Stephen Gould may refer to:

• Stephen Jay Gould, the paleontologist
• Steven Gould the science fiction writer

More on [ Stephen Gould ]

USGS Newsroom

Secretary Kempthorne Announces Decision to Protect Polar Bears under Endangered Species Act
OC_Web@usgs.gov (Office of Communications Web Group)Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne today announced that he is accepting the recommendation of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dale Hall to list the polar bear as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
May Science Picks—Leads, Feeds, and Story Seeds
OC_Web@usgs.gov (Office of Communications Web Group)In this edition of Science Picks, find out how much technically recoverable oil was recently assessed in North Dakota and Montana's Bakken Formation, discover new data that will help Afghanistan's reconstruction efforts, and view new maps that show how the nation shakes with earthquakes. Learn about new efforts to monitor sea otters, and watch for yourself what walruses are up to in and around the Bering Sea. As the weather heats up and you start planning your summer vacation, wouldn't you like to know if it is safe to swim at the beach and what critters, such as ticks, you should look out for? This edition of Science Picks answers these questions and much more! If you would like to receive Science Picks via e-mail, would like to change the recipient, or no longer want to receive it, please e-mail jrobertson@usgs.gov. May Highlights: 3 to 4.3 Billion Barrels of Technically Recoverable Oil Assessed in North Dakota and Montana's Bakken Formation New Data to Help with Natural Resources and Hazards Assessments of Afghanistan New Maps Show How the Nation Shakes with Quakes Otter Spotters Where's Walrus? Find Out Online Is it Safe to Swim at the Beach? Tick Tick Ticks: Warm Weather is Tick Time Clean Water Starts With Monitoring Mussels on the Move: Google Mapping Invasive Species Avoiding the Buzz: West Nile Fever Mercury Risks to Fish-Eating Birds in San Francisco Bay Getting Better Grizzly Bear Numbers Intertwined Lives of Red Knots and Horseshoe Crabs The Shorebird Walk Seldom Seen But Often Heard Insect Pests: Blue Plate Special for Bats What's in the Sand?
Notice of Product Availability: Mount St. Helens Action Footage Available
OC_Web@usgs.gov (Office of Communications Web Group)B-roll footage documenting the continuous eruption of Mount St. Helens from September 2006 through February 2008 is now available from the U.S. Geological Survey. The 29-minutes of footage shows recent Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR) thermal imaging, animated time-lapse photography of Mount St. Helens dome growth, and USGS Cascades Volcano Observatory (USGS CVO) scientists at work inside the crater. The b-roll tape is available in most formats and is intended for use by all media including news, television programming, independent production and the web. This footage was taken by staff at the USGS CVO and is available by contacting Don Becker at USGS, or Carolyn Driedger at USGS CVO in Vancouver, Washington. Title: Eruption of Mount St. Helens 2004-2008 Instrumentation and Continuing Dome Growth XI November, 2006 through February, 2008Release Date: May 15, 2008Produced by: Matthew Logan (USGS CVO) &  Don Becker (USGS)Footage: USGS CVO StaffRun Time: Approximately 29 minutes B-roll Contents: Chapter 1 2004-2006 Dome and Surrounding Area of Deformation, October 10, 2006Chapter 2 Rockfall Down Southeast Face of Extruding 2004-2006 Dome, October 10, 2006Chapter 3 Deploying a GPS Spider on to Spine #4 East of Extruding 2004-2006 Dome, October 10, 2006Chapter 4 2004-2006 Dome and Surrounding Area of Deformation, December 19, 2006Chapter 5 Repairing a Damaged Seismic Station Northwest of the 2004-2006 Dome, December 19, 2006Chapter 6 Decommissioning a GPS Station on the South Flank of Mount St. Helens, December 19, 2006Chapter 7 USGS Crew Repairing Camera Located at Sugarbowl Instrument Site, January 23, 2007Chapter 8 USGS Crew Repairing Seismic Equipment Located Northwest of Mount St. Helens Crater, January 23, 2007Chapter 9 Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR) Thermal Imaging of 2004-2007 Dome and Surrounding Area of Deformation, April 20, 2007Chapter 10  2004-2007 Dome and Surrounding Area of Deformation, June 26, 2007Chapter 11 Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR) Thermal Imaging of 2004-2007 Dome and Surrounding Area of Deformation, June 26, 2007Chapter 12 Lowitt Falls North of Mount St. Helens Crater, June 26, 2007Chapter 13 USGS Crew Installing Camera Mount on Spire #4 east of Actively Growing Dome, September 21, 2007Chapter 14 Lenticular Cloud Over Mount St. Helens Crater, October 29, 2007Chapter 15 Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR) Thermal Imaging of 2004-2007 Dome and Surrounding Area of Deformation, October 29, 2007Chapter 16 Time-Lapse Photography of Mount St. Helens Dome Growth, November 10, 2004 to February 28, 2008
