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Publications

USGS research activities relevant to Alaska have yielded more than 9400 historical publications. This page features some of the most recent newsworthy research findings.

Filter Total Items: 3084

The dominance and growth of shallow groundwater resources in continuous permafrost environments The dominance and growth of shallow groundwater resources in continuous permafrost environments

Water is a limited resource in Arctic watersheds with continuous permafrost because freezing conditions in winter and the impermeability of permafrost limit storage and connectivity between surface water and deep groundwater. However, groundwater can still be an important source of surface water in such settings, feeding springs and large aufeis fields that are abundant in cold regions...
Authors
Joshua C. Koch, Craig T. Connolly, Carson Baughman, Marisa Repasch, Heather Best, Andrew G. Hunt

Metal mobilization from thawing permafrost to aquatic ecosystems is driving rusting of Arctic streams Metal mobilization from thawing permafrost to aquatic ecosystems is driving rusting of Arctic streams

Climate change in the Arctic is altering watershed hydrologic processes and biogeochemistry. Here, we present an emergent threat to Arctic watersheds based on observations from 75 streams in Alaska’s Brooks Range that recently turned orange, reflecting increased loading of iron and toxic metals. Using remote sensing, we constrain the timing of stream discoloration to the last 10 years, a...
Authors
Jonathan A. O’Donnell, Michael P. Carey, Joshua C. Koch, Carson Baughman, Kenneth Hill, Christian E. Zimmerman, Patrick F. Sullivan, Roman J. Dial, Timothy J. Lyons, David J. Cooper, Brett A. Poulin

Fairweather transform boundary Oligocene to present orogenesis: Fairweather Range vertical extrusion and rotation of the Yakutat microplate at ca. 3 Ma Fairweather transform boundary Oligocene to present orogenesis: Fairweather Range vertical extrusion and rotation of the Yakutat microplate at ca. 3 Ma

Oblique-slip along transform fault boundaries is often partitioned between a strike-slip system and thrust faults that accommodate contraction. However, topography along the Yakutat-North American transform (Fairweather fault), is asymmetric with low-terrain above active thrusts on the western, Yakutat side of the transform and high topography on the continental side with peaks >4500 m...
Authors
Jeff Benowitz, Richard O. Lease, Peter J. Haeussler, Terry Pavlis, Michael Mann

A great tsunami earthquake component of the 1957 Aleutian Islands earthquake A great tsunami earthquake component of the 1957 Aleutian Islands earthquake

The great 1957 Aleutian Islands earthquake ruptured ∼1200 km of the plate boundary along the Aleutian subduction zone and produced a destructive tsunami across Hawaiʻi. Early seismic and tsunami analyses indicated that large megathrust fault slip was concentrated in the western Aleutian Islands, but tsunami waves generated by slip in the west cannot explain the large observed runup in...
Authors
Yoshiki Yamazaki, Thorne Lay, Kwok Fai Cheung, Robert C. Witter, SeanPaul La Selle, Bruce E. Jaffe

Deep-water first occurrences of Ediacara biota prior to the Shuram carbon isotope excursion in the Wernecke Mountains, Yukon, Canada Deep-water first occurrences of Ediacara biota prior to the Shuram carbon isotope excursion in the Wernecke Mountains, Yukon, Canada

Ediacara-type macrofossils appear as early as ~575 Ma in deep-water facies of the Drook Formation of the Avalon Peninsula, Newfoundland, and the Nadaleen Formation of Yukon and Northwest Territories, Canada. Our ability to assess whether a deep-water origination of the Ediacara biota is a genuine reflection of evolutionary succession, an artifact of an incomplete stratigraphic record, or...
Authors
Thomas H. Boag, James F. Busch, Jared T. Gooley, Justin Strauss, Erik A Sperling

Annual review 2023: Critical minerals Annual review 2023: Critical minerals

No abstract available.
Authors
Graham W. Lederer, James V. Jones, Darcy McPhee, Jeffrey L. Mauk, Robert R. Seal,, Kate M. Campbell, Jane M. Hammarstrom, Paul A. Bedrosian, Patricia Grace Macqueen, Garth E. Graham, Federico Solano, George N.D. Case, David George Pineault

