Abstract: The Water Replenishment District of Southern California (WRD) manages groundwater for nearly four million residents in 43 cities of southern Los Angeles County. The 420 square mile service area uses about 220,000 acre-feet per year (AFY) of groundwater, which equates to over 40 percent of the total demand for water. WRD ensures that a reliable supply of high quality groundwater is available through its clean water projects, water supply programs, and effective management principles.

For years, water supply well data was used to evaluate the overall water quality within two adjudicated groundwater basins in southern Los Angeles County (Basin). However, using data from long screen intervals common to the water supply well industry often results in a blended water quality from multiple aquifers compared to actual water quality and a limited understanding of the various aquifers present within the Basin. In the 1990s, WRD began an effort to better understand the water quality of each aquifer and continues to implement a robust groundwater monitoring program using over 335 deep nested groundwater monitoring wells installed in collaboration with the United States Geological Survey (USGS). Groundwater samples are collected semiannually from each major aquifer with screen intervals installed up to 2,900 feet below ground surface (ft bgs). More than 100 water quality constituents are analyzed, resulting in over 60,000 individual data points to help track water quality throughout the Basin. Groundwater elevation data are also continuously tracked using pressure transducers and key monitoring wells are used to evaluate water level trends throughout the basin including a monthly assessment of storage change within the Basin. Advanced geophysical logging tools were also used during drilling to collect additional geologic data to better understand subsurface soils and when combined with oil industry geophysics, a sequence stratigraphy model was developed to better understand the structure of the basin (also in collaboration with the USGS).

This talk will present an overview of our groundwater monitoring program and the benefits of having a robust, depth specific monitoring network for evaluating water quality conditions in a complex basin and how additional data resulted in a better overall understanding and water management for two adjudicated basins in southern Los Angeles County. 

Abstract: The Water Replenishment District of Southern California (WRD) manages groundwater for nearly four million residents in 43 cities of southern Los Angeles County. The 420 square mile service area uses about 220,000 acre-feet per year (AFY) of groundwater, which equates to over 40 percent of the total demand for water. WRD ensures that a reliable supply of high quality groundwater is available through its clean water projects, water supply programs, and effective management principles.

For years, water supply well data was used to evaluate the overall water quality within two adjudicated groundwater basins in southern Los Angeles County (Basin). However, using data from long screen intervals common to the water supply well industry often results in a blended water quality from multiple aquifers compared to actual water quality and a limited understanding of the various aquifers present within the Basin. In the 1990s, WRD began an effort to better understand the water quality of each aquifer and continues to implement a robust groundwater monitoring program using over 335 deep nested groundwater monitoring wells installed in collaboration with the United States Geological Survey (USGS). Groundwater samples are collected semiannually from each major aquifer with screen intervals installed up to 2,900 feet below ground surface (ft bgs). More than 100 water quality constituents are analyzed, resulting in over 60,000 individual data points to help track water quality throughout the Basin. Groundwater elevation data are also continuously tracked using pressure transducers and key monitoring wells are used to evaluate water level trends throughout the basin including a monthly assessment of storage change within the Basin. Advanced geophysical logging tools were also used during drilling to collect additional geologic data to better understand subsurface soils and when combined with oil industry geophysics, a sequence stratigraphy model was developed to better understand the structure of the basin (also in collaboration with the USGS).

This talk will present an overview of our groundwater monitoring program and the benefits of having a robust, depth specific monitoring network for evaluating water quality conditions in a complex basin and how additional data resulted in a better overall understanding and water management for two adjudicated basins in southern Los Angeles County. 

Abstract: The Water Replenishment District of Southern California (WRD) manages groundwater for nearly four million residents in 43 cities of southern Los Angeles County. The 420 square mile service area uses about 220,000 acre-feet per year (AFY) of groundwater, which equates to over 40 percent of the total demand for water. WRD ensures that a reliable supply of high quality groundwater is available through its clean water projects, water supply programs, and effective management principles.

For years, water supply well data was used to evaluate the overall water quality within two adjudicated groundwater basins in southern Los Angeles County (Basin). However, using data from long screen intervals common to the water supply well industry often results in a blended water quality from multiple aquifers compared to actual water quality and a limited understanding of the various aquifers present within the Basin. In the 1990s, WRD began an effort to better understand the water quality of each aquifer and continues to implement a robust groundwater monitoring program using over 335 deep nested groundwater monitoring wells installed in collaboration with the United States Geological Survey (USGS). Groundwater samples are collected semiannually from each major aquifer with screen intervals installed up to 2,900 feet below ground surface (ft bgs). More than 100 water quality constituents are analyzed, resulting in over 60,000 individual data points to help track water quality throughout the Basin. Groundwater elevation data are also continuously tracked using pressure transducers and key monitoring wells are used to evaluate water level trends throughout the basin including a monthly assessment of storage change within the Basin. Advanced geophysical logging tools were also used during drilling to collect additional geologic data to better understand subsurface soils and when combined with oil industry geophysics, a sequence stratigraphy model was developed to better understand the structure of the basin (also in collaboration with the USGS).

