Publications

Four companies — H.C. Spinks Clay Co., Inc., Imerys Group, Old Hickory Clay Co., and Unimin Corp. — mined ball clay in four states in 2011. Production, on the basis of preliminary data, was 940 kt (1.04 million st) with an estimated value of $44.2 million. This is a 3-percent increase in tonnage from 912 kt (1.01 million st) with a value of $41.3 million that was produced in 2010...

The element cadmium was discovered in 1817 by Friedrich Stromeyer, a professor of chemistry at the University of Göttingen in Germany. Stromeyer noticed that a yellowish glow would occur when heat was applied to certain samples of calamine, a zinc-carbonate. This was unusual as the reaction was expected to be colorless. After further testing, Stromeyer deduced that an unknown metallic...

Mineralogical and geochemical studies of strata-bound Fe-Co-Cu-Au-Bi-Y-rare-earth element (REE) deposits of the Idaho cobalt belt in east-central Idaho provide evidence of multistage epigenetic mineralization by magmatic-hydrothermal processes in an iron oxide copper-gold (IOCG) system. Deposits of the Idaho cobalt belt comprise three types: (1) strata-bound sulfide lenses in the...

Current global and domestic mineral resources of beryllium (Be) for industrial uses are dominated by ores produced from deposits of the volcanogenic Be type. Beryllium deposits of this type can form where hydrothermal fluids interact with fluorine and lithophile-element (uranium, thorium, rubidium, lithium, beryllium, cesium, tantalum, rare earth elements, and tin) enriched volcanic...

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management (CZM) have cooperated to map approximately 410 square kilometers (km²) of the inner continental shelf in Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts. This report contains geophysical data collected by the USGS on three cruises conducted in 2009, 2010, and 2011, and additional bathymetry data collected by the...

The basic mass transfer equation for gases such as oxygen and carbon dioxide can be derived from integration of the driving force equation. Because of the physical characteristics of the gas transfer processes, slightly different models are used for aerators tested under the non steady-state procedures, than for packed columns, or weirs. It is suggested that the standard condition for...

Subduction of the Farallon plate beneath northwestern Mexico stalled by ~12 Ma when the Pacific-Farallon spreading-ridge approached the subduction zone. Coupling between remnant slab and the overriding North American plate played an important role in the capture of the Baja California (BC) microplate by the Pacific Plate. Active-source seismic reflection and wide-angle seismic refraction...

Exposures of Ordovician rocks of the Sauk megasequence in Missouri and northern Arkansas comprise Ibexian and lower Whiterockian carbonates with interspersed sandstones. Subjacent Cambrian strata are exposed in Missouri but confined to the subsurface in Arkansas. The Sauk-Tippecanoe boundary in this region is at the base of the St. Peter Sandstone. Ulrich and associates divided the...

Cofre de Perote volcano is a compound, shield-like volcano located in the northeastern Trans-Mexican volcanic belt. Large debris avalanche and lahar deposits are associated with the evolution of Cofre. The two best preserved of these debris-avalanche and debris-flow deposits are the ∼42 ka “Los Pescados debris flow” deposit and the ∼11–13 ka “Xico avalanche” deposit, both of which...

The Inner Piedmont extends from North Carolina to Alabama and comprises the Neoacadian (360–345 Ma) orogenic core of the southern Appalachian orogen. Bordered to west by the Blue Ridge and the exotic Carolina superterrane to the east, the Inner Piedmont is cored by an extensive region of migmatitic, sillimanite-grade rocks. It is a composite of the peri-Laurentian Tugaloo terrane and...

The alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus) is a clupeid that undergoes larval and juvenile development in freshwater preceding marine habitation. The purpose of this study was to investigate osmoregulatory mechanisms in alewives that permit homeostasis in different salinities. To this end, we measured physiological, branchial biochemical and cellular responses in juvenile alewives acclimated to...

Because there are no internationally distributed stable hydrogen and oxygen isotopic reference materials of human hair, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has prepared two such materials, USGS42 and USGS43. These reference materials span values commonly encountered in human hair stable isotope analysis and are isotopically homogeneous at sample sizes larger than 0.2 mg. USGS42 and USGS43...