Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Skip to content

Geophysical Surveys at Lake Poinsett Dam, Poinsett County, Arkansas

Metadata Updated: July 6, 2024

Lake Poinsett is a 260-hectare (640 acres) lake located on Crowley’s Ridge in northeastern Arkansas, approximately 6 km southeast of Harrisburg, Arkansas within Poinsett County. The lake was built for recreation by the Arkansas Highway Department in 1960 by constructing a roughly 800-meter dam across the southern boundary of the Distress Creek watershed. The dam is currently operated by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission (AGFC). AGFC and Arkansas Natural Resources Commission (ANRC) plan to drain the lake to allow access for a series of bank stabilization and dam safety improvements. Because none of the original blueprints exist, AGFC asked the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to conduct a series of differential global positioning system (GPS) and geophysical surveys to determine the lithologic framework of Lake Poinsett Dam as well as identify any anomalies that might need to be addressed while the dam was being restored. Three geophysical techniques were used in the investigation: (1) electrical resistivity measurements to evaluate the full thickness (~20 m) of the dam and the sediments that form the base of the dam; (2) Frequency Domain Electromagnetic Methods (FDEM) were used to map the clay core and any metallic anomalies of the dam structure; and (3) self-potential (SP) methods were used to map the zones of potential water movement and seepage within the dam. The methodology for the electrical resistivity, FDEM, and GPS surveys are described in Miller and others (2018). The SP method measures the natural voltage created by groundwater as it flows through porous media (Ikard and others, 2012; Ikard and Revil, 2014). The sensitivity of voltage measurements to groundwater flow is attributable to a direct correlation between the electric field at the surface and the hydraulic gradient in the subsurface. Thus, surface SP data are extremely useful for illuminating preferential groundwater flowpaths and seepage-prone areas within earthen dams and levees (Ikard and others, 2014; Ikard and others, 2015). The SP field is quasi-static in time, meaning that the field does not vary naturally in a transient sense over the short time scales of an engineering survey. Spatial variations in the measured field are independent of the physical gradients that generate streaming current flow. At Lake Poinsett Dam, the predominant physical gradient is hydraulic, and hydraulic gradient is regarded as the major contributor to the observed spatial variation in the SP data. This data release contains four types of data: electrical resistivity profiles, FDEM transects, SP profiles, and differential GPS surveys of the data locations and survey area. A data dictionary is included that defines the column headers/attribute information as well as their units. References Ikard, S.J., Revil, A., Jardani, A., Woodruff, W.F., Parekh, M., and Mooney, M., 2012, Saline pulse test monitoring with the self-potential method to non-intrusively determine the velocity of the pore water in leaking areas of earth dams and embankments: Water Resources Research 48, 1–17. Ikard, S.J., and Revil, A., 2014, Self-potential monitoring of a thermal pulse advecting through a preferential flow path: Journal of Hydrology 519, 34–49. Ikard, S.J., Revil, A., Schmutz, M., Jardani, A., Karaoulis, M., and Mooney, M., 2014, Characterization of focused seepage through an earthfill dam using geoelectrical methods. Groundwater 52(6), 952-964. Ikard, S.J., Rittgers, J., Revil, A., and Mooney, M., 2015, Geophysical investigation of seepage beneath an earthen dam. Groundwater 53(2), 238-250. Miller, B.V., Adams, R.F., Payne, J.D., Killion, W.F., and Kress, W.H., 2018, Geophysical Surveys at Bob Kidd Dam, Washington County, Arkansas, 2018: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/XXXXXXXXXXX (In Review).

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

Downloads & Resources

Dates

Metadata Created Date June 1, 2023
Metadata Updated Date July 6, 2024

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI EDI

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date June 1, 2023
Metadata Updated Date July 6, 2024
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
@Id http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/d1ef8c46d4f2b4bd557f317e6d3fe4cc
Identifier USGS:5b7b23a4e4b0f5d578846073
Data Last Modified 20200821
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://datainventory.doi.gov/data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id 4cd9b2a1-38d8-492f-af83-247f8d1d60dd
Harvest Source Id 52bfcc16-6e15-478f-809a-b1bc76f1aeda
Harvest Source Title DOI EDI
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -90.680466,35.521713,-90.669394,35.524822
Publisher Hierarchy White House > U.S. Department of the Interior > U.S. Geological Survey
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 369bc83ec88e4152dea954a1e794818e285220cc7cd4a4f3f0deed40ccdffc85
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -90.680466, 35.521713, -90.680466, 35.524822, -90.669394, 35.524822, -90.669394, 35.521713, -90.680466, 35.521713}

Didn't find what you're looking for? Suggest a dataset here.