Edward A Mankinen
Ed is a Scientist Emeritus with the Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center in Menlo Park, CA. He joined the USGS in 1964, retired in 2010, and returned as Emeritus in 2011. His career and current work focus in paleomagnetism/rock magnetism and conducting and interpreting gravity and aeromagnetic surveys through the Geophysical Unit of Menlo Park (GUMP).
For most of Edward Mankinen's 47-year career, he was associated with the Menlo Park Rock Magnetic Laboratory conducting various research projects in paleomagnetism/rock magnetism. Most of these studies were concentrated in the western U.S. but also included field work in Alaska, the Hawaiian Islands, and Antarctica. Beginning in 1996, Ed also became associated with the Geophysical Unit of Menlo Park (GUMP) and began conducting and interpreting gravity and aeromagnetic surveys. Most of these studies were conducted in and around the Nevada Test Site and in the eastern Great Basin. As an emeritus, he has continued work on projects in both disciplines.
Professional Experience
2011 - present, Emeritus Research Geologist, GMEG Science Center
2006 - 2008, Chief, Geophysical Unit of Menlo Park (GUMP)
1988 - 1992, Chief, Paleomagnetism—Menlo Park Project
1969 - 2010, Research Geologist, Branches of: Theoretical Geophysics, Theoretical & Applied Geophysics, Petrophysics & Remote Sensing, and Isotope Geology; now with the GMEG Science Center, all USGS, Menlo Park, CA
1965 - 1969, Laboratory manager, Rock Magnetic Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA
1964 - 1965, Physical Science Technician, USGS, Menlo Park, CA
Education and Certifications
M.S., Geology, San Jose State College, 1971
B.S., Geology, San Jose State College, 1963
Affiliations and Memberships*
American Geophysical Union
Geological Society of America
Honors and Awards
2004, 2005, 2006 - USGS Star Awards
1972 - USGS Quality Increase
1970 - Department of Interior Antarctic Service Award
1970 - Congressional Antarctic Medal
Science and Products
Ground magnetic data, Spring Valley, White Pine County, Nevada
Rattlesnake Knoll is a small, isolated 30-meter-high mound of igneous breccia in the center of Spring Valley, White Pine County, Nevada. There is a small gravity anomaly associated with the knoll which, when combined with an initial, limited ground magnetic survey, indicates that rocks of the knoll probably extend northward in the subsurface. To explore this possibility, a 16-kilometer...
Isostatic gravity map of the Death Valley ground-water model area, Nevada and California
An isostatic gravity map of the Death Valley groundwater model area was prepared from over 40,0000 gravity stations as part of an interagency effort by the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Department of Energy to help characterize the geology and hydrology of southwest Nevada and parts of California.
Filter Total Items: 72
The enigmatic Rattlesnake Knoll, Spring Valley, east-central Nevada—A geophysical perspective
Rattlesnake Knoll is a small, 30-meter-high mound of igneous breccia in the center of Spring Valley, east-central Nevada. In the past, researchers have disagreed as to whether the unusual-looking outcrop is intrusive or volcanic. The breccia possesses a normal magnetic polarity, but this is not apparent in aeromagnetic survey data. These data instead show that the knoll lies within a...
Authors
Edward A. Mankinen, Peter D. Rowley, Edwin H. McKee
The Evergreen basin and the role of the Silver Creek fault in the San Andreas fault system, San Francisco Bay region, California
The Evergreen basin is a 40-km-long, 8-km-wide Cenozoic sedimentary basin that lies mostly concealed beneath the northeastern margin of the Santa Clara Valley near the south end of San Francisco Bay (California, USA). The basin is bounded on the northeast by the strike-slip Hayward fault and an approximately parallel subsurface fault that is structurally overlain by a set of west-verging...
Authors
Robert C. Jachens, Carl M. Wentworth, Russell W. Graymer, Robert Williams, David A. Ponce, Edward A. Mankinen, William J. Stephenson, Victoria E. Langenheim
Geology, selected geophysics, and hydrogeology of the White River and parts of the Great Salt Lake Desert regional groundwater flow systems, Utah and Nevada
The east-central Great Basin near the Utah-Nevada border contains two great groundwater flow systems. The first, the White River regional groundwater flow system, consists of a string of hydraulically connected hydrographic basins in Nevada spanning about 270 miles from north to south. The northernmost basin is Long Valley and the southernmost basin is the Black Mountain area, a valley...
