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Full-Text Articles in Earth Sciences
Sensitivity Of The North Atlantic Basin To Cyclic Climatic Forcing During The Early Cretaceous, Walter E. Dean, Michael A. Arthur
Sensitivity Of The North Atlantic Basin To Cyclic Climatic Forcing During The Early Cretaceous, Walter E. Dean, Michael A. Arthur
United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications
Striking cyclic interbeds of laminated dark-olive to black marlstone and bioturbated white to light-gray limestone of Neocomian (Early Cretaceous) age have been recovered at Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) and Ocean Drilling Project (ODP) sites in the North Atlantic. These Neocomian sequences are equivalent to the Maiolica Formation that outcrops in the Tethyan regions of the Mediterranean and to thick limestone sequences of the Vocontian Trough of France. This lithologic unit marks the widespread deposition of biogenic carbonate over much of the North Atlantic and Tethyan seafloor during a time of overall low sealevel and a deep carbonate compensation depth. …
Molybdenum Accumulation In Cariaco Basin Sediment Over The Past 24 K.Y.: A Record Of Water-Column Anoxia And Climate, Walter E. Dean, David Z. Piper, Larry C. Peterson
Molybdenum Accumulation In Cariaco Basin Sediment Over The Past 24 K.Y.: A Record Of Water-Column Anoxia And Climate, Walter E. Dean, David Z. Piper, Larry C. Peterson
United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications
Molybdenum (Mo) concentrations in a sediment core from the Cariaco basin on the Venezuelan continental shelf can be partitioned between a marine fraction and a terrigenous fraction. The accumulation rate of the marine fraction of Mo increased abruptly 15 000 calendar years ago (15 ka), from <0.5 mg • cm-2 • yr-1 to >4 μg • cm-2 • yr-1, and then decreased abruptly at 9 ka. The accumulation rate remained high throughout this 6 k.y. period, but exhibited maxima at 15–14 and 12.5 ka, corresponding in time to meltwater pulse IA into the Gulf of Mexico and the onset …
Long-Term Prairie Falcon Population Changes In Relation To Prey Abundance, Weather, Land Uses, And Habitat Conditions, Karen Steenhof, Michael Kochert, Leslie B. Carpenter, Robert N. Lehman
Long-Term Prairie Falcon Population Changes In Relation To Prey Abundance, Weather, Land Uses, And Habitat Conditions, Karen Steenhof, Michael Kochert, Leslie B. Carpenter, Robert N. Lehman
United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications
We studied a nesting population of Prairie Falcons (Falco mexicanus) in the Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area (NCA) from 1974-1997 to identify factors that influence abundance and reproduction. Our sampling period included two major droughts and associated crashes in Townsend's ground squirrel (Spermophilus townsendii) populations. The number of Prairie Falcon pairs found on long-term survey segments declined significantly from 1976-1997. Early declines were most severe at the eastern end of the NCA, where fires and agriculture have changed native shrubsteppe habitat. More recent declines occurred in the portion of canyon near the Orchard …
The Carbon Cycle And Biogeochemical Dynamics In Lake Sediments, Walter E. Dean
The Carbon Cycle And Biogeochemical Dynamics In Lake Sediments, Walter E. Dean
United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications
The concentrations of organic carbon (OC) and CaCO3 in lake sediments are often inversely related. This relation occurs in surface sediments from different locations in the same lake, surface sediments from different lakes, and with depth in Holocene sediments. Where data on accumulation rates are available, the relation holds for organic carbon and CaCO3 accumulation rates as well. An increase of several percent OC is accompanied by a decrease of several tens of percent CaCO3 indicating that the inverse relation is not due to simple dilution of one component by another. It appears from core data that …
Geochemistry, Toxicity, And Sorption Properties Of Contaminated Sediments And Pore Waters From Two Reservoirs Receiving Acid Mine Drainage, D. Kirk Nordstrom, Charles N. Alpers, Jennifer A. Coston, Howard E. Taylor, R. Blaine Mccleskey, James W. Ball, Scott Ogle, Jeffrey S. Cotsifas, James A. Davis
Geochemistry, Toxicity, And Sorption Properties Of Contaminated Sediments And Pore Waters From Two Reservoirs Receiving Acid Mine Drainage, D. Kirk Nordstrom, Charles N. Alpers, Jennifer A. Coston, Howard E. Taylor, R. Blaine Mccleskey, James W. Ball, Scott Ogle, Jeffrey S. Cotsifas, James A. Davis
United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications
