Skip to main content
Advanced Search

Filters: Tags: Monitoring 5-Physical Science (X)

595 results (9ms)   

View Results as: JSON ATOM CSV
thumbnail
In 2005 the Alaska Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys initiated a multi-year geologic field study focused on a corridor centered along the Alaska Highway between Delta Junction and the Canada border. The purpose of this project is to provide geologic information relevant to a proposed Alaska-Canada natural gas pipeline and other future development in the corridor. Identification of active faults and characterization of seismic hazards were included in the project. During the 2006 and 2007 field seasons, lineaments and geologic features indicative of possible youthful surface faulting in or near the western half of the corridor between Delta Junction and Dot Lake were identified and evaluated. Four of the...
thumbnail
A systematic water-quality study of the Fortymile River and many of its major tributaries in eastern Alaska was conducted in June of 1997 and 1998. Surface-water samples were collected for chemical analyses to establish regional baseline geochemistry values and to evaluate the possible environmental effects of suction-dredge placer gold mining and bulldozer-operated placer gold mining (commonly referred to as “cat mining”). In general, the water quality of the Fortymile River is very good, with low total dissolved solids and only two cases in which the concentration of any element exceeded primary or secondary drinking-water quality standards. In both cases, iron exceeded secondary drinking-water limits. At...
thumbnail
The Late Cretaceous Surprise Lake batholith in the Atlin district of northern British Columbia is a highly differentiated, fluoritic, and peraluminous subalkaline body of adamellite-granite composition. The presence of miarolitic cavities and chilled, fine-grained margins suggests it was emplaced at a high structural level, and its trace element signature indicates it has some within-plate granitoid characteristics. The batholith shows many chemical similarities to the I-type igneous rocks associated with W skarns in British Columbia, although it averages >2,700 ppm F, whereas plutons related to W skarns average <400 ppm F. It also shares similar characteristics to the Seagull batholith in south-central Yukon which,...
thumbnail
A high-resolution column of 57 loess samples was collected from the Dry Creek archaeological site in the Nenana River Valley in central Alaska. Numerical grain-size partitioning using a mixed Weibull function was performed on grain-size distributions to obtain a reconstructed record of wind intensity over the last ~15,000 yr. Two grain-size components were identified, one with a mode in the coarse silt range (C1) and the other ranging from medium to very coarse sand (C2). C1 dominates most samples and records regional northerly winds carrying sediment from the Nenana River. These winds were strong during cold intervals, namely, the Carlo Creek glacial readvance (14.2–14 ka), a late Holocene Neoglacial period (4.2–2.7...
thumbnail
Cryostratigraphic mapping in the main shaft of the CRREL tunnel indicates secondary modification of original Pleistocene-age syngenetic permafrost. Layered, lenticular-layered and micro-lenticular cryostructures within undisturbed silt characterise the syngenetic permafrost. Thawed and refrozen deposits are characterised by massive and reticulate-chaotic cryostructures. The micro-morphology of typical cryostructures, as observed through an environmental scanning electron microscope (ESEM), is described. It is inferred that preferential cryogenic modification has occurred due to fluvio-thermal erosion operating along ice wedges. Soil and ice pseudomorphs are the manifestation of this process. Gravel, silt, ice and...
We measured the surface velocity field during the summers of 1999 and 2000 on the 7 km long, 185 m thick Bench Glacier, Alaska, USA. In the spring of both years, a short-lived pulse of surface velocity, 2-4 times the annual mean velocity, propagated up-glacier from the terminus at a rate of similar to 200-250 m d super(-1). Displacement attributable to rapid sliding is similar to 5-10% of the annual surface motion, while the high-velocity event comprised 60-95% of annual basal motion. Sliding during the propagating speed-up event peaked at 6-14 cm super(-1), with the highest rates in mid-glacier. Continuous horizontal and vertical GPS measurements at one stake showed divergence and then convergence of the ice surface...
thumbnail
The 2002 Mw 7.9 Denali Fault earthquake, Alaska, provides an unparalleled opportunity to investigate in quantitative detail the regional hillslope mass-wasting response to strong seismic shaking in glacierized terrain. We present the first detailed inventory of ∼1580 coseismic slope failures, out of which some 20% occurred above large valley glaciers, based on mapping from multi-temporal remote sensing data. We find that the Denali earthquake produced at least one order of magnitude fewer landslides in a much narrower corridor along the fault ruptures than empirical predictions for an M ∼8 earthquake would suggest, despite the availability of sufficiently steep and dissected mountainous topography prone to frequent...
