Publications

Lacustrine carbonates in a 12.4-m-long core from Lower Pahranagat Lake (LPAH), southern Nevada, indicate that radiogenic isotopes of Sr and U (87Sr/86Sr and 234U/238U) preserve evidence of past variations in water sources and evolving hydrologic conditions. Sr and U isotope compositions in LPAH carbonates fall within the range defined by the three primary groundwater sources in Pahranagat Valley a

Wildfires and housing development have increased since the 1990s, presenting unique challenges for wildfire management. However, it is unclear how the relative influences of housing growth and changing wildfire occurrence have altered risk to homes, or the potential for wildfire to threaten homes. We used a random forests model to predict burn probability in relation to weather variables at 1-km r

Founding populations of the first Americans likely occupied parts of Beringia during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). The timing, pathways, and modes of their southward transit remain unknown, but blockage of the interior route by North American ice sheets between ~26 and 14 cal kyr BP (ka) favors a coastal route during this period. Using models and paleoceanographic data from the North Pacific, we

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) conducts a wide variety of science that improves understanding of droughts and their effects on ecosystems and society. This work includes data collection and monitoring of aquatic and terrestrial systems; assessment and analysis of patterns, trends, drivers, and impacts of drought; development and application of predictive models; and delivery of information and

Background: Wildland–urban interface (WUI) maps identify areas with wildfire risk, but they are often outdated owing to the lack of building data. Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) can extract building locations from remote sensing data, but their accuracy in WUI areas is unknown. Additionally, CNNs are computationally intensive and technically complex, making them challenging for end-users, su

Snow Lake, a glacially dammed lake on the Snow Glacier near Seward, Alaska, drains rapidly every 14 months–3 years, causing flooding along the Snow River. Highway, railroad, and utility infrastructure on the lower Snow River floodplain is vulnerable to flood damage. Historical hydrology, geomorphology, and two-dimensional hydraulic and sediment transport modeling were used to assess the flood risk

Wildfire occurrence varies among regions and through time due to the long-term impacts of climate on fuel structure and short-term impacts on fuel flammability. Identifying the climatic conditions that trigger extensive fire years at regional scales can enable development of area burned models that are both spatially and temporally robust, which is crucial for understanding the impacts of past and

Robust and routine ecosystem assessments will be fundamental to track progress towards achieving this decade’s global environmental and sustainability goals. Here we examine four needs that address common failure points of ecosystem assessments. These are (1) developing rapid, reproducible, and repeatable ecological data workflows, (2) harmonizing in situ and remotely sensed data, (3) integrating

Basin analysis and tectonic reconstructions of the Cenozoic history of the Death Valley region, California, USA, are hindered by a lack of volcanic (tuff) age control in many stratigraphic successions exposed in the Grapevine and Funeral Mountains of California, USA. Although maximum depositional ages (MDAs) interpreted from detrital zircon U-Pb data may be a promising alternative to volcanic ages

New zircon U-Pb ages for the Alabama Hills Granite in Owens Valley, eastern California, range from 103 to 102 Ma, nearly 20 Ma older than previously published zircon ages. The data preclude previously implied links between the pluton and the adjacent Late Cretaceous Mount Whitney Intrusive Suite. Geochronologic and isotopic data indicate a connection between the Alabama Hills Granite and leucogran

The U.S. Geological Survey's National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program's U.S. GeoFramework Initiative responds to Congressional direction to implement the National Geologic Map Database Phase Three. The U.S. GeoFramework Initiative aims to create and deliver a new digital geologic framework of the United States by 2030. This Fact Sheet outlines the collaborations needed and plans taken to achi

Studies of marine terraces and their fossils can yield important information about sea level history, tectonic uplift rates, and paleozoogeography, but some aspects of terrace history, particularly with regard to their fossil record, are not clearly understood. Marine terraces are well preserved on Santa Rosa Island, California, and the island is situated near a major marine faunal boundary. Two p