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12 unusual facts about United States Geological Survey


1954 Chlef earthquake

The United States Geological Survey lists the 1954 quake among the deadliest earthquakes in history.

Biological Resources Discipline

The Biological Resources Discipline (BRD) is a program of the United States Geological Survey (USGS).

Chlorpyrifos

Chlorpyrifos is highly toxic to amphibians, and a recent study by the United States Geological Survey found that its main breakdown product in the environment, chlorpyrifos oxon, is even more toxic to these animals.

Core Research Center

The Core Research Center is a facility run by the United States Geological Survey, located in "F" bay in building 810 on the Denver Federal Center campus.

Crepidula onyx

USGS Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database, Gainesville, FL.

Edgar Beecher Bronson

Formerly a reporter for the New York Tribune, Bronson headed west in 1877 to learn the cattle business under the directive of Clarence King — first director of the United States Geological Survey and owner of large mining and cattle operations in the American West.

Effects of Hurricane Isabel in North Carolina

The United States Geological Survey used sand from the ferry channel to the southwest of Hatteras Island, a choice made to minimize impact to submerged aquatic vegetation and due to the channel being filled somewhat during the hurricane.

Eleanora Knopf

Eleanora Frances Bliss Knopf (1883–1974) was a geologist who worked for the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and did research in the Appalachians during the first two decades of the twentieth century.

Julia Anna Gardner

a geologist with the United States Geological Survey for 32 years, was known worldwide for her work in stratigraphy and mollusc paleontology.

LandView

LandView is a public domain GIS viewer designed to display United States Census Bureau, Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), and U.S.Geological Survey (USGS) data.

Marv Breuer

After Breuer's playing career ended, he spent 31 years working for the United States Geological Survey until his retirement in 1976.

Minerals Yearbook

The Minerals Yearbook is an annual publication from the US Geological Survey.


Aheylite

It was first described for an occurrence in the Huanuni mine, Huanuni, Oruro Department, Bolivia, and named for Allen V. Heyl (1918–2008), an economic geologist for the United States Geological Survey.

Anders Beer Wilse

He did not find work in the beginning, but eventually settled in Seattle working for the United States Geological Survey.

Andersen Escarpment

The name was proposed by cartographer Peter F. Bermel and geologist Dr. Arthur B. Ford, co-leaders of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Thiel Mountains party, 1960–61, for Bjørn G. Andersen, Norwegian professor of geology and glaciology at the University of Oslo, who was a member of the 1960–61 and 1961–62 USGS field parties to the Thiel Mountains.

Bolide

For example, the Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center of the USGS uses bolide as a generic term that describes any large crater-forming impacting body of which its composition (for example, whether it is a rocky or metallic asteroid, or an icy comet) is unknown.

California State Route 162

Alder Springs is the location of the Alder Springs GASB site, which is part of the Consolidated Reporting of Earthquakes and Tsunamis (CREST) network run by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the United States Geological Survey (USGS), and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Carleton Glacier

It was mapped by the United States Geological Survey from ground surveys and from Navy air photos, and named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names in 1963, in association with nearby Rutgers Glacier, after Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota, which has sent researchers to Antarctica.

Cooke Glacier

It was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names after Kirsten Cooke Healey, of the United States Geological Survey (USGS), Woods Hole, Massachusetts, a computer graphics specialist from the mid-1990s onwards for the USGS project that is compiling the Satellite Image Atlas of Glaciers and 25 Glaciological and Coastal-Change Maps of Antarctica.

DeGoes Cliff

The geographical feature was first mapped by the United States Geological Survey from surveys and U.S. Navy air photos, 1960–63, and was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names for Louis DeGoes of the National Academy of Sciences, who was Executive Secretary of the Committee on Polar Research, United States National Research Council.

Elephant Moraine

The feature was noted in U.S. satellite imagery of 1973, and in aerial photographs obtained subsequently, by William R. MacDonald of the United States Geological Survey, who originally described it to William A. Cassidy as "a possible nunatak having an outline similar to an elephant."

Elliott Nunatak

The name, for Raymond L. Elliott, a geologist with the United States Geological Survey Thiel Mountains party that surveyed these mountains in 1960–61, was proposed by Peter Bermel and Arthur Ford, co-leaders of the party.

Embudo, New Mexico

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) gauging station at Embudo, to measure the flow of the Rio Grande, was the first (USGS) stream gauging station and was established by John Wesley Powell in 1888.

Garonne

Despite the lack of universal agreement upon definition for determining a stream's source, the United States Geological Survey, the National Geographic Society, and the Smithsonian Institution agree that a stream's source should be considered as the most distant point (along watercourses from the river mouth) in the drainage basin from which water runs.

