USGS science at AGU
SAN FRANCISCO — From nearly 900 abstracts by USGS presenters at this year’s American Geophysical Union conference, we’ve selected some of the newest, most exciting topics that USGS scientists will explore at AGU. Tips are presented in topic areas, chronologically with room numbers, session numbers and a summary. The AGU conference is held Dec. 5-9 at the Moscone (West and South) Convention Center in San Francisco.
“The annual AGU fall meeting is a preferred venue for showcasing USGS science across all of our areas of emphasis: Climate and Land Use Change, Ecosystems, Energy and Minerals, Environmental Health, Geospatial Information, Hazards, and Water” said USGS director Marcia McNutt. “We save up some of our most exciting results knowing that we can reach a large audience of students and professionals eager to be up to date with the latest information.”
News media representatives are invited to visit the USGS booth in the AGU Exhibit Hall. This is an easy place to connect with USGS and the staff working at the booth will have data, publications, and information.
Climate Change and Western Dust
Monday, 12/5, 10:50 a.m., MW 2018
Ecohydrology across scales in drylands: Implications for water availability and society
USGS Scientist: Belnap
H12F-03/Oral presentation
Climate and land use in dryland regions are leaving soils vulnerable to wind erosion. Dust produced is deposited on snowpack, increasing melt rates, and decreasing overall water inputs into major rivers. As dust-producing activities occur in the Upper Basin, with water shortages mostly experienced in the Lower Basin, societal implications are studied.
Monday, 12/5, 1:45 p.m., MS 104
Effects of atmospheric dust on environments and people
USGS Scientist: Reynolds
U13B-01/Oral presentation
Atmospheric dust particles can affect human health, cause visibility issues, influence atmospheric temperatures, and accelerate melting of snow and ice. This session discusses new scientific findings in this area and the scientific challenges ahead.
Thursday, 12/8, 1:40 p.m. MS Halls A-C
Increasing vulnerability to drought and climate change on the Navajo Nation
USGS Scientist: Hiza Redsteer
GC43B-0928/Poster presentation
Lifelong observations of 73 Native elders yield a record of changes in plants and animals, water availability, weather, and sand/dust storms that complements the scant long-term meteorological records. A long-term drying trend and decreasing snowpack, superimposed on regional drought cycles, is magnifying the cultural and literal erosion and desertification of Navajo lands, leaving the Navajo Nation increasingly vulnerable to climate extremes.
Debris Flows
Monday, 12/5, 8:00 a.m., MW 3010
Rainfall thresholds for post-fire debris-flow emergency-response planning
USGS Scientist: Cannon
NH11B-01/Oral presentation
Wildfires often contribute to severe flooding and debris flows during winter storms. USGS scientists have developed a four-class system that identifies the severity of these events, and these four classes are linked with information on the rainfall conditions that trigger them.
Earthquakes
Monday, 12/5, 8:00 a.m., MS Halls A-C
Seismic imaging of fault zones: Methods and examples from the San Andreas Fault
USGS Scientist: Catchings
T11A-2277/Poster
To seismically retrofit the Hetch Hetchy water delivery system, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission relies on the USGS to provide detailed fault information. USGS uses a seismic imaging technique that combines seismic P-wave and S-wave reflection, refraction, and guided-wave data.
Monday, 12/5, 10:20 a.m., MW 2007
Identifying the hazard before the earthquake: How far have we come, how well have we done?
USGS Scientist: Schwartz
S12A-01/Oral presentation
The field of paleoseismology, looking at past earthquakes to determine the likelihood of a major one in the future, has become increasingly sophisticated over the past 50 years. Recent advances in technology allow scientists to look at previously undatable earthquakes, but anticipating hazards is still difficult.
Monday, 12/5, 4:30 p.m., MW 2009
Intensity distribution of the 2011 Mw5.8 Mineral, Va., earthquake
USGS Scientist: Hough
S14B-03/Oral presentation
More than 133,000 citizen responses were submitted to the USGS “Did You Feel It?” web site the week after the magnitude 5.8 Mineral, Va., earthquake. These data show that earthquake waves traveled especially efficiently toward the northeast, and explores the data in a historical context to show that it is the largest earthquake felt in the state of Virginia.
Monday, 12/5, 3:25 p.m., MW 2007
USGS National Seismic Hazard Map 2014 update
USGS Scientist: Petersen
S13B-08/Oral presentation
The USGS is updating its U.S. National Seismic Hazard Maps, which are used in building codes, risk analyses and public policies. Improvements will include updating earthquake models for active earthquake sources (e.g., New Madrid, San Andreas, Cascadia faults), adding new ground motion models that incorporate data from recent earthquakes (e.g., Tohoku and Virginia earthquakes), and supplementing and improving the earthquake catalog.
