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Publications

USGS research activities relevant to Alaska have yielded more than 9400 historical publications. This page features some of the most recent newsworthy research findings.

Filter Total Items: 2892

Status of Pacific Black Brant Branta bernicla nigricans on Wrangel Island, Russian Federation

Abundance, distribution, and habitat selection of breeding and moulting Pacific Black Brant were studied on Wrangel Island in 1989-91.  Two nests and <10 family flocks of Brant were found during ground searches in previously known nesting areas.  The breeding population has declined from 1000-2000 pairs to probably <100 pairs.  An estimated 4200  50 (Cl) moulting Brant were counted during the firs
Authors
David H. Ward, Dirk V. Derksen, Sergei Kharitonov, Mikhail Stishov, Vasily V. Baranyuk

Deep-water facies of the Lisburne Group, west-central Brooks Range, Alaska

Deep-water lithofacies of the Lisburne Group (chiefly Carboniferous) occur in thurst sheets in the western part of the foreland fold-and-thrust belt of the Brooks Range and represent at least three discrete units. The Kuna Formation (Brooks Range allochthon) consists mostly of spiculitic mudstone and lesser shale; subordinate carbonate layers are chiefly diagenetic dolomite. The Akmalik Chert (Pic
Authors
Julie A. Dumoulin, Anita G. Harris, Jeanine M. Schmidt

Correlation of pre-Carboniferous carbonate successions of northern Alaska

Fault-bounded successions of pre-Carboniferous (meta)carbonate rocks occur throughout northern Alaska. Successions studied in detail are those in the York Mountains (Seward Peninsula), the western and eastern Baird Mountains (western Brooks Range), the Snowden Mountain area (central Brooks Range), and the Sublik and Sadlerochit Mountains (eastern Brooks range); they are correlated on the basis of
Authors
Julie A. Dumoulin, Anita G. Harris

A postulated new source for the White River Ash, Alaska: A section in Geologic studies in Alaska by the US. Geological Survey, 1990

The White River Ash (Lerbekmo and others, 1968), product of two of the most voluminous pyroclastic eruptions in North America in the past 2,000 yr, blankets much of the Yukon Terrtory, Canada, and a small part of adjoining eastern Alaska. Lerbekmo and Campbell (1969) narrowed the source of the ash to an area northeast of the Mt. Bona-Mt. Churchill massif in the St. Elias Mountains of southern Alas
Authors
Robert G. McGimsey, Donald H. Richter, Gregory D. DuBois, T. P. Miller

Puffins as samplers of juvenile pollock and other forage fish in the Gulf of Alaska

We sampled the nestling diets of tufted puffins (Fratercula cirrhata) and horned puffins (F. corniculata) in 3 years at colonies from the north-central Gulf of Alaska to the eastern Aleutian Islands, Alaska, USA. Overall, tufted puffins consumed (by weight) 41% sandlance (Ammodytes hexapterus), 22% capelin (Mallotus villosus), 19% walleye pollock (Theragra chalcogramma), 13% other fish, and 5% inv
Authors
Scott Hatch, Gerald A. Sanger

Geologic studies in Alaska by the U.S. Geological Survey, 1990

This collection of papers continues the annual series of U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) reports on geologic investigations in Alaska. From 1975 through 1988, the series was published as USGS circulars. The first of these appeared under the title "The United States Geological Survey in Alaska: Accomplishments during 1975," and the series continued to the last annual circular entitled "Geologic studi

Change-in-ratio

Change-in-ratio (CIR) methods are used to estimate parameters for ecological populations subject to differential removals from population subclasses. Subclasses can be defined according to criteria such as sex, age, or size of individuals. Removals are generally in the form of closely monitored sport or commercial harvests. Estimation is based on observed changes in subclass proportions caused by
Authors
Mark S. Udevitz

Breeding distribution of the Black Turnstone

Eighty-five percent of the world population of Black Turnstones (Arenaria melanocephala) nest on the central Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska, 65% concentrated in a narrow band of salt grass, graminoid, and dwarf shrub meadows within two km of the coast. An estimated 61,000 to 99,000 birds (95% CI), with a point estimate of 80,000 birds, breed on the central delta. About 15,000 others nest elsewhere
Authors
Colleen M. Handel, Robert E. Gill

Lower Cretaceous smarl turbidites of the Argo Abyssal Plain, Indian Ocean

Sediments recovered during Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Leg 123 from the Argo Abyssal Plain (AAP) consist largely of turbidites derived from the adjacent Australian continental margin. The oldest abundant turbidites are Valanginian-Aptian in age and have a mixed (smarl) composition; they contain subequal amounts of calcareous and siliceous biogenic components, as well as clay and lesser quartz. Mo
Authors
Julie A. Dumoulin

Depositional history, nannofossil biostratigraphy, and correlation of Argo Abyssal Plain Sites 765 and 261

Sediments from the Argo Abyssal Plain (AAP), northwest of Australia, are the oldest known from the Indian Ocean and were recovered from ODP Site 765 and DSDP Site 261. New biostratigraphic and sedimentologic data from these sites, as well as reinterpretations of earlier findings, indicate that basal sediments at both localities are of Late Jurassic age and delineate a history of starved sedimentat
Authors
Julie A. Dumoulin, Paul R. Bown

Volcanoes of Alaska: Kupreanof (Stepovak Bay)

No abstract available.
Authors
Frederic H. Wilson