Goodell Glacier

It was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names after Janice G. Goodell of the United States Geological Survey, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, a support member of the Glacier Studies Project Team from the early 1990s onwards.

Hadley Peak

The name was proposed by Peter Bermel and Arthur B. Ford, co-leaders of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Thiel Mountains party which surveyed these mountains in 1960–61.

Hilary A. Herbert

Herbert also became well known for leading a charge in Congress to reduce the funding of the United States Geological Survey, resulting in a public feud with paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh.

Kansas Glacier

It was mapped by the United States Geological Survey from surveys and U.S. Navy air photos, 1960–64, and was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names for the University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, which has sent a number of research personnel to Antarctica.

Kate Hutton

Hutton sometimes appears with her United States Geological Survey colleague "Dr. Lucy" Jones, who has been appearing on television since the 1980s.

Lamb Spring

Nebraska State Museum, United States Geological Survey and University of Michigan personnel assisted in the excavation and analysis.

Lie Cliff

It was mapped by the United States Geological Survey from surveys and U.S. Navy aerial photography, 1959–66, and was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names for Hans P. Lie, a United States Antarctic Research Program ionospheric physicist at Siple Station in the 1970–71 and 1973–74 summer seasons.

Mount Grendal

It was mapped by the United States Geological Survey in 1962 from U.S. Navy aerial photographs taken 1947–59, and was named by the New Zealand Antarctic Place-Names Committee in 1983 from association with Mount Beowulf after Grendal (Grendel), the monster in the Old English epic poem Beowulf.

Mount Marcus Baker

Mount Marcus Baker was originally called "Mount Saint Agnes"; according to Bradford Washburn, James W. Bagley of the USGS named it after his wife Agnes, adding the "Saint" in hopes of making the name stick.

Mount Stanford

In 1911 the U. S. Geological Survey (USGS) named a peak in honor of the Leland Stanford, an American tycoon, politician and founder of Stanford University.

Mount Walcott

The name was proposed by Peter Bermel and Arthur Ford, co-leaders of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Thiel Mountains party which surveyed these mountains in 1960-61.

Mount Wrather

The name was proposed by Peter Bermel and Arthur Ford, co-leaders of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Thiel Mountains party that surveyed the mountains in 1960-61.

Nutt Bluff

Named by Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (US-ACAN) at the suggestion of Arthur B. Ford, leader of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) geological party in the Dufek Massif, 1976–77, after Constance J. Nutt, geologist, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, a member of the USGS party.

Richard C. Banks

(born April 19, 1931) is an American author, ornithologist and Emeritus Research Zoologist on staff with the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center run by the U.S. Geological Survey and stationed at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC.

Rosario Strait

The USGS defines its southern boundary as a line extending from Point Colville on Lopez Island to Rosario Head on Fidalgo Island, and its northern boundary as a line from Point Migley on Lummi Island to the east tip of Puffin Island (just east of Matia Island) and then to Point Thompson on Orcas Island.

Smith Knob

The name was proposed by Peter Bermel and Arthur Ford, co-leaders of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Thiel Mountains party which surveyed these mountains, 1960-61.

Thomas Valley

Named by Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (US-ACAN) (1997) after Jean-Claude Thomas, Associate Professor of Geography-Cartography, Catholic University of America, 1967–76, George Mason University, 1976–85; United States Geological Survey (USGS) Cartographer from 1985, specializing in satellite image mapping at various scales, including the 1:25,000-scale color maps of McMurdo Dry Valleys, 1997.

University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System

Federal support for and cooperation with UNOLS is found in the National Science Foundation (NSF), Office of Naval Research (ONR), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), U.S. Coast Guard (USCG), U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the Minerals Management Service (MMS) and other agencies.

Van Loon Glacier

It was mapped by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) from surveys and U.S. Navy aerial photography, 1960–62, and was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (US-ACAN) for meteorologist Harry van Loon, a member of the Antarctic Weather Central team at Little America on the Ross Ice Shelf 1957-58, who has written numerous scientific papers dealing with Antarctic and southern hemisphere atmospheric research.

Volume and extent of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill

Official estimates were provided by the Flow Rate Technical Group—scientists from the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), United States Geological Survey (USGS), Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE), U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and outside academics, led by USGS director Marcia McNutt.

William Francis Hillebrand

After returning home to the United States in 1878, he opened an assay office in Leadville, Colorado, in 1879, and then started working as a chemist at the United States Geological Survey in 1880.