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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.

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Monitoring lahars

IntroductionLahars, or debris flows that originate from a volcano (Pierson and Scott, 1985; Pierson, 1995), are among the most destructive, far-reaching, and persistent hazards on stratovolcanoes. Lahars may be triggered by syneruptive rapid melting of snow and ice, lake breakouts, or heavy rains in conjunction with large eruptive columns. Alternatively, lahars can follow eruptions, when clastic d
Authors
Weston A. Thelen, John J. Lyons, Alexandra M. Iezzi, Seth C. Moran

Tracking surface changes caused by volcanic activity

IntroductionDynamic volcanic landscapes produce various changes at the surface of volcanic edifices. For example, rising magma can induce thermal emissions, formation of ground cracks, and variations in glacier and edifice morphology; volcanic deposits from eruptions can transform the land surface with tephra fall, pyroclastic flows, lava flows and domes, and lahars; and geomorphic changes from la
Authors
Tim R. Orr, Hannah R. Dietterich, Michael P. Poland

Streams, springs, and volcanic lakes for volcano monitoring

IntroductionVolcanic unrest can trigger appreciable change to surface waters such as streams, springs, and volcanic lakes. Magma degassing produces gases and soluble salts that are absorbed into groundwater that feeds streams and lakes. As magma ascends, the amount of heat and degassing will increase, and so will any related geochemical and thermal signal. Subsurface magma movement can cause press
Authors
Steven E. Ingebritsen, Shaul Hurwitz

Volcanic gas monitoring

IntroductionAs magma rises through the crust, decreasing pressure conditions allow volatiles to exsolve from the magma. These volatiles then migrate upward through the crust, where they can be stored at shallower levels or escape to the atmosphere. Rising magma also heats rock masses beneath volcanic centers, causing water in shallow aquifers and hydrothermal systems to boil and release additional
Authors
Jennifer L. Lewicki, Christoph Kern, Peter J. Kelly, Patricia A. Nadeau, Tamar Elias, Laura E. Clor

Ground deformation and gravity for volcano monitoring

IntroductionWhen magma accumulates or migrates, it can cause pressurization and related ground deformation. Characterization of surface deformation provides important constraints on the potential for future volcanic activity, especially in combination with seismic activity, gas emissions, and other indicators. A wide variety of techniques and instrument types have been applied to the study of grou
Authors
Emily K. Montgomery-Brown, Kyle R. Anderson, Ingrid A. Johanson, Michael P. Poland, Ashton F. Flinders

Infrasound for volcano monitoring

IntroductionVolcanic eruptions produce acoustic waves when volcanic gases and hot material rapidly expand in the atmosphere. Volcanic activity can produce acoustic signals with a wide range of frequencies, from very long period (>10 seconds) to audible (>20 hertz [Hz]), but the most energetic band is typically in the infrasound from 0.5 to 20 Hz. Studies of volcanic infrasound and the deployment o
Authors
John J. Lyons, David Fee, Weston A. Thelen, Alexandra M. Iezzi, Aaron G. Wech

Recommended capabilities and instrumentation for volcano monitoring in the United States

The National Volcano Early Warning System (NVEWS) was authorized and partially funded by the U.S. Government in 2019. In response, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Volcano Hazards Program asked its scientists to reflect on and summarize their views of best practices for volcano monitoring. The goal was to review and update the recommendations of a previous report (Moran and others, 2008) and to p

A data exchange standard for wadeable stream habitat monitoring data

Data from wadeable streams collected by monitoring programs are used to assess watershed condition status and trends. Federally managed programs collect a suite of similar habitat measurements using compatible methods and produce individual program datasets for their prescribed geographic and temporal range. We identified four programs that produce similar data: the Bureau of Land Management Asses
Authors
Rebecca A. Scully, Erin K. Dlabola, Jennifer M. Bayer, Emily Heaston, Jennifer Courtwright, Marcía N. Snyder, David Hockman-Wert, W. Carl Saunders, Karen A. Blocksom, Christine Hirsch, Scott W. Miller

Quantifying fine sediment infiltration in spawning gravel used by Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) in the Sauk River Basin, Washington, 2018–21

Fine sediment can infiltrate into river substrate that salmonid fish species (Oncorhynchus spp.) use to spawn. High levels of sediment infiltration can increase egg-to-fry mortality, which corresponds to the period when salmonids are still residing in the subsurface gravels. This study quantifies fine sediment infiltration of Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) spawning habitat during the eg
Authors
Kristin L. Jaeger, Scott W. Anderson, Anya C. Leach, Scott T. Morris

Comparison of water quality in shallow groundwater near agricultural areas in the Delaware Coastal Plain, 2014 and 2019

The State of Delaware has encouraged agricultural conservation practices to improve nutrient uptake by crops and mitigate nutrient transport to groundwater in the surficial aquifer. To study recent changes in groundwater quality, the U.S. Geological Survey and the Delaware Department of Agriculture (DDA) developed a network of shallow wells near agricultural areas throughout the Delaware Coastal P
Authors
Alexander M. Soroka, Betzaida Reyes, Brandon Fleming, Michael Brownley

Bison Shared Stewardship Strategy

No abstract available.
Authors
Jason Baldes, Linda Cardenas, Gerald "Buzz" Cobbell, Wayne Frederick, Christina Justice, Ted Knife, Robert "Robbie" Magnan, Thomas Mendez, Brendan Moynahan, Paul Santavy, Kathryn A. Schoenecker, Brandon Small, Thomas "TJ" Swecichowski

Special flora and vegetation of Indiana Dunes National Park

No abstract available. 
Authors
Noel B. Pavlovic, Barbara Plampin, Gayle S. Tonkovich, David R. Hamilla
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