Twenty-five of the Nation's major aquifer systems were studied under this program. Starting in 1988, the program devoted part of its resources to compilation of a National Ground Water Atlas that presets a comprehensive summary of the Nation's major ground-water resources. The atlas, which is designed in a graphical format supported by descriptive text, serves as a basic reference for the location, geography, geology, and hydrologic characteristics of the major aquifers in the Nation.
This bibliography lists 1,105 reports that result from various studies of the program. The list of reports for each study follows a brief description of that study.
A total of 25 aquifer systems were studied under the RASA Program (fig. 1). Studies of three other aquifer systems--the Pecos River Basin in New Mexico and Texas; the Alluvial Basins in Oregon, California, and Nevada; and the Illinois Basin in Illinois--were not started due to changes in national priorities, such as the emphasis on ground-water and surface-water relations and the hydrogeology of critical aquifers. This report provides synopses of these 25 regional aquifer systems and lists reports resulting from studies of each of these systems.
Click below or on colored area of map to obtain data for specific regions
Regional Aquifer Study Areas | |
---|---|
1 Northern Great Plains | 14 Upper Colorado River basin |
2 High Plains | 15 Oahu, Hawaii |
3 Central Valley, California | 16 Caribbean Islands |
4 Northern Midwest | 17 Columbia Plateau |
5a 5b Southwest Alluvial Basins | 18 San Juan Basin |
6 Floridan | 19 Michigan Basin |
7 Northern Atlantic Coastal Plain | 20 Edwards-Trinity |
8 Southeastern Coastal Plain | 21 Midwestern Basins and Arches |
9 Snake River Plain | 22 Appalachian Valleys and Piedmont |
10 Central Midwest | 23 Puget-Willamette Lowland |
11 Gulf Coastal Plains | 24 Southern California Alluvial Basins |
12 Great Basin | 25 Northern Rocky Mountain Intermontane |
13 Northeast Glacial Aquifers |
The U.S. Geological Survey has a National Research Program (NRP) that conducts basic and problem-oriented research. Basic research explores the scientific processes that control the quantity and quality of the Nation's water resources. Problem-oriented research develops operational and interpretative methods useful for water-resources investigations inside and outside of the Survey. The RASA Program has benefited from both the basic and problem-oriented research conducted through NRP. Each year the RASA Program has contributed funds to the NRP. These funds were used for research in all phases of the hydrologic cycle, not just those directly related to the RASA Program. The purpose of that support was to build for the future by providing funds for continued research and development of theoretical and operational procedures for hydrologic investigations. Reports published by NRP that are directly related to the RASA Program studies are included in this bibliography.
Upon completion of each RASA study, a U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper or a series of Professional Papers are published to summarize and synthesize the results of that study. The Professional Papers associated with each RASA study have a unique number. Those with a series of chapters are designated by the study's unique number and a letter; the letter A commonly is reserved for the chapter that summarizes the major findings of the particular aquifer system. Professional Papers derived from the RASA Program are identified by a Professional Paper number between 1400 and 1425.
Scientific journal articles and symposium proceedings must be obtained from the journals or sponsoring organizations. The RASA Program has also produced many abstracts for presentations made at scientific meetings; these abstracts are not listed in this report.
This bibliography updates an earlier report (see report 8 in the list immediately below) by including the 876 references of the earlier work plus the additional 229 reports completed since. Some reports from the last few studies undertaken are currently (1996) in preparation.
The RASA Program produced 1,105 reports. Nine of these reports, listed below, explain and summarize the RASA Program. The other 1,096 reports are listed at the end of each section that briefly describes the study that produced the reports.