Regions
North Dakota
States L2 Landing Page Tabs
Dakota Water Science Center: Hydrology, cooperation, and diversity in data collection for the Missouri, Souris, and Red River Basins including focusing on emerging environmental issues. Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center conducts applied research supporting policy and management decisions for partners on vulnerable prairie grassland and wetland ecosystems of global importance.
News
Reporters: Do you want to interview USGS scientists as they measure flooding in and near Fargo, North Dakota? Please contact Dave Ozman, Marisa Lubeck or Chris Laveau.
Do you eat fruits and vegetables? What about nuts? If so, you can thank an insect pollinator, usually a honey bee. These small insects play a major role in pollinating the world’s plants, including those we eat regularly. They also increase our nation’s crop values each year by more than 15 billion dollars.
March 6-8, 2018 at the National Energy Center of Excellence located on the campus of Bismarck State College in Bismarck, ND.
Publications
The hyper-enrichment of V and Zn in black shales of the Late Devonian-Early Mississippian Bakken Formation (USA)
Black shales of the Late Devonian to Early Mississippian Bakken Formation are characterized by high concentrations of organic carbon and the hyper-enrichment (> 500 to 1000s of mg/kg) of V and Zn. Deposition of black shales resulted from shallow seafloor depths that promoted rapid development of euxinic conditions. Vanadium hyper-...
Scott, Clinton T.; Slack, John F.; Kelley, Karen Duttweiler Petrology and diagenetic history of the upper shale member of the Late Devonian-Early Mississippian Bakken Formation, Williston Basin, North Dakota
The organic-rich upper shale member of the upper Devonian–lower Mississippian Bakken Formation (Williston Basin, North Dakota, USA) has undergone significant diagenetic alteration, irrespective of catagenesis related to hydrocarbon generation. Alteration includes precipitation of numerous cements, replacement of both detrital and authigenic...
Neil S. Fishman; Sven O. Egenhoff; Boehlke, Adam; Lowers, Heather A. Quality and age of shallow groundwater in the Bakken Formation production area, Williston Basin, Montana and North Dakota
The quality and age of shallow groundwater in the Bakken Formation production area were characterized using data from 30 randomly distributed domestic wells screened in the upper Fort Union Formation. Comparison of inorganic and organic chemical concentrations to health based drinking-water standards, correlation analysis of concentrations with...
McMahon, Peter B.; Caldwell, Rodney R.; Galloway, Joel M.; Valder, Joshua F.; Hunt, Andrew G.
United States Assessments of Undiscovered Oil and Gas Resources
USGS Energy Resources Program provides periodic assessments of the oil and natural gas endowment of the United States and the World (click here for information about World Oil and Gas Assessments). This website provides access to new, prioritized, assessment results and supporting data for the United States, as part...
Summer 2011 Missouri River Basin flood
Learn more about USGS flood activities related to the 2011 Missouri River Basin Flood resulting from higher-than-average snowmelt runoff combined with heavy spring rains.
Spring/Summer 2011 Mississippi River Basin Floods
Learn more about USGS flood activities related to the Spring/Summer 2011 floods throughout the Mississippi River Basin.
April 2011 North Dakota Flood
Learn more about USGS flood activities related to the April 2011 North Dakota Flood resulting from sudden winter snowmelt due to warmer-than-expected temperatures and rain.
Yellowstone River Compact Commission: Technical Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes
The Yellowstone River Compact Commission Technical Advisory committee meets periodically. The official minutes of each meeting can be accessed below by clicking on the appropriate link.
Yellowstone River Compact Commission: Annual Reports
The Yellowstone River Compact Commission was established in 1951 and meets annually.
The Commission's formational meeting minutes and annual reports can be accessed below by clicking on the appropriate link. The official minutes of each meeting are incorporated into the Commission's annual reports.
Application and Refinement of a Systems Model for Prairie Pothole Wetlands
The Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) of North America is one of the most important breeding areas for continental waterfowl populations, a Department of Interior (DOI) trust resource. Land use and climate both influence the functioning of the region’s wetland ecosystems, with effects not just on the waterfowl that depend on these wetlands, but also on the services they provide to society, such as...
Science Team about Energy and Plains and Potholes Environments (STEPPE)
Brine Contamination to Plains and Potholes Environments from Energy Development in the Williston Basin
Denver Basin Oil and Gas Assessments
The U.S. Geological Survey completed the following assessments of undiscovered oil and gas resources of the Denver Basin Province 5039 in Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wyoming:
- 2003 Conventional and Continuous Assessment (DDS 69-P)
- 1995 Assessment ( ...
