Reports

We tested the utility of a protocol using genetic markers that previously proved successful to identify the sex of Vespertilionid bats on tissues collected from live bats and carcasses of varying age from the Hawaiian hoary bat (Lasiurus cinereus semotus). This molecular method is based on genes unique to X and Y chromosomes in mammals and previously was used successfully on North...

Hurricane Florence made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane at Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, shortly after dawn on September 14, 2018. Once over land, the forward motion of the hurricane slowed to about 2 to 3 miles per hour. Over the next several days, the hurricane delivered historic amounts of rainfall across North and South Carolina, causing substantial flooding in many...

The Mars Global Digital Dune Database (MGD3) is an online repository that has catalogued dune fields larger than 1 km2 located between latitudes 90° N. and 90° S. The work presented here expands upon previous MGD3 open-file reports, with a new emphasis upon characterizing dune fields through composition, stability, and thermal inertia. Included in this latest addition is a detailed...

The West Siberian Basin Province is one of the largest sedimentary basins in the world, with an area of 2.6 million square kilometers, and the basin ranks first in the world with more than 400 billion barrels of oil-equivalent discovered petroleum. For the 2008 Circum-Arctic Resource Appraisal, the U.S. Geological Survey defined a Northern West Siberian Mesozoic Composite Total Petroleum...

The potential effect of cemetery leachate on groundwater quality in the United States has rarely been studied. Nutrients and other constituents associated with decomposition and burial processes (such as embalming) have the potential to reach shallow groundwater and could affect nearby drinking-water sources. The objective of this preliminary investigation was to evaluate the potential...

The Bureau of Reclamation supports the Shasta Dam Fish Passage Evaluation (SDFPE; Yip, 2015) program, and in 2016 set out to determine the feasibility of reintroducing winter-run and spring-run Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) and steelhead (O. mykiss) to tributaries upstream of Shasta Dam. Ideally, reintroduction strategy includes trapping naturally produced downstream...

When erupting, all volcanoes pose a degree of risk to people and infrastructure, however, the risks are not equivalent from one volcano to another because of differences in eruptive style and geographic location. Assessing the relative threats posed by U.S. volcanoes identifies which volcanoes warrant the greatest risk-mitigation efforts by the U.S. Geological Survey and its partners...

Data collected from April 2014 through September 2016 were used to assess geomorphic characteristics and geomorphic changes over time in a selected reach of Tenmile Creek, a small rural watershed near Clarksburg, Maryland. Longitudinal profiles of the channel bed, water surface, and bank features were developed from field surveys. Changes in cross-section geometry between field surveys...

The purpose of this report is to provide a compilation of structural retrofits and replacements of older buildings and infrastructure in the San Francisco Bay Area that have either been completed since 1989 or that are in progress as of October 2018. For the purposes of this report, all or parts of nine Bay Area counties were included: Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco...

The U.S. Geological Survey has evaluated the potential for undiscovered oil and gas resources of the Tunguska Basin Province as part of the Circum-Arctic Resource Appraisal (CARA). The Tunguska Basin Province includes an area of approximately 904,000 km2; less than half the area of the province lies north of the Arctic Circle. The Tunguska Basin Province includes a large part of the...

In 2016, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, collected data on isotopes, age dating, and geochemistry including aqueous uranium concentrations of samples from 20 locations in the vicinity of the Homestake Mining Company Superfund site near Milan, New Mexico. The 20 sampled locations include 19 groundwater wells and 1 treatment plant...

Two three-dimensional seismic surveys totaling 3.4 square miles were acquired in southeastern Miami-Dade County during 2015 as part of an ongoing broad regional investigation by the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Department, that includes mapping and karst characterization of the Floridan aquifer system in southeastern Florida. Twenty...