Acid mine waters from the Iron Mountain Superfund Site, Shasta County, California, flow through Spring Creek Reservoir and into Keswick Reservoir on the Sacramento River. In Keswick Reservoir, the acid mine waters have neutralized on mixing with neutral-pH lake water, producing fine-grained, metalrich sediments. Sediment cores were collected during 1997 from both reservoirs for characterization and pore waters were extracted under anoxic conditions. Chemical composition, mineralogical identification, redox chemistry, sorption properties, and toxicity were determined on several samples. Metal concentrations in sediment ranged from 4 to 47 % for Fe, 200 to 4,800 mg/kg (milligrams per kilogram) for Cu, and …
Slip-Parallel Seismic Lineations On The Northern Hayward Fault, California, Felix Waldhauser, William L. Ellsworth, Alex Cole
Slip-Parallel Seismic Lineations On The Northern Hayward Fault, California, Felix Waldhauser, William L. Ellsworth, Alex Cole
United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications
A high-resolution relative earthquake location procedure is used to image the fine-scale seismicity structure of the northern Hayward fault, California. The seismicity defines a narrow, near-vertical fault zone containing horizontal alignments of hypocenters extending along the fault zone. The lineations persist over the 15-year observation interval, implying the localization of conditions on the fault where brittle failure conditions are met. The horizontal orientation of the lineations parallels the slip direction of the fault, suggesting that they are the result of the smearing of frictionally weak material along the fault plane over thousands of years.
Are Shifts In Herbicide Use Reflected In Concentration Changes In Midwestern Rivers?, William Battaglin, Donald Goolsby
Are Shifts In Herbicide Use Reflected In Concentration Changes In Midwestern Rivers?, William Battaglin, Donald Goolsby
United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications
In many Midwestern rivers, elevated concentrations of herbicides occur during runoff events for 1-3 months following application. The highest or “peak” herbicide concentration often occurs during one of these runoff events. Herbicide concentrations in rivers are affected by a number of factors, including herbicide use patterns within the associated basin. Changing agricultural practices, reductions in recommended and permitted herbicide applications, shifts to new herbicides, and greater environmental awareness in the agricultural community have resulted in changes to herbicide use patterns. In the Midwestern United States, alachlor use was much larger in 1989 than in 1995, while acetochlor was not used …
Late Quaternary Loess In Northeastern Colorado: Part I—Age And Paleoclimatic Significance, Daniel R. Muhs, John N. Aleinikoff, Thomas W. Stafford Jr., Rolf Kihl, Josh Been, Shannon A. Mahan, Scott Cowherd
Late Quaternary Loess In Northeastern Colorado: Part I—Age And Paleoclimatic Significance, Daniel R. Muhs, John N. Aleinikoff, Thomas W. Stafford Jr., Rolf Kihl, Josh Been, Shannon A. Mahan, Scott Cowherd
United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications
Loess in eastern Colorado covers an estimated 14,000 km2, and is the westernmost part of the North American midcontinent loess province. Stratigraphic studies indicate there were two periods of loess deposition in eastern Colorado during late Quaternary time. The first period spanned ca. 20,000 to 12,000 14C yr B.P. (ca. 20–14 ka) and correlates reasonably well with the culmination and retreat of Pinedale glaciers in the Colorado Front Range during the last glacial maximum. The second period of loess deposition occurred between ca. 11,000 and 9,000 14C yr B.P. This interval may be Holocene or may …
Negative Ph, Efflorescent Mineralogy, And Consequences For Environmental Restoration At The Iron Mountain Superfund Site, California, D. Kirk Nordstrom, Charles N. Alpers
Negative Ph, Efflorescent Mineralogy, And Consequences For Environmental Restoration At The Iron Mountain Superfund Site, California, D. Kirk Nordstrom, Charles N. Alpers
United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications
The Richmond Mine of the Iron Mountain copper deposit contains some of the most acid mine waters ever reported. Values of pH have been measured as low as -3.6, combined metal concentrations as high as 200 g/liter, and sulfate concentrations as high as 760 g/liter. Copious quantities of soluble metal sulfate salts such as melanterite, chalcanthite, coquimbite, rhomboclase, voltaite, copiapite, and halotrichite have been identified, and some of these are forming from negative-pH mine waters. Geochemical calculations show that, under a mine-plugging remediation scenario, these salts would dissolve and the resultant 600,000-m3 mine pool would have a pH of …
Predation Of Artificial Ground Nests On White-Tailed Prairie Dog Colonies, Bruce W. Baker, Thomas R. Stanley, James A. Sedgwick
Predation Of Artificial Ground Nests On White-Tailed Prairie Dog Colonies, Bruce W. Baker, Thomas R. Stanley, James A. Sedgwick
