Images

USGS scientist Art Bookstrom hammers on limonite-stained breccia, cutting banded siltite of the Apple Creek Formation, exposed near the Uncle Sam portal of the Blackbird cobalt-copper mine, in the Salmon River Mountains of east-central Idaho.

USGS scientist Art Bookstrom photographs copper-stained banded siltite, exposed in the Blacktail pit of the Blackbird cobalt-copper mine, Salmon River Mountains, east-central Idaho.

USGS scientist John Slack holds his hammer to a biotitic mafic dike, intruded into twice-folded banded siltite, exposed in the Hawkeye adit of the Blackbird cobalt-copper mine, in the Salmon River Mountains of east-central Idaho. Biotite is a type of mica, and mafic refers to a high magnesium and iron content.

Residents and visitors should not be alarmed to witness a low-flying helicopter over southeastern Missouri starting in mid to late February, 2014.

Specimen of stibnite, an ore mineral of antimony. Antimony compounds help to prevent skin burns, increase battery life, and refine the glass used in cell-phone screens.

A sample of finchite, a newly discovered uranium mineral. Finchite is the yellow material on the surface of the rock. Finchite is found in the late Pleistocene sediments deposited during the Illinoian glacial stage.

The Southern High Plains of New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. USGS conducted a uranium assessment in this region in 2015.

The Southern High Plains of New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. USGS conducted a uranium assessment in this region in 2015.

Between Lamesa and Big Spring, Texas, runs the Sulfur Spring Draw, a dry creek. It's the site of an economic calcrete-type uranium deposit, the Sulfur Springs Draw Deposit, where a new mineral was discovered in 2015.

A sample of finchite, a newly discovered uranium mineral. Finchite is the yellow material on the surface of the rock. Finchite is found in the late Pleistocene sediments deposited during the Illinoian glacial stage.

USGS scientist Bradley Van Gosen examines rock layers for the newly discovered mineral finchite near Lamesa, Texas.

A scanning electron microscope image of the newly discovered mineral finchite. The Denver Microbeam Lab provided this scan of finchite in order to help describe and identify the mineral as a new one. Finchite is a uranium mineral first observed in Martin County, Texas.

Geologist and cataclastic shear zones in the Melozitna granite in the Ruby batholith. This granite contains abundant monazite and high levels of thorium and rare earth elements.

Frac sands used in unconventional oil and gas development.

A calcrete outcropping near Sulfur Springs Draw in Texas. This deposit dates to the Pliocene and Pleistocene, and hosts uranium-vanadate minerals.

A uranium-vanadate mineral in calcrete. This sample came from near the Sulfur Springs Draw in Texas. USGS conducted an assessment of uranium resources in this region in 2015.

Microscopic gold and lead particles surrounded by organic and phosphorus-rich material in a municipal biosolids sample (combined surface topography and atomic weight images).

USGS scientist examining outcrops of strongly deformed and metamorphosed rock along Divide Mountain in the Yukon-Tanana upland of eastern Alaska

Cinnabar mine site in Idaho.

USGS geologist Richard Lease collects samples of granitic bedrock high above Blockade glacier, Neacola Mountains, Alaska.

Helicopter arriving to pick up geologists after retrieving geophysical equipment from the flanks of Redoubt Volcano, Alaska, July 2015