Stephanie R James
Stephanie James joined the USGS in 2017 as a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow with the Geology, Geophysics, and Geochemistry Science Center in Denver, Colorado, before transitioning to a staff Geophysicist in 2019. Her work involves advancing passive seismic techniques for novel applications related to geologic characterization, groundwater, and cold-region processes.
Professional Experience
2019-Present: Geophysicist, Geology, Geophysics, and Geochemistry Science Center, U.S. Geological Survey, Denver, CO
2017-2019: NSF Postdoctoral Fellow, Geology, Geophysics, and Geochemistry Science Center, U.S. Geological Survey, Denver, CO
2015-2016: Graduate Student Intern, Geophysics Department, Sandia National Laboratory, Albuquerque, NM
2012-2017: Research and Teaching Assistant: Department of Geological Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
Education and Certifications
Ph.D. Geology, University of Florida, 2017
B.S. Geology, Colorado State University, 2011
Affiliations and Memberships*
NASA Arctic Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE), affiliated project principal investigator
Bonanza Creek Long-term Ecological Research (LTER) and Alaska Peatland Experiment (APEX), principal investigator
US Permafrost Association (USPA), member
Permafrost Young Researchers Network (PYRN), member
American Geophysical Union (AGU), member
Science and Products
Expansion of the Geophysical Survey (GS) data standard and open-source tools
Advancement of GS standard and GSPy software for improved functionality and interoperability of geophysical datasets
Arctic Biogeochemical Response to Permafrost Thaw (ABRUPT)
Warming and thawing of permafrost soils in the Arctic is expected to become widespread over the coming decades. Permafrost thaw changes ecosystem structure and function, affects resource availability for wildlife and society, and decreases ground stability which affects human infrastructure. Since permafrost soils contain about half of the global soil carbon (C) pool, the magnitude of C losses...
Airborne electromagnetic, magnetic, and radiometric survey of the Mississippi Alluvial Plain, Mississippi Embayment, and Gulf Coastal Plain, September 2021 - January 2022
Airborne electromagnetic (AEM), magnetic, and radiometric data were acquired September 2021 to January 2022 along 27,204 line-kilometers (line-km) over the Mississippi Alluvial Plain (MAP), Mississippi Embayment, and Gulf Coastal Plain. Data were acquired by Xcalibur Multiphysics (Canada), Ltd. with three different airborne sensors: the 30Hz TEMPEST time-domain AEM instrument that is used to map s
Depth to frozen soil measurements at APEX, 2008-2023
Depth to frozen soil measurements taken by a variety of collaborators at the Alaskan Peatland EXeriment (APEX) bog/permafrost plateau site. Data is from 2018 - 2023.
Alaska permafrost characterization: Geophysical and related field data collected in 2021
Geophysical measurements were collected by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) at five sites in Interior Alaska in September 2021 for the purposes of imaging permafrost structure and quantifying variations in subsurface moisture content in relation to thaw features. Electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) measurements were made along transects 110-222 meters (m) in length to quantify subsurface perm
Airborne electromagnetic and magnetic survey data, northeast Wisconsin (ver. 1.1, June 2022)
Airborne electromagnetic (AEM) and magnetic survey data were collected during January and February 2021 over a distance of 3,170 line kilometers in northeast Wisconsin. These data were collected in support of an effort to improve estimates of depth to bedrock through a collaborative project between the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protecti
Permafrost characterization at the Alaska Peatland Experiment (APEX) site: Geophysical and related field data collected from 2018-2020
Geophysical measurements and related field data were collected by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) at the Alaska Peatland Experiment (APEX) site in Interior Alaska from 2018 to 2020 to characterize subsurface thermal and hydrologic conditions along a permafrost thaw gradient. The APEX site is managed by the Bonanza Creek LTER (Long Term Ecological Research). In April 2018, seven boreholes were em
Combined results and derivative products of hydrogeologic structure and properties from airborne electromagnetic surveys in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain (ver. 2.0, July 2024)
