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World class scientists working in Southeast Region Science Centers help our partners understand and manage complex issues including competition for limited water resources, coastal hazards, mineral and energy resource extraction, degraded ecosystems, vector-borne diseases, rapidly changing land use, and response to climate change.
News
Low-Level Flights to Image 3D Geology in Northern Arkansas
Editor: In the public interest and in accordance with the Federal Aviation Administration regulations, the USGS is announcing this low-level airborne project. Your assistance in informing the local communities is appreciated.
POSTPONED due to weather: Ask Questions and Learn More About the Low-Level Helicopter Flying Above the Mississippi Alluvial Plain
Media: Please join the U.S. Geological Survey, CGG Airborne and various partners for a demonstration of the low-flying helicopter and description of what scientists are seeking in and around the Mississippi Alluvial Plain.
Seeking Water from Above: Low-Level Helicopter to Fly Above Mississippi Alluvial Plain
Editor: In the public interest and in accordance with Federal Aviation Administration regulations, the USGS is announcing this low-level airborne project. Your assistance informing the local communities is appreciated.
Publications
Flooding in the southern Midwestern United States, April–May 2017
Excessive rainfall resulted in flooding on numerous rivers throughout the southern Midwestern United States (southern Midwest) in late April and early May of 2017. The heaviest rainfall, between April 28 and 30, resulted in extensive flooding from eastern Oklahoma to southern Indiana including parts of Missouri, Arkansas, and Illinois.Peak-of-...
Heimann, David C.; Holmes, Robert R.; Harris, Thomas E.
Dense lower crust elevates long-term earthquake rates in the New Madrid seismic zone
Knowledge of the local state of stress is critical in appraising intraplate seismic hazard. Inverting earthquake moment tensors, we demonstrate that principal stress directions in the New Madrid seismic zone (NMSZ) differ significantly from those in the surrounding region. Faults in the NMSZ that are incompatible with slip in the regional stress...
Levandowski, William Brower; Boyd, Oliver S.; Ramirez-Guzman, Leonardo
Historical files from Federal Government mineral exploration-assistance programs, 1950 to 1974
The Defense Minerals Administration (DMA), Defense Minerals Exploration Administration (DMEA), and Office of Minerals Exploration (OME) mineral exploration programs were active over the period 1950–1974. Under these programs, the Federal Government contributed financial assistance in the exploration for certain strategic and critical minerals. The...
Frank, David G.
Ozark Dome-Arkoma Basin-Ouachita Transect
The Ozark Dome-Arkoma Basin-Ouachita Transect (ODABOuT) project examines the three-dimensional geology of a transect of the southern orogenic margin of North America in its best surface exposure in western Arkansas. The Ozark Dome and Arkoma Basin represent a foreland uplift and foreland basin that formed as a result of the impinging Ouachita orogenic belt. Understanding the geometry and...
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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...
2017 Midwest Spring Floods
Learn more about USGS flood activities related to the 2017 Midwest Spring Floods that occurred across large portions of Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Arkansas in late April and early May, 2017.
2016 Southern Spring Floods
Learn more about USGS flood activities related to the 2016 Southern Spring Floods. These floods were caused by significant amounts of tropical moisture that was funneled through a narrow zone across East Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Mississippi, creating severe flood conditions.
Continuous Water-Quality Monitoring During December 2015-January 2016 Flood Events
During the late December 2015-early January 2016 storm event, two sewage-treatment plants and a drinking-water plant in Missouri were inundated by water and failed, contributing untreated sewage to the floodwaters. The USGS collected water-quality samplesat key locations in the Mississippi and Missouri River Basins and continued to sample the flood surge as it moved down the Mississippi River...
May-June 2013 Midwest Floods
Learn more about USGS flood activities related to the May-June 2013 Midwest Floods.
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 Arkansas Flood
Learn more about USGS flood activities related to the April 2011 Arkansas Flood.
Arkoma Basin Oil and Gas Assessments
The U.S. Geological Survey completed the following assessments of undiscovered oil and gas resources of the Arkoma Basin Province 5062:
- 2010 Continuous and Conventional Assessment (Fact Sheet 2010-3043).
- 1995 Assessment (DDS-30). ...
