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Publications

Products (journal articles, reports, fact sheets) authored by current and past scientists are listed below. Please check the USGS Pubs Warehouse for other USGS publications.

Filter Total Items: 1814

Bedrock assemblages of the Bering Strait region: Implications for offshore metal sources in the marine environment: A section in Geologic studies in Alaska by the U.S. Geological Survey, 1998

The Bering Strait region is important habitat for Pacific walrus (Odobenus rosmarus divergens). Elevated metal levels in tissues of some walrus have raised concerns about the sources of these metals. This study synthesizes and integrates onshore geology, regional gravity and magnetic data, and information about mineral deposits and the natural processes that weather, erode, and disperse metals in
Authors
Travis L. Hudson, Richard W. Saltus

Regional baseline geochemistry and environmental effects of gold placer mining operations on the Fortymile River, eastern Alaska: A section in Geologic studies in Alaska by the U.S. Geological Survey, 1998

A systematic water-quality study of the Fortymile River and many of its major tributaries in eastern Alaska was conducted in June of 1997 and 1998. Surface-water samples were collected for chemical analyses to establish regional baseline geochemistry values and to evaluate the possible environmental effects of suction-dredge placer gold mining and bulldozer-operated placer gold mining (commonly re
Authors
Richard B. Wanty, Bronwen Wang, Jim Vohden, Paul H. Briggs, Allen L. Meier

Geologic setting of the Fortymile River area - Polyphase deformational history within part of the eastern Yukon-Tanana uplands of Alaska: A section in Geologic studies in Alaska by the U.S. Geological Survey, 1998

The Fortymile River area lies within the Yukon-Tanana lithotectonic terrane of east-central Alaska. This terrane is a mosaic of several lithotectonic assemblages, each with a coherent lithologic, metamorphic, and deformational history. Previous workers have shown that the Fortymile River area is underlain by rocks of the Seventymile, Taylor Mountain, and Nisutlin assemblages. The Taylor Mountain t
Authors
Warren C. Day, Bruce M. Gamble, Mitchell W. Henning, Bruce D. Smith

New geochronological evidence for the timing of early Tertiary ridge subduction in southern Alaska: A section in Geologic studies in Alaska by the U.S. Geological Survey, 1998

We present new U/Pb (monazite, zircon) and 40Ar/39Ar (biotite, amphibole) ages for 10 Tertiary plutons and dikes that intrude the Chugach–Prince William accretionary complex of southern Alaska. The Sanak pluton of Sanak Island yielded ages of 61.1±0.5 Ma (zircon) and 62.7±0.35 (biotite). The Shumagin pluton of Big Koniuji Island yielded a U/Pb zircon age of 61.1±0.3 Ma. Two biotite ages from the K
Authors
Dwight C. Bradley, Randall Parrish, William Clendenen, Daniel R. Lux, Paul W. Layer, Matthew Heizler, D. Thomas Donley

Paleozoic strata of the Dyckman Mountain area, northeastern Medfra quadrangle, Alaska: A section in Geologic studies in Alaska by the U.S. Geological Survey, 1998

Paleozoic rocks in the Dyckman Mountain area (northeastern Medfra quadrangle; Farewell terrane) include both shallowand deep-water lithologies deposited on and adjacent to a carbonate platform. Shallow-water strata, which were recognized by earlier workers but not previously studied in detail, consist of algal-laminated micrite and skeletal-peloidal wackestone, packstone, and lesser grainstone. Th
Authors
Julie A. Dumoulin, Dwight C. Bradley, Anita G. Harris

Utility of palmatolepids and icriodontids in recognizing Upper Devonian Series, Stage, and possible substage boundaries

Conodonts are accepted internationally to define Devonian Series and Stage boundaries. Hence, the evolution and taxonomy of pelagic palmatolepids, primarily Palmatolepis and its direct ancestor Mesotaxis, and shallow-water icriodontids, Icriodus, Pelekysgnathus, and "Icriodus", are the major tools for recognizing subdivisions of the Upper Devonian. Palmatolepids are the basis for the Late Devonian
Authors
W. Ziegler, Charles Sandberg

