United States Geological Survey

Assessing consequences of anthropogenic hybridization: Great Lakes mallard movement and resource selection

The release of domesticated animals is resulting in anthropogenic hybridization with their wild congeners and there is concern that these interactions are a risk to conservation. In North America, large-scale releases of domesticated mallards have continued for over a century, ye...

Climate drives recent increases in fire activity in aspen ( Populus tremuloides Michx.) forests of the western US

Background Portions of the western US are experiencing simultaneous increases in wildfire frequency, size and intensity alongside worsening drought conditions. Despite the importance of quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) as a keystone species, drivers of wildfire in aspen...

Methodology for assessing the accuracy of long-term, annual land cover monitoring at national scale: Experiences from the Land Change Monitoring, Assessment, and Projection (LCMAP) initiative

Annual land cover monitoring using medium-resolution satellite imagery represents a transition from periodic mapping campaigns to continuous observation systems. This transition introduces accuracy assessment challenges not encountered in one-time mapping efforts, particularly wh...

Project Overview of the 2023–2024 Production Test of Gas Hydrate on the Alaska North Slope

Abstract A 10-month gas production test from a gas hydrate-bearing sand reservoir was successfully conducted on the Alaska North Slope to better understand reservoir depressurization-based gas production. The JOGMEC-DOE-USGS Collaborative Gas Hydrate R&D Project in Alaska was imp...

Insights from more than a year of ongoing episodic lava fountaining at Kīlauea

Episodic lava fountaining is rare globally, with only three occurrences from Kīlauea (Hawaii) since 1823. Beginning in December 2024, an eruption within the summit crater, Halemaʻumaʻu, has produced 54 fountaining episodes to date, each lasting typically for hours and separated b...

Re-Evaluation of Shaking, Dynamic Strain, and the Source of the 1886 Charleston, South Carolina, Earthquake

ABSTRACT As the largest historical event in the eastern United States, the 1886 Charleston, South Carolina, earthquake, plays a prominent role in our nation’s seismological and human history and an outsized role in our probabilistic ground-motion hazard estimates, affecting build...

Cognitive and institutional barriers to effective natural resource management under global change

Abstract Many of the most challenging decisions facing natural resource managers today can be understood as time dependent. The concept of time‐dependent decisions is useful when considering natural resource management decisions that are characterized by nonstationarity in the un...

Estimating temporal (2019–2025) and regional effects on Minnesotans' attitudes toward wolf hunting

Public attitudes toward wolf hunting are important for developing socially responsive wolf management policy. Drawing on two representative surveys of state residents, this study examined change in Minnesotans' (USA) support for wolf hunting in 2019 and 2025. We found that slight...

Alaska North Slope HYDRATE 02 Geo Data Well (GDW) Downhole Logging, Pressure Coring, and Completion Operations and Data

Abstract The “Collaborative Gas Hydrate R&D Project in Alaska,” led by the Japan Organization for Metals and Energy Security (JOGMEC), the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and the U.S. Geological Survey, aims to examine and assess gas hydrate reservoir systems, their production b...

Multiphysical Responses of a Gas Hydrate Reservoir to Extended-Duration Gas Production on the Alaska North Slope

Abstract The field test of extended-duration gas production from a gas hydrate-bearing reservoir via depressurization─formally titled the JOGMEC–DOE–USGS Collaborative Gas Hydrate R&D Project in Alaska─was conducted in the Prudhoe Bay Unit on the Alaska North Slope during 2023–20...

Production of Secondary Microbial Methane from a Gas Hydrate-Bearing Reservoir at the HYDRATE P1 Production Test Well (PTW-1) on the Alaskan North Slope

Abstract Gas hydrate in the Alaskan North Slope (ANS) is believed to contain as much methane as the known conventional gas accumulations in the Prudhoe Bay field. The JOGMEC-DOE-USGS Collaborative Gas Hydrate R&D Project conducted an extended-duration production test from the sub...

Overview of the Monitoring Program in the Alaska North Slope Extended-Duration Gas Production Test from Gas Hydrate

Abstract As a part of an extended-duration gas production test conducted under the JOGMEC-DOE-USGS Collaborative Gas Hydrate R&D Project in Alaska, one of the main objectives was to understand the behavior of gas hydrate formation and the production system during long-term depres...

Operational Overview of the JOGMEC-DOE-USGS Gas Production Test from Gas Hydrate on the Alaska North Slope

Abstract To understand the long-term production behavior of gas hydrate, an extended-duration gas production test was conducted under the JOGMEC-DOE-USGS Collaborative Gas Hydrate R&D Project in Alaska. The production test began in September 2023 using an electric submersible pum...

Intensity Prediction Equations for Intraslab Earthquakes in the Cascadia Subduction Zone

Abstract In the U.S. Pacific Northwest (PNW), intraslab earthquakes located within the subducting Juan de Fuca slab are responsible for most of the region’s moderate-magnitude seismicity. Historically, these earthquakes have caused significant damage, such as the 2001 M 6.8 Nisqu...

IVyTools : Space–Time Image Velocimetry for Streamflow

ABSTRACT Accurate streamflow measurements are essential for hydrologic monitoring, flood forecasting, and water resource management. Traditional in situ methods, although reliable, are often impractical or unsafe during flood conditions or at inaccessible locations. Image velocim...

Reservoir cascades as directional invasion corridors

Abstract Reservoir cascades in large river systems impose directional pathways that can structure biological invasions, yet how these pathways interact with propagule supply and lock-mediated passage opportunity to influence arrival timing remains poorly understood. We used inter...

Accretionary pedogenesis and Holocene climate evolution in black soil region of northeast China: Evidence from a sedimentary profile

The black soil region of the Songnen Plain, one of the world’s three major black soil belts, is critical for China’s grain security, yet the formation mechanism of its thick, organic-rich soils remains insufficiently quantified. Here, we investigate the ZYHPM01 profile in the eas...

Spatial Variability of Earthquake Ground Motions in the Eel River Basin, Northern California, from Dense Aftershock Arrays

Abstract Sedimentary basins in seismically active regions can exhibit strong spatial variability in earthquake ground motions that are often not adequately captured by sparse permanent seismic networks. In northern California, the Eel River basin is of particular interest due to...

Dimensionality Reduction Techniques for Analyzing Tsunami Simulations in Hazard Assessment and Forecasting Applications

Abstract A wide selection of linear and non‐linear dimensionality reduction techniques is evaluated on synthetic tsunami data that is the basis for tsunami hazard assessment and computational forecasting. The data were computed from earthquake rupture forecasts (ERFs) supplying i...

Geological & Petrophysical Findings from Production Test Wells of Gas Hydrate Reservoirs at the Kuparuk State 7–11–12 Site in the Prudhoe Bay Unit on the Alaska North Slope

Abstract As part of a long-term production test targeting gas hydrate reservoirs at the Kuparuk State 7–11–12 site in the Prudhoe Bay Unit on the Alaska North Slope, two production wells (PTW-1 and PTW-2) and one monitoring well (GDW) were drilled in 2023. This study advances res...