Ozark Uplift Oil and Gas Assessments
The U.S. Geological Survey completed the following assessments of undiscovered oil and gas potential of the Ozark Uplift Province (5057):
- 1995 Assessment (DDS 30)
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) did a bathymetric survey of the lower reach of the Maumelle River upstream of Lake Maumelle, near Little Rock, Arkansas, from July 9—11, 2019. Channel bed elevations (thalweg) were collected to support a USACE modeling effort on a 5-mile reach of the Maumelle River. In parts of the reach where th
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.
Crustal Architecture Beneath the Southern Midcontinent (USA) -- Data Grids and 3D Geophysical Models
Regional grid files and 3D voxel models were used to study crustal architecture beneath the Southern Midcontinent (USA) by McCafferty and others (2019). The study covered a rectangular, multi-state area of 924 by 924 kilometers centered on Missouri, and a corresponding volume extending from the topographic surface to a depth of 50 kilometers below sea level. The grid files consist of surface gri
The Mississippi Alluvial Plain (MAP) Project contains several geologic units which act as important aquifers. We collected several sets of time-domain electromagnetic (TEM) data consisting of two higher-density surveys and six regional-scale transects. The higher density surveys were collected to compare and contrast to other geophysical data not included in this data release, such as airborne el
GIS Data for Arkoma Basin Oil and Gas Assessments
GIS Data for Ozark Uplift 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 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.
This map shows the provinces assessed by the USGS for undiscovered oil and gas resources.
Real-time displays of current floating conditions at various sites along the Arkansas Buffalo River.
Subsurface geometry of the Mississippi Embayment Regional Aquifer Study (MERAS)
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.
The Arkansas Groundwater - Quality Network is a web map interface that provides rapid access to the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) NWIS and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) STORET databases of ambient groundwater information. The interface enables users to perform simple graphical analysis and download selected water-quality data.
The Union County Water Conservation Board with funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency began a study in 2003 with the U.S. Geological Survey, the Union County Conservation District, Burns & McDonnell to monitor the impact of water-level recovery and water-quality characteristics of the Sparta aquifer system in southern Arkansas and northern Louisiana.
Flooding in the southern Midwestern United States, April–May 2017
Excessive rainfall resulted in flooding on numerous rivers throughout the southern Midwestern United States (southern Midwest) in late April and early May of 2017. The heaviest rainfall, between April 28 and 30, resulted in extensive flooding from eastern Oklahoma to southern Indiana including parts of Missouri, Arkansas, and Illinois.Peak-of-...
Heimann, David C.; Holmes, Robert R.; Harris, Thomas E. St. Louis area earthquake hazards mapping project; seismic and liquefaction hazard maps
We present probabilistic and deterministic seismic and liquefaction hazard maps for the densely populated St. Louis metropolitan area that account for the expected effects of surficial geology on earthquake ground shaking. Hazard calculations were based on a map grid of 0.005°, or about every 500 m, and are thus higher in resolution than any...
Cramer, Chris H.; Bauer, Robert A.; Chung, Jae-won; Rogers, David; Pierce, Larry; Voigt, Vicki; Mitchell, Brad; Gaunt, David; Williams, Robert; Hoffman, David; Hempen, Gregory L.; Steckel, Phyllis; Boyd, Oliver S.; Watkins, Connor M.; Tucker, Kathleen; McCallister, Natasha Preliminary assessment of a previously unknown fault zone beneath the Daytona Beach sand blow cluster near Marianna, Arkansas
We collected new high‐resolution P‐wave seismic‐reflection data to explore for possible faults beneath a roughly linear cluster of early to mid‐Holocene earthquake‐induced sand blows to the south of Marianna, Arkansas. The Daytona Beach sand blow deposits are located in east‐central Arkansas about 75 km southwest of Memphis, Tennessee, and...
Odum, Jackson K.; Williams, Robert; Stephenson, William J.; Tuttle, Martitia P.; Al-Shukri, Hadar Dense lower crust elevates long-term earthquake rates in the New Madrid seismic zone
Knowledge of the local state of stress is critical in appraising intraplate seismic hazard. Inverting earthquake moment tensors, we demonstrate that principal stress directions in the New Madrid seismic zone (NMSZ) differ significantly from those in the surrounding region. Faults in the NMSZ that are incompatible with slip in the regional stress...
