Publications

Certain physical characteristics of soils, including permeability, available water capacity, thickness, and topographic position, have a definite effect on the hydrology of an area. They control the rate at which precipitation infiltrates or is transmitted through the soil, and thus they have a significant role in determining the rates both of ground-water recharge and surface runoff. In...

The Great Basin Regional Aquifer-System Analysis (RASA) is the tenth study in a national program b the U.S. Geological Survey to analyze regional ground-water systems that comprise a major part of the Nation’s water supply. The main objectives of RASA studies are to: (1) Describe the ground-water systems as they exist today, (2) analyze the changes that have led to the system’s present...

A digital-computer model was calibrated to simulate, in three dimensions, the ground-water flow in the principal and shallow-unconfined aquifers in Salt Lake Valley, Utah. The model can be used to predict water-level and waterbudget changes that would be caused by changes in well recharge or discharge. This report shows how a user can revise the input data so that recharging or...

The Regional Aquifer-System Analysis Program of the U.S. Geological Survey was initiated in 1978 as a result of specifications of the appropriations bill of the 95th Congress, prompted by the 1977 drought. The purpose of this program is to define the regional hydrology and geology and to establish a framework of background information of geology, hydrology, and geochemistry of the Nation...

Water year 1984 was a year of extreme hydrologic conditions. For the third consecutive year, precipitation and resulting runoff were well above long-term averages in most of the Nation and as much as 400 percent above average in the Southwest. National flood damages during the year were the third highest in a 10-year period (1975-84) an estimated $3.5 to $4 billion. In many of the larger...

The Great Salt Lake rose 5.0 feet from September 25,1983, to July 1, 1984, the second largest seasonal rise on record since 1847. The maximum seasonal rise was observed the previous year when the lake rose 5.1 feet from September 18,1982, to June 30,1983. The lake declined only 0.5 foot during summer 1983; thus, the net rise from September 18,1982, to July 1,1984, was 9.6 feet. By...

This report on the quality of surface water in the Virgin River basin from the headwaters near Navajo Lake, Utah, to Littlefield, Ariz., was prepared by the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the Division of Water Rights, Utah Department of Natural Resources. The objectives of the study leading to the report were to obtain information on general chemical characteristics of...

A study of selected reaches of the Utah and Salt Lake, Utah Lake Distributing, Provo Reservoir, Draper Irrigation, East Jordan, and Jordan and Salt Lake City Canals in Salt Lake County, Utah, was made to determine gains or losses of flow in those reaches. Three to five sets of seepage measurements were made on each canal during 1982 or 1983. Adjustments for fluctuations in flow were made...

An evaluation was made of the ground-water resources of northern Utah Valley, Utah, to describe the ground-water system and to document changes in ground-water conditions since 1963. The principal ground-water reservoir is in basin-fill deposits. It consists of three major confined aquifers and an unconfined aquifer in pre-Lake Bonneville deposits along the mountains that adjoin the...

No abstract available.

This report contains hydrologic data for wells collected in the East Shore area of the Great Salt Lake, Utah. It includes water-quality data, discharge measurements, water levels, and drillers* logs. The East Shore area (plate 1) includes about 430 square miles, bounded by the Wasatch Range on the east and the Great Salt Lake on the west. The first section line north of the town of...

The geology and hydrology of the Basin and Range Province of the western conterminous United States are characterized in a series of data sets depicted in maps compiled for evaluation of prospective areas for further study of geohydrologic environments for isolation of high-level radioactive waste. The data sets include: (1) Average precipitation and evaporation; (2) surface distribution...