Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) and Horizontal-to-Vertical Spectral Ratio (HVSR) Data Collected Within and Near Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota, from 2014 to 2019

The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Air Force Civil Engineering Center, investigated the use of surface geophysical surveys to delineate the top of the Cretaceous Pierre Shale along survey transects in selected areas within and near Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota. In 2014, four electrical resistivity tomography surveys were performed at the Fuels Area C site on Ellsworth Air Force Base. In 2019, the U.S. Geological Survey performed passive seismic and 2D electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) surveys along 26 co-located survey transects within and near Ellsworth Air Force Base. Passive seismic data were analyzed using the horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio (HVSR) method in Grilla version 9.6.3 software (https://moho.world/en/) to determine the fundamental resonance frequency peak at each site. Passive seismic data were also collected at existing well sites to develop a local regression equation that was used to calculate the depth to Pierre Shale along survey transects. ERT data were processed using EarthImager2D version 2.4.0 software from Advanced Geosciences, Inc. (https://www.agiusa.com/agi-earthimager-2d) to remove noisy measurements and produce subsurface resistivity profiles that were interpreted to estimate the depth to the Cretaceous Pierre Shale. HVSR results were plotted with ERT profile results to delineate a continuous bedrock surface for each survey transect. The continuous bedrock surface results were converted to elevations using light detection and ranging (liDAR) elevation data and were extracted to electrodes locations that were part of ERT surveys for each survey transect. The unprocessed and processed data for each geophysical surveys and bedrock delineation are provided as either comma-separated values (.csv) files or zipped files (.zip) and are annotated accordingly in the metadata. Zipped files (.zip) require extraction software, such as 7-zip, to unzip.

Data and Resources

Field Value
accessLevel public
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identifier USGS:605e0d77d34ec5fa65ee52ad
metadata_type geospatial
modified 20210601
old-spatial -103.11160, 44.10250, -103.06370, 44.16600
publisher U.S. Geological Survey
publisher_hierarchy Department of the Interior > U.S. Geological Survey
resource-type Dataset
source_datajson_identifier true
source_hash b1a4623dc22b332388c952db294ccf2c8c1a38ad
source_schema_version 1.1
spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": [[[-103.11160, 44.10250], [-103.11160, 44.16600], [ -103.06370, 44.16600], [ -103.06370, 44.10250], [-103.11160, 44.10250]]]}
theme {geospatial}
Groups
  • AmeriGEOSS
  • National Provider
  • North America
Tags
  • amerigeo
  • amerigeoss
  • ckan
  • elevation
  • ellsworth-air-force-base
  • environment
  • geo
  • geophysics
  • geoss
  • groundwater
  • horizontal-to-vertical-spectral-ratio
  • meade-county
  • national
  • north-america
  • passive-seismic
  • pennington-county
  • south-dakota
  • united-states
  • usgs-605e0d77d34ec5fa65ee52ad
isopen False
license_id notspecified
license_title License not specified
maintainer Colton J Medler
maintainer_email cmedler@usgs.gov
metadata_created 2025-11-20T15:14:39.704803
metadata_modified 2025-11-20T15:14:39.704807
notes The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Air Force Civil Engineering Center, investigated the use of surface geophysical surveys to delineate the top of the Cretaceous Pierre Shale along survey transects in selected areas within and near Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota. In 2014, four electrical resistivity tomography surveys were performed at the Fuels Area C site on Ellsworth Air Force Base. In 2019, the U.S. Geological Survey performed passive seismic and 2D electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) surveys along 26 co-located survey transects within and near Ellsworth Air Force Base. Passive seismic data were analyzed using the horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio (HVSR) method in Grilla version 9.6.3 software (https://moho.world/en/) to determine the fundamental resonance frequency peak at each site. Passive seismic data were also collected at existing well sites to develop a local regression equation that was used to calculate the depth to Pierre Shale along survey transects. ERT data were processed using EarthImager2D version 2.4.0 software from Advanced Geosciences, Inc. (https://www.agiusa.com/agi-earthimager-2d) to remove noisy measurements and produce subsurface resistivity profiles that were interpreted to estimate the depth to the Cretaceous Pierre Shale. HVSR results were plotted with ERT profile results to delineate a continuous bedrock surface for each survey transect. The continuous bedrock surface results were converted to elevations using light detection and ranging (liDAR) elevation data and were extracted to electrodes locations that were part of ERT surveys for each survey transect. The unprocessed and processed data for each geophysical surveys and bedrock delineation are provided as either comma-separated values (.csv) files or zipped files (.zip) and are annotated accordingly in the metadata. Zipped files (.zip) require extraction software, such as 7-zip, to unzip.
num_resources 2
num_tags 19
title Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) and Horizontal-to-Vertical Spectral Ratio (HVSR) Data Collected Within and Near Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota, from 2014 to 2019