Unified Interior Regions
Arizona
The Southwest Region includes California, Nevada, and Arizona. The Regional Office, headquartered in Sacramento, provides Center oversight and support, facilitates internal and external collaborations, and works to further USGS strategic science directions.
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Regional Planetary Image Facility (RPIF)
The NASA/USGS Astrogeology Regional Planetary Information Facility (RPIF), located in the Shoemaker Building (Building 6) on the USGS Campus in Flagstaff, Arizona, is a facility of the USGS Astrogeology Science Center. The Astro RPIF houses in 3000 square feet of climate-controlled space more than 100,000 lunar and planetary maps, a reference library, an ever-growing photo and...
USGS Response to Possible Metals Contamination from Legacy Mines in the Patagonia Mountains Region and Adjacent Areas, Southeast Arizona and a Template for Future Mineral Environmental Emergency Response
USGS is conducting sampling, monitoring, and modeling in the Patagonia Mountains and nearby regions in Arizona to identify contaminant risk potential of legacy and proposed mine sites and to develop classification criteria for predicting vulnerabilities and targeted sources and sinks of metal contaminants.
Global Hyperspectral Imaging Spectroscopy of Agricultural-Crops & Vegetation (GHISA)
This webpage showcases the key research advances made in hyperspectral remote sensing of agricultural crops and vegetation over the last 50 years. There are three focus areas:
BOR environmental DNA sampling for invasive mussels at USGS gages
As part of an ongoing project funded by the Bureau of Reclamation and lead by the Idaho Water Sciences Center (IDWSC) and Northern Rocky Mountain Research Center (NOROCK), the Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center (UMESC) will analyze environmental DNA samples collected at gage stations directly downstream of multiple reservoirs throughout the Columbia River Basin. The goal of this...
AzWSC Capabilities: Arizona Water Use
Since 1950, the AzWSC has estimated water use by county at 5-year intervals, publishing the results in a series of reports since 1981. Water demand is met by pumping groundwater from aquifers or by conveying surface water to users through a system of reservoirs and canals. Because of the importance of water to Arizona’s communities and future economic development, the AzWSC works cooperatively...
Assessment of Infiltration and Recharge due to Wetland Restoration in a Semiarid Ecosystem- Laura M. Norman
This intern will work with an exciting team of scientists to develop novel approaches to assess wetland restoration. Methods include documenting baseline conditions and monitoring site evolution, hydrologic modeling, using shallow piezometers to estimate recharge and storage change, tracking streambed water exchanges using heat as a tracer, and estimating percolation using electrical...
Land Treatment Exploration Tool
The Land Treatment ExplorationTool provides a practical resource for managers who are planning restoration and rehabilitation actions on public lands. The tool generates a variety of spatial products while being user friendly for all levels of GIS expertise, even to those with little or no experience.
Bird Banding Laboratory
The Bird Banding Laboratory (BBL) is an integrated scientific program established in 1920 supporting the collection, archiving, management and dissemination of information from banded and marked birds in North America. This information is used to monitor the status and trends of resident and migratory bird populations. Because birds are good indicators of the health of the environment, the...
AzWSC Capabilities: Reservoir and Lake Monitoring and Assessment
The Arizona Water Science Center (AzWSC) has specialized expertise in monitoring, measuring, and collecting reservoir and lake water and sediment for a variety of phycial and chemical properties.
Ciénega San Bernardino - Wetland Restoration
Desert marshes, or ciénega, are extremely biodiverse habitats imperiled by anthropogenic demands for water and changing climates. Given their widespread loss and increased recognition as important wildlife habitat, remarkably little is known about restoration techniques.
Patagonia - Gully Restoration
The Deep Dirt Farm Institute (DDFI), founded and directed by Kate Tirion, comprises 34 acres with deep agricultural soils, bisected by an ephemeral stream/wildlife corridor. The farm lies within a folded topography of hills, small sheltered valleys & broad meadow. A deep gully has diverted flows and needs repair.
Nogales, Sonora - Flood Control
Flooding in Ambos Nogales often exceeds the capacity of the channel and adjacent land areas, endangering people and property. Goals of RDS are to diminish impacts of flooding and sedimentation on wastewater infrastructure thereby reducing the incidence of sanitary sewer overflows. We are studying the Nogales Wash to prevent future flood disasters and RDS are being installed in tributaries. We...
Relation of sediment load and flood-plain formation to climatic variability, Paria River drainage basin, Utah and Arizona
Flood-plain alluviation began about 1940 at a time of decreasing magnitude and frequency of floods in winter, summer, and fall. No floods with stages high enough to inundate the flood plain have occurred since 1980, and thus no flood-plain alluviation has occurred since then. The decrease in magnitude and frequency of floods appears to have...
Graf, J.B.; Webb, R.H.; Hereford, R.
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.