Natural Drought and Flood Histories from Lacustrine Archives
Previous work performed as part of the USGS Holocene Synthesis project illuminated complex centennial-scale patterns of drought and wetter-than-average conditions across the North American continent interior during the past two millennia, where paleorecord data coverage is sparse. In order to explain the patterns of naturally-occurring drought, floods, and storms for the past, identified by...
Yellowstone River Compact Commission
The Yellowstone River Compact was ratified in 1950 and became effective in 1951. The Yellowstone River Compact Commission (YRCC) is a three member commission charged with apportioning the waters of the Yellowstone River and its tributaries.
Williston Basin Oil and Gas Assessments
The U.S. Geological Survey completed the following assessments of conventional and continuous oil and gas resources of the Devonian Three Forks Formation and Devonian and Mississippian Bakken Formation in the Williston Basin Province 5031 of North Dakota, Montana, and South Dakota:
- 2013 Conventional and Continuous Assessment ( ...
GIS Data for the National Oil and Gas Assessments
The NWIS mapper provides access to over 1.5 million sites contained in the USGS National Water Information System (NWIS), including sites where current and historical surface-water, groundwater, springs, and atmospheric data has been collected. Users can search by site type, data type, site number, or place.
Downloadable Data for Williston Basin Oil and Gas Assessments
Interactively explore assessment summary information for continuous (unconventional) assessments conducted at the USGS from 2000-2018. The assessment results data used to generate this visualization can be downloaded here in Excel Format. These data represent all assessment results for Continuous Assessments only from 2000-2018.
The Land Treatment Exploration Tool is designed for resource managers to use when planning land treatments. The tool provides useful summaries of environmental characteristics of planned treatment areas and facilitates adaptive management practices by comparing those characteristics to other similar treatments within a specified distance or area of interest. Provisional Software.
Data collected in the Yellowstone River basin since 1998 are available from this link. Data from the Yellowstone River Basin NAWQA study unit and other study units that overlap into Wyoming, such as the Upper Snake River, the Great Salt Lake Basins, and the South Platte River study units, also are available from the NAWQA Data Warehouse.
The input form provides a record of the complete input values required for the quantitative assessment of water and proppant associated with oil and gas production for the continuous oil and gas resource in a geologically defined Assessment Unit, and the same form template is used for all such assessments. Each USGS water and proppant assessment builds from a USGS petroleum assessment that provid
The data archive contains the aerial photographs and channel delineations used in our analysis. The images have been geo-referenced to the 1995 digital orthophoto quarter quadrangles as described by Miller and Friedman (2009). The channel delineations for all photo years (including 2003) and the delineation of the outer flood-plain boundary are stored as shapefiles.
The National Water Information System (NWIS) web application provides access to real-time and historical surface-water, groundwater, water-quality, and water-use data collected at approximately 1.5 million sites across all 50 states.
Field/lab samples, real-time data, and tutorial
At selected surface-water and groundwater sites, the USGS maintains instruments that continuously record physical and chemical characteristics of the water including pH, specific conductance, temperature, dissolved oxygen, and percent dissolved-oxygen saturation. Supporting data such as air temperature and barometric pressure are also available at some sites.
Real-time, daily, peak-flow, field measurements, and statistics of current and historical data that describe stream levels, streamflow (discharge), reservoir and lake levels, surface-water quality, and rainfall in Wisconsin. Surface-water data are collected and stored as either discrete field-water-level measurements or as continuous time-series data from automated recorders.
This map shows the provinces assessed by the USGS for undiscovered oil and gas resources.
Quaternary geologic map of the Dakotas 4° x 6° degree quadrangle, United States - This digital dataset is available for the Quaternary geology in North and South Dakota
The 3DEP products and services available through The National Map consist of standard digital elevation models (DEMs) at various horizontal resolutions, elevation source and associated datasets, an elevation point query service and bulk point query service. All 3DEP products are available, free of charge and without use restrictions.
This mapper displays SPARROW nutrient load and yield data and the importance of various nutrient sources for the RARB, given nutrient inputs similar to 2002. Rankings can be shown by country, state/province, HUC4, HUC8, and catchment. Nutrient data can be explored using maps and interactive graphs and tables. Modeling results can be exported as an Excel spreadsheet or a geospatial dataset.