Water Demand Likely to Increase Substantially in New Hampshire's Seacoast Region by 2025
OC_Web@usgs.gov (Office of Communications Web Group)By 2025, demand for water in the Seacoast Region of New Hampshire is expected to grow by more than 50 percent. In the past five years, water use was estimated at 26.3 million gallons per day. By 2025, the demand may be more than 40 million gallons per day. These findings were released today by the U.S. Geological Survey. "Water demand for homes accounts for more than 70 percent of all water use in the region, whether those homes have private wells or are part of community water supply systems," said USGS hydrologist, Marilee Horn, lead author of the study.  "Water demand by businesses was much less than the water needed for homes." "We also found that each person in the region used about 75 gallons per day, although this value was highly variable from town to town," said Horn.  "This amount increased to 92 gallons per day in the summer due to lawn and garden watering, car washing and other outdoor uses."  Horn added that "the type of housing development significantly affected the amount of water use. For example, homes in less urbanized areas with extensive lawns consumed a much greater volume of water than homes in areas with a higher population density and limited needs for outdoor watering." Water demand for homes, business, industry and irrigation are included in these estimates. Water needed for hydropower and other thermo-electric needs was not assessed. The estimates for water use were compiled as part of a larger multi-agency study to assess ground water availability in the region.  Concerns about the ability of towns and water suppliers to meet future demand in this rapidly developing region of the state fueled the need for the study. Done in cooperation with the NH Department of Environmental Services, this study is the most comprehensive examination to date of water demand and use in the state, and one of the most comprehensive in the nation. "This study provides valuable information for determining our future water supplies and needs," said Thomas Burack, Commissioner of the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services. "We will use this information, along with other statewide and regional water planning information, to help ensure that all residents and businesses in the region have a safe and adequate long-term supply of water." Burack added that "the report contains information that can be used by NHDES, communities and other stakeholders to assess how development decisions will affect water demands and water resources. As the population of the Seacoast Region continues to grow, it will be critical for communities to make land use and other policy decisions that maximize the efficient use of water to protect our state's environment, economy and quality of life." For this study, scientists collected information from a variety of sources, such as meter readings from nine communities, including Portsmouth, Dover, Rye, Hampton and Raymond.  These meter readings were then used with other data, to estimate household water demands. Using data collected by the NH Geological Survey's Water Use Registration and Reporting Program and other sources, the authors also estimated how much water is consumed, released back to streams, coastal waters, and ground water, and how much water is moved from one watershed to another.  Detailed town-by-town analyses are provided in the study. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the USGS, NHDES and 21 towns in the Seacoast Region funded the study. In addition to the water demand study, other studies to understand local geology and aquifers, influences of land use on ground water recharge, and the amount of ground water available in areas immediately adjacent to the coast have been performed by USGS and the NH Geological Survey. The USGS report, "Methods for and Estimates of 2003 and Projected Water Use in the Seacoast Region, Southeastern New Hampshire" can be viewed at http:// pubs.usgs.gov/sir/2007/5157/. Information on the Seacoast water availability studies can also be found at: USGS Water Resources of New Hampshire and Vermont http://nh.water.usgs.gov/projects/seacoast/index.htm New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services www.des.nh.gov
Dying Bats in the Northeast Remain a Mystery
