The Top 5 Mineral-Producing States
The value of the nonfuel mineral industry in each of the 50 states for 2016. (Public domain.) Every year, the USGS National Minerals Information Center releases its Mineral Commodity Summaries, a...
View ArticleWind Turbines Affect Behavior of Desert Tortoise Predators
Scientists placed motion-activated cameras facing the entrances of 46 active desert tortoise burrows in a wind energy facility near Palm Springs, California. Video recordings showed that visits to...
View ArticleThe USGS ShakeCast System
Pavement buckling and tented sidewalk resulting from the South Napa Earthquake. Photograph credit: Thomas Holzer, USGS(Public domain.) Turner lives in Davis, California, about 45 miles northeast of...
View ArticleMedia Advisory: Earthquake Country Alliance at USGS
ECA is a public-private-grassroots partnership that coordinates the annual Great California ShakeOut earthquake drill and develops preparedness resources available on the Earthquake Country Alliance...
View ArticleSearching to Study the Remaining Few
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering the need for protections for the western pond turtle under the Endangered Species Act. In the 1990s, fewer than 50 western pond turtles, a Species of...
View ArticleHarvesting Earthquake Fault Slip from Laser Images of Napa's Vineyards
Menlo Park, Calif. – A new U.S. Geological Survey-led study suggests that earthquake-related deformation just below the Earth's surface can be quite different from how it is expressed at the surface....
View ArticleUSGS Awards $4.9 Million to Advance the ShakeAlert Earthquake Early Warning...
The awards are for a new set of two-year cooperative agreements with California Institute of Technology, Central Washington University, University of California, Berkeley, University of Oregon,...
View ArticleStitching Together the New Digital Geologic Quilt of the United States
Fortunately, in an effort with needlepoint detail, the U.S. Geological Survey has stitched together geologic maps of the Lower 48 States, providing a seamless quilt of 48 State geologic maps that range...
View ArticleWildfire and Invasive Species Drives Increasing Size and Cost of Public Land...
The study, recently published in Restoration Ecology, reveals an extensive legacy of land management decisions and provides new insight on strategies to increase future treatment efficacy in an...
View ArticleIncreases in Wildfire-Caused Erosion Could Impact Water Supply and Quality in...
As a number of previous peer-reviewed studies have shown, the area burned annually by wildfires has increased in recent decades and is expected to continue to increase this century. Many growing cities...
View ArticleLow-Flying Airplane Mapping Parts of Northeastern California
Residents should not be alarmed if they see a low-flying airplane over parts of northeastern California starting around Sept. 11. For about two months, an airplane operated under contract to the U.S....
View ArticleAnnual Southern Sea Otter Survey: Despite Small Population Dip, Species Moves...
Researchers surveyed sea otter populations along the mainland coast, from Pigeon Point in the north to Gaviota State Park in the south, and also the distinct population at San Nicolas Island in the...
View ArticleEyes on the Coast—Video Cameras Help Forecast Coastal Change
If we understand these processes well enough, scientists can include them in computer models of coastal change that can be used to forecast, for example, how the shoreline will react to severe storms...
View ArticleSTEP-UP to Science: Engaging Young Adults with Disabilities
Modeled after a successful program in USGS headquarters near Washington, DC, the program is expanding to three school districts in the San Francisco Bay Area. Starting the week of January 16, eleven...
View ArticleUSGS Geologists Join Efforts in Montecito to Assess Debris-Flow Aftermath
Days after fatal debris flows devastated Southern California’s Montecito community, a team of U.S. Geological Survey geologists joined county, state, and federal partners to survey and evaluate the...
View ArticleOne of the first Black USGS geophysicists, pioneers subsurface research
Early in his college career, U.S. Geological Survey geophysicist Rufus Catchings became drawn to the mysteries that lie beneath the earth’s surface — and was determined to understand them. This...
View ArticleUSGS and NASA Team Up to Help Scientists Study the “Social Networks” of...
Whereas we might carry cell phones or tablets, each sea otter has a small, solar-powered tag clipped carefully to one of its flippers. When the sea otters gather to nap at the ocean’s surface, their...
View ArticleMapping Beach Changes After Devastating Montecito Debris Flows
The study area includes Montecito, California, which was devastated on January 9 by debris flows that killed 21 people. USGS scientists are measuring beach topography and seafloor bathymetry in this...
View ArticleEarthquake Early Warning! New Study Examines Safety Potentials and Limits
Results of scientific studies such as this can be used to design alerting strategies for earthquake early warning systems such as USGS’ ShakeAlert, now being developed for the U.S. West Coast. The...
View ArticleSea Level Rise Could Double Erosion Rates of Southern California Coastal Cliffs
U.S. Geological Survey scientists combined several computer models for the first time to forecast cliff erosion along the Southern California coast. Their peer-reviewed study was published in a recent...
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