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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

User guide to the bayesian modeling of non-stationary, univariate, spatial data using R language package BMNUS

Bayesian modeling of non-stationary, univariate, spatial data is performed using the R-language package BMNUS. A unique advantage of this package is that it can map the mean, standard deviation, quantiles, and probability of exceeding a specified value. The package includes several R-language classes that prepare the data for the modeling, help select suitable model parameters, and help analyze th
Authors
Karl J. Ellefsen, Margaret A. Goldman, Bradley S. Van Gosen

Assessing mercury distribution using isotopic fractionation of mercury processes and sources adjacent and downstream of a legacy mine district in Tuscany, Italy

Mercury (Hg) concentrations and isotopic compositions in a range of sample types collected from the legacy Abbadia San Salvatore Mine (ASSM) area were used to evaluate the distribution of Hg in the region. The district generated more than 100,000 metric tons of Hg releasing extensive amounts of gaseous Hg emissions and producing large amounts of mine waste calcine from which Hg can be mobilized i
Authors
Michael Pribil, Valentina Rimondi, Pilario Costagliola, Pierfranco Lattanzi, Danny Rutherford

Monazite and cassiterite Usingle bondPb dating of the Abu Dabbab rare-metal granite, Egypt: Late Cryogenian metalliferous granite magmatism in the Arabian-Nubian Shield

The Abu Dabbab rare-metal granite in the Eastern Desert of Egypt is a highly-evolved alkali-feldspar granite with transitional magmatic-hydrothermal features. Extreme geochemical fractionation and the associated significant TaSn resource make the Abu Dabbab intrusion an important feature in the metallogenic evolution of the Arabian-Nubian Shield. UPb dating by laser ablation sector field (SF)-ICPM
Authors
Bernd Lehmann, Basem Zoheir, Leonid A. Neymark, Armin Zeh, Ashraf Emam, Abdelhady Radwan, Rongqing Zhang, Richard J. Moscati

Depth-dependent soil mixing persists across climate zones

Soil mixing over long (>102 y) timescales enhances nutrient fluxes that support soil ecology, contributes to dispersion of sediment and contaminated material, and modulates fluxes of carbon through Earth’s largest terrestrial carbon reservoir. Despite its foundational importance, we lack robust understanding of the rates and patterns of soil mixing, largely due to a lack of long-timescale data. He
Authors
Harrison J. Gray, Amanda Keen-Zebert, David Furbish, Gregory E. Tucker, Shannon A. Mahan

Major hydrostratigraphic contacts of the Truxton basin and Hualapai Plateau, northwestern Arizona, developed from airborne electromagnetic data

The area surrounding the Grand Canyon has spectacular outcrop exposure in the modern canyon walls, leading to stratigraphic contact delineations that are well constrained near canyons yet poorly constrained where the terrain remains undissected and relatively unexplored by boreholes. An airborne electromagnetic and magnetic survey of the western Hualapai Indian Reservation and surrounding areas wa
Authors
Lyndsay B. Ball

Pyrrhotite distribution in the conterminous United States, 2020

In parts of Connecticut and Massachusetts, foundations of some homes are cracking and crumbling. Failing foundations can reduce the market value of a home and lifting a house to replace and repour a foundation is an expensive undertaking. In response, some homeowners are defaulting on their mortgages and abandoning their homes. The culprit is pyrrhotite, which occurs in construction aggregate (cru
Authors
Jeffrey L. Mauk, Thomas C. Crafford, John D. Horton, Carma A. San Juan, Gilpin R. Robinson,

Geochemical and mineralogical study of the Red Mountain porphyry copper-molybdenum deposit and vicinity, Santa Cruz County, Arizona

The Red Mountain porphyry copper-molybdenum deposit (Cu-Mo deposit or PCD) is located in the northern part of the Patagonia Mountains, Santa Cruz County, Arizona. Extensive core drilling has delineated a large, deep-seated, structurally intact mineral system that extends from the present surface to depths of more than 1,765 meters. This system is hosted in a thick complex of predominantly felsic t
Authors
Maurice Chaffee

Probabilistic categorical groundwater salinity mapping from airborne electromagnetic data adjacent to California’s Lost Hills and Belridge oil fields

Growing water stress has led to emerging interest in protecting fresh and brackish groundwater as a potential supplement to water supplies and raised questions about factors that could affect the future quality of fresh and brackish aquifers. Limited well infrastructure, particularly in regions where elevated salinity has led to limited historical groundwater development, hinders traditional mappi
Authors
Lyndsay B. Ball, Tracy Davis, Burke J. Minsley, Janice M. Gillespie, Matthew K. Landon

Dust deposited on snow cover in the San Juan Mountains, Colorado, 2011-2016: Compositional variability bearing on snow-melt effects

Light-absorbing particles in atmospheric dust deposited on snow cover (dust-on-snow, DOS) diminish albedo and accelerate the timing and rate of snow melt. Identification of these particles and their effects are relevant to snow-radiation modeling and thus water-resource management. Laboratory-measured reflectance of DOS samples from the San Juan Mountains (USA) were compared with DOS mass loading,
Authors
Richard L. Reynolds, Harland L. Goldstein, Bruce M. Moskowitz, Raymond F. Kokaly, Seth M. Munson, Peat Solheid, George N. Breit, Corey R. Lawrence, Jeff Derry

High-resolution mapping of the freshwater-brine interface using deterministic and Bayesian inversion of airborne electromagnetic data at Paradox Valley, USA

Salt loads in the Colorado River Basin are a primary water quality concern. Natural groundwater brine discharge to the Dolores River where it passes through the collapsed salt anticline of the Paradox Valley in western Colorado is a significant source of salt to the Colorado River. An airborne electromagnetic survey of Paradox Valley has provided insights into the 3D distribution of brine in the
Authors
Lyndsay B. Ball, Paul A. Bedrosian, Burke J. Minsley

Reconstruction of an early Permian, sublacustrine magmatic-hydrothermal system: Mount Carlton epithermal Au-Ag-Cu deposit, northeastern Australia

The Mt. Carlton Au-Ag-Cu deposit, northern Bowen basin, northeastern Australia, is an uncommon example of a sublacustrine hydrothermal system containing economic high-sulfidation epithermal mineralization. The deposit formed in the early Permian and comprises vein- and hydrothermal breccia-hosted Au-Cu mineralization within a massive rhyodacite porphyry (V2 open pit) and stratabound Ag-barite mine
Authors
Fredrik Sahlstrom, Zhaoshan Chang, Antonio Arribas, Paul Dirks, Craig A. Johnson, Jan M Huizenga, Isaac Corral

Systems-deposits-commodities-critical minerals table for the earth mapping resources initiative

To define and prioritize focus areas across the United States with resource potential for 35 critical minerals in a few years’ time, the U.S Geological Survey Earth Mapping Resources Initiative (Earth MRI) required an efficient approach to streamline workflow. A mineral systems approach based on current understanding of how ore deposits that contain critical minerals form and relate to broader geo
Authors
Albert H. Hofstra, Douglas C. Kreiner