Publications
These publications showcase the significant science conducted in our Science Centers.
Filter Total Items: 16783
Building unified geospatial data for land-change modeling—A case study in the area of Richmond, Virginia
An effort to build a unified collection of geospatial data for use in land-change modeling (LCM) led to new insights into the requirements and challenges of building an LCM data infrastructure. A case study of data compilation and unification for the Richmond, Va., Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) delineated the problems of combining and unifying heterogeneous data from many independent localit
Authors
David I. Donato, Jason L. Shapiro
Changing agricultural practices: Potential consequences to aquatic organisms
Agricultural practices pose threats to biotic diversity in freshwater systems with increasing use of glyphosate-based herbicides for weed control and animal waste for soil amendment becoming common in many regions. Over the past two decades, these particular agricultural trends have corresponded with marked declines in populations of fish and mussel species in the Upper Conasauga River watershed i
Authors
Peter J. Lasier, Matthew L. Urich, Sayed M. Hassan, Whitney N. Jacobs, Robert B. Bringolf, Kathleen M. Owens
Transport of hydraulic fracturing waste from Pennsylvania wells: A county-level analysis of road use and associated road repair costs
Pennsylvania’s rapid unconventional oil and gas (UOG) development—from a single well in 2004 to more than 6700 wells in 2013—has dramatically increased UOG waste transport by heavy trucks. This study quantified the amount of UOG waste and the distance it traveled between wells and disposal facilities on each type of road in each county between July 2010 and December 2013. In addition, the study es
Authors
Lauren A. Patterson, Kelly O. Maloney
Hydrogeology of Virginia
The hydrogeology of Virginia documented herein is in two parts. Part 1 consists of an overview and description of the hydrogeology within each regional aquifer system in the Commonwealth. Part 2 includes discussions of hydrogeologic research topics of current relevance including: 1. the Chesapeake Bay impact structure, 2. subsidence/compaction in the Coastal Plain, 3. groundwater age and aquifer s
Authors
David L. Nelms, George Harlow, T. Scott Bruce
The Carolina Sandhills: Quaternary eolian sand sheets and dunes along the updip margin of the Atlantic Coastal Plain province, southeastern United States
The Carolina Sandhills is a physiographic region of the Atlantic Coastal Plain province in the southeastern United States. In Chesterfield County (South Carolina), the surficial sand of this region is the Pinehurst Formation, which is interpreted as eolian sand derived from the underlying Cretaceous Middendorf Formation. This sand has yielded three clusters of optically stimulated luminescence age
Authors
Christopher S. Swezey, Bradley A. Fitzwater, G. Richard Whittecar, Shannon A. Mahan, Christopher P. Garrity, Wilma B. Alemán‑González, Kerby M. Dobbs
Byproduct metal requirements for U.S. wind and solar photovoltaic electricity generation up to the year 2040 under various Clean Power Plan scenarios
The United States has and will likely continue to obtain an increasing share of its electricity from solar photovoltaics (PV) and wind power, especially under the Clean Power Plan (CPP). The need for additional solar PV modules and wind turbines will, among other things, result in greater demand for a number of minor metals that are produced mainly or only as byproducts. In this analysis, the quan
Authors
Nedal T. Nassar, David R. Wilburn, Thomas G. Goonan
Global stocks of selected mineral-based commodities
IntroductionThe U.S. Geological Survey, National Minerals Information Center, analyzes mineral and metal supply chains by identifying and describing major components of mineral and material flows from ore extraction, through intermediate forms, to a final product. This report focuses on an important component of the world’s supply chain: the amounts and global distribution of major consumer, produ
Authors
David R. Wilburn, Donald I. Bleiwas, Nick A. Karl
Hampton roads regional Water-Quality Monitoring Program
IntroductionHow much nitrogen, phosphorus, and suspended solids are contributed by the highly urbanized areas of the Hampton Roads region in Virginia to Chesapeake Bay? The answer to this complex question has major implications for policy decisions, resource allocations, and efforts aimed at restoring clean waters to Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. To quantify the amount of nitrogen, phosphoru
Authors
Aaron J. Porter, John D. Jastram
Geology of the eastern Piedmont in Virginia
No abstract available.
Authors
J. Wright Horton, Brent E. Owens, Paul C. Hackley, William C. Burton, Paul E. Sacks, James P. Hibbard
Geology of the western Piedmont in Virginia
No abstract available.
Authors
James P. Hibbard, James S. Beard, William S. Henika, J. Wright Horton
Modeling and simulation of storm surge on Staten Island to understand inundation mitigation strategies
Hurricane Sandy made landfall on October 29, 2012, near Brigantine, New Jersey, and had a transformative impact on Staten Island and the New York Metropolitan area. Of the 43 New York City fatalities, 23 occurred on Staten Island. The borough, with a population of approximately 500,000, experienced some of the most devastating impacts of the storm. Since Hurricane Sandy, protective dunes have been
Authors
Michael E. Kress, Alan I. Benimoff, William J. Fritz, Cindy A. Thatcher, Brian O. Blanton, Eugene Dzedzits
Creating a Coastal National Elevation Database (CoNED) for science and conservation applications
The U.S. Geological Survey is creating the Coastal National Elevation Database, an expanding set of topobathymetric elevation models that extend seamlessly across coastal regions of high societal or ecological significance in the United States that are undergoing rapid change or are threatened by inundation hazards. Topobathymetric elevation models are raster datasets useful for inundation predict
Authors
Cindy A. Thatcher, John Brock, Jeffrey J. Danielson, Sandra K. Poppenga, Dean B. Gesch, Monica Palaseanu-Lovejoy, John Barras, Gayla A. Evans, Ann Gibbs