Mesoproterozoic graphite deposits, New Jersey Highlands: Geologic and stable isotopic evidence for possible algal origins

 Graphite deposits of Mesoproterozoic age are locally abundant in the eastern New Jersey Highlands, where they are hosted by sulphidic biotite–quartz–feldspar gneiss, metaquartzite, and anatectic pegmatite. Gneiss and metaquartzite represent a shallow marine shelf sequence of locally organic-rich sand and mud. Graphite from massive deposits within metaquartzite yielded δ13C values of –26 ± 2‰ (1σ)
Authors
R. A. Volkert, Craig A. Johnson, Albert V. Tamashausky

Detection of Sub-Micron Radiation from the Surface of Venus by Cassini/VIMS

We report the first detection and profile characterization of thermal emission from the surface of Venus at 0.85 and 0.90 ??m, observed in the first planetary spectrum acquired by the Visual-Infrared Mapping Spectrometer onboard the Cassini spacecraft en route to the Saturn system. The strength and shape of these two newly observed nightside emissions agree with theoretical predictions based on th
Authors
K. H. Baines, G. Bellucci, J.-P. Bibring, R. H. Brown, B. J. Buratti, E. Bussoletti, F. Capaccioni, P. Cerroni, R. N. Clark, A. Coradini, D. P. Cruikshank, P. Drossart, V. Formisano, R. Jaumann, Y. Langevin, D. L. Matson, T. B. McCord, V. Mennella, R.M. Nelson, P. D. Nicholson, B. Sicardy, Christophe Sotin, G. B. Hansen, J.J. Aiello, S. Amici

Ore-fluid evolution at the Getchell Carlin-type gold deposit, Nevada, USA

Minerals and fluid-inclusion populations were examined using petrography, microthermometry, quadrupole mass-spectrometer gas analyses and stable-isotope studies to characterize fluids responsible for gold mineralization at the Getchell Carlin-type gold deposit. The gold-ore assemblage at Getchell is superimposed on quartz-pyrite vein mineralization associated with a Late-Cretaceous granodiorite st
Authors
Jean S. Cline, Albert H. Hofstra

Airborne geophysical surveys in the Boulder Watershed, Jefferson and Lewis and Clark Counties, Montana

INTRODUCTIONThree airborne geophysical surveys have been made in the Boulder watershed and adjacent areas (fig. 1). The objectives of the geophysical studies in the watershed is to map subsurface lithologic, structural and hydrologic features important in controlling possible ground water contamination from mining activities and to design remediation efforts. These studies are part of an abandoned
Authors
Bruce D. Smith, Victor Franklin Labson, Patricia L. Hill

Using imaging spectroscopy to map acidic mine waste

The process of pyrite oxidation at the surface of mine waste may produce acidic water that is gradually neutralized as it drains away from the waste, depositing different Fe-bearing secondary minerals in roughly concentric zones that emanate from mine-waste piles. These Fe-bearing minerals are indicators of the geochemical conditions under which they form. Airborne and orbital imaging spectrometer
Authors
G.A. Swayze, K. S. Smith, R. N. Clark, S. J. Sutley, R.M. Pearson, J.S. Vance, P. L. Hageman, Paul H. Briggs, A. L. Meier, M.J. Singleton, S. Roth

Identification of a basaltic component on the Martian surface from Thermal Emission Spectrometer data

The Mars Global Surveyor Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES) instrument collected 4.8×106 spectra of Mars during the initial aerobraking and science‐phasing periods of the mission (September 14, 1997, through April 29, 1998). Two previously developed atmosphere‐removal models were applied to data from Cimmeria Terra (25°S, 213°W). The surface spectra derived for these two models agree well, indica
Authors
P. R. Christensen, J. L. Bandfield, M. D. Smith, V.E. Hamilton, Roger N. Clark