United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications
Prairie dog (Cynomys spp.) colonies are unique to prairie and shrub-steppe landscapes. However, widespread eradication, habitat loss, and sylvatic plague (Yersinia pestis) have reduced their numbers by 98% since historical times. Birds associated with prairie dogs also are declining. Potential nest predators, such as coyotes (Canis latrans), swift foxes (Vulpes velox), and badgers (Taxidea taxus), may be attracted to colonies where a high concentration of prairie dogs serve as available prey. Increased abundance of small mammals, including prairie dogs, also may increase the risk of predation for birds nesting on colonies. …
Trace-Element Concentrations In Streambed Sediment Across The Conterminous United States, Karen Rice
Trace-Element Concentrations In Streambed Sediment Across The Conterminous United States, Karen Rice
United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications
Trace-element concentrations in 541 streambed-sediment samples collected from 20 study areas across the conterminous United States were examined as part of the National Water-Quality Assessment Program of the U.S. Geological Survey. Sediment samples were sieved and the <63-μm fraction was retained for determination of total concentrations of trace elements. Aluminum, iron, titanium, and organic carbon were weakly or not at all correlated with the nine trace elements examined: arsenic, cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, mercury, nickel, selenium, and zinc. Four different methods of accounting for background/ baseline concentrations were examined; however, normalization was not required because field sieving removed most of the background differences between samples. The sum of concentrations of trace elements characteristic of urban settings-copper, mercury, lead, and zinc-was well correlated with population density, nationwide. Median concentrations of seven trace elements (all nine examined except arsenic and selenium) were enriched in samples collected from urban settings relative to agricultural or forested settings. Forty-nine percent of the sites sampled in urban settings had concentrations of one or more trace elements that exceeded levels at which adverse biological effects could occur in aquatic biota.
Atrazine Degradation In A Small Stream In Iowa, Dana W. Kolpin, Stephen J. Kalkhoff
Atrazine Degradation In A Small Stream In Iowa, Dana W. Kolpin, Stephen J. Kalkhoff
United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications
A study was conducted during 1990 through an 11.2-km reach of Roberts Creek in northeastern Iowa to determine the fate of atrazine in a surface water environment. Water samples were collected at ~1-month intervals from April through November during stable low to medium flow conditions and analyzed for atrazine and two of its initial biotic degradation products, desethylatrazine and deisopropylatrazine. Samples were collected on the basis of a Lagrangian model of streamflow in order to sample the same parcel of water as it moved downstream. Atrazine concentrations substantially decreased (roughly 25-60% ) between water entering and exiting the study reach …
Late Quaternary Loess In Northeastern Colorado: Part Ii—Pb Isotopic Evidence For The Variability Of Loess Sources, John N. Aleinikoff, Daniel R. Muhs, Rebecca R. Sauer, C. Mark Fanning
Late Quaternary Loess In Northeastern Colorado: Part Ii—Pb Isotopic Evidence For The Variability Of Loess Sources, John N. Aleinikoff, Daniel R. Muhs, Rebecca R. Sauer, C. Mark Fanning
United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications
A new application of the Pb isotopic tracer technique has been used to determine the relative importance of different silt sources for late Wisconsin loess in the central Great Plains of eastern Colorado. Samples of the Peoria Loess collected throughout the study area contain K-feldspar derived from two isotopically and genetically distinct sources: (1) glaciogenic material from Early and Middle Proterozoic crystalline rocks of the Colorado province, and (2) volcaniclastic material from the Tertiary White River Group exposed on the northern Great Plains. Pb isotopic compositions of K-feldspar in loess from two dated vertical sections (at Beecher Island and Last …
Comparison Of An Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (Elisa) To Gas Chromatography (Gc) - Measurement Of Polychlorinated Biphenyls (Pcbs) In Selected Us Fish Extracts, James L. Zajicek, Donald E. Tillitt, Ted R. Schwartz, Christopher J. Schmitt, Robert O. Harrison
Comparison Of An Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (Elisa) To Gas Chromatography (Gc) - Measurement Of Polychlorinated Biphenyls (Pcbs) In Selected Us Fish Extracts, James L. Zajicek, Donald E. Tillitt, Ted R. Schwartz, Christopher J. Schmitt, Robert O. Harrison
