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Reports

Browse more than 82,000 reports 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: 83829

Groundwater residence times in glacial aquifers—A new general simulation-model approach compared to conventional inset models

Groundwater is important as a drinking-water source and for maintaining base flow in rivers, streams, and lakes. Groundwater quality can be predicted, in part, by its residence time in the subsurface, but the residence-time distribution cannot be measured directly and must be inferred from models. This report compares residence-time distributions from four areas where groundwater flow and travel t
Authors
J. Jeffrey Starn, Leon J. Kauffman, Daniel T. Feinstein

Flood-inundation maps for an 8-mile reach of Papillion Creek near Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, 2022

Digital flood-inundation maps for an 8-mile reach of Papillion Creek near Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, were created by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the U.S. Air Force, Offutt Air Force Base. The flood-inundation maps, which can be accessed through the USGS Flood Inundation Mapping Program website at https://www.usgs.gov/mission-areas/water-resources/science/flood-inund
Authors
Kellan R. Strauch, Christopher M. Hobza

Establishing big sagebrush seedlings on the Colorado Plateau

Factors such as soil type and precipitation vary across rangeland landscapes, and these factors affect restoration outcomes and ultimately mean that “one size fits all” management strategies are not effective across large, complex landscapes. Big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) is a foundational rangeland species that is important to wildlife habitat across the western U.S. On the Colorado Platea
Authors
Kari E. Veblen, Eric Thacker, Mark Larese-Casanova, Kyle C. Nehring, Michael C. Duniway, Colby C. Brungard

Living with wildfire in Emigration Canyon, Utah: 2022 data report

Located in North Central Utah, Emigration Canyon is a prominent and historic canyon that runs northeast from Salt Lake City into the higher elevations of the Wasatch Mountains. The Wasatch Range is characterized by steep, rocky slopes and 26-44 millimeters of annual rainfall, both of which contribute to a high threat of wildfire. The area’s landscape is diverse with oak woodland at the lower eleva
Authors
Julia Goolsby, Hannah Brenkert-Smith, Dax Reid, James Meldrum, Patricia A. Champ, Christopher M. Barth, Colleen Donovan, Carolyn Wagner

Source contributions to suspended sediment and particulate selenium export from the Loutsenhizer Arroyo and Sunflower Drain watersheds in Colorado

Selenium in aquatic ecosystems of the lower Gunnison River Basin in Colorado is affecting the recovery of populations of endangered, native fish species. Dietary exposure is the primary pathway for bioaccumulation of selenium in fish, and particulate selenium can be consumed directly by fish or by the invertebrates on which fish feed. Although selenium can be incorporated into particulate matter v
Authors
Carleton R. Bern, Cory A. Williams, Christopher G. Smith

Southwestern Willow Flycatcher (Empidonax traillii extimus) surveys at the city of Carlsbad Preserve, San Diego County, California—2022 data summary

Executive SummaryWe surveyed for Southwestern Willow Flycatchers (Empidonax traillii extimus; flycatcher) at five survey areas within the City of Carlsbad Preserve, Carlsbad, California, in 2022. Three flycatcher surveys were completed between May 18 and June 29, 2022. Territorial or transient flycatchers were not observed at the City of Carlsbad Preserve in 2022.
Authors
Lisa D. Allen, Barbara E. Kus

Bathymetric contour maps, surface area and capacity tables, and bathymetric change maps for selected water-supply lakes in north-central and west-central Missouri, 2020

Bathymetric data were collected at 10 water-supply lakes in north-central and west-central Missouri by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources and in collaboration with various local agencies, as part of a multiyear effort to establish or update the surface area and capacity tables for the surveyed lakes. The lakes were surveyed in June an
Authors
Richard J. Huizinga, Benjamin C. Rivers, Joseph M. Richards, Garett J. Waite

Knowledge gaps, uncertainties, and opportunities regarding the response of the Chesapeake Bay estuary to restoration efforts

As part of the Chesapeake Bay Program's (CBP's) Science and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC) initiative "Achieving Water Quality Goals in the Chesapeake Bay: An Evaluation of System Response", an Estuary Working Group was formed to generate an assessment of scientific knowledge gaps, uncertainties, and recent ecosystem changes to consider in light of CBP's impending goal of full implementation
Authors
Jeremy M. Testa, William C. Dennison, William P. Ball, Kathleen Boomer, Deirdre M Gibson, Lewis C. Linker, Michael C. Runge, Lawrence Sanford

The future of Indiana's water resources: A report from the Indiana climate change impacts assessment

Indiana’s water resources—in streams and lakes, in plants and soils, and underground—are a critical component of the state’s economy and well-being. Availability of this important resource is driven by precipitation and temperature patterns, both of which have shifted in recent decades, and is also highly influenced by how we manage natural and human systems. As local temperatures continue to ris
Authors
Keith A. Cherkauer, Robert Barr, Laura Bowling, Kyuhyun Byun, Indrajeet Chaubey, Natalie Chin, Chun-Mei Chiu, Darren Ficklin, Alan Hamlet, Stephen Kines, Charlotte Lee, Ram Neupane, Garett Pignotti, Sanoar Rahman, Sarmistha Singh, Pandara Valappoil-Femeena, Tanja N. Williamson, Melissa Widhalm, Jeffrey Dukes

Assessment of undiscovered conventional oil and gas resources of the Barents Sea area, 2021

Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated undiscovered, technically recoverable mean conventional resources of 7.3 billion barrels of oil and 463.7 trillion cubic feet of gas within the Barents Sea area.
Authors
Christopher J. Schenk, Tracey J. Mercier, Cheryl A. Woodall, Geoffrey S. Ellis, Thomas M. Finn, Phuong A. Le, Kristen R. Marra, Heidi M. Leathers-Miller, Ronald M. Drake

Tungsten resources of the northern Rocky Mountains, Montana and Idaho— A synthesis and quantitative assessment of skarn-hosted resources

Mineral resource assessments performed by the U.S. Geological Survey provide a synthesis of available information about the location of known and suspected mineral deposits. This study focuses on skarn-hosted tungsten resources in the northern Rocky Mountain region of east-central Idaho and western Montana which have seen moderate tungsten trioxide production in the past from a variety of minerali
Authors
Allen K. Andersen, Margaret A. Goldman, Mitchell M. Bennett, Connie L. Dicken, Philip J. Brown, Heather L. Parks

Bathymetric and velocimetric surveys at highway bridges crossing the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers near St. Louis, Missouri, August 3–10, 2020

Bathymetric and velocimetric data were collected by the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Missouri Department of Transportation, near 15 bridges at 10 highway crossings of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers near Washington, Louisiana, and St. Louis, Missouri, on August 3–10, 2020. A multibeam echosounder mapping system was used to obtain channel-bed elevations for river reaches abou
Authors
Richard J. Huizinga