Publications

In 2011, the senior authors were contacted by Ron Gardiner of Questa, and Village of Questa Mayor Esther Garcia, to discuss the existing and future groundwater supply for the Village of Questa. This meeting led to the development of a plan in 2013 to perform an integrated geologic, geophysical, and hydrogeologic investigation of the Questa area by the New Mexico Bureau of Geology &...

Current models used to assess earthquake and tsunami hazards are inadequate where creep dominates a subduction megathrust. Here we report geological evidence for large tsunamis, occurring on average every 300–340 years, near the source areas of the 1946 and 1957 Aleutian tsunamis. These areas bookend a postulated seismic gap over 200 km long where modern geodetic measurements indicate...

Changes in the seasonality and timing of annual peak streamflow in the north-central USA are likely because of changes in precipitation and temperature regimes. A source of long-term information about flood events across the study area is the U.S. Geological Survey peak streamflow database. However, one challenge of answering climate-related questions with this dataset is that even in...

Wind energy is a rapidly growing form of renewable energy in the United States. While summary information on the total amounts of installed capacity are available by state, a free, centralized, national, turbine-level, geospatial dataset useful for scientific research, land and resource management, and other uses did not exist. Available in multiple formats and in a web application...

A probabilistic mineral resource assessment of undiscovered resources in porphyry copper deposits in the Tethys region of western and southern Asia was carried out as part of a global mineral resource assessment led by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). The purpose of the study was to delineate geographic areas as permissive tracts for the occurrence of porphyry copper deposits at a...

Gaining public support for management actions is important to the success of public land management agencies' efforts to protect threatened and endangered species. This is especially relevant at national parks, where managers balance two aspects of their conservation mission: to protect resources and to provide for public enjoyment. This study examined variables potentially associated...

Multi-proxy analyses were conducted on a sediment core from Favre Lake, a high elevation cirque lake in the northern Ruby Mountains, Nevada, and provide a ca. 7600 year record of local and regional environmental change. Data indicate that lake levels were lower from 7600-5750 cal yr BP, when local climate was warmer and/or drier than today. Effective moisture increased after 5750 cal yr...

A collection of 24 datasets, including streamflow, well characteristics, groundwater elevations, and discrete water-quality concentrations, is provided to produce a consistent set of example data to demonstrate typical data manipulations or statistical analysis of hydrologic data. These example data are provided in an R package called smwrData. The data in the package have been collected...

A three–dimensional (3D) electrical resistivity model of Mono Basin in eastern California unveils a complex subsurface filled with zones of partial melt, fluid–filled fracture networks, cold plutons, and regional faults. In 2013, 62 broadband magnetotelluric (MT) stations were collected in an array around southeastern Mono Basin from which a 3D electrical resistivity model was created...

The organizers of the 2014 US National Climate Assessment (NCA) made a concerted effort to reach out to and collaborate with Indigenous peoples, resulting in the most comprehensive information to date on climate change impacts to Indigenous peoples in a US national assessment. Yet, there is still much room for improvement in assessment processes to ensure adequate recognition of...

Future climate change may significantly alter the distributions of many plant taxa. The effects of climate change may be particularly large in mountainous regions where climate can vary significantly with elevation. Understanding potential future vegetation changes in these regions requires methods that can resolve vegetation responses to climate change at fine spatial resolutions. We...

Introduction Earth materials and structures in the El Casco quadrangle provide considerable information about the late Cenozoic geologic evolution of southern California’s Inland Empire region (fig. 2). Important structural and stratigraphic elements include (1) modern traces of the right-lateral San Jacinto Fault zone, (2) older traces of the San Jacinto Fault zone, and (3) sedimentary...