OC_Web@usgs.gov (Office of Communications Web Group)Investigations continue into the cause of a mysterious illness that has resulted in the deaths of thousands of bats since March 2008. At more than 25 caves and mines in the northeastern U.S, bats exhibiting a condition now referred to as "white-nosed syndrome" have been dying.   The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) recently issued a Wildlife Health Bulletin, advising wildlife and conservation officials throughout the U.S. to be on the lookout for the condition known as "white-nose syndrome" and to report suspected cases of the disease.  USGS wildlife disease specialist Dr. Kimberli Miller advises that "anyone finding sick or dead bats should avoid handling them and should contact their state wildlife conservation agency or the nearest U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service field office to report their observation." Large-scale wildlife mortality events should be reported to the USGS at http://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/mortality_events/reporting.jsp. The USGS National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wis. has received nearly 100 bat carcasses mostly from New York, Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. The syndrome affects species including the little brown, big brown, northern long-eared and eastern pipistrelle bats.  The condition was first observed in February 2007 in caves near Albany, N.Y. by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. Dead and hibernating bats had a white substance on their heads and wings. In early 2008, "white-nosed" bats were once again seen at hibernation sites. Scientists have collected environmental samples from affected caves and mines in Vermont, New York and Massachusetts in an effort to determine the cause of the deaths. Live, dead and dying bats were documented in and outside of hibernation sites. The most common findings in the bats have been emaciation and poor body condition. Many of the bats examined had little or no body fat; some exhibited changes in the lung that have been difficult to characterize; and a majority had microscopic fungi on their bodies. The white substance observed on some bats may represent an overgrowth of normal fungal colonizers of bat skin during hibernation and could be an indicator of overall poor health, rather than a primary pathogen. Scientists from a variety of agencies are investigating underlying environmental factors, potential secondary microbial pathogens and toxicants as possible causes  Web sites for additional information: USGS National Wildlife Health Center: http://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/disease_information/white-nose_syndrome/ U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: http://www.fws.gov/northeast/white_nose.html Bat Conservation International: http://www.batcon.org/news/news_item.asp?NewsID=346
George Gryc —USGS Geologist, Leader, and Alaska Expert, 1919 - 2008
OC_Web@usgs.gov (Office of Communications Web Group)After a long and distinguished career with the U. S. Geological Survey, George Gryc, 88, passed away on April 27 in Sunnyvale, California. Well known from the smallest bush settlement on the Yukon to Capital Hill in Washington, Gryc was the preeminent Alaskan geologist of his day. His work bore directly on the outcome of all the major issues of consequence to Alaska in the 20th century. George Gryc was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1919. He attended the University of Minnesota from 1937 to 1943, earning both B.A. and M.S. degrees in geology and winning the hand of coed Jean Funk, his beloved wife for 66 years. He is survived by Jean and by five children -James, Stephen, Christina, Paula Jean, and Georgina- as well as nine grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Gryc joined the Geological Survey in 1943 in time for a summer field season evaluating the mercury deposits of Southwest Alaska. Mercury, a strategic mineral for the manufacture of munitions, was a high priority of the WW II Strategic Mineral Program. Gryc continued his graduate studies at Johns Hopkins University, and in 1944 Gryc began studies on the petroleum geology and hydrocarbon resources of Alaska's North Slope, then a region largely unmapped and unexplored. Gryc's pioneering expeditions to the North Slope provided the grist for a lifetime of raconteuring. The dangerous river traverses began with white-knuckle bush plane landings on gravel bars in May followed by headlong dashes down uncharted streams in canvas boats, hoping to reach the Arctic coast before winter began. One tense September saw Gryc's party stranded for three weeks without supplies because the air service fired the only pilot knowing the pick up time and place. In other years he made the first geologic explorations of the Sagvanirktok and Shaviovik Rivers, ending in Prudhoe Bay. From 1950 to 