Unified Interior Regions
Region 7: Upper Colorado Basin
Map of Region 7: Upper Colorado Basin
Map Showing USGS/DOI Unified Region 7 and parts of adjoining Regions
Key USGS Region 7: Upper Colorado Basin Contacts
Regional Director (Acting)-Allison Shipp
USGS Region 7: Upper Colorado Basin Offices and Science Centers
Regions L2 Landing Page Tabs
USGS Science Centers in Region 7-Upper Colorado Basin conduct a large number of cooperative and collaborative projects with other agencies and partners. A sampling of those projects are shown below on this web page.
Documentation of slug and shut-in test data for wells H-1, H-2A, H-2B, H-2C, and H-3 at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has collected, documented, and published an extensive amount of hydrogeologic data collected from and near the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) site in southeastern New Mexico. The objective of the proposed work is to document and publish the data that was used to estimate values of transmissivity and storage coefficients for water-bearing zones open to...
Vertical Extent of Ground-Water Contamination with Organic Solvents in Grants, New Mexico
The City of Grants is located in Cibola County within western central New Mexico and is included within the Bluewater Underground Water Basin. Major aquifers within the Grants area include the Alluvium and basalt flows of Quaternary age and the San Andres Limestone and the Glorietta Sandstone of Permian age. Contamination of shallow ground water with volatile organic carbon compounds including...
Groundwater Resources of the East Mountain Area, Bernalillo, Sandoval, Santa Fe, and Torrance Counties, New Mexico, 2005
The East Mountain area refers to an area east of Albuquerque, New Mexico, on the eastern slopes of the Sandia, Manzanita, and northern Manzano Mountains, and encompasses parts of Bernalillo, Sandoval, Santa Fe, and Torrance Counties.
Middle Rio Grande Basin Study
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Middle Rio Grande Basin Study was a 6-year effort (1995-2001) by the USGS and other agencies to improve the understanding of the hydrology, geology, and land-surface characteristics of the Middle Rio Grande Basin in order to provide the scientific information needed for water-resources management. The Santa Fe Group aquifer system is the main source of...
Water, Energy, and Biogeochemical Budgets (WEBB): Loch Vale Watershed
Loch Vale is an alpine/subalpine watershed in Rocky Mountain National Park where the U.S. Geological Survey has been conducting research since the 1980s. Our research has focused on the effects of climate change and atmospheric pollutants on water, soil, vegetation, and aquatic life. The alpine/subalpine ecosystem in Loch Vale is sensitive to changes in climate and air pollution. Our long-term...
South Platte Decision Support System (SPDSS) Well Installation and Aquifer Testing in Shallow Alluvial and Bedrock Aquifers, Adams County, Colorado
The South Platte Decision Support System (SPDSS) is a data base system being developed by the Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB) to provide water users, managers, and State of Colorado agencies access to important information related to water management issues affecting the South Platte River system.
Estimating Evaporative Losses Incurred by Conveyance of City of Albuquerque San Juan-Chama Water: Jemez to Albuquerque
The City of Albuquerque is in the process of implementing the Drinking Water Project, which is part of the Albuquerque Water Resources Management Strategy. As part of this strategy, the City will begin accepting delivery of imported San Juan-Chama water to supplement present municipal water supplies. The City of Albuquerque’s annual allotment of imported San Juan-Chama water is 48,200 acre-...
Comparison of the power consumption coefficient (PCC) method to totalizing flow meter (TFM) for estimating ground-water pumpage in the Arkansas River Valley, Colorado
In the mid-1990s, the Colorado Division of Water Resources (CDWR) adopted rules governing measurement of tributary groundwater pumpage for the Arkansas River Basin. The rules allowed groundwater pumpage to be determined using one of two approaches—power conversion coefficient (PCC) or totalizing flowmeters (TFM). In addition, the rules allowed a PCC to be applied to the electrical power usage...
Hydrogeology and water quality of the shallow unconsolidated-rock aquifers in the Upper Arkansas River Basin from Buena Vista to Salida, Colorado
Population growth near Buena Vista and Salida in Chaffee County has caused concern for the long-term availability and quality of groundwater . Groundwater withdrawals from deep wells that are completed in the basin-fill deposits and designed to supply multiple-dwelling developments could cause drawdowns in water levels of the overlying aquifers. Continued development of groundwater supplies in...
