Publications

Terrestrial radar interferometry (TRI) provides accurate observations of displacements in the line-of-sight (LOS) direction and is therefore used in various monitoring applications. However, relating these displacements directly to the 3d world is challenging due to the particular imaging process. To address this, the radar results are projected onto a 3d model of the monitored area...

Methods designed to identify favorable areas for geothermal resources have traditionally been focused on near-surface information, namely data that can be compiled into a 2D map. However, these methods fail to account for the third dimension: depth. As a result, they do not incorporate deep crustal and mantle features like heat sources. Geophysical methods with multi-scale capabilities...

Small Uncrewed Aerial Systems (sUAS) serve as critical platforms for geophysical data collection at an intermediate scale between lower resolution, regional datasets collected via crewed aerial surveys, and high resolution, but spatially sparse sampling of ground-based data collection methods. Advances in sensor design and sUAS capabilities have led to rapid advances in the amount and...

Rattlesnake Knoll is a small, 30-meter-high mound of igneous breccia in the center of Spring Valley, east-central Nevada. In the past, researchers have disagreed as to whether the unusual-looking outcrop is intrusive or volcanic. The breccia possesses a normal magnetic polarity, but this is not apparent in aeromagnetic survey data. These data instead show that the knoll lies within a...

Finding solutions for the remediation and restoration of abandoned mining areas is of great environmental importance as they pose a risk to ecosystem health. In this study, our aim was to determine how remediation strategies with (i) compost amendment, (ii) planting a metal-tolerant grass Bouteloua curtipendula, and (iii) its inoculation with beneficial endophytes influenced the...

During the World War and Cold War eras (1910s–1990s), domestic consumption of numerous mineral commodities relied increasingly on imported supplies. Consumption reliance has since expanded to include 50 “critical minerals” (elements and mineral commodities) that are mostly to entirely imported and subject to curtailment by suppliers or supply chain disruption. New domestic supplies of...

The 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens was instrumental in advancing understanding of how volcanoes work. Lateral edifice collapses and the generation of volcanic debris avalanches were not widely recognized prior to that eruption, making assessment of their hazards and risks challenging. The proliferation of studies since 1980 on resulting deposits and evaluation of processes leading to...

Hicks Dome is comprised of coarse crystalline Mississippi Valley Type deposits at shallow levels and an enigmatic, fine-grained fluorite, rare earth elements, Y, high field strength elements, Be, and Ba rich deposit at deeper levels. Phyllosilicates from a lamprophyre dike and a breccia from two Hicks Dome drill cores were sampled to resolve the fluid history of the entire deposit using...

Five metal mixture dose–response models were used to predict the toxicity of porewater to young sturgeon at areas of interest in the Upper Columbia River (WA, USA/BC, Canada) and to evaluate these models as tools for risk assessments. Dose components of metal mixture models included exposure to free metal ion activities or metal accumulation by biotic ligands or humic acid, and links of...

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) assessed undiscovered potash resources in the Elk Point Basin in Canada and the United States as part of a global mineral resource assessment. The Elk Point Basin is a large, Middle Devonian (Givetian) intracratonic evaporite basin covering approximately 1,200,000 square kilometers (km2) and filled mainly with marine evaporite and minor clastic...

Polar bear (Ursus maritimus) is the apex predator of the Arctic, largely dependent on sea-ice. The expected disappearance of the ice cover of the Arctic seas by the mid 21st century is predicted to cause a dramatic decrease in the global range and population size of the species. To place this scenario against the backdrop of past distribution changes and their causes, we use a fossil...

3D geologic modeling and mapping often relies on gravity modeling to identify key geologic structures, such as basin depth, fault offset, or fault dip. Such gravity models generally assume either homogeneous or spatially uncorrelated densities within modeled rock bodies and overlying sediments, with average densities typically derived from surface and drill-hole sampling. The noise...