Measuring and Monitoring Water

A magnitude 5.8 (Mw) earthquake occurred at 1:51 pm EDT (17:51 UTC) on August 23, 2011, at a depth of about 3.7 miles (6 kilometers) beneath the town of Mineral, Virginia, located approximately 27 miles (45 kilometers) east of Charlottesville. The event is among the largest earthquakes recorded in the eastern United States.

For the past 50 years, the USGS has been conducting research in the San Francisco Bay and Delta, California and beyond. This research would not have been possible without the Research Vessel (R/V) Polaris. Many scientists who have been fortunate to work on the Polaris have come and gone, but the Polaris sailed from the South San Francisco Bay continuously from 1968 until her retirement in 2015.

Patent for a pore-water profiler and method for sampling pore water. The pore-water profiler includes a sample intake probe that receives the fluid to be sampled. (Full details provided by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office website.)

An evaporation sleeve is placed within a solar distillation loop apparatus to increase the amount of water evaporated by the apparatus. (Full details provided by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office website.)

Patent for a sequential, time-integrated collector having an electronic controller that actuates either of two electrically-actuated valves, each connected to a water reservoir. (Full details provided by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office website.)

A method of quantitatively determining surface area of a sample uses polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) dispersed in a solution containing the sample, and determining the amount of PVP that has deposited on the sample. (Full details provided by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office website.)

A solar distillation loop apparatus includes a first pipe section disposed on a ground surface, the first pipe section including a substantially straight portion and elevated portions on each end of the substantially straight portion, an impure water inflow coupling and an impure water outflow coupling. (Full details provided by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office website.)

A self-contained, transportable system for conducting any of hydrologic tests or water sampling techniques without the need for retooling or readjusting the system. (Full details provided by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office website.)

In the operation of the present invention, a compacted porous medium is provided with a supply of the desired liquid and is subjected to centrifugal force until the measurement of the flow rate of liquid through the medium is substantially constant. (Full details provided by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office website.)

The principles essential to the interpretation of gamma, gamma-spectrometry, gamma-gamma, and various types of neutron logs include the nature of subatomic particles and the particles and photons emitted by unstable isotopes.

As one of several Focus Area Studies within the USGS National Water Census (NWC), the USGS has completed a 3-year study of water availability and use in the Colorado River Basin.

Is water quality getting better or worse? Answering this deceptively simple question has been a fundamental objective of the USGS National Water-Quality Assessment Project’s research. Learn about trends in contaminants in the nation’s streams and rivers, trends in contaminants that collect in the bed sediment of streams and lakes, and changes in the quality of the nation’s groundwater.