Reports

Groundwater is the Nation’s principal reserve of freshwater. It provides about half our drinking water, is essential to food production, and facilitates business and industry in developing economic well-being. Groundwater is also an important source of water for sustaining the ecosystem health of rivers, wetlands, and estuaries throughout the country. The decreases in groundwater levels...

As an unbiased, multidisciplinary science organization, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is dedicated to the timely, relevant, and impartial study of the health of our ecosystems and environment, our natural resources, the impacts of climate and land-use change, and the natural hazards that affect our lives. Grant opportunities for researchers and faculty to participate in USGS science...

As an unbiased, multidisciplinary science organization, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is dedicated to the timely, relevant, and impartial study of the health of our ecosystems and environment, our natural resources, the impacts of climate and land-use change, and the natural hazards that affect our lives. Opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students, as well as recent...

The Saline Valley Conservancy District (SVCD) operates wells that supply water to most of the water users in Saline and Gallatin Counties, Illinois. The SVCD wells draw water from a shallow sand and gravel aquifer located in close proximity to an abandoned underground coal mine, several abandoned oil wells, and at least one operational oil well. The aquifer that yields water to the SVCD...

Dissolved oxygen concentrations in streams are affected by physical, chemical, and biological factors in the water column and streambed, and are an important factor for the survival of aquatic organisms. Sediment oxygen demand (SOD) rates in Kansas streams are not well understood. During 2014 and 2015, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Kansas Department of Health and...

California’s vast reservoir system, fed by annual snow-and rainfall, plays an important part in providing water to the State’s human and wildlife population. There are almost 1,300 reservoirs throughout the State, but only approximately 200 of them are considered storage reservoirs, and many of the larger ones are critical components of the Federal Central Valley Project and California...

The structural architecture of Alaska is the product of a complex history of tectonism that occurred along the Cordilleran and Arctic margins of North America through interactions with ancient and modern ocean plates and with continental elements derived from Laurentia, Siberia, and Baltica. To unravel the tectonic history of Alaska, we constructed maps showing the age, distribution...

A multiyear radiotelemetry evaluation was conducted to monitor adult steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss), Chinook salmon (O. tshawytscha), and coho salmon (O. kisutch) behavior and movement patterns in the upper Cowlitz River Basin. Volitional passage to this area was eliminated by dam construction in the mid-1960s, and a reintroduction program began in the mid-1990s. Fish are transported...

The Northwest Boreal Landscape Conservation Cooperative (NWB LCC) is a voluntary, diverse, self-directed management-science partnership, informing and promoting integrated science, sustainable natural and cultural resource management, and conservation to address impacts of climate change and other stressors within and across ecosystems. The NWB LCC area includes parts of Alaska, Yukon...

Centimeter-scale ground-surface deformation was produced by the August 23, 2011, magnitude (M) 5.8 earthquake that occurred in Mineral, Virginia. Ground-surface deformation also resulted from the earthquake aftershock sequence. This deformation occurred along a linear northeast-trend near Pendleton, Virginia. It is approximately 10 kilometers (km) northeast of the M5.8 epicenter and near...

The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Fargo Diversion Board of Authority, collected water-surface elevations during a range of discharges needed for calibration of hydrologic and hydraulic models for specific reaches of interest in water years 2014–15. These water-surface elevation and discharge measurement data were collected for design planning of diversion structures on...