Electrical resistivity results from two regional airborne electromagnetic (AEM) surveys (Minsley et al. 2021 and Burton et al. 2021) over the Mississippi Alluvial Plain (MAP) were combined by the U.S. Geological Survey to produce three-dimensional (3D) gridded models and derivative hydrogeologic products. Grids were discretized in the horizontal dimension to align with the 1 kilometer (km) x 1 km
Airborne electromagnetic, magnetic, and radiometric survey of the Mississippi Alluvial Plain, November 2019 - March 2020
Airborne electromagnetic (AEM), magnetic, and radiometric data were acquired November 2019 to March 2020 along 24,030 line-kilometers (line-km) over the Mississippi Alluvial Plain (MAP). Data were acquired by CGG Canada Services, Ltd. with three different airborne sensors: the CGG Canada Services, Ltd. TEMPEST time-domain AEM instrument that is used to map subsurface geologic structure at depths u
Alaska permafrost characterization: Geophysical and related field data collected from 2019-2020
Geophysical measurements were collected by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) at two sites in Interior Alaska in 2019 and 2020 for the purposes of imaging permafrost structure and quantifying variations in subsurface moisture content in relation to thaw features. In September 2019, electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) and downhole nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) data were used to quantify perma
Geophysical and related field data from the West Fork of Dall Creek, AK 2017-2019
The West Fork of Dall Creek is located ~100km southwest of Coldfoot, AK along the Dalton Highway, south of the Brooks Range. The West Fork of Dall Creek is composed of unburned black spruce forest with a burn scar from the 2004 Dall City Fire. Multi-season, multi-method geophysical data were collected both within the burned and unburned areas. Geophysical techniques used include Nuculear Magnetic
Alaska permafrost characterization: Geophysical and related field data collected from 2016-2017
Electrical resistivity tomography (ERT), downhole nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), and manual permafrost-probe measurements were used to quantify permafrost characteristics along transects within several catchments in interior Alaska in late summer 2016 and 2017. Geophysical sites were chosen to coincide with additional soil, hydrologic, and geochemical measurements adjacent to various low-order
Upland Yedoma taliks are an unpredicted source of atmospheric methane
Landscape drying associated with permafrost thaw is expected to enhance microbial methane oxidation in arctic soils. Here we show that ice-rich, Yedoma permafrost deposits, comprising a disproportionately large fraction of pan-arctic soil carbon, present an alternate trajectory. Field and laboratory observations indicate that talik (perennially thawed soils in permafrost) development in unsaturate
Authors
Katey M. Walter Anthony, Nicholas Hasson, Colin W. Edgar, Orit Sivan, Effrat Eliani-Russak, Oded Bergman, Burke J. Minsley, Stephanie R. James, Neal J. Pastick, Alexander Kholodov, Sergey Zimov, Eugenie Euskirchen, Marion S. Bret-Harte, Guido Grosse, Moritz Langer, Jan Nitzbon
Rapid and gradual permafrost thaw: A tale of two sites
Warming temperatures and increasing disturbance by wildfire and extreme weather events is driving permafrost change across northern latitudes. The state of permafrost varies widely in space and time, depending on landscape, climate, hydrologic, and ecological factors. Despite its importance, few approaches commonly measure and monitor the changes in deep (>1 m) permafrost conditions with high spat
Authors
Burke J. Minsley, Neal Pastick, Stephanie R. James, Dana R.N. Brown, Bruce K. Wylie, Mason A. Kass, Vladimir E. Romanovsky
GSPy: A new toolbox and data standard for Geophysical Datasets
The diversity of geophysical methods and datatypes, as well as the isolated nature of various specialties (e.g., electromagnetic, seismic, potential fields) leads to a profusion of separate data file formats and documentation conventions. This can hinder cooperation and reduce the impact of datasets researchers have invested in heavily to collect and prepare. An open, portable, and well-supported
Authors
Stephanie R. James, Nathan Leon Foks, Burke J. Minsley
Watching the Cryosphere thaw: Seismic monitoring of permafrost degradation using distributed acoustic sensing during a controlled heating experiment
Permafrost degradation is rapidly increasing in response to a warming Arctic climate, altering landscapes and damaging critical infrastructure. Solutions for monitoring permafrost thaw dynamics are essential to understand biogeochemical feedbacks as well as to issue warnings for hazardous geotechnical conditions. We investigate the feasibility of permafrost monitoring using permanently installed f
