveys the frequency with which ARs have played a critical role as a common cause of the end of droughts on the West Coast. This question was based on the o
Authors
Michael D. Dettinger
Characterization of polyoxyethylene tallow amine surfactants in technical mixtures and glyphosate formulations using ultra-high performance liquid chromatography and triple quadrupole mass spectrometry
Little is known about the occurrence, fate, and effects of the ancillary additives in pesticide formulations. Polyoxyethylene tallow amine (POEA) is a non-ionic surfactant used in many glyphosate formulations, a widely applied herbicide both in agricultural and urban environments. POEA has not been previously well characterized, but has been shown to be toxic to various aquatic organisms. Characte
Authors
Daniel Tush, Keith A. Loftin, Michael T. Meyer
Ca, Sr, O and D isotope approach to defining the chemical evolution of hydrothermal fluids: example from Long Valley, CA, USA
We present chemical and isotopic data for fluids, minerals and rocks from the Long Valley meteoric-hydrothermal system. The samples encompass the presumed hydrothermal upwelling zone in the west moat of the caldera, the Casa Diablo geothermal field, and a series of wells defining a nearly linear, ∼16 km long, west-to-east trend along the likely fluid flow path. Fluid samples were analyzed for the
Authors
Shaun T. Brown, B. Mack Kennedy, Donald J. DePaolo, Shaul Hurwitz, William C. Evans
Surprising abundance of Gallionella-related iron oxidizers in creek sediments at pH 4.4 or at high heavy metal concentrations
We identified and quantified abundant iron-oxidizing bacteria (FeOB) at three iron-rich, metal-contaminated creek sites with increasing sediment pH from extremely acidic (R1, pH 2.7), to moderately acidic (R2, pH 4.4), to slightly acidic (R3, pH 6.3) in a former uranium-mining district. The geochemical parameters showed little variations over the 1.5 year study period. The highest metal concentrat
Authors
Maria Fabisch, Felix Beulig, Denise M. Akob, Kirsten Küsel
Agricultural disturbance response models for invertebrate and algal metrics from streams at two spatial scales within the U.S.
As part of the USGS study of nutrient enrichment of streams in agricultural regions throughout the United States, about 30 sites within each of eight study areas were selected to capture a gradient of nutrient conditions. The objective was to develop watershed disturbance predictive models for macroinvertebrate and algal metrics at national and three regional landscape scales to obtain a better un
Authors
Ian R. Waite
Improving groundwater predictions utilizing seasonal precipitation forecasts from general circulation models forced with sea surface temperature forecasts
Recent studies have found a significant association between climatic variability and basin hydroclimatology, particularly groundwater levels, over the southeast United States. The research reported in this paper evaluates the potential in developing 6-month-ahead groundwater-level forecasts based on the precipitation forecasts from ECHAM 4.5 General Circulation Model Forced with Sea Surface Temper
Authors
Naser Almanaseer, A. Sankarasubramanian, Jerad Bales
A review on cylindrospermopsin: the global occurrence, detection, toxicity and degradation of a potent cyanotoxin
Cylindrospermopsin is an important cyanobacterial toxin found in water bodies worldwide. The ever-increasing and global occurrence of massive and prolonged blooms of cylindrospermopsin-producing cyanobacteria poses a potential threat to both human and ecosystem health. Its toxicity is associated with metabolic activation and may involve mechanisms that adversely affect a wide variety of targets in
Authors
Armah A. de la Cruz, Anastasia Hiskia, Triantafyllos Kaloudis, Neil Chernoff, Donna Hill, Maria G. Antoniou, Xuexiang He, Keith Loftin, Kevin O'Shea, Cen Zhao, Miguel Pelaez, Changseok Han, Trevor J. Lynch, Dionysios D. Dionysiou
Virtual Beach 3: user's guide
Virtual Beach version 3 (VB3) is a decision support tool that constructs site-specific statistical models to predict fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) concentrations at recreational beaches. VB3 is primarily designed for beach managers responsible for making decisions regarding beach closures or the issuance of swimming advisories due to pathogen contamination. However, researchers, scientists, eng
Authors
Mike Cyterski, Wesley Brooks, Mike Galvin, Kurt Wolfe, Rebecca Carvin, Tonia Roddick, Mike Fienen, Steve Corsi
A small-diameter NMR logging tool for groundwater investigations
A small-diameter nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) logging tool has been developed and field tested at various sites in the United States and Australia. A novel design approach has produced relatively inexpensive, small-diameter probes that can be run in open or PVC-cased boreholes as small as 2 inches in diameter. The complete system, including surface electronics and various downhole probes, has
Authors
David Walsh, Peter Turner, Elliot Grunewald, Hong Zhang, James J. Butler, Ed Reboulet, Steve Knobbe, Tom Christy, John W. Lane, Carole D. Johnson, Tim Munday, Andrew Fitzpatrick