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Photograph of road cut showing fractured sedimentary rocks

A Field Method to Quantify Chlorinated Solvent Diffusion, Sorption, Abiotic and Biotic Degradation in Low-Permeability Zones

Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program project ER-2533 In chlorinated-solvent-contaminated fractured-sedimentary-rock aquifers, low-permeability (low-K) strata typically act as long-term or secondary sources of contamination to mobile groundwater in the high-permeability fractures. The fate of dissolved trichloroethene (TCE) in the low-K matrix is controlled by abiotic...
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Toxic Substances Hydrology, Maryland-Delaware-D.C. Water Science Center, New Jersey Water Science Center, Pennsylvania Water Science Center
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A Field Method to Quantify Chlorinated Solvent Diffusion, Sorption, Abiotic and Biotic Degradation in Low-Permeability Zones

Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program project ER-2533 In chlorinated-solvent-contaminated fractured-sedimentary-rock aquifers, low-permeability (low-K) strata typically act as long-term or secondary sources of contamination to mobile groundwater in the high-permeability fractures. The fate of dissolved trichloroethene (TCE) in the low-K matrix is controlled by abiotic...
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USGS scientist with equipment used to inject fluids for a bioaugmentation experiment

Contaminant Fate and Transport Studies in Fractured Sedimentary Rock Aquifers at the former Naval Air Warfare Center (NAWC), West Trenton, N.J.

Contaminants associated with industrial, airport, and other activities are present in groundwater in fractured-rock aquifers, posing long-term hazards to drinking-water supplies and ecosystems. The heterogeneous character of fractured rock challenges our understanding, monitoring, and remediation of such sites.
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New Jersey Water Science Center, Pennsylvania Water Science Center
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Contaminant Fate and Transport Studies in Fractured Sedimentary Rock Aquifers at the former Naval Air Warfare Center (NAWC), West Trenton, N.J.

Contaminants associated with industrial, airport, and other activities are present in groundwater in fractured-rock aquifers, posing long-term hazards to drinking-water supplies and ecosystems. The heterogeneous character of fractured rock challenges our understanding, monitoring, and remediation of such sites.
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Understanding Fluid Injection Induced Seismicity

Fluid injection induced seismicity has been reported since the 1960s. There are currently more than 150,000 injection wells associated with oil and gas production in 34 states in the conterminous US. Pore pressure disturbance caused by injection is generally considered the culprit for injection induced seismicity, but, not all injection causes seismicity. It is not well understood what mechanical
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John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis
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Understanding Fluid Injection Induced Seismicity

Fluid injection induced seismicity has been reported since the 1960s. There are currently more than 150,000 injection wells associated with oil and gas production in 34 states in the conterminous US. Pore pressure disturbance caused by injection is generally considered the culprit for injection induced seismicity, but, not all injection causes seismicity. It is not well understood what mechanical
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A finite-difference algorithm used to simulate radial diffusion, adsorption, and reactions of chlorinated ethenes in porous media

Simulations of radial diffusion, adsorption, and reactions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) - trichloroethene (TCE), cis-1,2-dichloroethene (cDCE), vinyl chloride (VC), trichlorofluoroethene (TCFE) - and bromide (Br) in a porous media are conducted using rock properties identified from a mudstone aquifer in the Newark Basin, near West Trenton, New Jersey. The simulations are conducted using a
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Pennsylvania Water Science Center

Streamflow data collected by the wading method, Pinnacles National Park, California, 2018

This dataset includes streamflow measurements collected at six sites in Pinnacles National Park during 2018. Data collection occurred at times when the streamflow did not include runoff from precipitation. The wading method was used to measure streamflow (Nolan, K.M. and Shields, R.R., 2000, Measurement of stream discharge by wading, U.S. Geological Survey Water-Resources Investigations Report 200
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Water Resources Mission Area

Passive Seismic Data Collected for the Horizontal-to-Vertical Spectral Ratio (HVSR) Method, Pinnacles National Park, California, 2018-2020

This dataset contains passive seismic data collected using a three-component seismometer during 2018-2020 at Pinnacles National Park, California. The data were acquired for the purpose of estimating depth to the bedrock surface underlying alluvial deposits, using the horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio (HVSR) technique. Data were collected along ten transects, with 3 to 14 points collected along
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Water Resources Mission Area

Groundwater tracing experiments conducted in the mudstone aquifer underlying the former Naval Air Warfare Center, West Trenton, NJ (2007-2008)

