Tag Archives: usgs

USGS Estimates 20 Billion Barrels of Oil in Texas’ Wolfcamp Shale Formation

This is the largest estimate of continuous oil that USGS has ever assessed in the United States.

The Wolfcamp shale in the Midland Basin portion of Texas’ Permian Basin province contains an estimated mean of 20 billion barrels of oil, 16 trillion cubic feet of associated natural gas, and 1.6 billion barrels of natural gas liquids, according to an assessment by the U.S. Geological Survey. This estimate is for continuous (unconventional) oil, and consists of undiscovered, technically recoverable resources.  (more…)

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Hot Days Can Trigger Yosemite Rockfalls

After more than three years of monitoring the towering granite cliffs of Yosemite National Park, scientists have new insights into a potentially important mechanism that can trigger rockfalls in the park. Although many conditions can trigger rockfalls, some rockfalls are more likely to happen in the hottest part of the day, during the hottest part of the year. (more…)

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Hydrologists Find Mississippi River’s Buffering System for Nitrates is Overwhelmed

AUSTIN, Texas — A new method of measuring the interaction of surface water and groundwater along the length of the Mississippi River network adds fresh evidence that the network’s natural ability to chemically filter out nitrates is being overwhelmed.

The research by hydrogeologists at The University of Texas at Austin, which appears in the May 11 edition of the journal Nature Geoscience, shows for the first time that virtually every drop of water coursing through 311,000 miles (500,000 kilometers) of waterways in the Mississippi River network goes through a natural filtering process as it flows to the Gulf of Mexico. (more…)

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Invasive Burmese Pythons Are Good Navigators and Can Find Their Way Home

Everglades National Park, Fla.— Invasive Burmese pythons in South Florida are able to find their way home even when moved far away from their capture locations, a finding that has implications for the spread of the species.

 A multi-organizational team of scientists found that when six Burmese pythons were relocated 13-22 miles from their capture locations, the snakes headed straight back home, navigating to within 3 miles of their original capture locations in Everglades National Park. (more…)

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Amazon Carbon Dynamics: Understanding the Photosynthesis-Climate Link

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — Researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey, the University of Michigan, the University of Arizona, and the University of Technology, Sydney (Australia) are collaborating with scientists in Brazil on a three-year research project that investigates a basic yet unanswered question in Earth-system and global carbon-cycle science: What controls the response of photosynthesis in Amazon tropical forests to seasonal variations in climate?

Results of the study will help improve the reliability of global climate forecasts by guiding improvements in the treatment of tropical forest photosynthesis and related water-cycle processes in Earth-system models. (more…)

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NASA Responds to California’s Evolving Drought

NASA is partnering with the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) to develop and apply new technology and products to better manage and monitor the state’s water resources and respond to its ongoing drought.

NASA scientists, DWR water managers, university researchers and other state resource management agencies will collaborate to apply advanced remote sensing and improved forecast modeling to better assess water resources, monitor drought conditions and water supplies, plan for drought response and mitigation, and measure drought impacts. (more…)

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Climate Change Could Negatively Affect Chase Lake Pelican Population

Earlier spring nesting related to climate change could negatively affect the survival of pelican chicks at Chase Lake National Wildlife Refuge, N.D., according to a new U.S. Geological Survey report.

USGS scientists found that American white pelicans are migrating north to a large nesting colony at Chase Lake National Wildlife Refuge about 16 days earlier in the springtime than they did 45 years ago. The earlier migration is likely spurred by warmer spring temperatures on the pelicans’ wintering grounds and along their migration route, but ideal post-hatching weather conditions have not advanced at the nesting colony. Now, vulnerable pelican chicks face a higher risk of encountering life-threatening wet and cold conditions. (more…)

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What are Future Climate Projections for Precipitation and Temperature for Your County?

USGS Website Lets You See

For the first time, maps and summaries of historical and projected temperature and precipitation changes for the 21st century for the continental U.S. are accessible at a county-by-county level on a website developed by the U.S. Geological Survey in collaboration with the College of Earth, Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State University.

The maps and summaries are based on NASA downscaling of the 33 climate models used in the 5th Climate Model Intercomparison Project and the current Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Assessment Report. The resulting NASA dataset is on an 800-meter grid with national coverage.  (more…)

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