Authors
Feng Cheng, Nathaniel J. Lindsey, Valeriia Sobolevskaia, Shan Dou, Barry Freifeld, Todd Wood, Stephanie R. James, Anna M. Wagner, Jonathan B. Ajo-Franklin
Capturing the changing cryosphere with seismic horizontal-vertical spectral ratios
Changes in Earth’s cryosphere can have direct impacts on ecosystems, wildlife, and human communities that may extend to other reaches of the planet, such as through sea-level rise or altering the global carbon budget. Advances in passive seismic technology and processing methods have opened new opportunities to better understand how ice and permafrost soils are responding to changing conditions. H
Authors
Nathan T. Stevens, Stephanie R. James
Characterizing methane emission hotspots from thawing permafrost
Methane (CH4) emissions from climate-sensitive ecosystems within the northern permafrost region represent a potentially large but highly uncertain source, with current estimates spanning a factor of seven (11–75 Tg CH4 yr−1). Accelerating permafrost thaw threatens significant increases in pan-Arctic CH4 emissions, amplifying the permafrost carbon feedback. We used airborne imaging spectroscopy wit
Authors
Clayton D. Elder, David R. Thompson, Andrew K Thorpe, Hrishikesh Chandanpurkar, Philip J Hanke, Nicholas Hasson, Stephanie R. James, Burke J. Minsley, Neal J. Pastick, David Olefeldt, Katey M Walter Anthony, Charles E. Miller
Foreword to this special issue on climate change and the critical zone geophysics
Welcome to this special issue on the use of geophysics in climate change and critical zone (CZ) research. The importance of these research areas cannot be overstated, and yet when we were selecting contributions for this special issue, we wrestled with the fundamental question: are climate change and the critical zone two separate research areas, or one? In other words, would there be a clear di
Authors
Dan R. Glaser, Stephanie R. James
Airborne geophysical surveys of the lower Mississippi Valley demonstrate system-scale mapping of subsurface architecture
The Mississippi Alluvial Plain hosts one of the most prolific shallow aquifer systems in the United States but is experiencing chronic groundwater decline. The Reelfoot rift and New Madrid seismic zone underlie the region and represent an important and poorly understood seismic hazard. Despite its societal and economic importance, the shallow subsurface architecture has not been mapped with the sp
Authors
Burke J. Minsley, James R. Rigby, Stephanie R. James, Bethany L. Burton, Katherine J. Knierim, Michael Pace, Paul A. Bedrosian, Wade Kress
The biophysical role of water and ice within permafrost nearing collapse: Insights from novel geophysical observations
The impact of permafrost thaw on hydrologic, thermal, and biotic processes remains uncertain, in part due to limitations in subsurface measurement capabilities. To better understand subsurface processes in thermokarst environments, we collocated geophysical and biogeochemical instruments along a thaw gradient between forested permafrost and collapse-scar bogs at the Alaska Peatland Experiment (APE
Authors
Stephanie R. James, Burke J. Minsley, Jack McFarland, Eugenie S. Euskirchen, Colin W. Edgar, Mark Waldrop
Decadal-scale hotspot methane ebullition within lakes following abrupt permafrost thaw
Thermokarst lakes accelerate deep permafrost thaw and the mobilization of previously frozen soil organic carbon. This leads to microbial decomposition and large releases of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) that enhance climate warming. However, the time scale of permafrost-carbon emissions following thaw is not well known but is important for understanding how abrupt permafrost thaw impacts
Authors
K.W. Anthony, P. Lindgren, P. Hanke, M. Engram, P. Anthony, R. Daanen, A. Bondurant, A.K. Liljedahl, J. Lenz, G. Grosse, B.M. Jones, L. S. Brosius, Stephanie R. James, Burke J. Minsley, Neal Pastick, J. Munk, J. P. Chanton, C.E. Miller, F.J. Meyer
USGS permafrost research determines the risks of permafrost thaw to biologic and hydrologic resources
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in collaboration with university, Federal, Tribal, and independent partners, conducts fundamental research on the distribution, vulnerability, and importance of permafrost in arctic and boreal ecosystems. Scientists, land managers, and policy makers use USGS data to help make decisions for development, wildlife habitat, and other needs. Native villages and cities
Authors
Mark P. Waldrop, Lesleigh Anderson, Mark Dornblaser, Li H. Erikson, Ann E. Gibbs, Nicole M. Herman-Mercer, Stephanie R. James, Miriam C. Jones, Joshua C. Koch, Mary-Cathrine Leewis, Kristen L. Manies, Burke J. Minsley, Neal J. Pastick, Vijay Patil, Frank Urban, Michelle A. Walvoord, Kimberly P. Wickland, Christian Zimmerman