Aggradation and degradation of alluvial sand deposits, 1965 to 1986, Colorado River, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona
Alluvial sand deposits along the Colorado River in Grand Canyon National Park are used as campsites and are substrate for vegetation. The largest and most numerous of these deposits are formed in zones of recirculating current that are created downstream from where the channel is constricted by debris fans at tributary mouths. Alluvial sand...
Schmidt, John C.; Graf, Julia B.
Estimates of consumptive use and ground-water return flow and the effect of rising and sustained high river stage on the method of estimation in Cibola Valley, Arizona and California, 1983 and 1984
In Cibola Valley, Arizona, water is pumped from the Colorado River to irrigate crops and to maintain wildlife habitat. Unused water percolates to the water table and, as groundwater, moves downgradient into areas of phreatophytes, into a drainage ditch, out of the flood plain, and back to the river. In 1983 and 1984, groundwater return flow was...
Owen-Joyce, Sandra J.
Estimates of ground-water flow components for Lyman Lake, Apache County, Arizona
Bills, D.J.; Hjalmarson, H.W.; Robertson, F.N.
Evapotranspiration estimates using remote-sensing data, Parker and Palo Verde valleys, Arizona and California
In 1981 the U.S. Geological Survey established an experimental project to assess the possible and practical use of remote-sensing data to estimate evapotranspiration as an approximation of consumptive use of water in the lower Colorado River flood plain. The project area was in Parker Valley, Arizona. The approach selected was to measure the areas...
Raymond, Lee H.; Rezin, Kelly V.
Progress report on the ground-water, surface-water, and quality-of-water monitoring program, Black Mesa Area, northeastern Arizona; 1988-89
The Black Mesa monitoring program in Arizona is designed to determine long-term effects on the water resources of the area resulting from withdrawals of groundwater from the N aquifer by the strip-mining operation of Peabody Coal Company. Withdrawals by Peabody Coal Company increased from 95 acre-ft in 1968 to 4 ,090 acre-ft in 1988. The N aquifer...
Hart, R.J.; Sottilare, J.P.
Water Resources Data for Arizona, Water Year 1987
Wilson, R.P.; Garrett, W.B.
Aggradation and degradation of alluvial sand deposits, 1965 to 1986, Colorado River, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona
High discharges occurring between 1983-1985 resulted in redistribution of sand stored in zones of recirculating current in the Colorado River in Grand Canyon National Park. Redistribution resulted in net loss in the number of reattachment deposits in narrow reaches and aggradation of some separation deposits. Separation deposits were more stable...
Schmidt, J.C.; Graf, J.B.
Aggradation and degradation of alluvial sand deposits, 1965 to 1986, Colorado River, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona; executive summary
High discharges that occurred in 1983-85 resulted in redistribution of sand stored in zones of recirculating current in the Colorado River in Grand Canyon National Park. Redistribution resulted in net loss in the number of reattachment deposits in narrow reaches and aggradation of some separation deposits. Separation deposits were more stable than...
Schmidt, J.C.; Graf, J.B.
Estimates of consumptive use and ground-water return flow using water budgets in Parker Valley, Arizona and California, 1981-84
Annual water budgets were used to estimate consumptive use by vegetation and groundwater return flow in Parker Valley, Arizona and California. Consumptive use by vegetation was estimated to be 482,800 acre-ft in 1981, 432,000 acre-ft in 1982, 413,500 acre-ft in 1983, and 420,900 acre-ft in 1984 on the Arizona side of the Colorado River, and 45,400...
Owen-Joyce, Sandra J.
Progress report on the ground-water, surface-water, and quality- of-water monitoring program, Black Mesa Area, northeastern Arizona; 1987-88
The Black Mesa, Arizona, monitoring program is designed to determine long-term effects on the water resources of the area resulting from withdrawals of groundwater from the N aquifer by the strip-mining operation of Peabody Coal Company. Withdrawals by Peabody Coal Company increased from 95 acre-ft in 1968 to 3 ,832 acre-ft in 1987. The N aquifer...
Hart, R.J.; Sottilare, J.P.
Particle Tracking
The Arizona Water Science Center discusses the use of a new method, called particle tracking, that will revolutionize the way USGS obtains stream flow data.
First Global Topographic Map of Mercury
An animation of the USGS topographic map of Mercury created using images from NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft.
USGS: More Than a Workplace
Employees of the Arizona Water Science Center describe their experiences working for the USGS revealing that it is far more than just a workplace.
Sonoran Desert Wildflowers and Invasive Species
Ecosystems are changing at a rapid pace. It can be difficult to determine if a landscape is in need of restoration. In this photo of the spring wildflower bloom in the Sonoran desert, an invasive annual grass, Bromus rubens (red brome), is pervasive. Land managers have to make decisions about when, where, and how to intervene in a system. Does this grass pose a threat to
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Saguaro National Park, East Unit, Southern Arizona - ca. 1935
This camera station is located on a hill within the newly established Saguaro National Monument near Tucson. The view is northeast toward Agua Caliente Hill and looks down a gentle incline that drains into Tanque Verde Creek. The saguaro stand pictured here is a particularly memorable one because of the many large individuals and absence of small ones. It is an example of
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Colorado River through the Grand Canyon
A view of the Grand Canyon, with the Great Unconformity visible. Credit: Alex Demas, USGS.