This data set presents results from two groundwater tracing experiments conducted in the mudstone aquifer underlying the former Naval Air Warfare Center (NAWC), West Trenton, NJ. In each test, a bromide solution was introduced into a hydraulically isolated section of borehole 36BR (denoted as 36BR-A); the hydraulically isolated section of the borehole isolated specific bedding plane parting fractu
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Water Resources Mission Area
video thumbnail: Paul Hsieh and The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill link
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Aqueous geochemistry of waters and hydrogeology of alluvial deposits, Pinnacles National Park, California

A cooperative study between the National Park Service (NPS) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) characterized groundwater quality and hydrogeology in parts of Pinnacles National Park. The water-quality investigation assessed the geochemistry of springs, wells, surface water, and precipitation and analyzed geochemistry of rock formations that affect the water chemistry through water-rock interact

A borehole test for chlorinated solvent diffusion and degradation rates in sedimentary rock

We present a new field measurement and numerical interpretation method (combined termed ‘test’) to parameterize the diffusion of trichloroethene (TCE) and its biodegradation products (DPs) from the matrix of sedimentary rock. The method uses a dual-packer system to interrogate a low-permeability section of the rock matrix adjacent to a previously contaminated borehole and uses the borehole monitor
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Water Resources Mission Area, Toxic Substances Hydrology, Maryland-Delaware-D.C. Water Science Center, New Jersey Water Science Center, Pennsylvania Water Science Center

Post audit of simulated groundwater flow to a short-lived (2019-2020) crater lake at Kīlauea Volcano

About 14.5 months after the 2018 eruption and summit collapse of Kīlauea Volcano, Hawaiʻi, liquid water started accumulating in the deepened summit crater, forming a lake that attained 51 m depth before rapidly boiling off on December 20, 2020, when an eruption from the crater wall poured lava into the lake. Modeling the growth of the crater lake at Kīlauea summit is important for assessing the po
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Volcano Hazards Program, Volcano Science Center

Groundwater dynamics at Kīlauea Volcano and vicinity, Hawaiʻi

Kīlauea Volcano, on the Island of Hawaiʻi, is surrounded and permeated by active groundwater systems that interact dynamically with the volcanic system. A generalized conceptual model of Hawaiian hydrogeology includes high-level dike-impounded groundwater, very permeable perched and basal aquifers, and a transition (mixing) zone between freshwater and saltwater. Most high-level groundwater is asso
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Volcano Hazards Program, Volcano Science Center

Modeling groundwater inflow to the new crater lake at Kīlauea Volcano, Hawaiʻi

During the 2018 eruption of Kīlauea Volcano, Hawai'i, scientists relied heavily on a conceptual model of explosive eruptions triggered when lava‐lake levels drop below the water table. Numerical modeling of multiphase groundwater flow and heat transport revealed that, contrary to expectations, liquid water inflow to the drained magma conduit would likely be delayed by months to years, owing to the
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Volcano Hazards Program, Volcano Science Center

Hydraulic, geochemical, and thermal monitoring of an aquifer system in the vicinity of Mammoth Lakes, Mono County, California, 2015–17

Since 2014, the U.S. Geological Survey has been working in cooperation with the Bureau of Land Management, Mono County, Ormat Technologies, Inc., and the Mammoth Community Water District to design and implement a groundwater-monitoring program for the proposed Casa Diablo IV Geothermal Power Project in Long Valley Caldera, California, to characterize baseline groundwater-level, water-temperature,
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Water Resources Mission Area, California Water Science Center

Snowmelt-triggered earthquake swarms at the margin of Long Valley Caldera, California

Fluids are well known to influence earthquakes, yet rarely are earthquakes convincingly linked to precipitation. Weak modulation or limited data often leads to ambiguous interpretations. In contrast, here we find that shallow seismicity in the Sierra Nevada range near Long Valley Caldera is strongly modulated by snowmelt. Over 33 years, shallow seismicity rates were ~37 times higher during very we
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Volcano Hazards Program, Volcano Science Center

Groundwater inflow toward a preheated volcanic conduit: Application to the 2018 eruption at Kīlauea Volcano, Hawai’i

The many successes in volcano forecasting over the past several decades owe mainly to pattern recognition, both in monitoring data and the geologic record. During the early stages of the 2018 Kīlauea eruption, the conceptual model of Stearns (1925), based on the explosive 1924 Kīlauea eruption, was highly influential. This model postulates that explosions are triggered by liquid-water inflow int
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Volcano Hazards Program, Volcano Science Center