By
Natural Hazards Mission Area, Water Resources Mission Area, Ecosystems Land Change Science Program, Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Land Change Science Program, Volcano Hazards Program, Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center , Geology, Geophysics, and Geochemistry Science Center, Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center, Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center, Volcano Science Center
Non-USGS Publications**
James, S. R., Knox, H. A., Abbott, R. E., Panning, M. P., & Screaton, E. J. (2019). Insights into permafrost and seasonal active‐layer dynamics from ambient seismic noise monitoring. Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, 124. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JF005051
James, S. R., Knox, H. A., Abbott, R. E., & Screaton, E. J. (2017). Improved moving window cross‐spectral analysis for resolving large temporal seismic velocity changes in permafrost, Geophysical Research Letters, 44(9), 4018–4026, https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GL072468
James, S. R., Screaton, E. J., Russo, R. M., Panning, M. P., Bremner, P. M., Stanciu, A. C., Torpey, M. E., Hongsresawat, S., & Farrell, M. E. (2017). Hydrostratigraphy characterization of the Floridan aquifer system using ambient seismic noise. Geophysical Journal International, 209(2), 876–889, https://doi.org/10.1093/gji/ggx064
Lindsey, N. J., Martin, E. R., Dreger, D. S., Freifeld, B., Cole, S., James, S. R., ... & Ajo‐Franklin, J. B. (2017). Fiber‐optic network observations of earthquake wavefields. Geophysical Research Letters, 44(23), 11-792. https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL075722
James, S. R., Knox, H. A., Preston, L., Knox, J. M., Grubelich, M. C., King, D. K., Ajo-Franklin, J. B., Johnson, T. C., & Morris, J. P. (2017). Fracture detection and imaging through relative seismic velocity changes using distributed acoustic sensing and ambient seismic noise. The Leading Edge, 36(12), 1009-1017. https://doi.org/10.1190/tle36121009.1
Knox, H. A., James, S. R., Ajo-Franklin, J. B., Johnson, T. C., Morris, J. P., Grubelich, M. C., & King, D. K. (2017). Imaging fractures through relative velocity change using ambient seismic noise and distributed acoustic sensing (DAS): a Sub-TER pilot study at blue canyon dome Socorro, NM. No. SAND2017-8383C. Sandia National Lab (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM.
Screaton, E. J., Villaseñor, T., James, S. R., Meridth, L. N., Jaeger, J. M., & Kenney, W. F. (2017). Data report: permeability, grain size, biogenic silica, and clay minerals of Expedition 341 sediments from Sites U1417 and U1418. In Jaeger, J.M., Gulick, S.P.S., LeVay, L.J., & the Expedition 341 Scientists, Proceedings of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program, 341, https://doi.org/10.2204/iodp.proc.341.202.2017
Meridth, L. N., Screaton, E. J., Jaeger, J. M., James, S. R., & Villaseñor, T. (2017). The impact of rapid sediment accumulation on pore pressure development and dehydration reactions during shallow subduction in the Gulf of Alaska. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 18(1), 189-203. https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GC006693
Knox, H. A., Abbott, R. E., James, S. R., Lee, R., & Cole, C. B. (2015). Permafrost Active Layer Seismic Interferometry Experiment (PALSIE) and Satellite Observations (No. SAND2015-9097C). Sandia National Lab.(SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States).
James, S. R., & Screaton, E. J. (2015). Data report: permeability of Expedition 344 sediments from the Costa Rica Seismogenesis Project. In Harris, R.N., Sakaguchi, A., Petronotis, K., & the Expedition 344 Scientists, Proceedings of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program, 344, https://doi.org/10.2204/iodp.proc.344.202.2015
Screaton, E. J., Gamage, K., & James, S. R., (2014). Data report: permeability of Expedition 320 and 321 sediments from the Pacific Equatorial Age Transect. In Pälike, H., Lyle, M., Nishi, H., Raffi, I., Gamage, K., Klaus, A., & the Expedition 320/321 Scientists, Proceedings of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program, 320/321, https://doi.org/10.2204/iodp.proc.320321.217.2014
**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.
GSpy: Geophysical Data Standard in Python
This package provides functions and workflows for standardizing geophysical datasets based on the NetCDF file format. The current implementation supports both time and frequency domain electromagnetic data, raw and processed, 1-D inverted models along flight lines, and 2-D/3-D gridded layers.