Development of a Plan of Study on the Hydrogeology and Groundwater Resources of the Salt Basin in New Mexico
The New Mexico part of the Salt Basin covers about 2,400 square miles of the south central part of the State. The principal aquifers in the basin are included in the San Andres Limestone, the Yeso Formation and the Abo Formation all of Permian age. Groundwater recharge to the basin is about 35,078 acre-feet per year with about half of the recharge coming from the watershed feeding the...
Stochastic Modeling of Effects that the Sulphur Gulch Reservoir May Have on Colorado River Water Quality near Grand Junction, Colorado
Sulphur Gulch, a new reservoir proposed to be located about 25 miles east of Grand Junction, Colorado, on a tributary to the Colorado River that drains the Sulphur Gulch watershed between De Beque and Cameo, Colorado. The primary use of the Sulphur Gulch Reservoir would be to provide the Colorado River with up to 5,412.5 acre-feet of late-season water in support of the Endangered Fish Recovery...
Sources of Metal Loading to the Lake Fork from Turquoise Lake to the confluence with the Arkansas River
The Lake Fork emerges from the outlet of Turquoise Lake at the Sugarloaf dam and flows approximately 5 miles before joining the upper Arkansas River. The first reach of the Lake Fork downstream from the dam is affected by drainage from abandoned mines in the Sugarloaf mining district. Whereas remediation of some of the mine sites has been initiated, Federal Land holders are interested in...
USGS Science Centers in Region 7-Upper Colorado Basin produce hundreds of USGS-series publications, journal papers, and books each year that are subject to rigorous review by USGS specialists. The publications shown below on this page are related to study areas and staff members of USGS Science Centers in Region 7 compiled from the USGS Publications Warehouse.
Quantifying trends in arsenic, nitrate, and dissolved solids from selected wells in Utah
Groundwater makes up a primary portion of the water supply in many parts of Utah, with annual withdrawals estimated at more than 1,000,000 acre-feet per year. Increases to groundwater withdrawal and land use may negatively impact water availability. Ensuring availability of clean water requires understanding how water quality has changed over time...
Miller, Olivia L.
Evaluating the potential role of bioactive chemicals on the distribution of invasive Asian carp upstream and downstream from river mile 278 in the Illinois waterway
Two non-native carp species have invaded the Illinois Waterway and are a threat to Great Lakes ecosystems. Poor water quality in the upper Illinois Waterway, may be a factor contributing to the stalling of the carp population front near river mile 278. In 2015, the U.S. Geological Survey collected 4 sets of water samples from two sites upstream...
Battaglin, William A.; Duncker, James J.; Terrio, Paul J.; Bradley, Paul; Barber, Larry; DeCicco, Laura A.
Water-table elevation maps for 2008 and 2016 and water-table elevation changes in the aquifer system underlying eastern Albuquerque, New Mexico
The addition of surface water from the San Juan-Chama Drinking Water Project to the Albuquerque water supply and the reduction in per capita water use has led to decreased groundwater withdrawals. This decrease in withdrawals has resulted in rising groundwater levels since 2008 in portions of the aquifer underlying Albuquerque. The wells used to...
Flickinger, Allison K.; Mitchell, Aurelia C. Geometric and material variability influences stress states relevant to coastal permafrost bluff failure
Scientific knowledge and engineering tools for predicting coastal erosion are largely confined to temperate climate zones that are dominated by non-cohesive sediments. The pattern of erosion exhibited by the ice-bonded permafrost bluffs in Arctic Alaska, however, is not well explained by these tools. Investigation of the oceanographic, thermal,...
Thomas, Matthew A.; Mota, Alejandro; Jones, Benjamin M.; Choens, R. Charles; Frederick, Jennifer M.; Bull, Diana L. The influence of frequency and duration of seismic ground motion on the size of triggered landslides—A regional view
Observation, theory, and intuition all suggest that larger earthquakes should trigger larger landslides. Many factors could contribute to this, including depth-dependent shear strength or non-linearity of ground motion in soils and rock, but we hypothesize that the key characteristics of large earthquakes causing this phenomenon are (in addition...
Jibson, Randall W.; Tanyaş, Hakan Fluoride occurrence in United States groundwater
Data from 38,105 wells were used to characterize fluoride (F) occurrence in untreated United States (U.S.) groundwater. For domestic wells (n = 11,032), water from which is generally not purposely fluoridated or monitored for quality, 10.9% of the samples have F concentrations >0.7 mg/L (U.S. Public Health Service recommended optimal F...
