New & Noteworthy
National Framework for Groundwater Monitoring
ModelMuse: Graphical User Interface for MODFLOW-2005 and PHAST (TM 6-A29)
Groundwater: Ground water versus groundwater (OGW Technical Memo 2009.03)
Field Techniques for Estimating Water Fluxes Between Surface Water and Ground Water (TM 4–D2)
USGS Groundwater Watch
USGS maintains a network of active wells to provide basic statistics about groundwater levels.
USGS in Your State
USGS Water Science Centers are located in each state.
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Land Subsidence
Some of the most spectacular examples of subsidence-related earth fissures
occur in south-central Arizona. Photo from USGS
Fact Sheet-165-00.
Land subsidence is a gradual settling or sudden sinking
of the Earth's surface owing to subsurface movement of earth
materials. Subsidence is a global problem and, in the United
States, more than 17,000 square miles in 45 States, an area
roughly the size of New Hampshire and Vermont combined, have
been directly affected by subsidence.
The principal causes
are aquifer-system compaction, drainage of organic soils,
underground mining, hydrocompaction, natural compaction, sinkholes,
and thawing permafrost. More than 80 percent of the identified
subsidence in the Nation is a consequence of our exploitation
of underground water, and the increasing development of land
and water resources threatens to exacerbate existing land-subsidence
problems and initiate new ones. In many areas of the arid
Southwest, and in more humid areas underlain by soluble rocks
such as limestone, gypsum, or salt, land subsidence is an
often- overlooked environmental consequence of our land- and
water- use practices.
Resources and Information on Subsidence:
- Land Subsidence in the
United States (Fact Sheet 165-00) *
- Land Subsidence in the United States (circular 1182)
- Measuring Land Subsidence from Space (Fact Sheet-051-00)
- CIMDAS - Center For InSAR Monitoring
- Land Subsidence in California (web site)
- Land Subsidence From Groundwater Pumping (web site)
- Estimates of
hydraulic properties from a one-dimensional numerical model of
vertical aquifer-system deformation, Lorenzi site, Las Vegas,
Nevada (WRIR 03-4083)
- Detection and
Measurement of Land Subsidence Using Global Positioning System
and Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar, Coachella Valley,
California, 1996-98 (WRIR 01-4193)
- Aquifer
- System Compaction and Land Subsidence: Measurements, Analyses,
and Simulations - the Holly Site, Edwards Air Force Base, Antelope
Valley, California (WRIR 00-4015)
- USGS Subsidence Interest Group Conference Proceedings (1992,
1995, 2001)
- Edwards
Air Force Base, Antelope Valley, California, November 18-19,
1992: USGS OFR 94-532
- Las Vegas,
Nevada, February 14-16, 1995: USGS OFR 97-47
- Galveston,
Texas, November 27-29, 2001: USGS OFR 03-308
- Journal articles
- The
application of satellite differential SAR interferometry-derived
ground displacements in hydrogeology: Hydrogeology Journal,
v. 15, no. 1, pp. 133-154, (Galloway, D.L. and Hoffmann, J.,
2007)
- Seasonal
subsidence and rebound in Las Vegas Valley, Nevada, observed
by synthetic aperture radar interferometry: Water Resources
Research, v. 37, no. 6, pp. 1551-1566, (Hoffmann, J., Zebker,
H.A., Galloway, D.L., and Amelung, F., 2001)
- Podcast
- International Survey On Land
Subsidence
* This report was initially printed with the report number "FS-087-00".
The correct and current number for this report is "FS-165-00".
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