Publications

This field trip focuses on the geology of the central Appalachian Valley and Ridge province near Harrisonburg, Virginia, USA. Recent geologic mapping utilizing 1-m resolution lidar data has revealed new insights into the Paleozoic stratigraphy, structural geology, and Neogene landscape evolution of the region. The detailed mapping reveals the presence of the Big Spring Station Member and...

Secretive birds are hard to detect, and thus, likely underestimated when surveyed, potentially preventing measures to protect them. We identified a sampling period and method that would yield the most reliable estimates of population numbers of the secretive Puerto Rican Lizard-Cuckoo (Coccyzus vieilloti). We addressed these objectives by comparing point counts (passive) and playback...

Continuous, high-resolution data for characterizing freshwater habitat conditions can support successful management of endangered salmonids. Uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) make acquiring such fine-scale data along river channels more feasible, but workflows for quantifying reach-scale salmon habitats are lacking. We evaluated the potential for UAS-based mapping of hydraulic habitats...

Estimates of dynamic groundwater volumes supplying baseflow to streams are important for water availability projections during extended periods of drought. The primary goals of this study were to provide dynamic storage volume estimates, inferred from streamflow recession analysis, for baseflow regimes within seven gaged catchments within the Neversink Reservoir Watershed (NRW), a...

The Arbuckle-Simpson aquifer is divided spatially into three parts (eastern, central, and western). The largest groundwater withdrawals are from the eastern part of the Arbuckle-Simpson aquifer, which provides water to approximately 39,000 people in Ada and Sulphur, Oklahoma, and surrounding areas. The Arbuckle-Simpson aquifer, including the eastern part, is designated a sole source...

The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, North Dakota Department of Water Resources, South Dakota Department of Transportation, and the Wyoming Water Development Office, has developed standard methods of peak-flow frequency analysis for studies in Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming. These methods describe...

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 required the Secretary of the Interior to establish a program to inventory abandoned hard-rock mines in the United States. The Department of the Interior’s Office of Environmental Policy and Compliance asked the U.S. Geological Survey’s Mineral Deposit Database project (USMIN) to use existing data sources to build an inventory of all...

The U.S. Geological Survey assessed the Quaternary evolution of Seven Mile Island, New Jersey, to quantify coastal sediment availability, which is crucial for establishing sediment budgets, understanding sediment dispersal, and managing coastlines. This report presents preliminary interpretations of seismic profiles, maps of Holocene sand thickness from the shoreline to 2 kilometers...

The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Suffolk County Water Authority, evaluated the aquifer transmissivity and storage properties at the Alvahs Lane well field north of the village of Cutchogue, New York. This analysis of aquifer properties provides the Suffolk County Water Authority with hydrogeologic information needed to develop water supplies to meet the increasing...

Excessive nitrogen discharge is a major concern for the Long Island Sound. Programs have been implemented to reduce point sources of nitrogen to the sound, but little is known about the nonpoint sources. This study aims to better understand the current groundwater contributions of nitrogen from nonpoint sources in the Long Island Sound watershed. During the spring and summer of 2022, the...

Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated undiscovered, technically recoverable mean conventional resources of 47 million barrels of oil and 876 billion cubic feet of gas in upper Paleozoic reservoirs of the Wind River Basin, Bighorn Basin, and Powder River Basin Provinces.

In June 2022, a historic flood event occurred in the headwaters of the Yellowstone River Basin. The flood resulted in millions of dollars in damages and substantial interruptions to Yellowstone National Park. The 2022 flood event was substantially higher in magnitude than other high-peak flow events over the last 30 years. The high discharge was primarily due to the combination of...