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Publications related to National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program and its Components.

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Mobility characteristics of landslides triggered by Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico Mobility characteristics of landslides triggered by Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico

Mobility is an important element of landslide hazard and risk assessments yet has been seldom studied for shallow landslides and debris flows in tropical environments. In September 2017, Hurricane Maria triggered > 70,000 landslides across Puerto Rico. Using aerial imagery and a lidar digital elevation model (DEM), we mapped and characterized the mobility of debris slides and flows in...
Authors
Erin K. Bessette-Kirton, Jeffrey Coe, William Schulz, Corina Cerovski-Darriau, Mason Einbund

Using saline or brackish aquifers as reservoirs for thermal energy storage, with example calculations for direct-use heating in the Portland Basin, Oregon, USA Using saline or brackish aquifers as reservoirs for thermal energy storage, with example calculations for direct-use heating in the Portland Basin, Oregon, USA

Tools to evaluate reservoir thermal energy storage (RTES; heat storage in slow-moving or stagnant geochemically evolved permeable zones in strata that underlie well-connected regional aquifers) are developed and applied to the Columbia River Basalt Group (CRBG) beneath the Portland Basin, Oregon, USA. The performance of RTES for heat storage and recovery in the Portland Basin is strongly...
Authors
Erick Burns, John Bershaw, Colin Williams, Ray Wells, Matt Uddenberg, Darby Scanlon, Trenton Cladouhos, Boz Van Houten

Surface displacement distributions for the July 2019 Ridgecrest, California earthquake ruptures Surface displacement distributions for the July 2019 Ridgecrest, California earthquake ruptures

Surface rupture in the 2019 Ridgecrest, California, earthquake sequence occurred along two orthogonal cross faults and includes dominantly left‐lateral and northeast‐striking rupture in the Mw 6.4 foreshock and dominantly right‐lateral and northwest‐striking rupture in the Mw 7.1 mainshock. We present >650 field‐based, surface‐displacement observations for these ruptures and synthesize...
Authors
Christopher DuRoss, Ryan Gold, Timothy Dawson, Katherine M. Scharer, Katherine Kendrick, Sinan Akciz, Stephen Angster, Jeffery Bachhuber, Steven Bacon, Scott Bennett, Luke Blair, Benjamin Brooks, Thomas Bullard, W. Burgess, Colin Chupik, Michael DeFrisco, Jaime Delano, James Dolan, Erik Frost, Nick Graehl, Elizabeth Haddon, Alexandra Hatem, Janis Hernandez, Christopher Hitchcock, Kennth Hudnut, Jessica Thompson Jobe, Richard Koehler, Ozgur Kozaci, Tyler Ladinsky, Christopher Madugo, Devin McPhillips, Christopher Milliner, Alexander Morelan, Brian Olson, Jason Patton, Belle Philibosian, Alexandra Pickering, Ian Pierce, Daniel Ponti, Gordon Seitz, Eleanor Spangler, Brian Swanson, Kate Thomas, Jerome Treiman, Francesca Valencia, Alana Williams, Robert Zinke

Progress toward a preliminary karst depression density map for the conterminous United States Progress toward a preliminary karst depression density map for the conterminous United States

Most methods for the assessment of sinkhole hazard susceptibility are predicated upon knowledge of pre-existing closed depressions in karst areas. In the United States (U.S.), inventories of existing karst depressions are piecemeal, and are often obtained through inconsistent methodologies applied at the state or county level and at various scales. Here, we present a first attempt at...
Authors
Daniel Doctor, Jeanne Jones, Nathan Wood, Jeff Falgout, Natalya Rapstine

Hydrothermal activity in the southwest Yellowstone Plateau Volcanic Field Hydrothermal activity in the southwest Yellowstone Plateau Volcanic Field

In the past two decades, the U.S. Geological Survey and the National Park Service have studied hydrothermal activity across the Yellowstone Plateau Volcanic Field (YPVF) to improve the understanding of the magmatic-hydrothermal system and to provide a baseline for detecting future anomalous activity. In 2017 and 2018 we sampled water and gas over a large area in the southwest YPVF and...
Authors
Shaul Hurwitz, R. Blaine McCleskey, Deborah Bergfeld, Sara Peek, David Susong, David Roth, Jefferson Hungerford, Erin White, Lauren Harrison, Behnaz Hosseini, R. Vaughan, Andrew G. Hunt, James Paces

Correlations along a 140 km transect in the westernmost Peach Spring Tuff, and tracing changing facies through depositional environments Correlations along a 140 km transect in the westernmost Peach Spring Tuff, and tracing changing facies through depositional environments

