Book Chapters
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The USGS provides unbiased, objective, and impartial scientific information upon which our audiences, including resource managers, planners, and other entities, rely.
Browse more than 5,500 book chapters authored by our scientists over the past 100+ year history of the USGS and refine search by topic, location, year, and advanced search.
Filter Total Items: 6197
Palaeoclimate Palaeoclimate
This chapter assesses palaeoclimatic data and knowledge of how the climate system changes over interannual to millennial time scales, and how well these variations can be simulated with climate models. Additional palaeoclimatic perspectives are included in other chapters. Palaeoclimate science has made significant advances since the 1970s, when a primary focus was on the origin of the...
Authors
Eystein Jansen, Jonathan Overpeck, Keith R. Briffa, Jean-Claude Duplessy, Fortunat Joos, Valerie Masson-Delmotte, Daniel Olago, Bette Otto-Bliesner, W. Richard Peltier, Stefan Rahmstorf, Rengaswamy Ramesh, Dominique Raynaud, David Rind, Olga Solomina, Ricardo Villalba, De’er Zhang, Jean-Marc Barnola, Eva M. Bauer, Esther Brady, Mark Chandler, Julia E. Cole, Edward R. Cook, Esla Cortijo, Trond Dokken, Dominik Fleitmann, Masa Kageyama, Myriam Khodri, Laurent Labeyrie, Alexander Laine, Anders Levermann, E. Mosley-Thompson, Daniel R. Muhs, Raimund Muscheler, Tim Osborn, Oyvind Paasche, Frederic Parrenin, Gian-Kasper Plattner, Henry Pollack, Renato Spahni, Lowell D. Stott, Lonnie Thompson, Claire Waelbroeck, Gregory Wiles, James Zachos, Zhangteng Guo
Neogene exhumation of the Tordrillo Mountains, Alaska, and correlations with Denali (Mount McKinley) Neogene exhumation of the Tordrillo Mountains, Alaska, and correlations with Denali (Mount McKinley)
No abstract available.
Authors
Peter J. Haeussler, Paul J O’Sullivan, Aaron L Berger, James A Spotila
Cenozoic climate history from seismic reflection and drilling studies on the Antarctic continental margin Cenozoic climate history from seismic reflection and drilling studies on the Antarctic continental margin
Seismic stratigraphic studies and scientific drilling of the Antarctic continental margin have yielded clues to the evolution of Cenozoic climates, depositional paleoenvironments and paleoceanographic conditions. This paper draws on studies of the former Antarctic Offshore Stratigraphy Project and others to review the geomorphic and lithostratigraphic offshore features that give insights...
Authors
Alan K. Cooper, Giuliano Brancolini, C. Escutia, Y. Kristoffersen, R.D. Larter, G. Leitchenkov, Philip O’Brien, Wilfried Jokat
Geology: Chapter 2 Geology: Chapter 2
No abstract available.
Authors
Richard G. Stanley, G. E. Weber
Methane hydrates Methane hydrates
Gas hydrate is a solid, naturally occurring substance consisting predominantly of methane gas and water. Recent scientific drilling programs in Japan, Canada, the United States, Korea and India have demonstrated that gas hydrate occurs broadly and in a variety of forms in shallow sediments of the outer continental shelves and in Arctic regions. Field, laboratory and numerical modelling...
Authors
Ray Boswell, Koji Yamamoto, Sung-Rock Lee, Timothy S. Collett, Pushpendra Kumar, Scott Dallimore
Environmental presence and persistence of pharmaceuticals: An overview Environmental presence and persistence of pharmaceuticals: An overview
Emerging contaminants (ECs) in the environment – that is, chemicals with domestic, municipal, industrial, or agricultural sources that are not commonly monitored but may have the potential for adverse environmental effects – is a rapidly growing field of research. The use of “emerging” is not intended to infer that the presence of these compounds in the environment is new. These...
Authors
Susan T. Glassmeyer, Dana W. Koplin, Edward T. Furlong, M. Focazio
Exposure assessment of veterinary medicines in aquatic systems Exposure assessment of veterinary medicines in aquatic systems
The release of veterinary medicines into the aquatic environment may occur through direct or indirect pathways. An example of direct release is the use of medicines in aquaculture (Armstrong et al. 2005; Davies et al. 1998), where chemicals used to treat fish are added directly to water. Indirect releases, in which medicines make their way to water through transport from other matrices...
Authors
Chris Metcalfe, Alistair Boxall, Kathrin Fenner, Dana W. Kolpin, Eric Silberhorn, Jane Staveley
Quantitative approaches to characterizing natural chemical weathering rates Quantitative approaches to characterizing natural chemical weathering rates
Silicate minerals, constituting more than 90% of the rocks exposed at the earth’s surface, are commonly formed under temperature and pressure conditions that make them inherently unstable in surficial environments. Undoubtedly, the most significant aspect of chemical weathering resulting from this instability is the formation of soils which makes life possible on the surface of the earth...
Authors
Arthur F. White
Lake Manix shorelines and Afton Canyon terraces: Implications for incision of Afton Canyon Lake Manix shorelines and Afton Canyon terraces: Implications for incision of Afton Canyon
Lake Manix, in south-central California, was the terminal basin of the Mojave River until the late Pleistocene, when it drained east to the Lake Mojave Basin. Based on new field observations, radiocarbon ages, and soil development, we propose modifications to previously published hypotheses on the timing of the last 543 m above sea level (masl) highstand of Lake Manix, the timing of the...
Authors
Marith C. Reheis, Joanna L. Redwine
Geology and Surface Processes on Titan Geology and Surface Processes on Titan
The surface of Titan has been revealed globally, if incompletely, by Cassini observations at infrared and radar wavelengths as well as locally by the instruments on the Huygens probe. Extended dune fields, lakes, mountainous terrain, dendritic erosion patterns and erosional remnants indicate dynamic surface processes. Valleys, small-scale gullies and rounded cobbles such as those...
Authors
Ralf Jaumann, Randolph L. Kirk, Ralph D. Lorenz, Rosaly Lopes, Ellen Stofan, Elizabeth P. Turtle, Horst Uwe Keller, Charles A. Wood, Christophe Sotin, Laurence A. Soderblom, Martin G. Tomasko
Geological and geophysical evaluation of the mechanisms of the great 1899 Yakutat Bay earthquakes Geological and geophysical evaluation of the mechanisms of the great 1899 Yakutat Bay earthquakes
We have used tectonic, geologic, and seismologic observations to reevaluate the mechanisms and seismotectonic significance of the two great (Mw = 8.1 and 8.2) September 1899 Yakutat Bay earthquakes. In their comprehensive study of these earthquakes between 1905 and 1910, Tarr and Martin (1912) showed that these events were accompanied by shoreline changes in Yakutat Bay that ranged from...
Authors
George Plafker, Wayne R. Thatcher