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Publications

Here you will find publications, reports and articles produced by Energy and Mineral scientists. For a comprehensive listing of all USGS publications, click the button below.

Filter Total Items: 1165

Near surface sediments introduce low frequency noise into gravity models

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 contributed to
Authors
Geoffrey Phelps, Collin Cronkite-Ratcliff

Alaska focus area definition for data acquisition for potential domestic sources of critical minerals in Alaska for antimony, barite, beryllium, chromium, fluorspar, hafnium, magnesium, manganese, uranium, vanadium, and zirconium

Phase 3 of the Earth Mapping Resources Initiative (Earth MRI) focuses on geologic belts that are favorable for hosting mineral systems that could contain the critical minerals antimony, barite, beryllium, chromium, fluorspar, hafnium, magnesium, manganese, uranium, vanadium, and zirconium. Prior phases of the Earth MRI program in Alaska focused only on rare earth elements, aluminum, cobalt, graphi
Authors
Douglas C. Kreiner, James V. Jones, George N. Case

Focus areas for data acquisition for potential domestic resources of 13 critical minerals in the conterminous United States and Puerto Rico — Antimony, barite, beryllium, chromium, fluorspar, hafnium, helium, magnesium, manganese, potash, uranium, vanadiu

The Earth Mapping Resources Initiative (Earth MRI) is conducted in phases to identify areas for acquiring new geologic framework data to identify potential domestic resources of the 35 mineral materials designated as critical minerals for the United States. This report describes the data sources and summary results for 13 critical minerals evaluated in the conterminous United States and Puerto Ric
Authors
Jane M. Hammarstrom, Connie L. Dicken, Laurel G. Woodruff, Allen K. Andersen, Sean T. Brennan, Warren C. Day, Benjamin J. Drenth, Nora K. Foley, Susan Hall, Albert H. Hofstra, Anne E. McCafferty, Anjana K. Shah, David A. Ponce

Assessing mineral supply concentration from different perspectives through a case study of zinc

Increasing demand for nonfuel mineral commodities has increased concerns regarding the reliability of their supplies. “Criticality” assessments over the past decade have attempted to capture this concern through a set of indicators, the most common of which quantifies the risk associated with market concentration by applying the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI) to the world production of a given c
Authors
Christine L. Thomas, Nedal T. Nassar, John H. DeYoung

GIS-based identification of areas that have resource potential for lode gold in Alaska

Several comprehensive, data-driven geographic information system (GIS) analyses were conducted to assess prospectivity for lode gold in Alaska. These analyses use available geospatial datasets of lithologic, geochemical, mineral occurrence, and geophysical data to build models for recognizing different types of gold deposits within physiographic units defined by stream drainage basins that are app
Authors
Susan M. Karl, Douglas C. Kreiner, George N. D. Case, Keith A. Labay, Nora B. Shew, Matthew Granitto, Bronwen Wang, Eric D. Anderson

Methodology and technical input for the 2021 review and revision of the U.S. Critical Minerals List

Pursuant to Section 7002 (“Mineral Security”) of Title VII (“Critical Minerals”) of the Energy Act of 2020 (Public Law 116–260, December 27, 2020, 116th Cong.), the Secretary of the Interior, acting through the Director of the U.S. Geological Survey, is tasked with reviewing and revising the methodology used to evaluate mineral criticality and the U.S. Critical Minerals List no less than every 3 y
Authors
Nedal T. Nassar, Steven M. Fortier

Geochemical data for Illinois Basin coal samples, 2015–2018

Researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and their collaborators conducted a study of the geochemical properties of coals currently produced for electric power generation in the Illinois Basin in Illinois and Indiana. The study follows from recommendations by an expert panel for the USGS to investigate the distribution and controls of trace constituents such as mercury (Hg) in Illinois Bas
Authors
Allan Kolker, Clint Scott, Liliana Lefticariu, Maria Mastalerz, Agnieszka Drobniak, Annie Scott

Coking coal of the United States—Modern and historical coking coal mining locations and chemical, rheological, petrographic, and other data from modern samples

Coking coal, or metallurgical coal, has been produced in the United States for nearly 200 years. Coking coal is primarily used in the production of coke for use in the steel industry, and for other uses (for example, foundries, blacksmithing, heating buildings, and brewing). Currently, U.S. coking coal is produced in Alabama, Arkansas, Pennsylvania, Virginia , and West Virginia. Historically, coki
Authors
Michael H. Trippi, Leslie F. Ruppert, Cortland F. Eble, James C. Hower

Assessment of undiscovered gas resources in Upper Devonian to Lower Cretaceous strata of the western North Slope, Alaska, 2021

Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated a mean of 1,407 billion (1.4 trillion) cubic feet of gas in conventional accumulations in Upper Devonian to Lower Cretaceous strata of the western North Slope, Alaska.
Authors
David W. Houseknecht, Tracey J. Mercier, Christopher J. Schenk, Thomas E. Moore, William A. Rouse, Julie A. Dumoulin, William H. Craddock, Richard O. Lease, Palma J. Botterell, Margaret M. Sanders, Rebecca A. Smith, Christopher D. Connors, Christopher P. Garrity, Katherine J. Whidden, Jared T. Gooley, John W. Counts, Joshua H. Long, Christina A. DeVera

International geoscience collaboration to support critical mineral discovery

The importance of critical minerals and the need to expand and diversify critical mineral supply chains has been endorsed by the Federal governments of Australia, Canada, and the United States. The geoscience organizations of Geoscience Australia, the Geological Survey of Canada and the U.S. Geological Survey have created the Critical Minerals Mapping Initiative to build a diversified critical min
Authors
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Conceptual framework and approach for conducting a geoenvironmental assessment of undiscovered uranium resources

This report presents a novel conceptual framework and approach for conducting a geologically based environmental assessment, or geoenvironmental assessment, of undiscovered uranium resources within an area likely to contain uranium deposits. The framework is based on a source-to-receptor model that prioritizes the most likely contaminant sources, contaminant pathways, and affected environmental me
Authors
Tanya J. Gallegos, Katherine Walton-Day, Robert R. Seal

Focus areas for data acquisition for potential domestic resources of 11 critical minerals in the conterminous United States, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico—Aluminum, cobalt, graphite, lithium, niobium, platinum-group elements, rare earth elements, tantalum, tin,

In response to a need for information on potential domestic sources of critical minerals, the Earth Mapping Resources Initiative (Earth MRI) was established to identify and prioritize areas for acquisition of new geologic mapping, geophysical data, and elevation data to improve our knowledge of the geologic framework of the United States. Phase 1 of Earth MRI concentrated on those geologic terrane
Authors
Jane M. Hammarstrom, Connie L. Dicken, Warren C. Day, Albert H. Hofstra, Benjamin J. Drenth, Anjana K. Shah, Anne E. McCafferty, Laurel G. Woodruff, Nora K. Foley, David A. Ponce, Thomas P. Frost, Lisa L. Stillings
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