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Erick R Burns

Erick is a Research Hydrologist at the USGS Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center. He specializes in the development of methods and tools for analysis and simulation of groundwater and heat flow in the subsurface, particularly in the volcanogenic terranes of California, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington.

Erick Burns is a Research Geologist with the USGS Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center. His research experience is varied, including groundwater flow and transport, geothermal energy, geostatistical methods and stochastic analysis, process thermodynamics, agricultural water pollution, and seawater intrusion. Additionally, Erick has taught hydrology and geostatistics courses.

Non-USGS Partners:

  • U.S. Department of Energy - Geothermal Technologies Office

Education and Certifications

  • Ph.D. Bioresource Engineering, Oregon State University, 2004

  • M.S. Mathematics, Oregon State University, 2004

  • M.S. Hydrologic Sciences (Groundwater), University of Nevada - Reno, 1996

  • B.S. Geology (extended major: Geophysics), Northern Arizona University, 1994

Science and Products

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Picture of renewable resilience

Renewable Resilience: City-Scale Geothermal Energy Everywhere

Despite the proven efficacy of geothermal energy as a city-scale heating and cooling resource, the relative newness of most city-scale applications using diverse technologies has resulted in limited widespread adoption. We aim to develop authoritative information suitable for city-managers and other decision-makers. Geothermal resources are ubiquitous and diverse, with technologies available bot
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John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis
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Renewable Resilience: City-Scale Geothermal Energy Everywhere

Despite the proven efficacy of geothermal energy as a city-scale heating and cooling resource, the relative newness of most city-scale applications using diverse technologies has resulted in limited widespread adoption. We aim to develop authoritative information suitable for city-managers and other decision-makers. Geothermal resources are ubiquitous and diverse, with technologies available bot
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Geothermal Graphic:Map showing lithospheric plates and some active volcanoes with photo of California geysers.

Geothermal

Mission: to characterize and assess geothermal energy resources in the United States and to work with the Department of Energy and other partners to advance the technologies applied to discover, characterize, and utilize those resources.
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Energy Resources Program, Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center
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Geothermal

Mission: to characterize and assess geothermal energy resources in the United States and to work with the Department of Energy and other partners to advance the technologies applied to discover, characterize, and utilize those resources.
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Old Perpetual Geyser

Hydrogeologic and Geothermal Conditions of the Northwest Volcanic Aquifers

Although sparsely populated, this area in southeastern Oregon, northeastern California, northwestern Nevada, and southeastern Idaho has high geothermal heat flow that may be used to generate large amounts of electricity.
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Energy and Minerals, Water Resources, Oregon Water Science Center
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Hydrogeologic and Geothermal Conditions of the Northwest Volcanic Aquifers

Although sparsely populated, this area in southeastern Oregon, northeastern California, northwestern Nevada, and southeastern Idaho has high geothermal heat flow that may be used to generate large amounts of electricity.
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Groundwater Flow in the Columbia Plateau Regional Aquifer System Cover

Columbia Plateau Groundwater Availability Study

The Columbia Plateau Regional Aquifer System (CPRAS) covers about 44,000 square miles of eastern Oregon and Washington and western Idaho. The primary aquifers are basalts of the Columbia River Basalt Group and overlying basin-fill sediments. Groundwater availability issues in the basin include: 1) widespread water-level declines caused by pumping, 2) reduction in base flow to rivers and associated...
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Idaho Water Science Center, Oregon Water Science Center, Washington Water Science Center
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Columbia Plateau Groundwater Availability Study

The Columbia Plateau Regional Aquifer System (CPRAS) covers about 44,000 square miles of eastern Oregon and Washington and western Idaho. The primary aquifers are basalts of the Columbia River Basalt Group and overlying basin-fill sediments. Groundwater availability issues in the basin include: 1) widespread water-level declines caused by pumping, 2) reduction in base flow to rivers and associated...
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Heat flow maps and supporting data for the Great Basin, USA

Geothermal well data from Southern Methodist University (SMU, 2021) and the U.S. Geological Survey (Sass et al., 2005) were used to create maps of estimated background conductive heat flow across the greater Great Basin region of the western US. The heat flow maps in this data release were created using a process that sought to remove hydrothermal convective influence from predictions of backgroun
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Energy Resources Program, Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center

Compiled reference list to support reservoir thermal energy storage research

This text file (Reference_List_V1.txt) lists references that describe relevant characteristics for reservoir thermal energy storage (RTES) research in the United States. References are grouped by corresponding city, including: Albuquerque, New Mexico; Charleston, South Carolina; Chicago, Illinois; Decatur, Illinois; Lansing, Michigan; Memphis, Tennessee; Phoenix, Arizona; and Portland, Oregon. The
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New Mexico Water Science Center

SUTRA model used to evaluate Saline or Brackish Aquifers as Reservoirs for Thermal Energy Storage in the Portland Basin, Oregon, USA

This archive documents five 30-year SUTRA simulations summarized in Burns at al. (2020), and provides output from one short (2-year) simulation to allow verification that the archive model code runs properly. A modified version of SUTRA 2.2 was used to evaluate Reservoir Thermal Energy Storage by simulating layered system conditions (grid spacing varies depending on simulation run time to prevent
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Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center
Filter Total Items: 27

New maps of conductive heat flow in the Great Basin, USA: Separating conductive and convective influences