Levandowski, William Brower; Boyd, Oliver S.; Ramirez-Guzman, Leonardo Historical files from Federal Government mineral exploration-assistance programs, 1950 to 1974
The Defense Minerals Administration (DMA), Defense Minerals Exploration Administration (DMEA), and Office of Minerals Exploration (OME) mineral exploration programs were active over the period 1950–1974. Under these programs, the Federal Government contributed financial assistance in the exploration for certain strategic and critical minerals. The...
Frank, David G. Hydrologic effects on diameter growth phenology for Celtis laevigata and Quercus lyrata in the floodplain of the lower White River, Arkansas
Bottomland hardwood (BLH) forests represent an extensive wetland system in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley and southeastern USA, and it is currently undergoing widespread transition in species composition. One such transition involves increased establishment of sugarberry (Celtis laevigata), and decreased establishment of overcup oak (Quercus...
Schweitzer, Callie Jo; Clatterbuck, Wayne K.; Oswalt, Christopher M.; Allen, Scott T.; Cochran, Wesley; Krauss, Ken W.; Keim, Richard F.; King, Sammy L. Ground motion-simulations of 1811-1812 New Madrid earthquakes, central United States
We performed a suite of numerical simulations based on the 1811–1812 New Madrid seismic zone (NMSZ) earthquakes, which demonstrate the importance of 3D geologic structure and rupture directivity on the ground‐motion response throughout a broad region of the central United States (CUS) for these events. Our simulation set consists of 20...
Ramirez-Guzman, L.; Graves, Robert; Olsen, Kim B.; Boyd, Oliver S.; Cramer, Chris H.; Hartzell, Stephen H.; Ni, Sidao; Somerville, Paul G.; Williams, Robert; Zhong, Jinquan Crustal deformation in the New Madrid seismic zone and the role of postseismic processes
Global Navigation Satellite System data across the New Madrid seismic zone (NMSZ) in the central United States over the period from 2000 through 2014 are analyzed and modeled with several deformation mechanisms including the following: (1) creep on subsurface dislocations, (2) postseismic frictional afterslip and viscoelastic relaxation from the...
Boyd, Oliver S.; Robert Smalley, Jr; Zeng, Yuehua
Estimated water use in Arkansas, 2010
The Arkansas Natural Resources Commission (ANRC) conducts an annual inventory of reported groundwater and surface-water withdrawals in Arkansas in cooperation with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). This report describes withdrawals from groundwater and surface-water resources in Arkansas for 2010. The report compiles withdrawals by county for 10...
Pugh, Aaron L.; Holland, Terrance W. Why the New Madrid earthquakes are M 7–8 and the Charleston earthquake is ∼M 7
Estimates of magnitudes of large historical earthquakes are an essential input to and can seriously affect seismic‐hazard estimates. The earthquake‐intensity observations, modified Mercalli intensities (MMI), and assigned magnitudes Mof the 1811–1812 New Madrid events have been reinterpreted several times in the last decade and have...
Cramer, Chris H.; Boyd, Oliver S.
Workshop on New Madrid geodesy and the challenges of understanding intraplate earthquakes
On March 4, 2011, 26 researchers gathered in Norwood, Massachusetts, for a workshop sponsored by the U.S. Geological Survey and FM Global to discuss geodesy in and around the New Madrid seismic zone (NMSZ) and its relation to earthquake hazard. The group addressed the challenge of reconciling current geodetic measurements, which show low present-...
Boyd, Oliver; Calais, Eric; Langbein, John; Magistrale, Harold; Stein, Seth; Zoback, Mark Magnitude Estimates of M7.3-7.8 for the 1811-1812 New Madrid and M7.0 for the 1886 Charleston Earthquakes from a Monte Carlo Analysis of Mean MMIs
No abstract available
Cramer, Chris H.; Boyd, Oliver S.
In 1977, the Congress of the United States recognized the need for uniform, current, and reliable information on water use and directed the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to establish a National Water-Use Information Program (NWUIP) to complement the Survey's data on the availability and quality of the Nations water resources.
Water Well Constrution Reports entered online.
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.
Habitat Connectivity: Assessing Threats and IDing Conservation Actions
An important conservation strategy for climate change is to enhance and maintain regional habitat connectivity for the long-term viability of wildlife populations. Modeling habitat connectivity for wildlife species often results in a mapped network of linkages between habitat patches. A critical next step is to determine which of those linkages are priorities for
...
