Publications

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has investigated the environmental geochemistry of a group of unmined volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) deposits in the Bonnifield mining district, Alaska Range, east-central Alaska. The spectacularly colored Red Mountain deposit is the best exposed of these and provides excellent baseline geochemical data for natural environmental impacts of acidic...

Extensive volcanic and intrusive igneous activity, partly localized along regional structural zones, characterized the southern Toquima Range, Nevada, in the late Eocene, Oligocene, and Miocene. The general chronology of igneous activity has been defined previously. This major episode of Tertiary magmatism began with emplacement of a variety of intrusive rocks, followed by formation of...

An updated global compilation of 377 new and previously published ages indicates that granitic pegmatites range in age from Mesoarchean to Neogene and have a semi-periodic age distribution. Undivided granitic pegmatites show twelve age maxima: 2913, 2687, 2501, 1853, 1379, 1174, 988, 525, 483, 391, 319, and 72 Ma. These peaks correspond broadly with various proxy records of...

Red Pass, a narrow cut through the Soda Mountains important for prehistoric and early historic travelers, is quite young geologically. Its history of downcutting to capture streams west of the Soda Mountains, thereby draining much of eastern Fort Irwin, is told by the contrast in alluvial fan sediments on either side of the pass. Old alluvial fan deposits (>500 ka) were shed westward off...

Faults and fractures play an important role in the circulation of geothermal fluids in the crust, and the nature of that role varies according to structural setting and state of stress. As a result, detailed geologic and geophysical mapping that relates thermal springs to known structural features is essential to modeling geothermal systems. Published maps of Surprise Valley in...

High-resolution topographic surveys allow fairly precise mapping of landslide deposits and their relative ages. Relative ages are determined by cross-cutting relations and the amount of smoothing—more smoothed slide deposits are older—of these deposits. The Tulalip Tribes, in partnership with the Puget Sound Lidar Consortium, acquired a high-resolution lidar (light detection and ranging)...

From August 26 to September 5, 2011, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) collected more than 600 line-kilometers of shipborne magnetic data on Mono Lake, 20 line-kilometers of ground magnetic data on Paoha Island, 50 gravity stations on Paoha and Negit Islands, and 28 rock samples on Paoha and Negit Islands, in east-central California. Magnetic and gravity investigations were undertaken in...

Magnetite (Fe3O4) is a well-recognized petrogenetic indicator and is a common accessory mineral in many ore deposits and their host rocks. Recent years have seen an increased interest in the use of hydrothermal magnetite for provenance studies and as a pathfinder for mineral exploration. A number of studies have investigated how specific formation conditions are reflected in the...

Carbonatite and alkaline intrusive complexes, as well as their weathering products, are the primary sources of rare earth elements. A wide variety of other commodities have been exploited from carbonatites and alkaline igneous rocks including niobium, phosphate, titanium, vermiculite, barite, fluorite, copper, calcite, and zirconium. Other elements enriched in these deposits include...

No abstract available.

Diagenesis significantly impacts mudstone lithofacies. Processes operating to control diagenetic pathways in mudstones are poorly known compared to analogous processes occurring in other sedimentary rocks. Selected organic-carbon-rich mudstones, from the Kimmeridge Clay and Monterey Formations, have been investigated to determine how varying starting compositions influence diagenesis...

Knickpoints in fluvial channel longitudinal profiles and channel steepness index values derived from digital elevation data can be used to detect tectonic structures and infer spatial patterns of uplift. However, changes in lithologic resistance to channel incision can also influence the morphology of longitudinal profiles. We compare the spatial patterns of both channel steepness index...