Science and Products
Expansion of the Geophysical Survey (GS) data standard and open-source tools
Advancement of GS standard and GSPy software for improved functionality and interoperability of geophysical datasets
Arctic Biogeochemical Response to Permafrost Thaw (ABRUPT)
Warming and thawing of permafrost soils in the Arctic is expected to become widespread over the coming decades. Permafrost thaw changes ecosystem structure and function, affects resource availability for wildlife and society, and decreases ground stability which affects human infrastructure. Since permafrost soils contain about half of the global soil carbon (C) pool, the magnitude of C losses...
Airborne electromagnetic, magnetic, and radiometric survey of the Mississippi Alluvial Plain, Mississippi Embayment, and Gulf Coastal Plain, September 2021 - January 2022
Airborne electromagnetic (AEM), magnetic, and radiometric data were acquired September 2021 to January 2022 along 27,204 line-kilometers (line-km) over the Mississippi Alluvial Plain (MAP), Mississippi Embayment, and Gulf Coastal Plain. Data were acquired by Xcalibur Multiphysics (Canada), Ltd. with three different airborne sensors: the 30Hz TEMPEST time-domain AEM instrument that is used to map s
Depth to frozen soil measurements at APEX, 2008-2023
Depth to frozen soil measurements taken by a variety of collaborators at the Alaskan Peatland EXeriment (APEX) bog/permafrost plateau site. Data is from 2018 - 2023.
Alaska permafrost characterization: Geophysical and related field data collected in 2021
Geophysical measurements were collected by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) at five sites in Interior Alaska in September 2021 for the purposes of imaging permafrost structure and quantifying variations in subsurface moisture content in relation to thaw features. Electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) measurements were made along transects 110-222 meters (m) in length to quantify subsurface perm
Airborne electromagnetic and magnetic survey data, northeast Wisconsin (ver. 1.1, June 2022)
Airborne electromagnetic (AEM) and magnetic survey data were collected during January and February 2021 over a distance of 3,170 line kilometers in northeast Wisconsin. These data were collected in support of an effort to improve estimates of depth to bedrock through a collaborative project between the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protecti
Permafrost characterization at the Alaska Peatland Experiment (APEX) site: Geophysical and related field data collected from 2018-2020
Geophysical measurements and related field data were collected by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) at the Alaska Peatland Experiment (APEX) site in Interior Alaska from 2018 to 2020 to characterize subsurface thermal and hydrologic conditions along a permafrost thaw gradient. The APEX site is managed by the Bonanza Creek LTER (Long Term Ecological Research). In April 2018, seven boreholes were em
Combined results and derivative products of hydrogeologic structure and properties from airborne electromagnetic surveys in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain (ver. 2.0, July 2024)
Electrical resistivity results from two regional airborne electromagnetic (AEM) surveys (Minsley et al. 2021 and Burton et al. 2021) over the Mississippi Alluvial Plain (MAP) were combined by the U.S. Geological Survey to produce three-dimensional (3D) gridded models and derivative hydrogeologic products. Grids were discretized in the horizontal dimension to align with the 1 kilometer (km) x 1 km
Airborne electromagnetic, magnetic, and radiometric survey of the Mississippi Alluvial Plain, November 2019 - March 2020
Airborne electromagnetic (AEM), magnetic, and radiometric data were acquired November 2019 to March 2020 along 24,030 line-kilometers (line-km) over the Mississippi Alluvial Plain (MAP). Data were acquired by CGG Canada Services, Ltd. with three different airborne sensors: the CGG Canada Services, Ltd. TEMPEST time-domain AEM instrument that is used to map subsurface geologic structure at depths u
Alaska permafrost characterization: Geophysical and related field data collected from 2019-2020
Geophysical measurements were collected by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) at two sites in Interior Alaska in 2019 and 2020 for the purposes of imaging permafrost structure and quantifying variations in subsurface moisture content in relation to thaw features. In September 2019, electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) and downhole nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) data were used to quantify perma