Aerial view of lower Colorado River
Aerial view showing the intense greenup of restoration plots in the lower Colorado River Delta following the 2014 Minute 319 pulse flow.
San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area
Photograph showing San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area, residential development southeast of Sierra Vista, Arizona, and the Huachuca Mountains from Hereford Road, Cochise County, Arizona.
Texas Flood Surveys
Hydrologists from Arizona aid the Texas Water Science Center in gathering measurements and other information after the catastrophic Blanco River flooding event that swept Austin, Texas.
Drone Survey
USGS revolutionizes data collection by surveying a river channel within the Redlands area using a drone.
Flood at Oak Creek South of Sedona
This video captures the bizarre occurrences that can happen during a flood. A USGS employee witnesses such an event while taking a measurement at Oak Creek from a cable way.
Learning Hydrology
The Field Hydrology Class from the University of Arizona learns how to take a discharge measurement with USGS Hydrologist.
Scientists are surveying a potential debris flow area within the Yarnell Hill burn zone, as part of a cooperative study by the U.S. Geological Survey, the Arizona Geological Survey, and the Arizona Department of Emergency Management.
The Santa Cruz River watershed, located on the Arizona-Sonora portion of the U.S.-Mexico border, depends for its perennial flow on an international treatment plant that treats wastewater on both sides of the border before discharging it into the river in Arizona.
USGS research geologist Kyle House has been recognized by the Geological Society of America for work that helps explain how and when the Grand Canyon and the lower Colorado River took their present form, a scientific problem that has vexed geologists for more than a century.
The streamflow of the Verde River—one of Arizona's largest streams with year-round flow—declined from 1910 to 2005 as the result of human stresses, primarily groundwater pumping, according to a new U.S. Geological Survey study. The study's findings suggest that streamflow reductions will continue and may increase in the future.
Lake Mead National Recreation Area's water quality is good, the sport fish populations are sufficient, and the lakes provide important habitat for an increasing number of birds.
MENLO PARK, Calif. —New insights into the differences between fire ecologies of the Chihuahuan and Mojave Deserts in the southwestern United States are coming through the use of terrestrial Light Detection and Ranging, or lidar, technology. Studies by the U.S. Geological Survey show that while fire is detrimental to some areas of the desert, it is beneficial to others.
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — Experts in volcano hazards and public safety have started a conversation about volcanoes in the southwestern United States, and how best to prepare for future activity. Prior to this meeting, emergency response planning for volcanic unrest in the region had received little attention by federal or state agencies.
Dr. Justin Hagerty, a research geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, was named one of President Obama's recipients of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor bestowed by the United States government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers.
TUCSON, Ariz. —On Wednesday, the U.S. Geological Survey finished installing six early-flood-warning units—rain and stream gages—in the burned areas of New Mexico’s Whitewater-Baldy Fire. The gages transmit data via satellite to the National Weather Service, which provides warnings to communities that may be affected by flooding. The gages can provide up to 60 minutes advanc
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — Laszlo Kestay has been named the new director of the U.S. Geological Survey Astrogeology Science Center, based in Flagstaff, Ariz. Kestay will lead the Astrogeology team in working closely with NASA and other planetary science organizations to develop and operate space missions exploring the Solar System, process and analyze data from many types of instruments...
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — Coconino National Forest’s Cinder Lake—a natural depression that has been used to store runoff from areas affected by the 2010 Schultz Fire—can store about 4,000 acre-feet of water, or enough to fill about 2,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools, according to a new U.S. Geological Survey report.
TUCSON, Ariz. – Climate change is likely to have strong effects on the abundance of dominant Sonoran Desert plant species, according to a study published recently in Global Change Biology.
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Locations
Astrogeology Science Center
Phone: 928-556-7000
Fax: 928-556-7014
Southwest Biological Science Center - Flagstaff, AZ, Headquarters
Phone: 928-556-7094
Fax: 928-556-7092
Southwest Climate Adaptation Science Center
Western Geographic Science Center - Tucson Project Office
Western Geographic Science Center - Flagstaff Project Office
Arizona Water Science Center, Tucson Office
Phone: (520) 670-6671
Fax: (520) 670-5592
Yellowstone Volcano Observatory (YVO)
yvowebteam@usgs.gov
Phone: 360-993-8906
Southwest Biological Science Center - Tucson, AZ, Research Station
Phone: (520) 670-6671
Fax: (520) 670-5592
Arizona Water Science Center, Flagstaff Office
Phone: (928) 556-7136
Fax: (928) 556-7112
Arizona Water Science Center, Tempe Office
Phone: (480) 736-1093
Fax: (480) 736-1356
Arizona Water Science Center, Yuma Office
Phone: (928) 782-6024
Fax: (928) 782-0268