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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: 2539

Petrologic, tectonic, and metallogenic evolution of the southern segment of the ancestral Cascades magmatic arc, California and Nevada Petrologic, tectonic, and metallogenic evolution of the southern segment of the ancestral Cascades magmatic arc, California and Nevada

Ongoing arc magmatism along western North America was preceded by ancestral arc magmatism that began ca. 45 Ma and evolved into modern arc volcanism. The southern ancestral arc segment, active from ca. 30 to 3 Ma, adjoins the northern segment in northern California across a proposed subducted slab tear. The east edge of the Walker Lane approximates the east edge of the southern arc whose...
Authors
Edward A. du Bray, David A. John, Brian L. Cousens

Paleomagnetic contributions to the Klamath Mountains terrane puzzle-a new piece from the Ironside Mountain batholith, northern California Paleomagnetic contributions to the Klamath Mountains terrane puzzle-a new piece from the Ironside Mountain batholith, northern California

We obtained paleomagnetic samples from six sites within the Middle Jurassic Ironside Mountain batholith (~170 Ma), which constitutes the structurally lowest part of the Western Hayfork terrane, in the Klamath Mountains province of northern California and southern Oregon. Structural attitudes measured in the coeval Hayfork Bally Meta-andesite were used to correct paleomagnetic data from...
Authors
Edward A. Mankinen, C. Sherman Gromme, W. Porter Irwin

Two flysch belts having distinctly different provenance suggest no stratigraphic link between the Wrangellia composite terrane and the paleo-Alaskan margin Two flysch belts having distinctly different provenance suggest no stratigraphic link between the Wrangellia composite terrane and the paleo-Alaskan margin

The provenance of Jurassic to Cretaceous flysch along the northern boundary of the allochthonous Wrangellia composite terrane, exposed from the Lake Clark region of southwest Alaska to the Nutzotin Mountains in eastern Alaska, suggests that the flysch can be divided into two belts having different sources. On the north, the Kahiltna flysch and Kuskokwim Group overlie and were derived...
Authors
Chad P. Hults, Frederic H. Wilson, Raymond A. Donelick, Paul B. O'Sullivan

Local-area-enhanced, 2.5-meter resolution natural-color and color-infrared satellite-image mosaics of the Kandahar mineral district in Afghanistan Local-area-enhanced, 2.5-meter resolution natural-color and color-infrared satellite-image mosaics of the Kandahar mineral district in Afghanistan

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Defense Task Force for Business and Stability Operations, prepared databases for mineral-resource target areas in Afghanistan. The purpose of the databases is to (1) provide useful data to ground-survey crews for use in performing detailed assessments of the areas and (2) provide useful information to private...
Authors
Philip A. Davis

Principal facts and an approach to collecting gravity data using near-real-time observations in the vicinity of Barstow, California Principal facts and an approach to collecting gravity data using near-real-time observations in the vicinity of Barstow, California

A gravity survey was done in the vicinity of Barstow, California, in which data were processed and analyzed in the field. The purpose of the data collection was to investigate possible changes in gravity across mapped Quaternary faults and to improve regional gravity coverage, adding to the existing national gravity database. Data were collected, processed, analyzed, and interpreted in...
Authors
G. Phelps, C. Cronkite-Ratcliff, L. Klofas

Crustal-scale recycling in caldera complexes and rift zones along the Yellowstone hotspot track: O and Hf isotopic evidence in diverse zircons from voluminous rhyolites of the Picabo volcanic field, Idaho Crustal-scale recycling in caldera complexes and rift zones along the Yellowstone hotspot track: O and Hf isotopic evidence in diverse zircons from voluminous rhyolites of the Picabo volcanic field, Idaho

Rhyolites of the Picabo volcanic field (10.4–6.6 Ma) in eastern Idaho are preserved as thick ignimbrites and lavas along the margins of the Snake River Plain (SRP), and within a deep (>3 km) borehole near the central axis of the Yellowstone hotspot track. In this study we present new O and Hf isotope data and U–Pb geochronology for individual zircons, O isotope data for major phenocrysts...
Authors
Dana L. Drew, Ilya N. Bindeman, Kathryn E. Watts, Axel K. Schmitt, Bin Fu, Michael McCurry

Tackling “boundary faults” across the Alaska-Yukon border: a report from the field Tackling “boundary faults” across the Alaska-Yukon border: a report from the field

One day in late May, a team of geologists from two countries and four different organizations got together in a remote corner of the Yukon Territory to try to rectify a mapping discrepancy called a “boundary fault.”
Authors
Rick Saltus

Geophysical constraints on Rio Grande rift structure in the central San Luis Basin, Colorado and New Mexico Geophysical constraints on Rio Grande rift structure in the central San Luis Basin, Colorado and New Mexico

Interpretation of gravity, aeromagnetic, and magnetotelluric (MT) data reveals patterns of rifting, rift-sediment thicknesses, distribution of pre-rift volcanic and sedimentary rocks, and distribution of syn-rift volcanic rocks in the central San Luis Basin, one of the northernmost major basins that make up the Rio Grande rift. Rift-sediment thicknesses for the central San Luis Basin...
Authors
Benjamin J. Drenth, V. J. Grauch, Brian D. Rodriguez

Geochemical and mineralogical data for soils of the conterminous United States Geochemical and mineralogical data for soils of the conterminous United States

In 2007, the U.S. Geological Survey initiated a low-density (1 site per 1,600 square kilometers, 4,857 sites) geochemical and mineralogical survey of soils of the conterminous United States as part of the North American Soil Geochemical Landscapes Project. Sampling and analytical protocols were developed at a workshop in 2003, and pilot studies were conducted from 2004 to 2007 to test...
Authors
David B. Smith, William F. Cannon, Laurel G. Woodruff, Federico Solano, James E. Kilburn, David L. Fey

Previously unrecognized regional structure of the Coastal Belt of the Franciscan Complex, northern California, revealed by magnetic data Previously unrecognized regional structure of the Coastal Belt of the Franciscan Complex, northern California, revealed by magnetic data

Magnetic anomalies provide surprising structural detail within the previously undivided Coastal Belt, the westernmost, youngest, and least-metamorphosed part of the Franciscan Complex of northern California. Although the Coastal Belt consists almost entirely of arkosic graywacke and shale of mainly Eocene age, new detailed aeromagnetic data show that it is pervasively marked by long...
Authors
Victoria E. Langenheim, Robert C. Jachens, Carl M. Wentworth, Robert J. McLaughlin
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