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Publications

Results from our Program’s research and minerals information activities are published in USGS publications series as well as in outside journals.  To follow Minerals Information Periodicals, subscribe to the Mineral Periodicals RSS feed.

Filter Total Items: 2523

The Portland Basin: A (big) river runs through it The Portland Basin: A (big) river runs through it

Metropolitan Portland, Oregon, USA, lies within a small Neogene to Holocene basin in the forearc of the Cascadia subduction system. Although the basin owes its existence and structural development to its convergent-margin tectonic setting, the stratigraphic architecture of basin-fill deposits chiefly reflects its physiographic position along the lower reaches of the continental-scale...
Authors
Russell C. Evarts, Jim E. O'Connor, Ray E. Wells, Ian P. Madin

Geochemical evolution of a high arsenic, alkaline pit-lake in the Mother Lode Gold District, California Geochemical evolution of a high arsenic, alkaline pit-lake in the Mother Lode Gold District, California

The Harvard orebody at the Jamestown gold mine, located along the Melones fault zone in the southern Mother Lode gold district, California, was mined in an open-pit operation from 1987 to 1994. Dewatering during mining produced a hydrologic cone of depression; recovery toward the premining ground-water configuration produced a monomictic pit lake with alkaline Ca-Mg-HCO3-SO4–type pit...
Authors
Kaye S. Savage, Roger P. Ashley, Dennis K. Bird

Magnetostratigraphic correlations of Permian-Triassic marine-to-terrestrial sections from China Magnetostratigraphic correlations of Permian-Triassic marine-to-terrestrial sections from China

We have studied three Permian–Triassic (PT) localities from China as part of a combined magnetostratigraphic, 40Ar/39Ar and U–Pb radioisotopic, and biostratigraphic study aimed at resolving the temporal relations between terrestrial and marine records across the Permo-Triassic boundary, as well as the rate of the biotic recovery in the Early Triassic. The studied sections from Shangsi...
Authors
J.M.G. Glen, S. Nomade, J.J. Lyons, I. Metcalfe, R. Mundil, P.R. Renne

Geophysical setting of western Utah and eastern Nevada between latitudes 37°45′ and 40°N Geophysical setting of western Utah and eastern Nevada between latitudes 37°45′ and 40°N

Gravity and aeromagnetic data refine the structural setting for the region of western Utah and eastern Nevada between Snake and Hamlin Valleys on the west and Tule Valley on the east. These data are used here as part of a regional analysis. An isostatic gravity map shows large areas underlain by gravity lows, the most prominent of which is a large semi-circular low associated with the...
Authors
Edward A. Mankinen, Edwin H. McKee

U.S. Geological Survey research in Handcart Gulch, Colorado—An alpine watershed with natural acid-rock drainage U.S. Geological Survey research in Handcart Gulch, Colorado—An alpine watershed with natural acid-rock drainage

Handcart Gulch is an alpine watershed along the Continental Divide in the Colorado Rocky Mountain Front Range. It contains an unmined mineral deposit typical of many hydrothermal mineral deposits in the intermountain west, composed primarily of pyrite with trace metals including copper and molybdenum. Springs and the trunk stream have a natural pH value of 3 to 4. The U.S. Geological...
Authors
Andrew H. Manning, Jonathan S. Caine, Philip L. Verplanck, Dana J. Bove, Katherine G. Kahn

Cenozoic evolution of the abrupt Colorado Plateau–Basin and Range boundary, northwest Arizona: A tale of three basins, immense lacustrine-evaporite deposits, and the nascent Colorado River Cenozoic evolution of the abrupt Colorado Plateau–Basin and Range boundary, northwest Arizona: A tale of three basins, immense lacustrine-evaporite deposits, and the nascent Colorado River

In northwest Arizona, the relatively unextended Colorado Plateau gives way abruptly to the highly extended Colorado River extensional corridor within the Basin and Range province along a system of major west-dipping normal faults, including the Grand Wash fault zone and South Virgin–White Hills detachment fault. Large growth-fault basins developed in the hanging walls of these faults...
Authors
J. E. Faulds, Keith A. Howard, E. M. Duebendorfer

Speciation Methods Used to Assess Potential Health Effects of Toxic Metals in Environmental Materials Speciation Methods Used to Assess Potential Health Effects of Toxic Metals in Environmental Materials

Assessing potential exposures to toxic metals or metalloids such as arsenic and chromium in environmental materials is important in protecting public health. The chemical form of an element in, or released from, a material is also important, since some forms, such as Cr(VI), are more toxic than others, for example, Cr(III). We have used a variety of procedures to assess potential...
Authors
Ruth E. Wolf, Suzette A. Morman, Geoffrey S. Plumlee

Simultaneous Speciation of Arsenic, Selenium, and Chromium by HPLC-ICP-MS Simultaneous Speciation of Arsenic, Selenium, and Chromium by HPLC-ICP-MS

An adaptation of an analytical method developed for chromium speciation has been utilized for the simultaneous determination of As(III), As(V), Se(IV), Se(VI), Cr(III), and Cr(VI) species using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) separation with ICP-MS detection. Reduction of interferences for the determination of As, Se, and Cr by ICP-MS is a major consideration for this...
Authors
Ruth E. Wolf, Suzette A. Morman, Jean M. Morrison, Paul J. Lamothe

Understanding contaminants associated with mineral deposits Understanding contaminants associated with mineral deposits

Interdisciplinary studies by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) have resulted in substantial progress in understanding the processes that controlthe release of metals and acidic water from inactive mines and mineralized areas,the transport of metals and acidic water to streams, andthe fate and effect of metals and acidity on downstream ecosystems. The potential environmental effects...
Authors
Philip L. Verplanck

Relational database for the geology of the northern Rocky Mountains— Idaho, Montana, and Washington Relational database for the geology of the northern Rocky Mountains— Idaho, Montana, and Washington

A relational database was created to prepare and organize geologic map-unit and lithologic descriptions for input into a spatial database for the geology of the northern Rocky Mountains, a compilation of forty-three geologic maps for parts of Idaho, Montana, and Washington in U.S. Geological Survey Open File Report 2005-1235. Not all of the information was transferred to and incorporated...
Authors
J. Douglas Causey, Michael L. Zientek, Arthur A. Bookstrom, Thomas P. Frost, Karl V. Evans, Anna B. Wilson, Bradley S. Van Gosen, David E. Boleneus, Rebecca A. Pitts

Central Colorado Assessment Project - Application of integrated geologic, geochemical, biologic, and mineral resource studies Central Colorado Assessment Project - Application of integrated geologic, geochemical, biologic, and mineral resource studies

Central Colorado is one of the fastest-growing regions in the Western United States. Population along the Front Range increased more than 30 percent between 1990 and 2000 (http://www.demographia.com/db-metro3newworld.htm) with some counties within the study area, such as Park County, experiencing greater than 100-percent growth (http://www.censusscope.org/us/s8/rank_popl_growth.html)...
Authors
T. L. Klein, S. E. Church, Jonathan S. Caine, T.S. Schmidt, E.H. deWitt
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