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Book Chapters

Browse more than 5,500 book chapters authored by our scientists over the past 100+ year history of the USGS and refine search by topic, location, year, and advanced search.

Filter Total Items: 6063

Environmental presence and persistence of pharmaceuticals: An overview

Emerging contaminants (ECs) in the environment – that is, chemicals with domestic, municipal, industrial, or agricultural sources that are not commonly monitored but may have the potential for adverse environmental effects – is a rapidly growing field of research. The use of “emerging” is not intended to infer that the presence of these compounds in the environment is new. These chemicals have bee
Authors
Susan T. Glassmeyer, Dana W. Koplin, Edward T. Furlong, M. Focazio

Exposure assessment of veterinary medicines in aquatic systems

The release of veterinary medicines into the aquatic environment may occur through direct or indirect pathways. An example of direct release is the use of medicines in aquaculture (Armstrong et al. 2005; Davies et al. 1998), where chemicals used to treat fish are added directly to water. Indirect releases, in which medicines make their way to water through transport from other matrices, include th
Authors
Chris Metcalfe, Alistair Boxall, Kathrin Fenner, Dana W. Kolpin, Eric Silberhorn, Jane Staveley

Preface

No abstract available.
Authors
Susan L. Brantley, J. D. Kubicki, Arthur F. White

Quantitative approaches to characterizing natural chemical weathering rates

Silicate minerals, constituting more than 90% of the rocks exposed at the earth’s surface, are commonly formed under temperature and pressure conditions that make them inherently unstable in surficial environments. Undoubtedly, the most significant aspect of chemical weathering resulting from this instability is the formation of soils which makes life possible on the surface of the earth. Many soi
Authors
Arthur F. White

Lake Manix shorelines and Afton Canyon terraces: Implications for incision of Afton Canyon

Lake Manix, in south-central California, was the terminal basin of the Mojave River until the late Pleistocene, when it drained east to the Lake Mojave Basin. Based on new field observations, radiocarbon ages, and soil development, we propose modifications to previously published hypotheses on the timing of the last 543 m above sea level (masl) highstand of Lake Manix, the timing of the first disc
Authors
Marith C. Reheis, Joanna L. Redwine

Geology and Surface Processes on Titan

The surface of Titan has been revealed globally, if incompletely, by Cassini observations at infrared and radar wavelengths as well as locally by the instruments on the Huygens probe. Extended dune fields, lakes, mountainous terrain, dendritic erosion patterns and erosional remnants indicate dynamic surface processes. Valleys, small-scale gullies and rounded cobbles such as those observed at the H
Authors
Ralf Jaumann, Randolph L. Kirk, Ralph D. Lorenz, Rosaly M.C. Lopes, Ellen Stofan, Elizabeth P. Turtle, Horst Uwe Keller, Charles A. Wood, Christophe Sotin, Laurence A. Soderblom, Martin G. Tomasko

Geological and geophysical evaluation of the mechanisms of the great 1899 Yakutat Bay earthquakes

We have used tectonic, geologic, and seismologic observations to reevaluate the mechanisms and seismotectonic significance of the two great (Mw = 8.1 and 8.2) September 1899 Yakutat Bay earthquakes. In their comprehensive study of these earthquakes between 1905 and 1910, Tarr and Martin (1912) showed that these events were accompanied by shoreline changes in Yakutat Bay that ranged from 14.4 m eme
Authors
George Plafker, Wayne R. Thatcher

Magmatism and tectonics in a tilted crustal section through a continental arc, eastern Transverse Ranges and southern Mojave Desert

This field guide describes a two-and-one-half day transect, from east to west across southern California, from the Colorado River to the San Andreas fault. Recent geochronologic results for rocks along the transect indicate the spatial and temporal relationships between subarc and retroarc shortening and Cordilleran arc magmatism. The transect begins in the Jurassic(?) and Cretaceous Maria retroar
Authors
Andrew P. Barth, J. Lawford Anderson, Carl E. Jacobson, Scott R. Paterson, Joseph L. Wooden

Paleoseismicity and neotectonics of the Aleutian subduction zone — An overview

The Aleutian subduction zone is one of the most seismically active plate boundaries and the source of several of the world’s largest historic earthquakes. The structural architecture of the subduction zone varies considerably along its length. At the eastern end is a tectonically complex collision zone where the allochthonous Yakutat terrane is moving northwest into mainland Alaska. West of the co
Authors
Gary A. Carver, George Plafker

Toward a time-dependent probabilistic seismic hazard analysis for Alaska

We report on a time-dependent seismic hazard analysis for Alaska and the Aleutians to complement our recently completed time-independent map. Whereas the time-independent map treats all sources as statistically independent, the time-dependent analysis is based on calculations of the conditional probability of occurrence for the next 50 years by using a Brownian Passage Time model for the seismic s
Authors
Oliver S. Boyd, Yuehua Zeng, Charles G. Bufe, Robert L. Wesson, Fred Pollitz, Jeanne L. Hardebeck

Does a boundary of the Wrangell Block extend through southern Cook Inlet and Shelikof Strait, Alaska?

In southcentral Alaska, the boundaries of two different tectonic blocks extend southwestward from the Denali Fault toward Cook Inlet and Shelikof Strait. We use offshore multichannel seismic reflection data and oil-well stratigraphy to evaluate whether local geologic structures are compatible with boundaries of either tectonic block and with the relative motion expected across the block boundaries
Authors
Michael A. Fisher, Ray W. Sliter, Florence L. Wong

Mining II: Acid mine drainage

No abstract available. 
Authors
D. Kirk Nordstrom