Publications

As part of the assessment of undiscovered oil and gas resources in Jurassic and Cretaceous strata of the U.S. Gulf Coast in 2010, the U.S. Geological Survey assessed carbonate rocks of the Fredericksburg and Washita groups and their equivalent units underlying onshore lands and State waters. One conventional assessment unit extending from south Texas to the Florida panhandle was defined...

In 1995, U.S. Geological Survey made the first systematic assessment of the volume of natural gas stored in the hydrate accumulations of the United States. That study, along with numerous other studies, has shown that the amount of gas stored as methane hydrates in the world greatly exceeds the volume of known conventional gas resources. However, gas hydrates represent both a scientific...

This report provides a comprehensive overview of the stratigraphy, structure, tectonics, and petroleum systems of the Cook Inlet basin, an important oil- and gas-producing region in south-central Alaska.

The Franciscan Complex accretionary prism was assembled during an ∼165-m.y.-long period of subduction of Pacific Ocean plates beneath the western margin of the North American plate. In such fossil subduction complexes, it is generally difficult to reconstruct details of the accretion of continent-derived sediments and to evaluate the factors that controlled accretion. New detrital zircon...

A new isostatic residual gravity map of the Newfoundland Mountains and east of the Wells 30×60 quadrangles of Utah is based on compilation of preexisting data and new data collected by the Utah and U.S. Geological Surveys. Pronounced gravity lows occur over Grouse Creek Valley and locally beneath the Great Salt Lake Desert, indicating significant thickness of low-density Tertiary...

The Oligocene Frio and Anahuac Formations were assessed as part of the 2007 U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) assessment of Tertiary strata of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico Basin onshore and State waters. The Frio Formation, which consists of sand-rich fluvio-deltaic systems, has been one of the largest hydrocarbon producers from the Paleogene in the Gulf of Mexico. The Anahuac Formation, an...

Seismic refraction methods are used in environmental and engineering studies to image the shallow subsurface. We present a blind test of inversion and tomographic refraction analysis methods using a synthetic first-arrival-time dataset that was made available to the community in 2010. The data are realistic in terms of the near-surface velocity model, shot-receiver geometry and the data...

This report provides information pertaining to the 2012 U.S. Geological Survey assessment of undiscovered, technically recoverable conventional oil and gas resources of the world, exclusive of the United States. Some of the results were previously published, mostly in USGS fact sheet series.

The Idaho cobalt belt (ICB) is a northwest-trending belt of cobalt (Co) +/- copper (Cu)-bearing deposits and prospects in the Salmon River Mountains of east-central Idaho, U.S.A. The ICB is about 55 km long and 10 km long in its central part, which contains multiple strata-bound ore zones in the Blackbird mine area. The Black Pine and Iron Creek Co-Cu prospects are southeast of Blackbird...

Coal beds are one of the most promising reservoirs for geologic carbon dioxide (CO₂) sequestration, as CO₂ can strongly adsorb onto organic matter and displace methane; however, little is known about the long-term fate of CO₂ sequestered in coal beds. The "2800' sand" of the Olla oil field is a coal-bearing, oil and gas-producing reservoir of the Paleocene–Eocene Wilcox Group in north...

This field guide provides a road log to and geologic descriptions of selected sites in the Idaho cobalt belt, and at the Beartrack gold mine, in the eastern Salmon River Mountains.

The type section of the Barstow Formation in the Mud Hills, north of Barstow, is a reference section for early to middle Miocene paleontology, magnetostratigraphy, and dated volcanic episodes. Thanks to this robust chronologic framework, much of the interpretation of the paleogeography of the region from about 18 Ma to 13 Ma is based on study of the rocks in the Mud Hills. Eastward from...