Crustal Imaging and Characterization Team
A number of Crustal Imaging & Characterization projects are funded by or are carried out in cooperation with other federal and state agencies. Some of those organizations are: Department of Energy (DOE), National Park Service (NPS), Bureau of Land Management (BLM), National Science Foundation (NSF), National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA), U.S. Army Corp of Engineers (USACE), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
USGS is performing geophysical studies in cooperation with the Bureau of Land Management. BLM wants to utilize recent technical advancements in geophysics for improved characterization methods for sites containing potential hazardous materials, abandoned mine lands, and other resource management issues. Objectives are to:
Contact: Jarad Abraham
The NASA Cassini mission to Saturn carries an imaging spectrometer called VIMS that will be used to map compositions of the planet's atmosphere, rings and satellites. USGS scientists will analyze the spectral data to map minerals and other materials on the solid surfaces of the moons and rings of Saturn. Understanding the composition of these bodies will help us to understand their origin and evolution, and give us a better understanding of the origin of the solar system, the resources that will be available to people, and the potential hazards for future travel.
Contact: Roger Clark
In this co-led project with the USGS Earth Surface Processes Team, geophysicists team up with geologists to develop subsurface models of alluvial basins located along the Rio Grande, which contain the main water supply for many desert communities. The studies include examination of new high-resolution aeromagnetic methods and research on ways to identify and predict important hydrogeologic properties of intrabasinal faults in the subsurface. Current focus is the Espanola basin, which encompasses the Santa Fe area, New Mexico.
Visit the Project Website.
Contact: Tien Grauch
This project, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Environmental Management Science Program, aims to improve the performance of ground penetrating radar (GPR) by enhancing instrumentation and developing new numerical algorithms. It is our contention that we can sharpen subsurface images and extend the possible depths of investigation in high loss environments in ways that are not now available. Since GPR is such a powerful field tool with a unique subsurface characterization potential, an extension of the domain of GPR applicability is a worthy research goal. This research is being conducted in collaboration with Dr. Gary R. Olhoeft of the Colorado School of Mines.
Contacts: USGS Co-Principal Investigators: David Wright and Michael Powers
Natural resource managers have been unable to statistically monitor the results of prescribed fires in the grassland-shrub environment by using ocular monitoring that may miss critical information and be misleading in ecosystem assessment, burn success evaluation, and determining the return interval for the reintroduction of fire. The project's objectives are to demonstrate that grassland-shrub and sagebrush vegetation communities can be consistently and accurately identified and mapped by using imaging spectroscopy, an advanced remote sensing technique, and comparing measurements between ground-measured chlorophyll and moisture content and the appropriate absorption features on simultaneously acquired airborne hyperspectral imagery. Study results will be used to develop accurate trend data to determine whether prescribed fire objectives were met to aid in the development of a reliable remote biomass and moisture-content monitoring system, and to enhace inputs to current computer-based fire modeling systems beyond current capabilities, aiding wildland fire mangers.
Visit the Postburn Vegetation project website.
Contact: Raymond Kokaly
Research has demonstrated that organic colvents, such as PCE, alter the electrical properties of clay minerals. Current USGS laboratory investigations on clay-organic reactions as well as EPA model-tank experiments hope to exploit the change in electrical properties to directly detect subsurface organic solvent contamination. software used to control complex resistivity instrumentation and data interpretation is being modified and improved.
Contact: Robert Horton
This research, funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), will numerically and physically evaluate a high-resolution directional borehole radar (DBOR) prototype system and the very early time electromagnetic (VETEM) system for use in a controlled chemical spill to be conducted by the EPA. VETEM operates from the surface and the DBOR from boreholes. Each is designed to map inhomogeneities in the earth, such as ones produced when a toxic chemical partially displaces water in pore space in the earth, as occurs with a DNAPL, such as dry-cleaning fluid, is spilled. It is anticipated that geophysical mapping of the spatial distribution of the experimental DNAPL plume, as it develops in time, will provide additional understanding of factors that control the movement of toxic chemical plumes from actual accidental spills. The DBOR and VETEM were developed by the USGS with funds from the EPA, the DOE, the USGS Toxic Substances Hydrology Program, and other sources.
