The Effect of Owens Dry Lake on Air Quality in the Owens Valley with Implications for the Mono Lake Area

1981 ◽  
pp. 327-346 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. B. BARONE ◽  
L. L. ASHBAUGH ◽  
B. H. KUSKO ◽  
T. A. CAHILL
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
Mono Lake ◽  
Lake Area ◽  
Owens Valley ◽  
Dry Lake

Microseismicity and tectonics of the Nevada Seismic Zone

1971 ◽  
Vol 61 (5) ◽  
pp. 1413-1432 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank J. Gumper ◽  
Christopher Scholz
Keyword(s):  
Sierra Nevada ◽  
Focal Mechanism ◽  
Basin And Range ◽  
Mono Lake ◽  
Tectonic Activity ◽  
Seismic Zone ◽  
Owens Valley ◽  
Western Basin ◽  
Focal Mechanism Solutions ◽  
Composite Focal Mechanism

abstract Microseismicity, composite focal-mechanism solutions, and previously-published focal parameter data are used to determine the current tectonic activity of the prominent zone of seismicity in western Nevada and eastern California, termed the Nevada Seismic Zone. The microseismicity substantially agrees with the historic seismicity and delineates a narrow, major zone of activity that extends from Owens Valley, California, north past Dixie Valley, Nevada. Focal parameters indicate that a regional pattern of NW-SE tension exists for the western Basin and Range and is now producing crustal extension within the Nevada Seismic Zone. An eastward shift of the seismic zone along the Excelsior Mountains and left-lateral strike-slip faulting determined from a composite focal mechanism indicate transform-type faulting between Mono Lake and Pilot Mountain. Based on these results and other data, it is suggested that the Nevada Seismic Zone is caused by the interaction of a westward flow of mantle material beneath the Basin and Range Province with the boundary of the Sierra Nevada batholith.

Sierra Nevada-Great Basin boundary zone: Earthquake hazard related to structure, active tectonic processes, and anomalous patterns of earthquake occurrence

1980 ◽  
Vol 70 (5) ◽  
pp. 1557-1572
Author(s):  
J. D. VanWormer ◽  
Alan S. Ryall
Keyword(s):  
Sierra Nevada ◽  
Great Basin ◽  
Temporal Variations ◽  
Mono Lake ◽  
Local Network ◽  
Low Velocity ◽  
Owens Valley ◽  
Walker Lake ◽  
Fault Plane Solutions ◽  
The North

abstract Precise epicentral determinations based on local network recordings are compared with mapped faults and volcanic features in the western Great Basin. This region is structurally and seismically complex, and seismogenic processes vary within it. In the area north of the rupture zone of the 1872 Owens Valley earthquake, dispersed clusters of epicenters agree with a shatter zone of faults that extend the 1872 breaks to the north and northwest. An area of frequent earthquake swarms east of Mono Lake is characterized by northeast-striking faults and a crustal low-velocity zone; seismicity in this area appears to be related to volcanic processes that produced thick Pliocene basalt flows in the Adobe Hills and minor historic activity in Mono Lake. In the Garfield Hills between Walker Lake and the Excelsior Mountains, there is some clustering of epicenters along a north-trending zone that does not correlate with major Cenozoic structures. In an area west of Walker Lake, low seismicity supports a previous suggestion by Gilbert and Reynolds (1973) that deformation in that area has been primarily by folding and not by faulting. To the north, clusters of earthquakes are observed at both ends of a 70-km-long fault zone that forms the eastern boundary of the Sierra Nevada from Markleeville to Reno. Clusters of events also appear at both ends of the Dog Valley Fault in the Sierra west of Reno, and at Virginia City to the east. Fault-plane solutions for the belt in which major earthquakes have occurred in Nevada during the historic period (from Pleasant Valley in the north to the Excelsior Mountains on the California-Nevada Border) correspond to normaloblique slip and are similar to that found by Romney (1957) for the 1954 Fairview Peak shock. However, mechanisms of recent moderate earthquakes within the SNGBZ are related to right- or left-lateral slip, respectively, on nearly vertical, northwest-, or northeast-striking planes. These mechanisms are explained by a block faulting model of the SNGBZ in which the main fault segments trend north, have normal-oblique slip, and are offset or terminated by northwest-trending strike-slip faults. This is supported by the observation that seismicity during the period of observation has been concentrated at places where major faults terminate or intersect. Anomalous temporal variations, consisting of a general decrease in seismicity in the southern part of the SNGBZ from October 1977 to September 1978, followed by a burst of moderate earthquakes that has continued for more than 18 months, is suggestive of a pattern that several authors have identified as precursory to large earthquakes. The 1977 to 1979 variations are particularly noteworthy because they occurred over the entire SNGBZ, indicating a regional rather than local cause for the observed changes.