United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications
The analysis of PCBs in fish tissues by immunoassay methods was evaluated using fish collected from a US monitoring program, the National Contaminant Biomonitoring Program of the US Department of Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service. Selected composite whole fish samples, which represented widely varying concentrations and sources of PCBs, were extracted and subjected to congener PCB analysis by gas chromatography (GC) and total PCB analysis using an ELISA (ePCBs) calibrated against technical Aroclor 1248. PCB congener patterns in these fishes were different from the patterns found in commercial Aroclors or their combinations as demonstrated by principal component analysis of normalized …
Abrupt Along-Strike Change In Tectonic Style: San Andreas Fault Zone, San Francisco Peninsula, Mary Lou Zoback, Robert C. Jachens, Jean A. Olson
Abrupt Along-Strike Change In Tectonic Style: San Andreas Fault Zone, San Francisco Peninsula, Mary Lou Zoback, Robert C. Jachens, Jean A. Olson
United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications
Seismicity and high-resolution aeromagnetic data are used to define an abrupt change from compressional to extensional tectonism within a 10- to 15-km-wide zone along the San Andreas fault on the San Francisco Peninsula and offshore from the Golden Gate. This 100-km-long section of the San Andreas fault includes the hypocenter of the Mw= 7.8 1906 San Francisco earthquake as well as the highest level of persistent microseismicity along that ~470-km-long rupture. We define two distinct zones of deformation along this stretch of the fault using well-constrained relocations of all post- 1969 earthquakes based a joint one-dimensional velocity/hypocenter inversion …
200,000 Years Of Climate Change Recorded In Eolian Sediments Of The High Plains Of Eastern Colorado And Western Nebraska, Daniel R. Muhs, James Swinehart, David Loope, John N. Aleinikoff, Josh Been
200,000 Years Of Climate Change Recorded In Eolian Sediments Of The High Plains Of Eastern Colorado And Western Nebraska, Daniel R. Muhs, James Swinehart, David Loope, John N. Aleinikoff, Josh Been
United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications
Loess and eolian sand cover vast areas of the western Great Plains of Nebraska, Kansas and Colorado (Fig. 1). In recent studies of Quaternary climate change, there has been a renewed interest in loess and eolian sand. Much of the attention now given to loess stems from new studies of long loess sequences that contain detailed records of Quaternary glacial-interglacial cycles, thought to be a terrestrial equivalent to the foraminiferal oxygen isotope record in deep-sea sediments (Fig. 2). Loess is also a direct record of atmospheric circulation, and identification of loess paleowinds in the geologic record can test atmospheric general …
A Memorial For William V. Sliter, Robert G. Douglas, Jere H. Lipps, James C. Ingle Jr., John Barron
A Memorial For William V. Sliter, Robert G. Douglas, Jere H. Lipps, James C. Ingle Jr., John Barron
United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications
William V. (Bill) Sliter, an internationally known micropaleontologist and research geologist for the U.S. Geological Survey, passed away suddenly, October, 1997, while talking to a colleague in his office. In his honor, B. Huber, T. Bralower, and M. Leckie organized a keynote symposium ‘‘Paleoecological and Geochemical Signatures of Cretaceous Anoxic Events’’ at the 1998 annual meeting of the Geological Society of America in Toronto, Canada. This theme issue of the Journal of Foraminiferal Research contains the published papers from the symposium and is dedicated to his memory.
Biogenic Silica Records From The Bdp93 Drill Site And Adjacent Areas Of The Selenga Delta, Lake Baikal, Siberia, Steven M. Colman, John A. Peck, Josephine Hatton, Eugene B. Karabanov, John W. King
Biogenic Silica Records From The Bdp93 Drill Site And Adjacent Areas Of The Selenga Delta, Lake Baikal, Siberia, Steven M. Colman, John A. Peck, Josephine Hatton, Eugene B. Karabanov, John W. King
United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications
Biogenic silica contents of sediments on the lower Selenga Delta and Buguldeika saddle in Lake Baikal show distinct fluctuations that reflect changes in diatom productivity, and ultimately, climate. The pattern of the upper 50 m of the section, dating from about 334 ka, is similar to that of the marine oxygen isotope record, increasingly so as the younger sediments become progressively finer grained and less locally derived with time. The last two interglaciations are marked by biogenic silica abundances similar to those of the Holocene. The equivalent of marine oxygenisotope stage 3 is distinctly intermediate in character between full glacial …