Real-time flow meter on an Arkansas irrigation well
Real-time flow meter installed on a center-pivot irrigation well in Mississippi County, Arkansas as part of a cooperative project conducted between USGS and the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission. The meter will measure water use for irrigation, providing data which will help improve water-use information in other locations as well.
Groundwater use from the Ozark Plateaus aquifer system, 1900 to 2010
Groundwater use from the Ozark Plateaus aquifer system, 1900 to 2010” is a short video showing modeled groundwater withdrawal rates from the Ozark Plateaus aquifer system (Ozark system) in the central United States. The Ozark Plateaus Groundwater Availability Study aims to quantify current groundwater resources in the Ozark system, evaluate how these resources have changed
...
Developing Effective Drought Monitoring Tools for Farmers and Ranchers
This webinar was conducted on August 7, 2017 as part of the USGS National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center’s Climate Change Science and Management Webinar Series, held in partnership with the USFWS National Conservation Training Center.
Webinar Summary: The South Central U.S. is one of the main agricultural regions in North America: annual agricultural
...
Groundwater, A Source To Streams in the Ozark Plateaus
Groundwater or surface water interaction in the Ozark Plateaus aquifer system. Includes examples of thermal imagery used to see groundwater entering streams.
USGS Scientist Collecting Water Samples in North Sylamore Creek
USGS scientist collecting water samples and measuring water field properties at North Sylamore Creek, Arkansas, on January 7, 2014. Water samples were analyzed for over 700 chemicals and a wide range of biological activity and toxicity.
low-flow conditions on Arkansas River at Dardanelle, Arkansas
Arkansas River at Dardanelle, Arkansas, during low-flow conditions on September 29, 2012. Photograph by Daniel M. Wagner, U.S. Geological Survey.
Pruitt Gage
Pruitt Buffalo National River
Flood of May 3, 2011, Black River at Pocahontas, Ark., SIR 2016–5081
Flood of May 3, 2011, at USGS streamflow-gaging station 07069000, Black River at Pocahontas, Arkansas. Photograph by D.M. Wagner, Lower Mississippi-Gulf Water Science Center.
Flood at USGS station 07069000, Black River at Pocahontas, Ark.
Flood of May 3, 2011, at USGS streamflow-gaging station 07069000, Black River at Pocahontas, Arkansas. Photograph by D.M. Wagner, Lower Mississippi-Gulf Water Science Center.
Editor: In the public interest and in accordance with the Federal Aviation Administration regulations, the USGS is announcing this low-level airborne project. Your assistance in informing the local communities is appreciated.
Media: Please join the U.S. Geological Survey, CGG Airborne and various partners for a demonstration of the low-flying helicopter and description of what scientists are seeking in and around the Mississippi Alluvial Plain.
Editor: In the public interest and in accordance with Federal Aviation Administration regulations, the USGS is announcing this low-level airborne project. Your assistance informing the local communities is appreciated.
This page contains the weekly highlights from the Lower Mississippi-Gulf Water Science Center for the week of 9/112017 - 9/15/2017! Please take a look and see what we have been up to!
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.
Decades or longer may be needed to fully assess the effects of unconventional oil and gas production on the quality of groundwater used for drinking water in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas
USGS also estimates 4 billion barrels of oil and 2 billion barrels of natural gas liquids in the two formations.
First-of-its-kind survey shows that algal toxins are found nationwide
Significant flood peaks occurred across the Arkansas, White and Red River Basins in Arkansas beginning on Dec. 26 and the rivers are still high, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
U.S. Geological Survey field crews are measuring record flooding on rivers and streams in 12 states across the country. USGS is making preparations for a prolonged field effort along the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers as major flooding will extend well into mid-to-late January, particularly along the lower Mississippi River.
Heavy rainfall of up to 10 inches in northern and western Arkansas that fell during the Christmas weekend is still causing major flooding in some areas.
A newly published, three-volume “Remote Sensing Handbook” is a comprehensive coverage of all remote sensing topics written by over 300 leading global experts.
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Locations
Lower Mississippi-Gulf Water Science Center - Little Rock, AR Office
Phone: (501) 228-3600
Arkansas Water Science Center
Phone: (501) 228-3600
Fax: (501) 228-3601
Lower Mississippi-Gulf Water Science Center - Fayetteville, AR Office
Phone: (479) 442-4888