Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

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: 2504

United States copper metal and scrap use and trade patterns, 1995‒2014 United States copper metal and scrap use and trade patterns, 1995‒2014

In 1995, China accounted for 10 percent of world copper consumption. By 2014, China accounted for about 49 percent of world copper consumption. This change has affected global copper and copper scrap prices, the sources of copper supply, and U.S. trade of copper-containing materials. This report considers changes to the copper and copper scrap industries of the United States. For the...
Authors
Thomas Goonan

Gravity and magnetic studies of the eastern Mojave Desert, California and Nevada Gravity and magnetic studies of the eastern Mojave Desert, California and Nevada

Introduction From May 2011 to August 2014, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) collected gravity data at more than 2,300 stations and physical property measurements on more than 640 rock samples from outcrops in the eastern Mojave Desert, California and Nevada. Gravity, magnetic, and physical-property data are used to study and locate regional crustal structures as an aid to understanding...
Authors
Kevin Denton, David Ponce

Historical files from Federal Government mineral exploration-assistance programs, 1950 to 1974 Historical files from Federal Government mineral exploration-assistance programs, 1950 to 1974

The Defense Minerals Administration (DMA), Defense Minerals Exploration Administration (DMEA), and Office of Minerals Exploration (OME) mineral exploration programs were active over the period 1950–1974. Under these programs, the Federal Government contributed financial assistance in the exploration for certain strategic and critical minerals. The information about a mining property that...
Authors
David Frank

Surface slip during large Owens Valley earthquakes Surface slip during large Owens Valley earthquakes

The 1872 Owens Valley earthquake is the third largest known historical earthquake in California. Relatively sparse field data and a complex rupture trace, however, inhibited attempts to fully resolve the slip distribution and reconcile the total moment release. We present a new, comprehensive record of surface slip based on lidar and field investigation, documenting 162 new measurements...
Authors
E.K. Haddon, C.B. Amos, O. Zielke, Angela Jayko, R. Burgmann

Reevaluation of the Crooked Ridge River- Early Pleistocene (ca. 2 Ma) age and origin of the White Mesa Alluvium, northeastern Arizona Reevaluation of the Crooked Ridge River- Early Pleistocene (ca. 2 Ma) age and origin of the White Mesa Alluvium, northeastern Arizona

Essential features of the previously named and described Miocene Crooked Ridge River in northeastern Arizona (USA) are reexamined using new geologic and geochronologic data. Previously it was proposed that Cenozoic alluvium at Crooked Ridge and southern White Mesa was pre–early Miocene, the product of a large, vigorous late Paleogene river draining the 35–23 Ma San Juan Mountains...
Authors
Richard Hereford, Sue Beard, William Dickinson, Karl Karlstrom, Matthew Heizler, Laura Crossey, Lee Amoroso, Kyle House, Mark Pecha

Book Review: Potassic igneous rocks and associated gold-copper mineralization, Fourth edition (D. Muller and D.I. Groves) Book Review: Potassic igneous rocks and associated gold-copper mineralization, Fourth edition (D. Muller and D.I. Groves)

The fourth edition of this comprehensive textbook, which succeeds those published in 1995, 1997, and 2000, very nicely summarizes the geochemical and petrological characteristics of potassic igneous rock complexes and the different tectonic settings in which they occur. The authors provide an overview and a classification of these rocks and they outline the geochemical differences...
Authors
Karen Kelley

Book review: Current perspectives on zinc deposits Book review: Current perspectives on zinc deposits

This book, published in 2015 by the Irish Association for Economic Geology (IAEG), is a compilation of papers and abstracts written by selected authors who attended the ZINC 2010 Conference in Cork, Ireland. Unlike most books produced each decade by the IAEG, which are focused primarily on achievements of the Irish and European mineral sectors, this book has a global perspective of a...
Authors
Karen Kelley

Natural thorium resources and recovery: Options and impacts Natural thorium resources and recovery: Options and impacts

This paper reviews the front end of the thorium fuel cycle, including the extent and variety of thorium deposits, the potential sources of thorium production, and the physical and chemical technologies required to isolate and purify thorium. Thorium is frequently found within rare earth element–bearing minerals that exist in diverse types of mineral deposits, often in conjunction with...
Authors
Timothy Ault, Bradley Van Gosen, Steven Krahn, Allen Croff

The F'derik-Zouerate iron district: Mesoarchean and Paleoproterozoic iron formation of the Tiris Complex, Islamic Republic of Mauritania The F'derik-Zouerate iron district: Mesoarchean and Paleoproterozoic iron formation of the Tiris Complex, Islamic Republic of Mauritania

High-grade hematitic iron ores (of HIF, containing 60-65 wt%Fe) have been mined in Mauritania since 1952 from Superior-type iron deposits of the F'derik-Zouerate district. Depletion of the high-grade ores in recent years has resulted in new exploration projects focused on lower-grade magnetite ores occurring in Algoma-type banded iron formation (of BIF, containing ca. 35 wt% Fe)...
Authors
Cliff Taylor, Carol Finn, Eric Anderson, Dwight Bradley, Mohamed Joud, Ahmed Taleb Mohamed, John Horton, Craig Johnson

Seasonal changes in atmospheric noise levels and the annual variation in pigeon homing performance Seasonal changes in atmospheric noise levels and the annual variation in pigeon homing performance

Repeated releases of experienced homing pigeons from single sites were conducted between 1972 and 1974 near Cornell University in upstate New York and between 1982 and 1983 near the University of Pittsburgh in western Pennsylvania, USA. No annual variation in homing performance was observed at these sites in eastern North America, in contrast to results from a number of similar...
Authors
Jonathan Hagstrum, Hugh McIsaac, Douglas Drob

Making it and breaking it in the Midwest: Continental assembly and rifting from modeling of EarthScope magnetotelluric data Making it and breaking it in the Midwest: Continental assembly and rifting from modeling of EarthScope magnetotelluric data

A three-dimensional lithospheric-scale resistivity model of the North American mid-continent has been estimated based upon EarthScope magnetotelluric data. Details of the resistivity model are discussed in relation to lithospheric sutures, defined primarily from aeromagnetic and geochronologic data, which record the southward growth of the Laurentian margin in the Proterozoic. The...
Authors
Paul Bedrosian
Was this page helpful?