McMahon, Peter B.; Brown, Craig J.; Johnson, Tyler D.; Belitz, Kenneth; Lindsey, Bruce D. Trends in thermal maturity indicators for the organic sulfur-rich Eagle Ford Shale
Thermal maturity is critical to evaluate petroleum systems and to interpret biomarker results for paleoenvironmental and geobiology studies. Many thermal maturity indices were developed for marine source rocks containing type II kerogen, but their behavior in organic sulfur-rich source rocks requires more investigation. Here, we present...
French, Katherine L.; Birdwell, Justin E.; Lewan, Michael Isolating anthropogenic wetland loss by concurrently tracking inundation and land cover disturbance across the Mid-Atlantic Region, U.S.
Global trends in wetland degradation and loss have created an urgency to monitor wetland extent, as well as track the distribution and causes of wetland loss. Satellite imagery can be used to monitor wetlands over time, but few efforts have attempted to distinguish anthropogenic wetland loss from climate-driven variability in wetland extent. We...
Vanderhoof, Melanie K.; Christensen, Jay; Beal, Yen-Ju G.; DeVries, Ben; Lang, Megan W.; Hwang, Nora; Mazzarella, Christine; Jones, John W. Types and areal distribution of ground failure associated with the 2019 Ridgecrest, California, earthquake sequence
The July 2019 Ridgecrest, California, earthquake sequence included the largest earthquake (M 7.1) to strike the conterminous United States in the past 20 yr. To characterize the types, numbers, and areal distributions of different types of ground failure (landslides, liquefaction, and ground cracking), I conducted a field investigation...
Jibson, Randall W. The future of landslides’ past—A framework for assessing consecutive landsliding systems
Landslides often happen where they have already occurred in the past. The potential of landslides to reduce or enhance conditions for further landsliding has long been recognized and has often been reported, but the mechanisms and spatial and temporal scales of these processes have previously received little specific attention. Despite a...
Temme, A.; Guzzetti, F.; Samia, J.; Mirus, Benjamin B.
Elevation and elevation-change maps of Fountain Creek, southeastern Colorado, 2015–19
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with Colorado Springs Utilities, has been collecting topographic data at 10 study areas along Fountain Creek, Colorado, annually since 2012. The 10 study areas are located between Colorado Springs and the terminus of Fountain Creek at the Arkansas River in Pueblo. The purpose of this report is to present...
Hempel, Laura A. Ore deposits: Origin, exploration, and exploitation
No abstract available.
Anderson, Eric D.Photos and videos described and linked on this webpage come from a wide variety of USGS science activities and presentations performed by USGS Science Center staff members in the Region 7-Upper Colorado Basin.
Green River at Ouray, Utah
ADCP measurement from kayack on Green River at Ouray, Utah.
Rio Grande near Radium Springs, New Mexico
South-oriented view of the Rio Grande near Radium Springs, New Mexico, February 4, 2014 (photograph by Andrew J. Robertson).
SIR 2016–5010
Jemez Mountains with aspen trees, NM.
Jemez Mountains with aspen trees, NM.
Debris blocking a gage, tributary to Whitewater Canyon
Debris blocking a gage, tributary to Whitewater Canyon, Gila National Forest, Glenwood, NM, NMWSC
Apex of large debris flow, tributary to Whitewater Canyon
Apex of large debris flow, tributary to Whitewater Canyon, Gila National Forest, Glenwood, NM
Debris covering roadway leading to the Catwalk trail head
Debris covering roadway leading to the Catwalk trail head in Whitewater Canyon, Gila National Forest, Glenwood, NM
Large debris flow, tributary to Whitewater Canyon
Large debris flow, tributary to Whitewater Canyon, Gila National Forest, Glenwood, NM
Measuring Streamflow on Big Thompson River
Ben Glass of the USGS Colorado Water Science Center collects streamflow data from a USGS rapid deployment streamgage on the Big Thompson River in Loveland, Colo. The river is one of many that flooded during a significant September 2013 rain event along Colorado's Front Range, damaging or destroying several USGS streamgages.