First survey of fungi in hypersaline soil and water of Mono Lake area (California)

2004 ◽  
Vol 85 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Régine Steiman ◽  
Larry Ford ◽  
Véronique Ducros ◽  
Jean-Luc Lafond ◽  
Pascale Guiraud
Keyword(s):  
Mono Lake ◽  
Lake Area ◽  
Soil And Water

Biodiversity: Our Precious Heritage

2000 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan S. Adams ◽  
Bruce A. Stein
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Sierra Nevada ◽  
Limited Range ◽  
Wire Mesh ◽  
Death Valley ◽  
Owens Valley ◽  
California Department ◽  
Dry Lake ◽  
One Year ◽  
Seasonally Flooded

Unusually heavy rains in the winter of 1969 transformed California’s normally dry Owens Valley, causing an explosion of grasses and reeds along the edge of the Owens River. Lying in the eastern rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada, not far from Death Valley, the river flows south down the valley before disappearing into a dry lake bed. By summer the heavy vegetation along the river and its adjacent spring-fed marshes was sucking up moisture and releasing it into the hot, dry air. At the same time, the flow from one of these springs suddenly and mysteriously dropped, and parts of a wetland called Fish Slough began to dry up fast. The disappearance of the small pools that make up Fish Slough would have gone unnoticed in a world not reshaped by human hands. Desert springs and marshes can be verdant one year, parched the next. Human activity, however, had made Fish Slough a vital place. The need for water to support Los Angeles and other cities has led to all manner of water projects, including dams, reservoirs, canals, and aqueducts. One of those projects, the Los Angeles Aqueduct, diverted nearly all the water from the Owens River beginning in 1913, greatly reducing the flows that once created seasonally flooded shallows along the river’s edge. Those shallow, warm waters provided ideal habitat for a unique species offish, the Owens pupfish (Cyprinodon radiosus). The loss of habitat, along with the introduction of exotic species like largemouth bass, gradually eliminated the pupfish from most of its relatively limited range, until the species remained only in Fish Slough. If the marsh disappeared, so would the Owens pupfish. Alerted to the potential disaster, Phil Pister, a fishery biologist working nearby with the California Department of Fish and Game, and two colleagues grabbed nets, buckets, and aerators and raced for the pond (Pister 1993). They removed the last 800 of the two-inch-long pupfish to wire mesh cages in the main channel of the slough. As his colleagues drove off, thinking the pupfish at least temporarily secure, Pister realized that the cages were in eddies out of the main current and that the water in the eddies was not carrying enough dissolved oxygen.

The influence of geologic environment on seismic response

1969 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 245-268
Author(s):  
E. D. Alcock
Keyword(s):  
Seismic Response ◽  
Field Experiments ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
The State ◽  
Fair Agreement ◽  
Lake Area ◽  
Hidden Valley ◽  
Dry Lake ◽  
Dynamic Amplification ◽  
Valley Area

Abstract A brief review is given of the state-of-the-art and the theory involved in the influence of geology on seismic response. Several field experiments are described which were performed to determine the dynamic amplification of seismic response by alluvium. In the Dry Lake area (saturated alluvium) resonant depths of alluvium were observed at 500 feet and 1400 feet. This is in approximately the harmonic ratio as predicted by theory. In the Hidden Valley area (dry alluvium) the resonant depth of alluvium was observed at 300 feet. The ratio of 500 feet to 300 feet for the two areas is in fair agreement with the ratio of 7000 feet to 5300 feet for the velocities of the alluvium in the two areas as determined by the refraction surveys.

