Publications

Little is known regarding the origins and hydrology of hundreds of small lakes located in the western Uzbekistan province of Khorezm, Central Asia. Situated in the Aral Sea Basin, Khorezm is a productive agricultural region, growing mainly cotton, wheat, and rice. Irrigation is provided by an extensive canal network that conveys water from the Amu Darya River (AD) throughout the province. The regi

The discovery of natural 210Po enrichment at levels exceeding 500 mBq/L in numerous domestic wells in northern Nevada, USA, led to a geochemical investigation of the processes responsible for its mobilization. 210Po activities in 63 domestic and public-supply wells ranged from below 1 mBq/L to 6590 ± 590 mBq/L, among the highest reported levels in the USA. There is little spatial or depth variabil

Thermally driven water-vapor flow can be an important component of total water movement in bare soil and in deep unsaturated zones, but this process is often neglected when considering the effects of soil–plant–atmosphere interactions on shallow water movement. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the coupled and separate effects of vegetative and thermal-gradient contributions to soil wa

Groundwater recharge is the entry of fresh water into the saturated portion of the subsurface part of the hydrologic cycle, the modifier “saturated” indicating that the pressure of the pore water is greater than atmospheric. Briefly stated, recharge is downward flux across the water table. The term “groundwater recharge” can refer either to the multiple interacting processes generating and control

Polonium-210 (210Po) is a highly toxic alpha emitter that is rarely found in groundwater at activities exceeding 1 pCi/L. 210Po activities in 63 domestic and public-supply wells in Lahontan Valley in Churchill County in northern Nevada, United States, ranged from 0.01 ± 0.005 to 178 ± 16 pCi/L with a median activity of 2.88 pCi/L. Wells with high 210Po activities had low dissolved oxygen concentra

The National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program of the U.S. Geological Survey has been conducting a regional analysis of water quality in the principal aquifer systems in the southwestern United States (hereinafter, “Southwest”) since 2005. Part of the NAWQA Program, the objective of the Southwest Principal Aquifers (SWPA) study is to develop a better understanding of water quality in basin-

Multiple approaches have been applied to better understand the characteristics of geologic units exposed at the surface and buried at depth in the vicinity of US Ecology (USE), a low-level commercial waste site in the northern Amargosa Desert, Nevada. Techniques include surficial geologic mapping and interpretation of the subsurface using borehole data. Dated deposits at depth were used to estimat

A database containing water levels measured from wells in and near areas of underground nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site since 1941 was developed. The database provides information for each well including well construction, borehole lithology, units contributing water to the well, and general site remarks. Water-level information provided in the database includes measurement source, status,

A numerical three-dimensional (3D) transient groundwater flow model of the Death Valley region was developed by the U.S. Geological Survey for the U.S. Department of Energy programs at the Nevada Test Site and at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Decades of study of aspects of the groundwater flow system and previous less extensive groundwater flow models were incorporated and reevaluated together with new

Conventional arsenic remediation strategies primarily involve above-ground treatment that include costs involved in the disposal of sludge material. The primary advantages of in-situ remediation are that building and maintaining a large treatment facility are not necessary and that costs associated with the disposal of sludge are eliminated. A two-phase study was implemented to address the feasibi

The water-level database for the Death Valley regional groundwater flow system in Nevada and California was updated. The database includes more than 54,000 water levels collected from 1907 to 2007, from more than 1,800 wells. Water levels were assigned a primary flag and multiple secondary flags that describe hydrologic conditions and trends at the time of the measurement and identify pertinent in

Oil and gas resource development in the Upper Colorado River Basin (UCRB) has increased substantially since the year 2000. The UCRB encompasses several significant oil and gas producing areas that have the potential for continued oil and gas resource development. Land disturbance associated with oil and gas resource development is caused by activities related to constructing drill pads to contain