Unified Interior Regions
California
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.
States L2 Landing Page Tabs
Tsunami Hazards in the Santa Barbara Channel
Large-scale poster describing USGS work.
The USGS, in cooperation with Moss Landing Marine Laboratory, mapped the slopes of the Santa Barbara Channel using sonar. We combined this with deep sea drilling records and seismic records to make these maps.
Large earthquakes can cause the very large underwater landslides that we found in the channel. These
...PubTalk 11/2004 — From Plane Tables to Pixels
The Revolution in Mapping at the U.S. Geological Survey
by Susan P. Benjamin, Research Geographer
- Mapping the United States in the 19th century was arduous, dangerous work; flash floods, bears, and bandits were just a few hazards
- By the mid-20th century, aerial photography, photogrammetry, and stereophoto pairs, allowed
PubTalk 10/2004 — Hot Oil, Frozen Ground, and Earthquakes
The Trans-Alaska Pipeline story-- so far, so good!
by George Gryc, Arthur Lachenbruch, and Robert Page, Scientists Emeriti
- The 1968 discovery of North America.s largest oil fi eld on the Arctic coast posed the challenge of an 800-mile pipeline to carry hot oil across mountains, rivers, and the giant Denali Fault
- The oil
PubTalk 9/2004 — The Winemaker's Dance
Connecting Geology and Wine in Napa Valley
by David G. Howell, Geologist Emeritus
- Does a glass of wine really contain 100 million years of geologic history ?
- How did continental glaciation help shape the Napa Valley's soils?
- Are the hills in Napa Valley that help control its microclimates really megalandslides
Agriculture field in California
An agriculture field in California taken during field work for the Trends Lancover Change project.
PubTalk 8/2004 — Precipice of Survival
What is the Future of the Southern Sea Otter?
Featuring the new award-winning USGS video Precipice of Survival. The Southern Sea Otter by Stephen Wessells, introduced and discussed by sea otter researchers including Alisha H. Kage and M. Tim Tinker, Research Biologists
- The southern subspecies of sea otter, Enhydra lutris
PubTalk 7/2004 — Secrets in Stone
The Role of Paleomagnetism in the Evolution of Plate Tectonic Theory Video Presentation
Presentation of the award-winning USGS video "Secrets in Stone" (35 minutes), introduced by Jack Hillhouse, Research Geophysicist, and followed by a tour of the USGS Paleomagnetics Laboratory
- Crucial discoveries in the early 1960.s were made
PubTalk 6/2004 — From Strawberry Fields to the Ozone Layer
The Methyl Bromide Story
By Laurence G. Miller, Biogeochemist
- Methyl bromide (CH3Br) is an important agricultural pesticide widely used in growing strawberries and other field crops
- Methyl bromide---much of it from natural sources---is one of the gases contributing to destruction of Earth's ozone layer
- No
PubTalk 5/2004 — Delta Revival: Restoration of a California Ecosystem
Video presentation and discussion
Ecologist Jim Cloern will introduce the video Delta Revival, produced jointly by the USGS and the CALFED Bay-Delta Authority.
USGS Scientists wil answer your questions about this documentary, which shows:
- biologists, chemists, physical scientists, and engineers working together
California Ground Squirrel (Spermophilus beecheyi)
Squirrel stepping out from it's ground burrow.
California Ground Squirrel (Spermophilus beecheyi)
Squirrel stepping out from it's ground burrow.
PubTalk 4/2004 — Science, Society, and the Survey
50 Years of the USGS in Menlo Park
By David G. Howell, Geologist
Hear about some of the scientific highlights from 1954 to 2004 --
- The search for strategic minerals
- Exploring the high seas
- The birth of astrogeology
- Advancing the theory of plate tectonics
- From topo maps to digital GIS
White abalone - 1,000 to 5,000 per acre - were easy to find in the early 1970s around the Channel Islands off California’s southern coast. But by the late 1970s, intense commercial and recreational harvesting made the abalone as difficult to locate a needle in an ocean-sized haystack.
There is a 70 percent probability that one or more damaging earthquakes of magnitude 6.7 or larger will strike the San Francisco Bay area during the next 30 years, according to a report released today (Oct. 14, 1999) by the U.S. Geological Survey. A magnitude 6.7 earthquake is equivalent to the 1994 Northridge earthquake which killed 57 people and caused $20 billion in damage.
A new set of maps from the U.S. Geological Survey explains in depth, literally, more than 30,000 earthquakes that occurred in north-central California between 1967 and 1993. That time frame, of course, includes the largest earthquake to occur in the area since 1906, the 1989, 6.9 Loma Prieta earthquake.
When is a badly damaged, but stable building safe to enter after an earthquake? That is a question that safety-response and building-department officials have to answer in order to let occupants retrieve important possessions and business records, and to let contractors begin emergency repairs
When their offices and homes began shaking at 5:04 p.m., Oct. 17, 1989, earthquake scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, Calif., were as surprised as anyone.
With a press run of more than three million copies, "The Next Big Earthquake In The Bay Area May Come Sooner Than You Think-- Are You Prepared?" is the most widely distributed publication ever prepared by the U.S. Geological Survey. Nine years after it’s publication, it is still available from the USGS, and still helpful as a preparedness guide for Bay Area residents.
A new screening method, based on geology and climatology, has been shown to be a reliable means for predicting where lands in irrigated areas are susceptible to contamination from selenium, according to a report by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Reclamation, and Bureau of Indian Affairs.
The USGS scientist who intrigued Ted Kennedy Jr., Tuesday, with her foot-and voice-operated computer/microscope, will give interviews and demonstrations again Wednesday, during the second day of the USGS’s seventh annual Conference on Addressing the Employment of People with Disabilities, on the USGS campus in Menlo Park.
Some employees at the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park don’t wait for an annual "take your dog to work" day; they do it every day. Like the USGS human roster, some of the dogs are still in training, while others have graduate degrees and are now gainfully and fully employed.
A drilling project that is harvesting 1,000 feet of earth and rock cores from the Los Angeles basin will establish a virtual library of information on the geology of the area, according to scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
Providing a plan to help resource managers restore the Bering Sea and North Pacific ecosystem is a task research scientist Jim Estes of the U.S. Geological Survey will pursue during the next four years with funding help from a 1999 Pew Marine Conservation fellowship of $150,000.
It is well known that fire suppression in forests has led to an increase in catastrophic forest fires. The same has been assumed to be true for fire suppresion in shrublands. However, a recent USGS study has found that urban sprawl -- not fire suppression -- is largely responsible for the wildfires that occur in the shrublands of southern and central-coastal California.