Geophysical and related field data from the West Fork of Dall Creek, AK 2017-2019
The West Fork of Dall Creek is located ~100km southwest of Coldfoot, AK along the Dalton Highway, south of the Brooks Range. The West Fork of Dall Creek is composed of unburned black spruce forest with a burn scar from the 2004 Dall City Fire. Multi-season, multi-method geophysical data were collected both within the burned and unburned areas. Geophysical techniques used include Nuculear Magnetic
Alaska permafrost characterization: Geophysical and related field data collected from 2016-2017
Electrical resistivity tomography (ERT), downhole nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), and manual permafrost-probe measurements were used to quantify permafrost characteristics along transects within several catchments in interior Alaska in late summer 2016 and 2017. Geophysical sites were chosen to coincide with additional soil, hydrologic, and geochemical measurements adjacent to various low-order
Upland Yedoma taliks are an unpredicted source of atmospheric methane
Landscape drying associated with permafrost thaw is expected to enhance microbial methane oxidation in arctic soils. Here we show that ice-rich, Yedoma permafrost deposits, comprising a disproportionately large fraction of pan-arctic soil carbon, present an alternate trajectory. Field and laboratory observations indicate that talik (perennially thawed soils in permafrost) development in unsaturate
Authors
Katey M. Walter Anthony, Nicholas Hasson, Colin W. Edgar, Orit Sivan, Effrat Eliani-Russak, Oded Bergman, Burke J. Minsley, Stephanie R. James, Neal J. Pastick, Alexander Kholodov, Sergey Zimov, Eugenie Euskirchen, Marion S. Bret-Harte, Guido Grosse, Moritz Langer, Jan Nitzbon
Rapid and gradual permafrost thaw: A tale of two sites
Warming temperatures and increasing disturbance by wildfire and extreme weather events is driving permafrost change across northern latitudes. The state of permafrost varies widely in space and time, depending on landscape, climate, hydrologic, and ecological factors. Despite its importance, few approaches commonly measure and monitor the changes in deep (>1 m) permafrost conditions with high spat
Authors
Burke J. Minsley, Neal Pastick, Stephanie R. James, Dana R.N. Brown, Bruce K. Wylie, Mason A. Kass, Vladimir E. Romanovsky
GSPy: A new toolbox and data standard for Geophysical Datasets
The diversity of geophysical methods and datatypes, as well as the isolated nature of various specialties (e.g., electromagnetic, seismic, potential fields) leads to a profusion of separate data file formats and documentation conventions. This can hinder cooperation and reduce the impact of datasets researchers have invested in heavily to collect and prepare. An open, portable, and well-supported
Authors
Stephanie R. James, Nathan Leon Foks, Burke J. Minsley
Watching the Cryosphere thaw: Seismic monitoring of permafrost degradation using distributed acoustic sensing during a controlled heating experiment
Permafrost degradation is rapidly increasing in response to a warming Arctic climate, altering landscapes and damaging critical infrastructure. Solutions for monitoring permafrost thaw dynamics are essential to understand biogeochemical feedbacks as well as to issue warnings for hazardous geotechnical conditions. We investigate the feasibility of permafrost monitoring using permanently installed f
Authors
Feng Cheng, Nathaniel J. Lindsey, Valeriia Sobolevskaia, Shan Dou, Barry Freifeld, Todd Wood, Stephanie R. James, Anna M. Wagner, Jonathan B. Ajo-Franklin
Capturing the changing cryosphere with seismic horizontal-vertical spectral ratios
Changes in Earth’s cryosphere can have direct impacts on ecosystems, wildlife, and human communities that may extend to other reaches of the planet, such as through sea-level rise or altering the global carbon budget. Advances in passive seismic technology and processing methods have opened new opportunities to better understand how ice and permafrost soils are responding to changing conditions. H
Authors
Nathan T. Stevens, Stephanie R. James
Characterizing methane emission hotspots from thawing permafrost