Assessment of changes in lake pH in southeastern Canada arising from present levels and expected reductions in acidic deposition

2000 ◽  
Vol 57 (S2) ◽  
pp. 40-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
D S Jeffries ◽  
D CL Lam ◽  
I Wong ◽  
M D Moran
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
Acid Rain ◽  
Acidic Deposition ◽  
Assessment Model ◽  
Aquatic Biota ◽  
Lake Area ◽  
Ecological Significance ◽  
Threshold Criterion ◽  
Ph Reduction ◽  
Sulphate Deposition

An integrated acid rain assessment model was used to estimate pH for six clusters of lakes in southeastern Canada and scenarios of sulphate deposition that reflect the situation (a) before implementation of the SO2 emission controls required by the Canada/U.S. Air Quality Agreement, (b) after implementation of Canadian controls, and (c) after implementation of Canadian and U.S. controls. Modelled lake pHs were always less than their estimated original values. To assess the ecological significance of the pH reduction, scenario "damage" was quantified as the percentage of cluster lakes having pH < 6, a threshold criterion sufficient to protect most aquatic biota. Care was taken to account for naturally acidified lakes. The integrated acid rain assessment model predicted that Canadian SO2 controls will reduce damage in Ontario and Quebec but have little effect in Atlantic Canada. Implementation of U.S. SO2 controls will further reduce damage throughout all regions, although it is conservatively estimated that from 5 to 24% of the lakes will still have pH < 6 depending on cluster. Extrapolating to the inventory of acid-sensitive lakes in southeastern Canada suggests that ~76 000 lakes and ~970 000 ha of lake area will remain chemically damaged unless additional reductions in SO2 emissions are implemented beyond those required by the Air Quality Agreement.

scholarly journals Owens Valley and the Aqueduct

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 50-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim Stringfellow
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Dust Control ◽  
Mono Lake ◽  
Owens Valley ◽  
Owens Lake ◽  
Local Opposition ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
The Impact

This timeline details the economic, social, and environmental impact that the Los Angeles Aqueduct had on the Owens Valley. It begins in the 19th century with the Paiute who lived in the valley, and covers local opposition to the aqueduct and attempts to sabotage it in the 1920s, controversial land sales, depletion of the valley water table, dust at the dry Owens Lake bed, the impact of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power on the region, the second aqueduct and Mono Lake, the 1991 long-term water agreement, and mitigation efforts including dust control at Owens Lake and the Lower Owens River Project. The material is drawn from Stringfellow's There It Is—Take It! project.

Influence of Mesoscale Dynamics and Turbulence on Fine Dust Transport in Owens Valley

2011 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qingfang Jiang ◽  
Ming Liu ◽  
James D. Doyle
Keyword(s):  
Model Simulation ◽  
Vertical Motion ◽  
Dust Particles ◽  
Fine Dust ◽  
Owens Valley ◽  
Dust Transport ◽  
Aerosol Model ◽  
Wind Speed Maximum ◽  
Dry Lake ◽  
Particulate Concentration

Abstract Fine dust particles emitted from Owens (dry) Lake in California documented during the Terrain-Induced Rotor Experiment (T-REX) of 2006 have been examined using surface observations and a mesoscale aerosol model. Air quality stations around Owens (dry) Lake observed dramatic temporal and spatial variations of surface winds and dust particulate concentration. The hourly particulate concentration averaged over a 2-month period exhibits a strong diurnal variation with a primary maximum in the afternoon, coincident with a wind speed maximum. The strongest dust event documented during the 2-month-long period, with maximum hourly and daily average particulate concentrations of 7000 and 1000 μg m−3, respectively, is further examined using output from a high-resolution mesoscale aerosol model simulation. In the morning, with the valley air decoupled from the prevailing westerlies (i.e., cross valley) above the mountaintop, fine particulates are blown off the dry lake bed by moderate up-valley winds and transported along the valley toward northwest. The simulated strong westerlies reach the western part of the valley in the afternoon and more fine dust is scoured off Owens (dry) Lake than in the morning. Assisted by strong turbulence and wave-induced vertical motion in the valley, the westerlies can transport a substantial fraction of the particulate mass across the Inyo Mountains into Death Valley National Park.

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