Publications

This report describes a study that characterized reductions in total and dissolved forms of phosphorus and nitrogen in stormwater runoff through implementation of a municipal leaf collection and street cleaning program in two medium-density residential catchments in Madison, Wisconsin. One catchment was established as a control in which no effort was made to remove leaf litter and other...

How does an earthquake affect buried pipeline networks? It is well known that the seismic performance of buried pipelines depends on ground failures (GFs) as well as strong ground shaking (SGS), but it is unclear how the various types of earthquake hazards should be collectively combined, as existing methodologies tend to examine each of the earthquake hazards separately. In this article...

Introduction Oregon’s physical environments and vegetation are diverse. The varied geologic and climatic conditions combined with increasing population have created the need for high-quality elevation data that can be used for infrastructure management, forestry and wildfire management, agriculture, natural resources conservation, and other business uses. Critical applications that meet...

Introduction Every year in the United States, natural hazards threaten lives and livelihoods, resulting in thousands of casualties and billions of dollars in damage. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Natural Hazards Mission Area works with many partners to monitor, assess, and research a wide range of natural hazards, including earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. These efforts aim to...

The effects of interior headland restoration on estuarine sediment transport processes were assessed through process-based numerical modeling. Three proposed interior headland restoration scenarios in the Grand Bay estuary (Mississippi/Alabama) were modeled using Delft3D to understand impacts on suspended sediment concentrations, bed level morphology, and sediment fluxes under present...

The Cherokee coal bed is a locally thick and laterally continuous coal bed in the Overland Member of the Paleocene Fort Union Formation in south-central Wyoming. It represents a significant resource that is easily accessible and may be extractable through both surface and underground mining methods. A database of more than 600 data points, comprising coalbed methane wells, coal...

Porosity, the fraction of soil volume not occupied by solids, is relatively easy to conceptualize and measure. Pore-size distribution is a complex topic, in part from the lack of a clear and unique concept of a soil pore as a discrete object. Available tools for evaluating pore-size distribution involve traditional conventions and operational definitions applied to hydraulic property

Digital flood-inundation maps for a 3.4-mile reach of Fourmile Creek at Silver Grove, Kentucky, were created by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the City of Silver Grove and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Louisville District. Because the City of Silver Grove is subject to flooding from Fourmile Creek and the Ohio River (backwater flooding up Fourmile Creek), a set...

Context: Due to the frequent depredation of eggs and chicks by herring gulls (Larus argentatus), numerous approaches to reduce their impact on tern colonies have been tested by wildlife managers. Previous studies have shown that the use of overhead lines presents a promising method to prevent gull nesting in tern colonies, but little work has evaluated if this approach is suitable for...

No abstract available.

Water withdrawn from rivers and streams accounts for approximately 80 percent of the public water supply in West Virginia. Localized and (or) seasonal droughts may threaten future water availability in the state, particularly in rural communities located in the headwaters of unregulated watersheds. Monthly water withdrawal data obtained from the West Virginia Department of Environmental...

Between 38.5 ka cal BP and 32.4 ka cal BP, a dacitic Volcanic Explosivity Index 5 eruption at Misti volcano emplaced the Sacarosa tephra-fall deposit. Its biotite phenocrysts, fine grain size, scarce lithics, and abundant loose crystals characterize the deposit at locations sampled. The eruption’s ~ 800 °C magma rose rapidly from ~ 10 km depth, culminating in a Plinian eruption which...