Tephrochronology is the correlation of tephra beds and tuffs by various means, and it is an important tool in refining stratigraphic and structural interpretations. The 18.78 Ma Peach Spring Tuff (PST) is a large-volume ignimbrite that was deposited across a ~200 km x 360 km area of southeastern California, northwestern Arizona, and southern Nevada. The PST is a valuable stratigraphic...
Authors
David Buesch

The Missoula and Bonneville floods—A review of ice-age megafloods in the Columbia River basin The Missoula and Bonneville floods—A review of ice-age megafloods in the Columbia River basin

The Channeled Scabland of eastern Washington State, USA, brought megafloods to the scientific forefront. A 30,000-km2 landscape of coulees and cataracts carved into the region’s loess-covered basalt attests to overwhelming volumes of energetic water. The scarred landscape, garnished by huge boulder bars and far-travelled ice-rafted erratics, spurred J Harlen Bretz’s vigorously disputed...
Authors
Jim E. O'Connor, Victor Baker, Richard Waitt, Larry Smith, Charles Cannon, David George, Roger Denlinger

Science plan for improving three-dimensional seismic velocity models in the San Francisco Bay region, 2019–24 Science plan for improving three-dimensional seismic velocity models in the San Francisco Bay region, 2019–24

This five-year science plan outlines short-term and long-term goals for improving three-dimensional seismic velocity models in the greater San Francisco Bay region as well as how to foster a community effort in reaching those goals. The short-term goals focus on improving the current U.S. Geological Survey San Francisco Bay region geologic and seismic velocity model using existing data...
Authors
Brad Aagaard, Russell Graymer, Clifford Thurber, Arthur Rodgers, Taka’aki Taira, Rufus Catchings, Christine Goulet, Andreas Plesch

Timing of Cenozoic extension in the southern Stillwater Range and Dixie Valley, Nevada Timing of Cenozoic extension in the southern Stillwater Range and Dixie Valley, Nevada

The Dixie Valley fault bounds the east side of the Stillwater Range in west‐central Nevada and last ruptured in 1954. Offset basalts indicate that slip began more recently than ~14 Ma, and prior work has interpreted the southern segment as an active low‐angle normal fault. Oligocene igneous rocks in the southern Stillwater Range were steeply tilted during large‐magnitude extension prior...
Authors
Joseph Colgan, Samuel Johnstone, David Shuster

Northward migration of the Oregon forearc on the Gales Creek fault Northward migration of the Oregon forearc on the Gales Creek fault

The Gales Creek fault (GCF) is a 60-km-long, northwest-striking dextral fault system (west of Portland, Oregon) that accommodates northward motion and uplift of the Oregon Coast Range. New geologic mapping and geophysical models confirm inferred offsets from earlier geophysical surveys and document ∼12 km of right-lateral offset of a basement high in Eocene Siletz River Volcanics since...
Authors
Ray Wells, Richard Blakely, Sean Bemis

Coexisting seismic behavior of transform faults revealed by high-resolution bathymetry Coexisting seismic behavior of transform faults revealed by high-resolution bathymetry

Transform faults are known to have anomalously low rates of seismicity, but no direct observations reveal why this is the case. We use new, autonomous underwater vehicle high-resolution seafloor mapping to image the morphology of and offsets along transform fault segments in the Gulf of California. Fault splays display a varied history of activation and deactivation of individual fault...
Authors
George Hilley, Robert Sare, Felipe Aron, Curtis W Baden, Dave Caress, Christopher Castillo, Stephen Dobbs, Jared T Gooley, Samuel Johnstone, Frances Liu, Tim McHargue, Josie Nevitt, Charles Paull, Lauren Shumaker, Miles Traer, Holly Young

Dilution and propagation of provenance trends in sand and mud: Geochemistry and detrital zircon geochronology of modern sediment from central California (U.S.A.) Dilution and propagation of provenance trends in sand and mud: Geochemistry and detrital zircon geochronology of modern sediment from central California (U.S.A.)

Integrated, multi-method provenance studies of siliciclastic sedimentary deposits are increasingly used to reconstruct the history of source-to-sink transport, paleogeography, and tectonics. Invariably, analysis of large-scale depositional systems must confront issues regarding how to best sample the system and adequately cope with the details of sediment mixing. Potential biases...
Authors
Matthew A. Malkowski, Glenn Sharman, Samuel Johnstone, Marty Grove, Dave Kimbrough, Stephen Graham
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