Fractured rock environments

No abstract available.
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Water Resources Mission Area

Bioremediation in fractured rock: 1. Modeling to inform design, monitoring, and expectations

Field characterization of a trichloroethene (TCE) source area in fractured mudstones produced a detailed understanding of the geology, contaminant distribution in fractures and the rock matrix, and hydraulic and transport properties. Groundwater flow and chemical transport modeling that synthesized the field characterization information proved critical for designing bioremediation of the source ar
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Water Resources Mission Area, Contaminant Biology, Environmental Health Program, Toxic Substances Hydrology, New Jersey Water Science Center, Pennsylvania Water Science Center

Bioremediation in fractured rock: 2. Mobilization of chloroethene compounds from the rock matrix

A mass balance is formulated to evaluate the mobilization of chlorinated ethene compounds (CE) from the rock matrix of a fractured mudstone aquifer under pre- and postbioremediation conditions. The analysis relies on a sparse number of monitoring locations and is constrained by a detailed description of the groundwater flow regime. Groundwater flow modeling developed under the site characterizatio
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Water Resources Mission Area, Contaminant Biology, Environmental Health Program, Toxic Substances Hydrology, New Jersey Water Science Center, Pennsylvania Water Science Center

Causes of distal volcano-tectonic seismicity inferred from hydrothermal modeling

Distal volcano-tectonic (dVT) seismicity typically precedes eruption at long-dormant volcanoes by days to years. Precursory dVT seismicity may reflect magma-induced fluid-pressure pulses that intersect critically stressed faults. We explored this hypothesis using an open-source magmatic-hydrothermal code that simulates multiphase fluid and heat transport over the temperature range 0 to 1200 °C. We
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Water Resources Mission Area

Non-USGS Publications**

Montgomery-Brown, E. K., Shelly, D. R., & Hsieh, P. A., 2019, Snowmelt-triggered earthquake swarms at the margin of Long Valley Caldera, California, Geophysical Research Letters, 46. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL082254.
National Research Council. 2001. Conceptual Models of Flow and Transport in the Fractured Vadose Zone. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/10102.
Committee on Fracture Characterization and Fluid Flow, 1996, Rock Fractures and Fluid Flow, Contemporary Understanding and Applications: Washington D.C., National Academy Press, 551 p.
Poroelasticity simulation of ground-water flow and subsurface deformation; Simulation of deformation of sediments from decline of ground-water levels in an aquifer underlain by a bedrock step
Ritzi, R.W., Jr., Sorooshian, S., and Hsieh, P.A., 1991, The estimation of fluid flow properties from the response of water levels in wells to the combined atmospheric and earth tide forces: Water Resources Research, v. 27, no. 5, p. 883-893.
Barton, C.C., and Hsieh, P.A., 1989, Physical and hydrologic-flow properties of fractures, Field Trip Guidebook T385, 28th International Geologic Congress: American Geophysical Union, Washington, D. C., 36 p.
Hsieh, P.A., Bredehoeft, J.D., and Farr, J.M, 1987, Determination of aquifer transmissivity from earth tide analysis: Water Resources Research, v. 23, no. 10, p. 1824-1832.
Hsieh, P.A., Neuman, S.P., and Simpson, E.S., 1983, Pressure testing of fractured rocks--a methodology employing three-dimensional cross-hole tests: U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Topical Report NUREG/CR- 3213, 176 p.

**Disclaimer: The views expressed in Non-USGS publications are those of the author and do not represent the views of the USGS, Department of the Interior, or the U.S. Government.

Model Viewer for MODFLOW 6 Graphical User Interface 1.0.0 Software Release

Model Viewer, a graphical user interface for three-dimensional visualization of ground-water results, has been updated to support reading the results from the U.S. Geological Survey’s MODFLOW 6 program. Two examples are included. The example ex-gwf-csub-p04 illustrates the use of the new DIS6 grid format. The second example ex-gwf-disvmesh demonstrates the ability to load and display the
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Water Resources Mission Area

VS2DRTI - A Graphical Software Package for Simulating Water Flow, Heat Transport, and Reactive Solute Transport

VS2DRTI is a graphical software package for simulating water flow, heat transport, and reactive solute transport in variably saturated porous media.

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Water Resources Mission Area, Water Resources Mission Area

Model Viewer: A Program For Three-Dimensional Visualization of Ground-water Model Results

ModelViewer is a program for three-dimensional visualization of groundwater model results.

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Water Resources Mission Area

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