thumbnail
Investigated herein are water and sediment geochemistry, and metal attenuation processes associated with natural acid rock drainage originating from black shale formations in the Macmillan Pass area, Clear Lake prospect and Engineer Creek by the Dempster Highway in the Yukon Territory, Canada. The most metalliferous water having pH 3.0, 150 mg/L Zn, 39 mg/L Ni, 2.8 mg/L Cu and 9.1 mg/L As was found in a tributary stream of Engineer Creek with no known mineral deposits occurring in the vicinity. For all three study areas, the water and sediment geochemistry is significantly affected by the local lithology and prevailing metal attenuation processes. Despite their anomalous acidity and metal contents, the natural acid...
thumbnail
At sites where petrochemical releases have occurred comparatively recently (i.e., over the last 20 years), explicit age-dating is a viable approach. However, differentiating among multiparty contamination at sites with several decades of history may mandate a different allocation strategy, especially when there is an uncoordinated body of environmental data. At a location where a refinery operated for 11 months during World War II, and which has been used as a fuel distribution terminal over the ensuing 60 years, regulatory interest was triggered in 1997 when a sheen was detected discharging into the adjacent Yukon River. Our investigation combined disparate forensic tools with data visualization software to establish...
map background search result map search result map Quaternary glacial, lacustrine, and fluvial interactions in the western Noatak basin, northwest Alaska The Geochemistry of Three Tin-Bearing Skarns and Their Related Plutonic Rocks, Atlin, Northern British Columbia Regional baseline geochemistry and environmental effects of gold placer mining operations on the Fortymile River, eastern Alaska Circumpolar Active Layer Monitoring (CALM) sites in the Mackenzie Valley, northwestern Canada Characteristics of discontinuous permafrost based on ground temperature measurements and electrical resistivity tomography, southern Yukon, Canada Germanium/silicon ratios in the Copper River basin, Alaska: weathering and partitioning in periglacial versus glacial environments Active and Potentially Active Faults in Or Near the Alaska Highway Corridor, Dot Lake to Tetlin Junction, Alaska Why so few? Landslides triggered by the 2002 Denali earthquake, Alaska Natural acid rock drainage associated with black shale in the Yukon Territory, Canada Use of Geochemical Forensics to Determine Release Eras of Petrochemicals to Groundwater, Whitehorse, Yukon Three decades of landscape change in Alaska’s Arctic National Parks: Analysis of aerial photographs, c. 1980-2010 Air Quality Monitoring Protocol for Denali National Park & Preserve, Alaska Further cryostratigraphic observations in the CRREL permafrost tunnel, Fox, Alaska Geology and new mineralization in the Joss’alun belt, Atlin area Variations in late Quaternary wind intensity from grain-size partitioning of loess deposits in the Nenana River Valley, Alaska Relations between water physico-chemistry and benthic algal communities in a northern Canadian watershed: defining reference conditions using multiple descriptors of community structure Further cryostratigraphic observations in the CRREL permafrost tunnel, Fox, Alaska Variations in late Quaternary wind intensity from grain-size partitioning of loess deposits in the Nenana River Valley, Alaska Use of Geochemical Forensics to Determine Release Eras of Petrochemicals to Groundwater, Whitehorse, Yukon Germanium/silicon ratios in the Copper River basin, Alaska: weathering and partitioning in periglacial versus glacial environments The Geochemistry of Three Tin-Bearing Skarns and Their Related Plutonic Rocks, Atlin, Northern British Columbia Geology and new mineralization in the Joss’alun belt, Atlin area Active and Potentially Active Faults in Or Near the Alaska Highway Corridor, Dot Lake to Tetlin Junction, Alaska Air Quality Monitoring Protocol for Denali National Park & Preserve, Alaska Relations between water physico-chemistry and benthic algal communities in a northern Canadian watershed: defining reference conditions using multiple descriptors of community structure Quaternary glacial, lacustrine, and fluvial interactions in the western Noatak basin, northwest Alaska Regional baseline geochemistry and environmental effects of gold placer mining operations on the Fortymile River, eastern Alaska Natural acid rock drainage associated with black shale in the Yukon Territory, Canada Characteristics of discontinuous permafrost based on ground temperature measurements and electrical resistivity tomography, southern Yukon, Canada Three decades of landscape change in Alaska’s Arctic National Parks: Analysis of aerial photographs, c. 1980-2010 Why so few? Landslides triggered by the 2002 Denali earthquake, Alaska Circumpolar Active Layer Monitoring (CALM) sites in the Mackenzie Valley, northwestern Canada