USGS

U.S. Geological Survey Subsidence Interest Group Conference, Proceedings of the Technical Meeting, Las Vegas, Nevada, February 14–16, 1995

By Keith R. Prince and S.A. Leake, Editors

 

U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OPEN-FILE REPORT 97-47 Tucson, Arizona
1997


Introduction to Papers

This report is a compilation of short papers that are based on oral presentations summarizing the results of recent research that were given at the third meeting of the Subsidence Interest Group held in Las Vegas, Nevada, February 14–16, 1995. The report includes case studies of land subsidence and aquifer-system deformation resulting from fluid withdrawal, geothermal development, and mine collapse. Methods for monitoring land subsidence using Global Positioning System technology for the rapid and accurate measurement of changes in land-surface altitude also are described. The current status of numerical simulation of land subsidence in the USGS is summarized, and several of the short papers deal with the development and application of new numerical techniques for simulation and quantification of aquifersystem deformation.

Not all oral presentations made at the meeting are documented in this report. Several of the presentations were of ongoing research and as such, the findings were provisional in nature and were offered at the meeting to stimulate scientific discussion and debate among colleagues. The information presented in this report, although only a subset of the proceedings of the meeting in Las Vegas, should help expand the scientific basis for management decisions to mitigate or control the effects of land subsidence. The short papers describing the results of these studies provide a cross section of ongoing research in aquifer mechanics and land subsidence and also form an assessment of the current technology and "state of the science." The analytical and interpretive methods described in this report will be useful to scientists involved in studies of ground-water hydraulics and aquifer-system deformation.

CONTENTS

History of the Subsidence Interest Group by Keith R. Prince

Subsidence Interest Group Conference Agenda

Poroelasticity simulation of ground-water flow and subsurface deformation by Paul A. Hsieh

Simulation of deformation of sediments from decline of ground-water levels in an aquifer underlain by a bedrock step by S.A. Leake and Paul A. Hsieh

State of subsidence modeling within the U.S. Geological Survey by Thomas J. Burbey

Deformation of a sandbar in response to changes in effective stress along the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon, Arizona by M.C. Carpenter

Piezometric-extensometric estimations of specific storage in the Albuquerque Basin, New Mexico by Charles E. Heywood

Results of Global Positioning System surveys in Antelope Valley, California by Marti E. Ikehara

Deformation in the Casa Diablo geothermal well field, Long Valley Caldera, eastern California by James F. Howle and Christopher D. Farrar

Hydrogeologic effects of flooding in the partially collapsed Retsof Salt Mine, Livingston County, New York by Dorothy H. Tepper, William M. Kappel, Todd S. Miller, and John H. Williams


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