Publications

The composition and content of asphaltenes in spilled and original wellhead oils from the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) incident provide information on the amount of original oil lost and the processes most responsible for the losses within the first 80 days of the active spill. Spilled oils were collected from open waters, coastal waters and coastal sediments during the incident. Asphaltenes...

Rapid development of coalbed natural gas (CBNG) production in the Powder River Basin (PRB) of Wyoming has occurred since 1997. National attention related to CBNG development has focused on produced water management, which is the single largest cost for on-shore domestic producers. Low-cost treatment technologies allow operators to reduce their disposal costs, provide treated water for...

This report presents isotopic age data from mineralized granitic plutons in an area of the Alaska Range located approximately 200 kilometers to the west-northwest of Anchorage in southwestern Alaska. Uranium-lead isotopic data and trace element concentrations of zircons were determined for 12 samples encompassing eight plutonic bodies ranging in age from approximately 76 to 57.4 millions...

The Death Valley Fault System (DVFS) is part of the southern Walker Lane–eastern California shear zone. The normal Black Mountains Fault Zone (BMFZ) and the right-lateral Southern Death Valley Fault Zone (SDVFZ) are two components of the DVFS. Estimates of late Pleistocene-Holocene slip rates and recurrence intervals for these two fault zones are uncertain owing to poor relative age...

The Ziegler Reservoir fossil site near Snowmass Village, Colorado, provides a unique opportunity to reconstruct high-altitude paleoenvironmental conditions in the Rocky Mountains during the last interglacial period. We used four different techniques to establish a chronological framework for the site. Radiocarbon dating of lake organics, bone collagen, and shell carbonate, and in situ...

Previous research results from the Gabilan Mesa are combined with new optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) age estimates and sedimentological analyses with the aim of identifying factors that inhibit climate-driven strath-terrace production, and factors that make possible strath-terrace production independent of climate forcing. The factors are revealed by comparing the...

As part of the U.S. Geological Survey and Department of Defense Task Force for Business and Stability Operations natural resources revitalization activities in Afghanistan, four permissive areas for mineralization, Bamyan 1, Farah 1, Ghazni 1, and Ghazni 2, have been identified using imaging spectroscopy data. To support economic development, the areas of potential mineralization were...

A coupled hydrogeophysical forward and inverse modeling approach is developed to illustrate the ability of frequency-domain airborne electromagnetic (AEM) data to characterize subsurface physical properties associated with sublacustrine permafrost thaw during lake-talik formation. Numerical modeling scenarios are evaluated that consider non-isothermal hydrologic responses to variable...

I have been fortunate to spend the last 31 years working for an organization that has allowed me to make multiple career shifts across earth science disciplines and to collaborate with people in fields well beyond the earth sciences. Many inspirational colleagues have guided me along this transdisciplinary science path, but perhaps my biggest source of inspiration has been my family.

A fundamental step to evaluate the biogeochemical and eco-toxicological significance of Hg dispersion in the environment is to determine speciation of Hg in solid matrices. In this study, several analytical techniques such as scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), sequential chemical extractions (SCEs), and X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XANES) were...

The U.S. Geological Survey began sampling in 2007 for a low-density (1 site per 1,600 square kilometers, 4,857 sites) geochemical and mineralogical survey of soils in the conterminous United States as part of the North American Soil Geochemical Landscapes Project. The sampling protocol for the national-scale survey included, at each site, a sample from a depth of 0 to 5 centimeters, a...

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) conducts national and global assessments of resources (mineral, energy, water, and biologic) to provide science in support of decision making. Mineral resource assessments provide syntheses of available information about where mineral deposits are known and suspected to occur in the Earth’s crust and which commodities may be present, together with...