Methane (CH4) emissions from climate-sensitive ecosystems within the northern permafrost region represent a potentially large but highly uncertain source, with current estimates spanning a factor of seven (11–75 Tg CH4 yr−1). Accelerating permafrost thaw threatens significant increases in pan-Arctic CH4 emissions, amplifying the permafrost carbon feedback. We used airborne imaging spectroscopy wit
Authors
Clayton D. Elder, David R. Thompson, Andrew K Thorpe, Hrishikesh Chandanpurkar, Philip J Hanke, Nicholas Hasson, Stephanie R. James, Burke J. Minsley, Neal J. Pastick, David Olefeldt, Katey M Walter Anthony, Charles E. Miller
Foreword to this special issue on climate change and the critical zone geophysics
Welcome to this special issue on the use of geophysics in climate change and critical zone (CZ) research. The importance of these research areas cannot be overstated, and yet when we were selecting contributions for this special issue, we wrestled with the fundamental question: are climate change and the critical zone two separate research areas, or one? In other words, would there be a clear di
Authors
Dan R. Glaser, Stephanie R. James
Airborne geophysical surveys of the lower Mississippi Valley demonstrate system-scale mapping of subsurface architecture
The Mississippi Alluvial Plain hosts one of the most prolific shallow aquifer systems in the United States but is experiencing chronic groundwater decline. The Reelfoot rift and New Madrid seismic zone underlie the region and represent an important and poorly understood seismic hazard. Despite its societal and economic importance, the shallow subsurface architecture has not been mapped with the sp
Authors
Burke J. Minsley, James R. Rigby, Stephanie R. James, Bethany L. Burton, Katherine J. Knierim, Michael Pace, Paul A. Bedrosian, Wade Kress
The biophysical role of water and ice within permafrost nearing collapse: Insights from novel geophysical observations
The impact of permafrost thaw on hydrologic, thermal, and biotic processes remains uncertain, in part due to limitations in subsurface measurement capabilities. To better understand subsurface processes in thermokarst environments, we collocated geophysical and biogeochemical instruments along a thaw gradient between forested permafrost and collapse-scar bogs at the Alaska Peatland Experiment (APE
Authors
Stephanie R. James, Burke J. Minsley, Jack McFarland, Eugenie S. Euskirchen, Colin W. Edgar, Mark Waldrop
Decadal-scale hotspot methane ebullition within lakes following abrupt permafrost thaw
Thermokarst lakes accelerate deep permafrost thaw and the mobilization of previously frozen soil organic carbon. This leads to microbial decomposition and large releases of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) that enhance climate warming. However, the time scale of permafrost-carbon emissions following thaw is not well known but is important for understanding how abrupt permafrost thaw impacts
Authors
K.W. Anthony, P. Lindgren, P. Hanke, M. Engram, P. Anthony, R. Daanen, A. Bondurant, A.K. Liljedahl, J. Lenz, G. Grosse, B.M. Jones, L. S. Brosius, Stephanie R. James, Burke J. Minsley, Neal Pastick, J. Munk, J. P. Chanton, C.E. Miller, F.J. Meyer
USGS permafrost research determines the risks of permafrost thaw to biologic and hydrologic resources
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in collaboration with university, Federal, Tribal, and independent partners, conducts fundamental research on the distribution, vulnerability, and importance of permafrost in arctic and boreal ecosystems. Scientists, land managers, and policy makers use USGS data to help make decisions for development, wildlife habitat, and other needs. Native villages and cities
Authors
Mark P. Waldrop, Lesleigh Anderson, Mark Dornblaser, Li H. Erikson, Ann E. Gibbs, Nicole M. Herman-Mercer, Stephanie R. James, Miriam C. Jones, Joshua C. Koch, Mary-Cathrine Leewis, Kristen L. Manies, Burke J. Minsley, Neal J. Pastick, Vijay Patil, Frank Urban, Michelle A. Walvoord, Kimberly P. Wickland, Christian Zimmerman
By
Natural Hazards Mission Area, Water Resources Mission Area, Ecosystems Land Change Science Program, Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Land Change Science Program, Volcano Hazards Program, Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center , Geology, Geophysics, and Geochemistry Science Center, Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center, Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center, Volcano Science Center
Non-USGS Publications**
