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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: 1911

Future of gas hydrate research Future of gas hydrate research

Methane hydrates are ice‐like inclusion compounds, in which every volume of hydrate can contain as much as 180 volumes (STP) of gas.The amount of methane in natural gas hydrates is twice the total recoverable fossil fuel reserve. Because of their natural abundance in oceans and permafrost, hydrates have become an exciting national and international research issue. The movement of the gas...
Authors
D.E. Sloan, P.G. Brewer, C. K. Paull, Timothy S. Collett, W. Steven Holbrook, Keith A. Kvenvolden

Potassium-calcium decay system Potassium-calcium decay system

Potassium has three isotopes (see Potassium); potassium-40 ( 40K) is radioactive and decays to both calcium-40 ( 40Ca) and argon-40 ( 40Ar). The combined half-life of 40K is 1.25 billion years. The branched decay scheme of 40K is shown in Figure P33. It decays by β- decay to 40Ca and to 40Ar by both electron capture and positron decay (see Potassium-argon decay system). Although 89.52%...
Authors
Brian D. Marshall

Dating methods Dating methods

One of the greatest contributions of geochemistry to man's knowledge of the Earth and solar system has been the development and application of chemical and isotopic techniques used to measure the passage of time. Rates of geologic processes, rates of biological evolution, and contemporaneity of past events all depend on accurate ages of geologic materials. Many geochemical methods have...
Authors
Brian D. Marshall

Distinguishing Grenvillian basement from pre-Taconian cover rocks in the Northern Appalachians Distinguishing Grenvillian basement from pre-Taconian cover rocks in the Northern Appalachians

Distinguishing Grenvillian basement rocks from pre-Taconian cover sequences in the Appalachians is a first-order problem essential for accurate structural interpretations. The Cavendish Formation in southeastern Vermont presents a classic example of this problem. Doll and others (1961) showed the Cavendish Formation as younger than the Middle Proterozoic Mount Holly Complex but older...
Authors
Paul M. Karabinos, John N. Aleinikoff, C. Mark Fanning

A late Frasnian (Late Devonian) radiolarian, sponge spicule, and conodont fauna from the Slaven Chert, northern Shoshone Range, Roberts Mountains allochthon, Nevada A late Frasnian (Late Devonian) radiolarian, sponge spicule, and conodont fauna from the Slaven Chert, northern Shoshone Range, Roberts Mountains allochthon, Nevada

Co-occuring conodonts, radiolarians, and sponge spicules from the type locality of the Slaven Chert, northern Shoshone Range, Nevada, indicate that the radiolarian and sponge spicule assemblage described herein correlates with the Late rhenana conodont Zone (late Frasnian). The moderately well preserved radiolarians are the first Frasnian-age fauna described from the Western Hemisphere...
Authors
S. Q. Boundy-Sanders, Charles Sandberg, B.L. Murchey, A. G. Harris

Spectroscopy of rocks and minerals and principles of spectroscopy Spectroscopy of rocks and minerals and principles of spectroscopy

Spectroscopy is the study of light as a function of wavelength that has been emitted, reflected or scattered from a solid, liquid, or gas. In this chapter I will primarily discuss the spectroscopy of minerals, but the principles apply to any material. No single chapter can cover this topic adequately, and one could argue, not even a single book. Thus, in some ways, this chapter may fall...
Authors
Roger N. Clark

Geochemical data for stream-sediment, heavy-mineral-concentrate, and rock samples collected from the Fortyseven Creek gold-arsenic-antimony-tungsten prospect, southwestern Alaska Geochemical data for stream-sediment, heavy-mineral-concentrate, and rock samples collected from the Fortyseven Creek gold-arsenic-antimony-tungsten prospect, southwestern Alaska

In the summer of 1991, we conducted a reconnaissance geochemical survey around the Fortyseven Creek Au-As-Sb-W prospect that is located in the southwestern part of the Sleetmute quadrangle. At that time, this project was a small part of a more comprehensive Alaska Mineral Resource Assessment Program (AMRAP) study of the Sleemute quadrangle. AMRAP studies were conducted by the U.S...
Authors
John E. Gray, G. K. Lee, R. M. O’Leary, P. M. Theodorakos

Analytical results for 35 mine-waste tailings cores and six bed sediment samples, and an estimate of the volume of contaminated materials at Buckeye meadow on upper Basin Creek, northern Jefferson County, Montana Analytical results for 35 mine-waste tailings cores and six bed sediment samples, and an estimate of the volume of contaminated materials at Buckeye meadow on upper Basin Creek, northern Jefferson County, Montana

Metal-mining related wastes in the Boulder River basin study area in northern Jefferson County, Montana have been implicated in their detrimental effects on water quality with regard to acid-generation and toxic-metal solubilization. Flotation-mill tailings in the meadow below the Buckeye mine, hereafter referred to as the Buckeye mill-tailings site, have been identified as significant
Authors
David L. Fey, Stan E. Church, Christopher J. Finney
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