Publications
Here you will find publications, reports and articles produced by geology, energy, and mineral scientists. For a comprehensive listing of all USGS publications, click the button below.
Filter Total Items: 1370
Historical files from Federal Government mineral exploration-assistance programs, 1950 to 1974 Historical files from Federal Government mineral exploration-assistance programs, 1950 to 1974
The Defense Minerals Administration (DMA), Defense Minerals Exploration Administration (DMEA), and Office of Minerals Exploration (OME) mineral exploration programs were active over the period 1950–1974. Under these programs, the Federal Government contributed financial assistance in the exploration for certain strategic and critical minerals. The information about a mining property that...
Authors
David G. Frank
Surface slip during large Owens Valley earthquakes Surface slip during large Owens Valley earthquakes
The 1872 Owens Valley earthquake is the third largest known historical earthquake in California. Relatively sparse field data and a complex rupture trace, however, inhibited attempts to fully resolve the slip distribution and reconcile the total moment release. We present a new, comprehensive record of surface slip based on lidar and field investigation, documenting 162 new measurements...
Authors
E.K. Haddon, C.B. Amos, O. Zielke, Angela S. Jayko, R. Burgmann
Reevaluation of the Crooked Ridge River- Early Pleistocene (ca. 2 Ma) age and origin of the White Mesa Alluvium, northeastern Arizona Reevaluation of the Crooked Ridge River- Early Pleistocene (ca. 2 Ma) age and origin of the White Mesa Alluvium, northeastern Arizona
Essential features of the previously named and described Miocene Crooked Ridge River in northeastern Arizona (USA) are reexamined using new geologic and geochronologic data. Previously it was proposed that Cenozoic alluvium at Crooked Ridge and southern White Mesa was pre–early Miocene, the product of a large, vigorous late Paleogene river draining the 35–23 Ma San Juan Mountains...
Authors
Richard Hereford, Sue Beard, William R. Dickinson, Karl E. Karlstrom, Matthew T. Heizler, Laura J. Crossey, Lee Amoroso, Kyle House, Mark Pecha
Seasonal changes in atmospheric noise levels and the annual variation in pigeon homing performance Seasonal changes in atmospheric noise levels and the annual variation in pigeon homing performance
Repeated releases of experienced homing pigeons from single sites were conducted between 1972 and 1974 near Cornell University in upstate New York and between 1982 and 1983 near the University of Pittsburgh in western Pennsylvania, USA. No annual variation in homing performance was observed at these sites in eastern North America, in contrast to results from a number of similar...
Authors
Jonathan T. Hagstrum, Hugh P. McIsaac, Douglas P. Drob
Natural thorium resources and recovery: Options and impacts Natural thorium resources and recovery: Options and impacts
This paper reviews the front end of the thorium fuel cycle, including the extent and variety of thorium deposits, the potential sources of thorium production, and the physical and chemical technologies required to isolate and purify thorium. Thorium is frequently found within rare earth element–bearing minerals that exist in diverse types of mineral deposits, often in conjunction with...
Authors
Timothy Ault, Bradley S. Van Gosen, Steven Krahn, Allen Croff
The F'derik-Zouerate iron district: Mesoarchean and Paleoproterozoic iron formation of the Tiris Complex, Islamic Republic of Mauritania The F'derik-Zouerate iron district: Mesoarchean and Paleoproterozoic iron formation of the Tiris Complex, Islamic Republic of Mauritania
High-grade hematitic iron ores (of HIF, containing 60-65 wt%Fe) have been mined in Mauritania since 1952 from Superior-type iron deposits of the F'derik-Zouerate district. Depletion of the high-grade ores in recent years has resulted in new exploration projects focused on lower-grade magnetite ores occurring in Algoma-type banded iron formation (of BIF, containing ca. 35 wt% Fe)...
Authors
Cliff D. Taylor, Carol A. Finn, Eric D. Anderson, Dwight Bradley, Mohamed Joud, Ahmed Taleb Mohamed, John D. Horton, Craig A. Johnson
Geologic history of the Blackbird Co-Cu district in the Lemhi subbasin of the Belt-Purcell Basin Geologic history of the Blackbird Co-Cu district in the Lemhi subbasin of the Belt-Purcell Basin
The Blackbird cobalt-copper (Co-Cu) district in the Salmon River Mountains of east-central Idaho occupies the central part of the Idaho cobalt belt—a northwest-elongate, 55-km-long belt of Co-Cu occurrences, hosted in grayish siliciclastic metasedimentary strata of the Lemhi subbasin (of the Mesoproterozoic Belt-Purcell Basin). The Blackbird district contains at least eight stratabound...
Authors
Arthur A. Bookstrom, Stephen E. Box, Pamela M. Cossette, Thomas P. Frost, Virginia Gillerman, George King, N. Alex Zirakparvar
Geology of the Greenwater Range, and the dawn of Death Valley, California—Field guide for the Death Valley Natural History Conference, 2013 Geology of the Greenwater Range, and the dawn of Death Valley, California—Field guide for the Death Valley Natural History Conference, 2013
Much has been written about the age and formation of Death Valley, but that is one—if not the last—chapter in the fascinating geologic history of this area. Igneous and sedimentary rocks in the Greenwater Range, one mountain range east of Death Valley, tell an earlier story that overlaps with the formation of Death Valley proper. This early story has been told by scientists who have...
Authors
J.P. Calzia, O.T. Ramo, Robert Jachens, Eugene Smith, Jeffrey Knott
Geologic and geochemical insights into the formation of the Taiyangshan porphyry copper–molybdenum deposit, Western Qinling Orogenic Belt, China Geologic and geochemical insights into the formation of the Taiyangshan porphyry copper–molybdenum deposit, Western Qinling Orogenic Belt, China
Taiyangshan is a poorly studied copper–molybdenum deposit located in the Triassic Western Qinling collisional belt of northwest China. The intrusions exposed in the vicinity of the Taiyangshan deposit record episodic magmatism over 20–30 million years. Pre-mineralization quartz diorite porphyries, which host some of the deposit, were emplaced at 226.6 ± 6.2 Ma. Syn-collisional monzonite...
Authors
Kun-Feng Qiu, Ryan D. Taylor, Yao-Hui Song, Hao-Cheng Yu, Kai-Rui Song, Nan Li
The Chahnaly low sulfidation epithermal gold deposit, western Makran volcanic arc, southeastern Iran The Chahnaly low sulfidation epithermal gold deposit, western Makran volcanic arc, southeastern Iran
The Chahnaly low-sulfidation epithermal Au deposit and nearby Au prospects are located northwest of the intermittently active Bazman stratovolcano on the western end of the Makran volcanic arc, which formed as the result of subduction of the remnant Neo-Tethyan oceanic crust beneath the Lut block. The arc hosts the Siah Jangal epithermal and Kharestan porphyry prospects, near Taftan...
Authors
Ali Sholeh, Ebrahim Rastad, David L. Huston, J. Bruce Gemmell, Ryan D. Taylor
User’s guide for GcClust—An R package for clustering of regional geochemical data User’s guide for GcClust—An R package for clustering of regional geochemical data
GcClust is a software package developed by the U.S. Geological Survey for statistical clustering of regional geochemical data, and similar data such as regional mineralogical data. Functions within the software package are written in the R statistical programming language. These functions, their documentation, and a copy of the user’s guide are bundled together in R’s unit of sharable...
Authors
Karl J. Ellefsen, David B. Smith