James, S. R., Knox, H. A., Abbott, R. E., Panning, M. P., & Screaton, E. J. (2019). Insights into permafrost and seasonal active‐layer dynamics from ambient seismic noise monitoring. Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, 124. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JF005051
James, S. R., Knox, H. A., Abbott, R. E., & Screaton, E. J. (2017). Improved moving window cross‐spectral analysis for resolving large temporal seismic velocity changes in permafrost, Geophysical Research Letters, 44(9), 4018–4026, https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GL072468
James, S. R., Screaton, E. J., Russo, R. M., Panning, M. P., Bremner, P. M., Stanciu, A. C., Torpey, M. E., Hongsresawat, S., & Farrell, M. E. (2017). Hydrostratigraphy characterization of the Floridan aquifer system using ambient seismic noise. Geophysical Journal International, 209(2), 876–889, https://doi.org/10.1093/gji/ggx064
Lindsey, N. J., Martin, E. R., Dreger, D. S., Freifeld, B., Cole, S., James, S. R., ... & Ajo‐Franklin, J. B. (2017). Fiber‐optic network observations of earthquake wavefields. Geophysical Research Letters, 44(23), 11-792. https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL075722
James, S. R., Knox, H. A., Preston, L., Knox, J. M., Grubelich, M. C., King, D. K., Ajo-Franklin, J. B., Johnson, T. C., & Morris, J. P. (2017). Fracture detection and imaging through relative seismic velocity changes using distributed acoustic sensing and ambient seismic noise. The Leading Edge, 36(12), 1009-1017. https://doi.org/10.1190/tle36121009.1
Knox, H. A., James, S. R., Ajo-Franklin, J. B., Johnson, T. C., Morris, J. P., Grubelich, M. C., & King, D. K. (2017). Imaging fractures through relative velocity change using ambient seismic noise and distributed acoustic sensing (DAS): a Sub-TER pilot study at blue canyon dome Socorro, NM. No. SAND2017-8383C. Sandia National Lab (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM.
Screaton, E. J., Villaseñor, T., James, S. R., Meridth, L. N., Jaeger, J. M., & Kenney, W. F. (2017). Data report: permeability, grain size, biogenic silica, and clay minerals of Expedition 341 sediments from Sites U1417 and U1418. In Jaeger, J.M., Gulick, S.P.S., LeVay, L.J., & the Expedition 341 Scientists, Proceedings of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program, 341, https://doi.org/10.2204/iodp.proc.341.202.2017
Meridth, L. N., Screaton, E. J., Jaeger, J. M., James, S. R., & Villaseñor, T. (2017). The impact of rapid sediment accumulation on pore pressure development and dehydration reactions during shallow subduction in the Gulf of Alaska. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 18(1), 189-203. https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GC006693
Knox, H. A., Abbott, R. E., James, S. R., Lee, R., & Cole, C. B. (2015). Permafrost Active Layer Seismic Interferometry Experiment (PALSIE) and Satellite Observations (No. SAND2015-9097C). Sandia National Lab.(SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States).
James, S. R., & Screaton, E. J. (2015). Data report: permeability of Expedition 344 sediments from the Costa Rica Seismogenesis Project. In Harris, R.N., Sakaguchi, A., Petronotis, K., & the Expedition 344 Scientists, Proceedings of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program, 344, https://doi.org/10.2204/iodp.proc.344.202.2015
Screaton, E. J., Gamage, K., & James, S. R., (2014). Data report: permeability of Expedition 320 and 321 sediments from the Pacific Equatorial Age Transect. In Pälike, H., Lyle, M., Nishi, H., Raffi, I., Gamage, K., Klaus, A., & the Expedition 320/321 Scientists, Proceedings of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program, 320/321, https://doi.org/10.2204/iodp.proc.320321.217.2014
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GSpy: Geophysical Data Standard in Python
This package provides functions and workflows for standardizing geophysical datasets based on the NetCDF file format. The current implementation supports both time and frequency domain electromagnetic data, raw and processed, 1-D inverted models along flight lines, and 2-D/3-D gridded layers.
*Disclaimer: Listing outside positions with professional scientific organizations on this Staff Profile are for informational purposes only and do not constitute an endorsement of those professional scientific organizations or their activities by the USGS, Department of the Interior, or U.S. Government