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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.

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Introduction to special section on the California-Arizona crustal transect: CACTIS, Part 3 Introduction to special section on the California-Arizona crustal transect: CACTIS, Part 3

The CACTIS (California‐Arizona Crustal Transect Interim Synthesis) workshop in May 1988 brought researchers together in Flagstaff, Arizona, to discuss the geologic evolution and crustal structure of the southern Cordillera between the San Andreas fault in southeastern California and the Colorado Plateau in Arizona [Sass et al., 1988]. The first set of papers resulting from the workshop...
Authors
R.W. Simpson, Keith A. Howard, Gordon B. Haxel

Faulting and seismic activity Faulting and seismic activity

This chapter traces some of the ideas and concepts leading to the current understanding of the process of faulting and earthquake generation, gives examples of engineering geology investigations contributing to that understanding, describes some engineering projects that have been strongly influenced by the process, and suggests needed research. Each of these topics is discussed in...
Authors
Manuel G. Bonilla

The Marina District, San Francisco, California: Geology, history, and earthquake effects The Marina District, San Francisco, California: Geology, history, and earthquake effects

A northwest-trending valley in the bedrock surface is buried by firm Pleistocene bay clay, a dense Pleistocene sand layer, soft Holocene bay sediments, loose to dense Holocene beach and dune sands, and artificial fill that have an aggregate maximum thickness of about 90 m (300 ft). Artificial filling of a cove at the site of The Marina District proceeded gradually from the late 1860s to...
Authors
Manuel G. Bonilla

The world landslide problem The world landslide problem

Thousands of people may be killed by landslides each year and property damage may be in the tens of billions of dollars, but the techniques for recognizing and coping with landslides are well developed. Landslides are generally more manageable and predictable than earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and some storms, but only a few countries have taken advantage of this knowledge to reduce...
Authors
E. E. Brabb

A reinterpretation of the timing, position, and significance of part of the Sacramento Mountains detachment fault, southeastern California A reinterpretation of the timing, position, and significance of part of the Sacramento Mountains detachment fault, southeastern California

A contact previously considered to be part of the Sacramento Mountains detachment fault (SDF), exposed in the Sacramento Mountains metamorphic core complex, is reinterpreted as an unconformity between Tertiary rhyolite of Eagle Peak and cataclastically deformed crystalline lower-plate rocks. This reinterpretation is based on outcrop-scale topographic relief and the absence of deformation...
Authors
Carol Simpson, Janet Schweitzer, Keith A. Howard

An axial view of a metamorphic core complex: Crustal structure of the Whipple and Chemehuevi Mountains, southeastern California An axial view of a metamorphic core complex: Crustal structure of the Whipple and Chemehuevi Mountains, southeastern California

A 135‐km‐long, NW‐SE trending, seismic refraction/wide‐angle reflection profile provides a unique along‐strike view of the crustal structure of a belt of metamorphic core complexes in southeastern California: the Whipple, Chemehuevi, and Sacramento mountains metamorphic core complexes. Interpretation of the seismic data was done by two‐dimensional forward modeling of travel times and...
Authors
J. M. Wilson, Jill McCarthy, R.A. Johnson, Keith A. Howard

Franciscan Complex, Coast Range ophiolite and Great Valley sequence: Pacheco Pass to Del Puerto Canyon, California Franciscan Complex, Coast Range ophiolite and Great Valley sequence: Pacheco Pass to Del Puerto Canyon, California

This field trip covers part of the Diablo Range and adjacent San Joaquin Valley of central California (Fig. 1 ). The core of the range is made up of rocks of the Franciscan Complex, flanked by Coast Range ophiolite (CRO) and Great Valley sequence (GVS). The Franciscan Complex in this area consists of deformed and metamorphosed sedimentary and volcanic rocks containing fossils of Late...
Authors
Allan P. Bennison, M. Clark Blake, B. F. Cox, William P. Elder, W. G. Ernst, Tekla Harms, T. H. Nilsen

ALACARTE User Interface - AML Code and Demonstration Maps ALACARTE User Interface - AML Code and Demonstration Maps

ALACARTE offers a convenient way to compile geologic maps in the computer as spatial databases that can be used to prepare both cartographic images and analytic derivatives. It is a menu-controlled shell, organized in geologic terms, that provides on-screen control of the program ARC/INFO, a commercial geographic information system (GIS). Input can be from imported scans, digitizer...
Authors
Todd T. Fitzgibbon, Carl M. Wentworth

Application of the FINDER system to the search for epithermal vein gold-silver deposits : Kushikino, Japan, a case study Application of the FINDER system to the search for epithermal vein gold-silver deposits : Kushikino, Japan, a case study

The FINDER system employs geometric probability, Bayesian statistics, and the normal probability density function to integrate spatial and frequency information to produce a map of probabilities of target centers. Target centers can be mineral deposits, alteration associated with mineral deposits, or any other target that can be represented by a regular shape on a two dimensional map...
Authors
Donald A. Singer, Ryoichi Kouda
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