Monday, 12/5, 4:45 p.m., MW 2007
Aftershocks can kill
USGS Scientist: Stein
S14A-04/Oral presentation
While aftershock frequency decays as time passes, aftershock magnitude does not. This means large, late aftershocks—particularly if they strike population centers—can be as deadly as their mainshocks. Despite several examples of this, aftershocks are generally ignored in seismic hazard assessment. This presentation argues that one can do a much better job anticipating aftershock hazard than mainshock hazard, and so one should do so.
Tuesday, 12/6, 4:15 p.m., MS 302
Microsoft Kinect™ technology game play to mimic seismic sensor deployment
Scientist: Kilb, USGS Scientist: Cochran
ED24B-02/Oral presentation
Using Microsoft’s Kinect™ technology, USGS scientists have helped to create educational software that uses motion-sensing technology to simulate placing seismological sensors after a major earthquake. The game’s player faces problems such as unexpected aftershocks and equipment failure while trying to place sensors correctly and efficiently.
Friday, 12/9, 8 a.m., MS Halls A-C
Modernization of the Southern California Seismic Network – ARRA and beyond
USGS Scientist: Thomas
S51A-2194/Poster
Hear how federal economic stimulus funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act were spent to upgrade 178 of the Southern California Seismic Network stations, making them more homogenous, less expensive to maintain, and able to transmit higher-quality waveform data.
Agriculture and Food Security
Monday, 12/5, 1:40 p.m., MS Halls A-C
New and improved tools for famine early warning
USGS Scientist: Budde
B13B-0558/Poster
USGS presents new and improved data products and more targeted analysis tools for global food security monitoring.
Mineral and Energy Resources
Monday, 12/5, 10:20 a.m., MW 2022-2024
Geological, technological and political-economic constraints on future supplies of critical elements
USGS Scientist: Long
V12A-01/Oral presentation
Minerals such as rare earth elements are in considerable demand due to the many technologies that require them. Many challenges exist to bring these minerals to market.
Monday, 12/5, 11:14 a.m., MW 2022-2024
Marine ferromanganese deposits as a source of rare metals for high- and green-tech applications: Comparison with land-based deposits
USGS Scientist: Hein
V12A-04/Oral presentation
Deep-ocean deposits of rare earth minerals may offer a potential solution to global demand.
Thursday, 12/8, 4:45 p.m., MW 2009
Can earthquakes due to fluid injection be controlled?
USGS Scientists: McGarr; Williams; Hickman; Oppenheimer
S44B-04/Oral presentation
Injecting fluids into the earth, such as done in during enhanced geothermal development, can cause earthquakes. Case histories give some clues, but much is unresolved.
Hydrology
Wednesday, 12/7, 1:40 p.m., MS Halls A-C
Changes in continental water storage caused by groundwater depletion since 1900
USGS Scientist: Konikow
G33B-0989/Poster
As groundwater continues to be an important part of global agriculture and industry, its supply levels are slowly decreasing. The process of groundwater being used and flowing to the oceans has been found to contribute to sea-level rise.
Monday, 12/5, 1:40 p.m., MS Halls A-C
Fens as whole-ecosystem gauges of climate change
USGS Scientist: Drexler
H13C-1227/Poster
Groundwater-fed peatlands, called fens, have the potential to be used as whole-ecosystem gauges of climate change because of their high sensitivity to changes in hydrology through time.
Thursday, 12/8, 4:00 p.m., MW 3010
Assessment of the effects of conservation practices on water quality
USGS Scientist: Garcia
H44A-01/Oral presentation
Using a semi-empirical model used to simulate stream water quality called SPARROW, scientists found that agricultural conservation practices can significantly reduce phosphorus pollution.
Hawaiian Volcanoes
Wednesday, 12/7, 1:40 p.m., MW 2018
The changing role of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory in its first 100 years
USGS Scientist: Kauahikaua
V33E-01/Oral presentation
Owing to frequent eruptions, ease of access, and continuous record of activity since 1912, Kilauea Volcano has been the focus for volcanological study by government, academic, and international investigators. Come hear how 100 years of monitoring and research at HVO has changed the way volcanoes are understood today.
Thursday, 12/8, 4:00 p.m., MW 2020
The Vog Measurement and Prediction Project
USGS Scientist: Sutton
V44C-05/Oral presentation
Real-time modeling and forecast systems aim to study and to warn the public of SO2 pollution from Kilauea volcano, which poses significant health and environmental risks.
