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Publications

Publications from the staff of the Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center

Filter Total Items: 2333

Geologic Exploration of Taurus-Littrow: Apollo 17 Landing Site

Apollo 17 landed in a deep graben valley embaying the mountainous highlands southeast of the Serenitatis basin. Impact-generated breccias underlie the massifs adjacent to the valley, and basalt has flooded and leveled the valley floor. The dark mantle inferred from orbital photographs was not recognized as a discrete unit; the unusually thick regolith of the valley floor contains a unique high con
Authors
W.R. Muehlberger, R. M. Batson, E.A. Cernan, V. L. Freeman, M.H. Haitt, H. E. Holt, Keith A. Howard, K.B. Jackson, V.S. Larson, J.J. Reed, J. J. Rennilson, H.H. Schmitt

The Dun Mountain ultramafic belt Permian oceanic crust and upper mantle in New Zealand

Geologic evidence suggests that the Dun Mountain ultramafic belt in New Zealand is the basal part of a Lower Permian ophiolite suite. By analogy with other ophiolite suites, and as a result of marine geophysical studies of the present ocean basins, the ophiolite is believed to represent oceanic crust and upper mantle upon which the Upper Permian Maitai Group was deposited. After this, much of the 
Authors
M. C. Blake, C. A. Landis

Current slope-stability studies in the San Francisco Bay region

An extensive program of slope-stability studies is presently underway in the San Francisco Bay region, California. Work to date has resulted in the publication of estimates of landslide damage, an estimated-landslide-abundance map of the region, new slope maps prepared by photomechanical processes, photointerpretive maps of landslide, colluvial, and other surficial deposits, and maps of relative s
Authors
Tor H. Nilsen, Earl E. Brabb

Petrography and structural relations of granitic basement rocks in the Monterey Bay area, California

In the past, the granitic basement of the Coast Ranges has been thought to be dominantly quartz diorite and low in K-feldspar.  However, a study of outcrops around Monterey Bay, basement well samples, and dredge samples from Monterey Bay shows that the granitic basement averages about 15 to 20 percent K-feldspar.  Therefore, as a sedimentary provenance, the basement around Monterey Bay could have
Authors
Donald C. Ross, Earl E. Brabb

Cretaceous mafic conglomerate near Gualala offset 350 miles by San Andreas fault from oceanic crustal source near Eagle Rest Peak, California

Upper Cretaceous mafic conglomerate and quartz-plagioclase arkose that crop out on the southwest side of the San Andreas fault near Gualala, Calif., may have been eroded from a gabbroic terrane that now lies about 350 miles to the southeast, on the opposite side of the San Andreas fault. The plagioclase arkose near Gualala contains little or no K-feldspar, and the conglomerate is characterized by
Authors
Donald C. Ross, Carl M. Wentworth, Edwin D. McKee

Tertiary plate tectonics and high-pressure metamorphism in New Caledonia

The sialic basement of New Caledonia is a Permian-Jurassic greywacke sequence which was folded and metamorphosed to prehnite-pumpellyite or low-grade greenschist facies by the Late Jurassic. Succeeding Cretaceous-Eocene sediments unconformably overlie this basement and extend outwards onto oceanic crust. Tertiary tectonism occurred in three distinct phases.1. During the Late Eocene a nappe of peri
Authors
R.N. Brothers, M. C. Blake