Precipitation data collected in the 7 days before September 18, 2013
Precipitation data collected in the 7 days before September 18, 2013
Precipitation data collected in the 30 days before September 18, 2013
Precipitation data collected in the 30 days before September 18, 2013
USGS Field Crew On-Site During the Sept 2013 Colorado Flood
Bob Brandle of the USGS Colorado Water Science Center records streamflow and water level measurements for the flooded St. Vrain River near Longmont, Colo. The river is one of many that flooded during a significant September 2013 rain event along Colorado's Front Range, damaging or destroying several USGS streamgages.
News items shown on this page are highlights of selected studies conducted and publications produced by USGS Science Center staff members in Region 7-Upper Colorado Basin.
The U. S. Geological Survey has released Open-File Report 97-59 entitled: Geology and Structure of the Pine River, Florida River, Carbon Junction, and Basin Creek Gas Seeps, La Plata County, Colorado.
The gasoline additive MTBE (methyl tert-butyl ether) was detected in some urban stormwater samples collected in 16 cities and metropolitan areas by the U.S. Geological Survey, but all detections of MTBE were less than the lower limit of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s draft lifetime health advisory for drinking water.
This page includes links to Social Media accounts (top of page), Science Centers (middle of page), and Regional Office staff members (bottom of page) of the USGS Region 7--Upper Colorado Basin.
Contacts
Locations
Region 7 - Upper Colorado Basin
rgonzales-schreiner@usgs.gov
Phone: 703-648-7200
NSF Ice Core Facility
Phone: 303-202-4830
New Mexico Water Science Center
Phone: (505) 830-7900
Fax: (505) 830-7998
Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center
Phone: 303-236-5345
Utah Water Science Center
angeroth@usgs.gov
Phone: (801) 908-5000
Fax: (801) 908-5001
Colorado Water Science Center - Main Office
gs-w-codist_webmaster@usgs.gov
Phone: 303-236-6900
Fax: 303-236-4912
Wyoming-Montana Water Science Center - Cheyenne Office
Phone: (307) 778-2931
Fax: (307) 778-2764
National Geospatial Technical Operations Center - Denver, CO
Geology, Geophysics, and Geochemistry Science Center
Phone: 303-236-1800
Fax: 303-236-3200
Geologic Hazards Science Center
Phone: 303-273-8500
North Central Climate Adaptation Science Center
Fort Collins Science Center
Phone: 970-226-9100
Fax: 970-226-9230
Colorado Water Science Center - Southeast Colorado Office: Pueblo, CO
gs-w-codist_webmaster@usgs.gov
Phone: 719-562-2840
Fax: 719-544-2463
Colorado Water Science Center - Western Colorado Office: Grand Junction
gs-w-codist_webmaster@usgs.gov
Phone: 970-628-7150
Fax: 970-245-1026
National Earthquake Information Center
Phone: 303-273-8500
Yellowstone Volcano Observatory (YVO)
yvowebteam@usgs.gov
Phone: 360-993-8906
Spectroscopy Lab
Molecular Ecology Lab (MEL)
Phone: 970-226-9100
Fax: 970-226-9230
Denver Microbeam Laboratory
Albuquerque Seismological Laboratory
Moab Field Office
wilkowsk@usgs.gov
Phone: 435-259-4430
Fax: 435-259-5420
Salt Lake Field Office
sjgerner@usgs.gov
Phone: 801-908-5000
Fax: 801-908-5001
Wyoming-Montana Water Science Center - Casper Office
Phone: 307-261-5485
Fax: 307-261-5487
Wyoming-Montana Water Science Center - Riverton Office
Phone: 307-856-3771
Fax: 307-857-3165
Roswell Field Office
Phone: 575-627-0324
Fax: 575-646-7949
Southwest Biological Science Center - Moab, UT, Research Station
Phone: 435-259-3121
USGS Everglades Research Offices
Phone: 305-242-7834
Colorado Water Science Center - Durango Field Office
gs-w-codist_webmaster@usgs.gov
Phone: 970-247-4222
Fax: 970-247-4296
Jackson, Wyoming Field Research Station
Phone: 307-733-2314
Las Cruces Field Office
Phone: (575) 646-8129
Fax: (575) 646-7949
Cedar City Field Office
baslaugh@usgs.gov
Phone: 435-586-4543
Fax: 435-586-4557
USGS Denver Library
den_lib@usgs.gov
Phone: 303-236-1000
Fax: 303-236-1013
The Core Research Center
CRC@USGS.GOV
Phone: 303-202-4851
Fax: 303-202-4856