Geothermal well data from Southern Methodist University and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) were used to create maps of estimated background conductive heat flow across the Great Basin region of the western United States. These heat flow maps were generated as part of the USGS hydrothermal and Enhanced Geothermal Systems resource assessment process, and the creation process seeks to remove the i
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Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center

Effects of structure and volcanic stratigraphy on groundwater and surface water flow: Hat Creek basin, California, USA

Hydrogeologic systems in the southern Cascade Range in California (USA) develop in volcanic rocks where morphology, stratigraphy, extensional structures, and attendant basin geometry play a central role in groundwater flow paths, groundwater/surface-water interactions, and spring discharge locations. High-volume springs (greater than 3 m3/s) flow from basin-filling (
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Ecosystems, Water Resources, Land Management Research Program, Volcano Hazards, California Water Science Center, Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center, Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center, Volcano Science Center

Discovering hidden geothermal signatures using non-negative matrix factorization with customized k-means clustering

Discovery of hidden geothermal resources is challenging. It requires the mining of large datasets with diverse data attributes representing subsurface hydrogeological and geothermal conditions. The commonly used play fairway analysis approach typically incorporates subject-matter expertise to analyze regional data to estimate geothermal characteristics and favorability. We demonstrate an alternati
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Water Resources, New Mexico Water Science Center

What did they just say? Building a Rosetta stone for geoscience and machine learning

Modern advancements in science and engineering are built upon multidisciplinary projects that bring experts together from different fields. Within their respective disciplines, researchers rely on precise terminology for specific ideas, principles, methods, and theories. Hence, the potential for miscommunication is substantial, especially when common words have been adopted by one (or both) group(
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Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center

Predicting geothermal favorability in the western United States by using machine learning: Addressing challenges and developing solutions

Previous moderate- and high-temperature geothermal resource assessments of the western United States utilized weight-of-evidence and logistic regression methods to estimate resource favorability, but these analyses relied upon some expert decisions. While expert decisions can add confidence to aspects of the modeling process by ensuring only reasonable models are employed, expert decisions also in
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Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center

Impacts of climate change on groundwater availability and spring flows: Observations from the highly productive Medicine Lake Highlands/Fall River Springs Aquifer System

Medicine Lake Highlands/Fall River Springs Aquifer System, located in northeastern California, is home to some of the largest first-order springs in the United States. This work assesses the likely effects of projected climate change on spring flow. Four anticipated climate futures (GFDL A2, GFDL B1, CCSM4 rcp 8.5, CNRM rcp 8.5) for California, which predict a range of conditions (generally warmin
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Energy Resources Program, Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center

National-scale reservoir thermal energy storage pre-assessment for the United States

The U.S. Geological Survey is performing a pre-assessment of the cooling potential for reservoir thermal energy storage (RTES) in five generalized geologic regions (Basin and Range, Coastal Plains, Illinois Basin, Michigan Basin, Pacific Northwest) across the United States. Reservoir models are developed for the metropolitan areas of eight cities (Albuquerque, New Mexico; Charleston, South Carolin
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Water Resources, Arizona Water Science Center, Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center, Michigan-Ohio Water Science Center, Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center, Upper Midwest Water Science Center, New Mexico Water Science Center, Lower Mississippi-Gulf Water Science Center

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 dependent
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Water Resources, National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program, Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center, Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center, Washington Water Science Center

Regional patterns in hydrologic response, a new three-component metric for hydrograph analysis and implications for ecohydrology, Northwest Volcanic Aquifer Study Area, USA

Study RegionOregon, California, Idaho, Nevada and UtahStudy FocusSpatial patterns of hydrologic response were examined for the Northwest Volcanic Aquifer Study Area (NVASA). The utility of established hydrograph-separation methods for assessing hydrologic response in permeable volcanic terranes was assessed and a new three-component metric for hydrograph analysis was developed. The new metric, whi
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Water Resources, California Water Science Center

Preliminary report on applications of machine learning techniques to the Nevada geothermal play fairway analysis

We are applying machine learning (ML) techniques, including training set augmentation and artificial neural networks, to mitigate key challenges in the Nevada play fairway project. The study area includes ~85 active geothermal systems as potential training sites and >12 geologic, geophysical, and geochemical features. The main goal is to develop an algorithmic approach to identify new geothermal s
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Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center

An integrated feasibility study of reservoir thermal energy storage in Portland, Oregon, USA

In regions with long cold overcast winters and sunny summers, Deep Direct-Use (DDU) can be coupled with Reservoir Thermal Energy Storage (RTES) technology to take advantage of pre-existing subsurface permeability to save summer heat for later use during cold seasons. Many aquifers worldwide are underlain by permeable regions (reservoirs) containing brackish or saline groundwater that has limited b
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Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center

Can geologic factors be predictive for distinguishing between productive and non-productive geothermal wells?

Geologic data are examined to evaluate whether certain geologic characteristics occur in higher abundance or higher magnitude along production geothermal wells relative to non-productive wells. We perform 3D geologic mapping, 3D stress modeling, and fault-slip modeling to estimate fourteen different geologic factors that are hypothesized to control or correlate with well productivity. The geologic
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Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center
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Study Explores Groundwater and Geothermal Energy in Drought-Stricken Eastern Oregon and Neighboring States

A new study now underway by the U.S. Geological Survey is exploring the groundwater resources and geothermal energy potential in drought-stricken...

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