Publications
Here you will find publications, reports and articles produced by Energy and Mineral scientists. For a comprehensive listing of all USGS publications please click the button below.
Filter Total Items: 1168
Rhenium
Rhenium is one of the rarest elements in Earth’s continental crust; its estimated average crustal abundance is less than 1 part per billion. Rhenium is a metal that has an extremely high melting point and a heat-stable crystalline structure. More than 80 percent of the rhenium consumed in the world is used in high-temperature superalloys, especially those used to make turbine blades for jet aircra
Authors
David John, Robert R. Seal, Désirée E. Polyak
Platinum-group elements
The platinum-group elements (PGEs)—platinum, palladium, rhodium, ruthenium, iridium, and osmium—are metals that have similar physical and chemical properties and tend to occur together in nature. PGEs are indispensable to many industrial applications but are mined in only a few places. The availability and accessibility of PGEs could be disrupted by economic, environmental, political, and social e
Authors
Michael L. Zientek, Patricia J. Loferski, Heather L. Parks, Ruth F. Schulte, Robert R. Seal
Nanoscale geochemical and geomechanical characterization of dispersed organic matter in shale by infrared nanoscopy
Solid organic matter (OM) plays an essential role in the generation, migration, storage, and production of hydrocarbons from economically important shale rock formations. Electron microscopy images have documented spatial heterogeneity in the porosity of OM at nanoscale, and bulk spectroscopy measurements have documented large variation in the chemical composition of OM during petroleum generation
Authors
Jin Yang, Javin J. Hatcherian, Paul C. Hackley, Andrew Pomerantz
Punctuated sediment discharge during early Pliocene birth of the Colorado River: Evidence from regional stratigraphy, sedimentology, and paleontology
The Colorado River in the southwestern U.S. provides an excellent natural laboratory for studying the origins of a continent-scale river system, because deposits that formed prior to and during river initiation are well exposed in the lower river valley and nearby basinal sink. This paper presents a synthesis of regional stratigraphy, sedimentology, and micropaleontology from the southern Bouse Fo
Authors
Rebecca J. Dorsey, Brennan O’Connell, Kristin McDougall-Reid, Mindy B. Homan
Ore-forming adakitic porphyry produced by fractional crystallization of oxidized basaltic magmas in a subcrustal chamber (Jiamate, East Junggar, NW China)
Adakitic intrusions are supposed to have a close genetic and spatial relationship to porphyry Cu deposits. However, the genesis of adakitic intrusions is still under dispute. Here, we describe newly discovered intrusive complex rocks, which are composed of ore-bearing, layered magnetite-bearing gabbroic and adakitic rocks in Jiamate, East Junggar, NW China. These Jiamate Complex intrusions have di
Authors
Tao Hong, Xing-Wang Xu, Jungang Gao, Stephen Peters, Di Zhang, Reyaniguli Jielili, Peng Xiang, Hao Li, Chu Wu, Jun You, Jie Liu, Qiang Ke
Geochemical variations during development of the 5.46 Ma Broadwell Mesa basaltic volcanic field, California
The 5.46±0.04 Ma Broadwell Mesa basalt and associated basaltic volcanic field in the western Bristol Mountains, California, formed a ~6 km2 volcanic flow field with architecture including numerous lava flows, a ~1.1 km2 lava lake, and a ~0.17 km2 cinder cone. The local number of lava flows varies from one along the margins of the field to as many as 18 that are stacked vertically, onlapped by you
Authors
David C. Buesch
Connecting the Soda–Avawatz and Bristol–Granite Mountains faults with gravity andaeromagnetic data, Mojave Desert, California
The Soda–Avawatz and Bristol–Granite Mountains faults are considered by some to form the northeastern margin of the eastern California shear zone yet their connectivity and extents are obscured by surficial deposits and the estimates of total right-lateral offset from geologic data range from 0 to as much as 24 km. We use gravity and recently released detailed aeromagnetic data to map strands of t
Authors
Victoria E. Langenheim, David M. Miller
Geologic sources of energy
This chapter describes the exploration, development, and geologic setting of petroleum resources (including tar sands), coal resources (including coalbed methane), and geothermal energy resources of the Northern Cordillera.For petroleum resources, the chapter describes: (1) the history of petroleum development and production, first for Alaska and then for the Canadian Cordillera; and (2) generaliz
Authors
Thomas K. Bundtzen, Warren J. Nokleberg
The late Cenozoic Eastern California Shear Zone after 25 years of study
No abstract available.
Authors
David M. Miller
Detrital zircon geochronology of quartzose metasedimentary rocks from parautochthonous North America, east-central Alaska
We report eight new U-Pb detrital zircon ages for quartzose metasedimentary rocks from four lithotectonic units of parautochthonous North America in east-central Alaska: the Healy schist, Keevy Peak Formation, and Sheep Creek Member of the Totatlanika Schist in the northern Alaska Range, and the Butte assemblage in the northwestern Yukon-Tanana Upland. Excepting 1 of 3 samples from the Healy schis
Authors
Cynthia Dusel-Bacon, Christopher S. Holm-Denoma, James V. Jones, John N. Aleinikoff, James K. Mortensen
Miocene−Pleistocene deformation of the Saddle Mountains: Implications for seismic hazard in central Washington, USA
The Yakima fold province, located in the backarc of the Cascadia subduction zone, is a region of active strain accumulation and deformation distributed across a series of fault-cored folds. The geodetic network in central Washington has been used to interpret large-scale N-S shortening and westward-increasing strain; however, geodetic data are unable to resolve shortening rates across individual s
Authors
Lydia M. Staisch, Harvey Kelsey, Brian L. Sherrod, Andreas Möller, James B. Paces, Richard J. Blakely, Richard Styron