The hyper-enrichment of V and Zn in black shales of the Late Devonian-Early Mississippian Bakken Formation (USA)
Black shales of the Late Devonian to Early Mississippian Bakken Formation are characterized by high concentrations of organic carbon and the hyper-enrichment (> 500 to 1000s of mg/kg) of V and Zn. Deposition of black shales resulted from shallow seafloor depths that promoted rapid development of euxinic conditions. Vanadium hyper-...
Scott, Clinton T.; Slack, John F.; Kelley, Karen Duttweiler Petrology and diagenetic history of the upper shale member of the Late Devonian-Early Mississippian Bakken Formation, Williston Basin, North Dakota
The organic-rich upper shale member of the upper Devonian–lower Mississippian Bakken Formation (Williston Basin, North Dakota, USA) has undergone significant diagenetic alteration, irrespective of catagenesis related to hydrocarbon generation. Alteration includes precipitation of numerous cements, replacement of both detrital and authigenic...
Neil S. Fishman; Sven O. Egenhoff; Boehlke, Adam; Lowers, Heather A. Quality and age of shallow groundwater in the Bakken Formation production area, Williston Basin, Montana and North Dakota
The quality and age of shallow groundwater in the Bakken Formation production area were characterized using data from 30 randomly distributed domestic wells screened in the upper Fort Union Formation. Comparison of inorganic and organic chemical concentrations to health based drinking-water standards, correlation analysis of concentrations with...
McMahon, Peter B.; Caldwell, Rodney R.; Galloway, Joel M.; Valder, Joshua F.; Hunt, Andrew G.
Chemical and morphological comparison of erionite from Oregon, North Dakota, and Turkey
Erionite, a fibrous zeolite, occurs in pediment gravel deposits near Killdeer Mountain, North Dakota. Material from these pediment deposits has been excavated for use as roadbed throughout Dunn County, North Dakota. Erionite also occurs in the Cappadocian region of Turkey, where a link between malignant mesothelioma and inhalation of this mineral...
Lowers, Heather; Adams, David T.; Meeker, Gregory P.; Nutt, Constance J. Comparative morphology among northern populations of breeding Cooper's Hawks
Few studies at a broad geographical scale have characterized intraspecific variation in morphology of woodland hawks in the genus Accipiter. From 1999 to 2007 we investigated morphological variation in large samples of live Cooper's Hawks (A. cooperii) nesting in four study areas: coniferous woodland around Victoria, British Columbia, Canada...
Rosenfield, Robert N.; Rosenfield, Laura J.; Bielefeldt, John; Murphy, Robert K.; Stewart, Andrew C.; Stout, William E.; Driscoll, Timothy G.; Bozek, Michael A.
Water-use data for the Red River of the North Basin, North Dakota, Minnesota, and South Dakota, 1979-2001
The Red River of the North, located in the north-central plains of the United States, plays an important role in population growth and economic development of the region. Because of recent and projected growth in population, industry, and agriculture in the Red River of the North Basin, alternatives to additional water resources will be needed to...
Macek-Rowland, Kathleen M.; Arntson, Allan D.; Ryberg, Karen R.; Dahl, Ann L.; Lieb, Amy
Estimated use of water in North Dakota in 1985 and trends during 1960-85
Estimates of water use in North Dakota have been compiled by the U.S. Geological Survey every 5 years since 1950. These estimates have been published in national summaries of water use (MacKichan, 1951, 1957; MacKichan and Kammerer, 1961; Murray, 1968; Murrary and Reeves, 1972, 1977; and Solley and others, 1983, 1987). In this report,...
Wesolowski, Edwin A.
National water summary 1987: Hydrologic events and water supply and use
Water use in the United States, as measured by freshwater withdrawals in 1985, averaged 338,000 Mgal/d (million gallons per day), which is enough water to cover the 48 conterminous States to a depth of about 2.4 inches. Only 92,300 Mgal/d, or 27.3 percent of the water withdrawn, was consumptive use and thus lost to immediate further use; the...
Carr, Jerry E.; Chase, Edith B.; Paulson, Richard W.; Moody, David W.
Variable Warming Upper Midwest Lakes and Implications for Sport Fish
Climate change is predicted to alter sport fish communities in Midwestern lakes, but managers currently have limited information on individual lakes that can be used to set local expectations or intervene with mitigation strategies. Northeast and North Central CASC supported researchers, with strong participation from the Midwest Glacial Lakes Partnership, have combined
...
Winter Streamflow Measurement at the Rush River at Amenia, ND
USGS Hydrologic Technician Chris Broz attempting to find flow at the Rush River at Amenia, ND (USGS streamgage 05060500). It took the technicians an hour to dig through the snow drift under the wire weight gage just to get to the ice. Then they drilled holes in the ice so they could see if there was any water to measure.
