Publications

Early to middle Miocene lacustrine strata of the Barstow Formation are well dated in just a few places, limiting our ability to infer basin evolution and regional tectonics. At the type section in the Mud Hills, previous studies have shown that the lacustrine interval of the Barstow Formation is between ~16.3 Ma and ~13.4 Ma. Elsewhere, lake beds of the Barstow Formation have yielded...

We report new paleomagnetic results and 40Ar/39Ar ages from the Peach Spring Tuff (PST), a key marker bed that occurs in the desert region between Barstow, California, and Peach Springs, Arizona. The 40Ar/39Ar ages were determined using individual hand-picked sanidine crystals from ash-flow specimens used in previous paleomagnetic studies at eight sites correlated by mineralogy...

Described in this report is an updated subsurface stratigraphic framework of the Paleocene Fort Union Formation and Eocene Wasatch Formation in the Powder River Basin (PRB) in Wyoming and Montana. This framework is graphically presented in 17 intersecting west-east and north-south cross sections across the basin. Also included are: (1) the dataset and all associated digital files and (2)...

Large amplitude waveform features have been identified in pulse-transmission shear-wave measurements through cylinders that are long relative to the acoustic wavelength. The arrival times and amplitudes of these features do not follow the predicted behavior of well-known bar waves, but instead they appear to propagate with group velocities that increase as the waveform feature's dominant...

Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) estimated means of 21.6 billion barrels of oil and 299 trillion cubic feet of undiscovered natural gas in 22 provinces of southeast Asia.

The U.S. Geological Survey estimated a mean of 1.7 billion barrels of recoverable oil and a mean of 122 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas in the Levant Basin Province using a geology based assessment methodology.

The northwest-trending Silver Creek Fault is a 40-km-long strike-slip fault in the eastern Santa Clara Valley, California, that has exhibited different behaviors within a changing San Andreas Fault system over the past 10-15 Ma. Quaternary alluvium several hundred meters thick that buries the northern half of the Silver Creek Fault, and that has been sampled by drilling and imaged in a...

Petroleum generation in the North Cuba Basin is primarily the result of thrust loading of Jurassic and Cretaceous source rocks during formation of the North Cuba fold and thrust belt in the Late Cretaceous to Paleogene. The fold and thrust belt formed as Cuban arc-forearc rocks along the leading edge of the Caribbean plate translated northward during the opening of the Yucatan Basin and...

Four geologic provinces located along the northwest and west-central coast of Africa recently were assessed for undiscovered oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids resources as part of the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) World Oil and Gas Assessment. Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the USGS estimated mean volumes of 71.7 billion barrels of oil, 187.2 trillion cubic feet...

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) recently assessed the potential for undiscovered oil and gas resources of the West Greenland-East Canada Province as part of the USGS Circum-Arctic Resource Appraisal program. The province lies in the offshore area between western Greenland and eastern Canada and includes Baffin Bay, Davis Strait, Lancaster Sound, and Nares Strait west of and including...

Concentrations of organic biomarkers and concentrations of phosphorus in soil cores can potentially be used as proxies for historic population densities of wading birds on tree islands in the Florida Everglades. This report focuses on establishing a link between the organic biomarker uric acid found in wading bird guano and the high phosphorus concentrations in tree island soils in the...

Gas, oil, and water production data were compiled from selected wells in four gas fields in rocks of Late Cretaceous age in southwestern Wyoming. This study is one of a series of reports examining fluid production from tight-gas reservoirs, which are characterized by low permeability, low porosity, and the presence of clay minerals in pore space. Production from each well is represented...