Drought, fire, and archeology in the Jemez Mountains, New Mexico Drought, fire, and archeology in the Jemez Mountains, New Mexico

In the Jemez Mountains of New Mexico, cultural resources and traditional cultural landscapes are vulnerable to compounded impacts of changing climate and wildfires. Here, we discuss impacts to archeological resources observed in recent, high-severity fires, including at Bandelier National Monument and Valles Caldera National Preserve, and describe an interdisciplinary effort to quantity
Authors
Anastasia Steffen, Jamie Civitello, Rachel A. Loehman, Robert Parmenter

Detrital zircons and the magmatic history of Viti Levu, Fiji Detrital zircons and the magmatic history of Viti Levu, Fiji

We integrate the existing detrital zircon data from multiple modern river sediment samples on Viti Levu, Fiji, with the most current available geological and topographic mapping of the respective river drainage basins to compare detrital populations with potential bedrock sources. The temporal and spatial variations in zircon geochemistry supplement what is known from igneous rocks and...
Authors
Allen Stork, James B Gill, Erin Todd, Elizabeth Kathleen Drewes-Todd

A high-resolution, daily hindcast (1990-2021) of Alaskan river discharge and temperature from coupled and optimized physical models A high-resolution, daily hindcast (1990-2021) of Alaskan river discharge and temperature from coupled and optimized physical models

Water quality and freshwater ecosystems are affected by river discharge and temperature. Models are frequently used to estimate river temperature on large spatial and temporal scales due to limited observations of discharge and temperature. In this study, we use physically based river routing and temperature models to simulate daily discharge and river temperature for rivers in 138...
Authors
Dylan Blaskey, Michael Gooseff, Yifan Cheng, Andrew Newman, Joshua C. Koch, Keith Musselman

A comparison of contemporary and historical hydrology and water quality in the foothills and coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Arctic Slope, northern Alaska A comparison of contemporary and historical hydrology and water quality in the foothills and coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Arctic Slope, northern Alaska

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is a unique landscape in northern Alaska with limited water resources, substantial biodiversity of rare and threatened species, as well as oil and gas resources. The region has unique hydrology related to perennial springs, and the formation of large aufeis fields—sheets of ice that grow in the river channels where water reaches the surface in the...
Authors
Joshua C. Koch, Heather Best, Carson Baughman, Charles Couvillion, Michael P. Carey, Jeff Conaway

Seasonal and decadal subsurface thaw dynamics of an Aufeis feature investigated through numerical simulations Seasonal and decadal subsurface thaw dynamics of an Aufeis feature investigated through numerical simulations

Aufeis (also known as icings) are large sheet-like masses of layered ice that form in river channels in arctic environments in the winter as groundwater discharges to the land surface and subsequently freezes. Aufeis are important sources of water for Arctic river ecosystems, bolstering late summer river discharge and providing habitat for caribou escaping insect harassment. The aim of...
Authors
Alexi Lainis, Roseanna M. Neupauer, Joshua C. Koch, Michael Gooseff

Geophysical constraints on continental rejuvenation in central China: Implications for outward growth of the Tibetan Plateau Geophysical constraints on continental rejuvenation in central China: Implications for outward growth of the Tibetan Plateau

Continental rejuvenation results from the tectonic reactivation of crustal structures and lithospheric reworking by mantle flow. Geochemical observations and field mapping have traditionally provided the primary evidence for the secular evolution of crustal composition and tectonic processes during continental rejuvenation. Nonetheless, the impact of continental rejuvenation on the...
Authors
Yi-Peng Zhang, Pei-Zhen Zhang, Richard O. Lease, Min-Juan Li, Renjie Zhou, Bin-Bin Xu, Si-Yuan Chen, Xu-Zhang Shen, Wen-Jun Zheng, Xiao-Hui He, Wei-Tao Wang, Yue-Jun Wang
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