Geology

The USGS Denver Microbeam Laboratory provides chemical analysis and characterization of rocks, minerals, and environmental samples in support of a wide variety of USGS projects related to mineral resources, including research projects funded by the USGS Mineral Resources Program. The research applications for these projects range from mineral resource research and assessments, to geologic mapping...

We are assessing the extent of industrial mineral resources hosted by heavy-mineral sands in the coastal plain of the southeastern United States. “Heavy-mineral sands" (HMS) is a term commonly used in industry and geologic literature to describe layered sediments deposited in coastal environments that contain dense (“heavy") minerals of economic value. The heavy minerals extracted from these...

USGS Mineral Deposit Models are "an organized arrangement of information describing the essential characteristics or properties of a class of mineral deposits. Models themselves can be classified according to their essential attributes (for example: descriptive, grade-tonnage models, genetic, geoenvironmental, geophysical, probability of occurrence, and quantitative process models)." (Stoeser and...

This project evaluated the petrology and metallogeny of rare earth element-mineralized 1.4 Ga intrusive systems at Mountain Pass and in the St. Francois Mountains relative to those of other, apparently, unmineralized 1.4 Ga intrusive systems in the conterminous U.S.

The USGS Mineral Resources Program completed a comprehensive assessment and inventory of potential mineral resources covering approximately10 million acres of federal and adjacent lands in Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming and Montana.

The project objective is to better understand the role fluids play in the formation of ore-grade rare earth element enrichment. In many rare earth element deposits, enrichment of rare earth elements is largely controlled by their transport in fluids (orthomagmatic, hydrothermal, groundwater). The project focuses on carbonatite-related deposits because these deposits are the world's primary source...

In 2012, this project initiated a multi-year effort to characterize domestic nonmetallic industrial mineral resources that are important for national infrastructure, agriculture, and energy development. Activities included (1) a national-scale compilation of production data, providing a snapshot of the nonmetallic industrial mineral deposits that were of significance through the 20th century and...

TThe USGS Denver Microbeam Laboratory provides critical analytical and characterization support for a wide variety of internal USGS projects and external collaborators. In addition, the lab continually works to develop new methods or improve existing methods to analyze a variety of sample matrices.

Project objectives were to improve the understanding of critical mineral enrichment in black shales and improve accuracy of resource assessments.

We sought to characterize the Dotson Zone heavy-rare earth element (HREE) enriched deposit at Bokan Mountain, Alaska, and conduct a parallel characterization and comparison of a less well-mineralized HREE analogue at Dora Bay, Alaska.

Project objectives were to publish a map of the nation's geologic basement. The map portrayed these pieces (domains) from the most ancient to recent, by the events that influenced their composition, starting with their origin.

The Headwaters Province project provided geoscience data and interpretations to the Federal Land Management Agencies (FLMA) that were basic to sound policy and land-stewardship practices.