1960 Mr. Gryc was Chief of the Survey's Navy Oil Unit that was providing the scientific support to the petroleum exploration and drilling being carried out in Naval Petroleum Reserve No 4. Landmark reports resulting from the ‘Pet 4' studies were crucial clues in the 1969 discovery of the oil field at Prudhoe Bay, one of the nations largest deposits of oil and gas. After serving as Staff Geologist to the Chief Geologist at USGS Headquarters in Washington, Gryc relocated to Menlo Park in 1963 where he served as Chief of the Branch of Alaskan Geology until 1976. In 1964 the second largest earthquake of the century devastated south-central Alaska and sent a tsunami that caused death and destruction as far away as California. George Gryc immediately took the lead in organizing the USGS field response to the effects of the quake on the works of man and the ecosystem. The resulting studies were instrumental in land use decisions and reconstruction designs, formed a model for post-quake investigations, and established the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program Early in the 1970s Gryc found himself embroiled in the Alaska Pipeline, a highly contested proposal to pump Prudhoe Bay crude to the lower 48 states through an 800-mile-long hot oil pipeline buried in icy permafrost. As Chairman of the Menlo Park Working Group on the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, Gryc and his colleagues measured such geotechnical problems as melting permafrost and giant earthquakes against proposals for mitigations. Time and time again when the numerous high-pressure meetings and hearings threatened to explode, George Gryc's courteous style and open personality would restore calm and order. His contribution to the safe and profitable Trans Alaska Pipeline is widely recognized among earth scientists. In January 1976, Mr. Gryc was appointed Regional Geologist for the Western Region, representing the Chief Geologist in coordinating geologic studies in Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, and the Pacific Trust Territories. The assignment was interrupted within the year when USGS Director Vincent McKelvey asked him to plan and carry out a program for the exploration and resource assessment of the new National Petroleum Reserve (NPRA) on Alaska's North Slope. The NPRA study was massive in scope, involving drilling stratigraphic test wells on the North Slope from winter camps. Some years the NPRA budget exceeded that of the entire 10,000-person Geological Survey. In January 1982 Gryc was appointed Assistant Director for the USGS Western Region, a role in which he remained until his retirement in 1995; while in this position, he continued publishing the results of the NPRA program. In 1974 Mr.Gryc began active work with the Circum-Pacific Map Project (CPMP), an international compilation of geologic and resource information of the Pacific realm. In 1986 he was elected General Chairman of the CPMP and thereafter guided the design and production of 60 new synoptic maps of mineral- and petroleum resources, earthquake- and volcano hazards, and geologic structure and tectonics. After formally retiring in 1995, he received a prestigious Pecora fellowship to continue his scientific studies and served as a Scientist Emeritus with the USGS until his death. Gryc was active in many scientific committees, symposia, and workshops including the Permafrost Committee of the National Academy of Sciences Polar Research Board. His other professional memberships include Fellow of the Geological Society of America; the Paleontological Society; the Arctic Institute of North America, serving on its Board of Governors from 1965 to 1971; the American Association of Petroleum Geologists; the Alaskan Geological Society; Director and Officer of the Circum Pacific Council; the Geological Society of Washington; the Northern California Geological Society; Fellow of Sigma Xi; and the Cosmos Club of Washington, D.C. He was awarded the Meritorious and the Distinguished Service Awards, the two highest honors of the Department of Interior, as well as several Senior Executive Service Awards. Mr. Gryc's career exemplifies the motto, "Earth science in the public service." Throughout his professional life, he was dedicated to the nourishing of objective scientific inquiry and to the effective application of the results of this science to help people around the world. His commitment to fostering international cooperation in science was a hallmark of his many accomplishments. On a more personal level, he will be remembered for his knowledge of natural history outside of geology, for mentoring young scientists, and for his profound equanimity and great sense of humor.

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