Contact: David Wright
Detection, imaging, and especially discrimination, of buried unexploded ordnance (UXO) are among the most urgent environmental needs for the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). This project, funded by the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP), aims to improve the state-of-the-art in detection, imaging, and discrimination of UXO by evaluation, modification, and testing of existing magnetic and EMI prototype systems originally designed by the USGS for other geophysical applications that are closely related to DoD needs for UXO. The objective of this project includes demonstrations that a combination of modified instrumentation and new interpretation algorithms for EMI and magnetometer data, considered separately and together, can result in high probability of detection with reduced probability of false alarms. This research is being conducted in collaboration with Drs. Yaoguo Li and Misac N. Nabighian of the Colorado School of Mines.
Contact: David Wright
To aid the Afghan Reconstruction effort, the Afghan government is funding USGS to collect airborne gravity, magnetic, orthophoto and synthetic aperture radar data from a Navy Research Laboratory (NRL) Orion P3 aircraft and AVIRIS data from a WB57 aircraft in fall 2005. These data will provide surficial information on faults, mineral assemblages, and reveal the subsurface structure and lithology of Afghanistan that will aid in resource and hazards assessments for the country. USGS, NRL, and Afghan Geological Survey employees will jointly collect, reduce, and analyze the data. The databases will provide a valuable resource for the Afghan Geological Survey.
Visit the USGS Projects in Afghanistan site for additional information on geophysical and remote sensing activities and mineral resource activities.
USGS contacts: Carol Finn and Trude King
The project's main objective is to use the spectroscopic signatures of Libby, Montana materials (vermiculites and amphiboles) to map their locations for the EPA using imaging spectroscopy. Another project outcome is to develop spectroscopy into a rapid assessment tool for detecting and mapping fibrous minerals at other locations. The project has determined that Libby amphiboles have a strong spectroscopic signature that can be used to detect them at low levels. The signatures appear unique and possibly may be used to determine the origin of the fibrous minerals. Other project activities include the development of amphibole reference materials in support of the remediation efforts and in-vitro geochemical and toxicological studies.
Contact: Roger Clark
Hydraulic flow and transport of toxic substances through fractured rock is quite different from flow and transport through permeable rocks, sands, or soils. Therefore, numerical hydraulic modeling to predict flow in permeable materials cannot be relied upon to provide good predictions of flow and transport in fractured rock. The broad objectives of this project are to provide geophysical devices, techniques, data, interpretations, and site characterizations to assist in the development of better numerical models for hydraulic flow and transport in fractured media. Benefits of better models include improved predictions for toxic substance transport in the event of spills, and enhanced ability to predict the effectiveness of remediation techniques for clean-up of the Nationâs environment.
Toxic Substances Hydrology Contamination in Fractured Rock Aquifers Research | USGS Site for Naval Air Warefare Center Research Site, Trenton, New Jersey
Contact: Karl Ellefsen
Under the auspices of a Joint Powers Agreement with the New Mexico Environment Department, the U.S. Geological Survey is carrying out an investigation of baseline and pre-mining ground-water quality in the Red River Basin, New Mexico. The main objective is to infer the pre-mining ground-water quality at the Questa Molycorp mine site. This investigation uses an interdisciplinary approach linking investigations in economic and structural geology, geophysics, geomorphology, ground- and surface-water hydrology, and aqueous geochemistry. Scientists from the Water Resources and Geologic Disciplines are participating in the study.
Contact: Geoff Plumlee
 |
|
|
Mineral Resources |
Eastern / Central / Western / Alaska / Minerals Information |
| Crustal Imaging & Characterization / Spatial Data |
U.S. Department of the Interior |
U.S. Geological Survey
URL: http://crustal.usgs.gov/projects/cooperative_projects.html
Page Contact Information: CICT Webmaster
Page Last Modified: 10-Sep-2008@21:19