Tsunamis
Monday, 12/5, 1:40 p.m., MS Halls A-C
Estimating the likelihood of extreme seismogenic tsunamis
USGS Scientist: Geist
NH13A-1369/Poster
Because the likelihood of tsunamis caused by earthquakes is directly linked to the size of the generating earthquakes, we can determine the likelihood of a tsunami occurring in a certain location by looking at earthquake data. Because of complicated wave evolution near shore, estimates for extreme tsunamis are site-specific.
Monday, 12/5, 3:10 p.m., MW 3010
Field observations of tsunami characteristics after 2011 Japanese tsunami
USGS Scientist: Richmond
NH13G-07 /Oral presentation
Characteristics of the Tohoku tsunami deposits reveal information on the geologic processes of the destructive waves as well as criteria to identify paleotsunami deposits in the geologic record. The international team observed height and direction of tsunami flow, mapped erosion features and assessed and sampled sediment deposition in shallow trenches.
Tuesday, 12/6, 1:45 p.m., MW 3010
Tsunami population-vulnerability index based on pedestrian-evacuation modeling
USGS Scientist: Wood
NH23B-01/Oral presentation
Previous estimates of losses due to tsunamis have only looked at the number of people in hazard zones. This study takes into account factors such as distance to safety, types of land cover, slope, and travel speeds.
Wednesday, 12/7, 11:50 a.m., MW 3010
Assessing tsunami hazard from the geologic record
USGS Scientist: Jaffe
NH32A-07/Oral presentation
Hazard assessments have begun to incorporate tsunami deposits into the few available historical records of tsunamis, a technique that is growing more accurate as scientists are able to distinguish storm deposits from tsunami deposits. However, studies of the 2011 Japan tsunami suggest that deposits may not be an accurate measurement of inundation distance, and that other proxies such as geochemical signatures and approaches such as sediment transport modeling are needed.
Planetary Science
Wednesday, 12/7, 10:50 a.m., MS 307
The surface composition of Titan
USGS Scientist: Clark
P32C-03/ Oral presentation
Measuring the 0.35 to 5-micron spectral reflectance of compounds relevant to Saturn’s moon Titan, scientists have identified possible matches including cytosine, uracil, guanine, and adenine, the four nucleobases in the nucleic acid of RNA. If these compounds can be confirmed to be on Titan, it could have implications for the formation of life.
Thursday, 12/8, 8:00 a.m. Halls A-C
Global controlled mosaic of Mercury from MESSENGER orbital images
USGS Scientist: Becker
P41A-1589/Poster
The USGS is constructing a highly accurate map of Mercury’s surface from MESSENGER orbital images acquired since entering orbit March 18, 2011. Registration errors are corrected. From this work, USGS has derived a preliminary digital elevation model that will be used to improve the map.
Friday, 12/9, 8 a.m., MS Halls A-C
A microbial base for possible Martian life
USGS Scientist: Miller
B51G-0485/Poster
Some microorganisms can oxidize methane by using an available supply of oxygen. This study is working with organisms that reduce perchlorate to chloride and in the process make O2 that could then be used for energy by a methane oxidizer. This pathway could be in use anywhere there is perchlorate and methane, even in an environment without oxygen.
Biochemistry
Monday, 12/5, 5:40 a.m., MW 2002
Wetland plants and carbon sequestration in restored peatland of California
USGS Scientist: Windham-Myers
B14C-07 /Oral presentation
Peat soils serve as the greatest long-term carbon sink on land, containing more than a quarter of the world’s stored carbon. This study looks into the exact rates and sensitivities of plant photosynthesis and respiration in a temperate freshwater wetland in comparison with estimates of microbial respiration to explain the high rates of carbon capture documented in this managed restored wetland.
Tuesday, 12/6, 9:30 a.m., MW 2006
Sulfur and methylmercury in the Florida Everglades – the biogeochemical connection
USGS Scientist: Orem
B21L-07/Oral presentation
Fish in the Everglades have some of the highest mercury levels in the United States, posing problems to both fish-eating animals and humans. USGS studies show that among other factors, high levels of sulfur in surface water causes bacteria to produce methyl mercury. Current restoration plans for the park may cause more sulfur to be added to the southern waters; a change in the restoration strategy, taking into account sulfur levels, is needed.
Bird Behavior
Friday, 12/9, 10:20 a.m., MS 309
Do homing pigeons use acoustic signals for navigation?
USGS Scientist: Hagstrum
B52A-01/Oral presentation
This study proposes that atmospheric and topographic effects on the transmission of acoustic signals can affect avian navigation.
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