This talk will present an overview of our groundwater monitoring program and the benefits of having a robust, depth specific monitoring network for evaluating water quality conditions in a complex basin and how additional data resulted in a better overall understanding and water management for two adjudicated basins in southern Los Angeles County. 

Abstract: Most of us are only just wrapping our minds around the fact that birds are living dinosaurs. But are birds the only flying dinosaurs? New specimens from China reveal a startling diversity of dinosaurs that flew in a diversity of ways.

The idea birds descended from dinosaurs dates back to the 19th century but only became widely accepted following the discovery of feathered dinosaurs in Cretaceous aged deposits in northeastern China in the late 1990’s, more than a century later. Discoveries from the Early Cretaceous Jehol Biota, and later from the Upper Jurassic Yanliao Biota, have continued unabated for the late 20 years, revealing not only a huge diversity of birds only younger than Archaeopteryx but also four winged dromaeosaurids and even more unexpected – an enigmatic group of theropods with membranous wings. These discoveries strongly suggest that birds are not the only flying dinosaurs – that flight evolved multiple times in Maniraptora, together revealing a startling degree of experimentation with volant behavior that we are only just beginning to understand.

Abstract: Eroding coasts make up the majority of the coastlines on Earth, including the west coast of the United States, and host critical infrastructure like roads, railways, and residential structures. The precarious siting of infrastructure is particularly true for Del Mar, California, where a major railway between Los Angeles and San Diego sits within just a few meters of a cliff edge that is closely backed by dense housing subdivisions. Coastal cliff retreat presents a danger to these communities that is potentially amplified under rising sea level conditions, among other factors, yet constraints on retreat rates are most often limited to those derived from historical imagn ery and maps dating back 10-100 years. These modern retreat rates are then used, in conjunction with multi-model ensembles, for forecasting cliff retreat over the next 50-100 years in order to gauge future impacts to coastal communities. Managers and policymakers make decisions for mitigation efforts based on these results, however they may not capture the full picture of cliff retreat, and the factors that influence it, over time. While nearly all of the existing forecasting models explicitly account for projected sea level rise, the majority of them ignore other factors (e.g. subtidal and subaerial weathering) that may also play a large role.

Abstract: The presentation will describe the history and vision of the USGS Astrogeology Science Center, beginning with its origin as key player in the Apollo missions and leading up to the support of NASA’s efforts to land humans on the Moon by 2024. The USGS participation in lunar exploration missions has made it possible to better understand how the Moon formed and evolved over time and the presentation will present the latest views of lunar evolution.

Abstract: Terroir is a French word that describes a wine’s ability to reflect a unique sense of place, whether from one wine region to another, or from individual sections within the same vineyard. The term is one of the most mysterious concepts in the world of wine, with heated debates on the topic more common than not amongst groups of experienced tasters. The Oxford Dictionary defines terroir as “the complete natural environment in which a particular wine is produced, including factors such as the soil, topography, and climate”, as well as “the characteristic taste and flavor imparted to a wine by the environment in which it is produced”. Geology plays an important role in controlling these factors, and many wine experts believe that the bedrock geology of a region imparts a distinct fingerprint on its wines. However, there are many nuanced variations of this concept, with a major distinction being whether or not to include the human aspect (local wine culture and heritage including farming practices and vinification styles) involved in the production of the wine. This talk will introduce the history of terroir and how the concept has shaped wine regions in both the “old” and “new” worlds of wine. We will review the major geologic factors that impact a site’s terroir, as well as the human factors that can either enhance or obscure these qualities. We will also comment on the research that is currently underway on how these factors affect the physiology of the vine and the characteristics of the final wine. Throughout this discussion we will relate these concepts to the local wine regions of Santa Barbara County, and discuss some general characteristics of each of Santa Barbara’s American Viticultural Areas (AVAs).

Speaker Bio: Dr. Balbas is an Assistant Professor at California State University Long Beach. She is a multi-method geochronologist whose research has focused on paleomagnetism, cosmogenic nuclides, lava chronologies and megafloods. She is a passionate educator and advocate for increasing diversity and opportunity in the sciences. Currently, her research involves determining the timing and origin of non-hotspot related intraplate volcanism along the Northwest Hawaiian Ridge and wider Pacific Plate. She also aims to develop a sediment coring program of the Santa Monica and San Pedro basins to understand fire and anthropogenic environmental impacts in Southern California in the late Holocene. She is happy to discuss how to create more job and research opportunities for CSULB geology students, all ideas and support are welcome.

Speaker Bio: W. Paul Burgess is an Engineering Geologist in the California Geological Survey’s Regional Geologic and Landslide Mapping Program, where he arrived in October 2018. Prior to joining the CGS, Burgess worked in the geotechnical engineering world in Los Angeles. He earned a MS in Geology from the University of California, Los Angeles focused on studying active faulting and tectonic geomorphology in the northeastern Indian Himalayan foothills. Prior to his time at UCLA, he earned his BS in Geology at the University of Houston in Texas, where he first became fascinated in geology after participating in geologic expeditions traversing the far northwestern Nepal Himalaya. Since coming aboard the CGS, Burgess has been especially grateful to steadily grow his knowledge of mapping landslide geomorphology and processes. In his spare time he enjoys riding his bicycle.