National Oil and Gas Assessment Provinces
This is a graphic from the USGS National Oil and Gas Assessment Explorer application, which allows user to drill into 70 oil and gas assessment provinces throughout the United States.
Marshmallow-like Formations on Cannonball River at Regent, ND
Marshmallow-like formations were photographed on the Cannonball River at Regent, North Dakota (USGS streamgage 06350000) on April 3, 2018. Foam is produced naturally from organic material in the water in combination with turbulence resulting from water flowing over the weir. The cold temperatures allowed the foam to freeze into these unique marshmallow-like formations.
Flow Measurement on Little Missouri River
USGS Civil Engineer Brent Hanson measuring the streamflow of the Little Missouri River near Watford City, ND (streamgage 06337000). More information about this streamgage is available at https://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv/?site_no=06337000.
Zero Streamflow at Souris River near Westhope, ND (05124000)
USGS hydrologic technicians Kevin Baker (shown in the picture) and Jarvis Kaderlik found the Souris River near Westhope, ND (streamgage 05124000) to be at zero flow on January 4, 2018. More information on USGS streamgage 05124000 can be found at https://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv?
...
Streamflow Measurements Under Ice Using Acoustic Doppler Technology
Hydrologic Technicians from USGS offices across North and South Dakota took part in training on how to make flow measurements under ice using acoustic Doppler technology. This technology increases measurement quality, while decreasing time, effort, and risk to the individuals making the measurements. The photograph was taken at USGS streamgage 05059300 Sheyenne River above
...
Streamflow Measurements Under Ice Using Acoustic Doppler Technology
Hydrologic Technicians from USGS offices across North and South Dakota took part in training on how to make flow measurements under ice using acoustic Doppler technology. This technology increases measurement quality, while decreasing time, effort, and risk to the individuals making the measurements. The photograph was taken at USGS streamgage 05059300 Sheyenne River above
...
Well Drill in the Bakken Formation near Williston
Water truck in background is providing maintenance water to a producing well drilled in the Bakken Formation near Williston, North Dakota.
Oil Wells in ND
Water is used for many direct aspects of unconventional oil and gas development including drilling, development, and maintenance of wells. (Photograph by Janet Carter, USGS)
Snacker
An animated GIF of a ground squirrel appearing to eat repeatedly, really fast. The animated GIF was created from a clip within a USGS video entitled, "USGS Pollinator Research and Monitoring."
Oblique aerial photographs at North Topsail Beach, North Carolina
Location 3: Oblique aerial photographs at North Topsail Beach, North Carolina. Oblique aerial photographs collected before (top) and after (bottom) Hurricane Matthew. Storm waves and surge eroded and overwashed artificial sand dunes placed at the back of the beach to protect buildings and parking lots. The yellow arrows in each image point to the same features in both
...Reporters: Do you want to interview USGS scientists as they measure flooding in and near Fargo, North Dakota? Please contact Dave Ozman, Marisa Lubeck or Chris Laveau.
Do you eat fruits and vegetables? What about nuts? If so, you can thank an insect pollinator, usually a honey bee. These small insects play a major role in pollinating the world’s plants, including those we eat regularly. They also increase our nation’s crop values each year by more than 15 billion dollars.
March 6-8, 2018 at the National Energy Center of Excellence located on the campus of Bismarck State College in Bismarck, ND.
The public is invited to attend a free, family-friendly open house at a local U.S. Geological Survey center for ecology research on Saturday, September 16.
A carbonatite here, a glacial moraine there, a zig-zagging fault or two, even a behemoth of a batholith. The geology of the 50 States is an enormous patchwork of varied forms, beautiful in their variance but challenging to present as a single map.
Today, Landsat shows us the evolution of the coal industry near North America & North Dakota’s Center...
Joyce E. Williamson, a native of South Dakota and a South Dakota School of Mines and Technology alumna, was selected as the director of the newly formed U.S. Geological Survey Dakota Water Science Center. Williamson is located in the center’s Rapid City, South Dakota, office.
First-of-its-kind survey shows that algal toxins are found nationwide
A new, interactive tool can help managers make critical water-quality decisions in the Red River Basin of the United States and Canada.
Locations
Dakota Water Science Center- Grand Forks Field Office
Phone: (701) 775-7221
Fax: (701) 775-1114
Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center
Phone: 701-253-5500
Fax: 701-253 5553
Dakota Water Science Center- Bismarck
Phone: (701) 250-7400
Fax: (701) 250-7429
