Publications

A general overview of the industrial diamond industry in 2009 is presented. Topics discussed are consumption, prices, imports and exports, government stockpiles, and the outlook for 2010.

In 2009, U.S. production of crude garnet concentrate for industrial use was estimated to be 56.5 kt (62,300 st), valued at about $8.85 million. This was a 10-percent decrease in quantity compared with 2008 production. Refined garnet material sold or used was 28 kt (31,000 st) valued at $7.96 million.

Ammonia was produced by 13 companies at 23 plants in 16 states during 2009. Sixty percent of all U.S. ammonia production capacity was centered in Louisiana. Oklahoma and Texas because of those states' large reserves of natural gas, the dominant domestic feedstock. In 2009, U.S. producers operated at about 83 percent of their rated capacity (excluding plants that were idle for the entire...

In 2009, domestic production of peat, excluding Alaska, was estimated to be 610 kt (672,000 st), compared with 615 kt (678,000 st) in 2008. In 2009, imports decreased to 906 kt (999,000 st) compared with 936 kt (1 million st) in 2008, and exports were estimated to have increased to 77 kt (85,000 st) in 2009. U.S. apparent consumption for 2009 was estimated to be about the same as in 2008...

No abstract available.

We present here the complete paleomagnetic laboratory results from a collection of approximately 1500 oriented cores from all 16 of the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador, collected by Allan Cox in 1964–1965 but nearly all previously unpublished. The islands are located in the eastern Pacific Ocean within 1.4° of latitude from the equator and range in age from historically erupted to 3 Ma...

In other parts of the world, previous workers have shown that sparry dolomite in carbonate rocks may be produced by the generation and movement of hot basinal brines in response to arid paleoclimates and tectonism, and that some of these brines served as the transport medium for metals fixed in Mississippi Valley-type (MVT) and sedimentary exhalative (Sedex) deposits of Zn, Pb, Ag, Au...

The Sunnyside porphyry copper system is part of the concealed San Rafael Valley porphyry system located in the Patagonia Mountains of Arizona. The U.S. Geological Survey is conducting a series of multidisciplinary studies as part of the Assessment Techniques for Concealed Mineral Resources project. To help characterize the size, resistivity, and skin depth of the polarizable mineral...

The Columbia River Basalt Group (CRBG) eruptions have a well-defined relative magnetostratigraphy but have not been definitively correlated to the geomagnetic polarity time scale. 40Ar/39Ar ages are presented from lavas erupted in the R0 through N1magnetozones of the CRBG and in the transition between R0 and N0. Four ages from transitionally magnetized lava flows at Steens Mountain...

In vitro bioaccessibility (IVBA) studies were carried out on samples of mercury (Hg) mine-waste calcine (roasted Hg ore) by leaching with simulated human body fluids. The objective was to estimate potential human exposure to Hg due to inhalation of airborne calcine particulates and hand-to-mouth ingestion of Hg-bearing calcines. Mine waste calcines collected from Hg mines at Almadén...

The Lake Mead fault system is a northeast-striking, 130-km-long zone of left-slip in the southeast Great Basin, active from before 16 Ma to Quaternary time. The northeast end of the Lake Mead fault system in the Virgin Mountains of southeast Nevada and northwest Arizona forms a partitioned strain field comprising kinematically linked northeast-striking left-lateral faults, north-striking...