Authors
Peter D. Rowley, Gary L. Dixon, James M. Watrus, Andrews G. Burns, Edward A. Mankinen, Edwin H. McKee, Keith T. Pari, E. Bartlett Ekren, William G. Patrick
Paleomagnetic record determined in cores from deep research wells in the Quaternary Santa Clara basin, California
Paleomagnetic study of cores from six deep wells provides an independent temporal framework for much of the alluvial stratigraphy of the Quaternary basin beneath the Santa Clara Valley. This stratigraphy consists of 8 upward-fining cycles in the upper 300 m of section and an underlying 150 m or more of largely fine-grained sediment. The eight cycles have been correlated with the marine...
Authors
Edward A. Mankinen, Carl M. Wentworth
Regional geophysics of western Utah and eastern Nevada, with emphasis on the Confusion Range
As part of a long term geologic and hydrologic study of several regional groundwater flow systems in western Utah and eastern Nevada, the U.S. Geological Survey was contracted by the Southern Nevada Water Authority to provide geophysical data. The primary object of these data was to enable construction of the geological framework of the flow systems. The main new geophysical data...
Authors
Edward A. Mankinen, Peter D. Rowley, Gary L. Dixon, Edwin H. McKee
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 Grommé, W. Porter Irwin
Analysis of Neogene deformation between Beaver, Utah and Barstow, California: Suggestions for altering the extensional paradigm
For more than two decades, the paradigm of large-magnitude (~250 km), northwest-directed (~N70°W) Neogene extensional lengthening between the Colorado Plateau and Sierra Nevada at the approximate latitude of Las Vegas has remained largely unchallenged, as has the notion that the strain integrates with coeval strains in adjacent regions and with plate-boundary strain. The paradigm depends...
Authors
R. Ernest Anderson, Sue Beard, Edward A. Mankinen, John W. Hillhouse
Principal facts for gravity stations collected in 2010 from White Pine and Lincoln Counties, east-central Nevada
Increasing demands on the Colorado River system within the arid Southwestern United States have focused attention on finding new, alternative sources of water. Particular attention is being paid to the eastern Great Basin, where important ground-water systems occur within a regionally extensive sequence of Paleozoic carbonate rocks and in the Cenozoic basin-fill deposits that occur...
Authors
Edward A. Mankinen, Edwin H. McKee
Time-averaged paleomagnetic field at the equator: Complete data and results from the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador
We present here the complete paleomagnetic laboratory results from a collection of approximately 1500 oriented cores from all 16 of the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador, collected by Allan Cox in 1964–1965 but nearly all previously unpublished. The islands are located in the eastern Pacific Ocean within 1.4° of latitude from the equator and range in age from historically erupted to 3 Ma...
Authors
Sherman Gromme, Edward A. Mankinen, Michel Prévot
Geophysical setting of western Utah and eastern Nevada between latitudes 37°45′ and 40°N
Gravity and aeromagnetic data refine the structural setting for the region of western Utah and eastern Nevada between Snake and Hamlin Valleys on the west and Tule Valley on the east. These data are used here as part of a regional analysis. An isostatic gravity map shows large areas underlain by gravity lows, the most prominent of which is a large semi-circular low associated with the...
Authors
Edward A. Mankinen, Edwin H. McKee
Gravity Data from Dry Lake and Delamar Valleys, east-central Nevada
Cenozoic basins in eastern Nevada and western Utah constitute major ground-water recharge areas in the eastern part of the Great Basin, and our continuing studies are intended to characterize the geologic framework of the region. Prior to these investigations, regional gravity coverage was variable over the region, adequate in some areas and very sparse in others. The current study in...
Authors
Edward A. Mankinen, Bruce A. Chuchel, Barry C. Moring
Paleomagnetic study of late Miocene through Pleistocene igneous rocks from the southwestern USA: Results from the historic collections of the U.S. Geological Survey Menlo Park laboratory
Seventy sites from the southwestern United States provide paleomagnetic results that meet certain minimum criteria and can be considered for the Time‐Averaged Field Initiative (TAFI). The virtual geomagnetic poles for these 70 units are circularly distributed, and their mean is nearly coincident with the rotational axis. When other published data for the southwestern United States are...
Authors
Edward A. Mankinen
Science and Products
Ground magnetic data, Spring Valley, White Pine County, Nevada
Rattlesnake Knoll is a small, isolated 30-meter-high mound of igneous breccia in the center of Spring Valley, White Pine County, Nevada. There is a small gravity anomaly associated with the knoll which, when combined with an initial, limited ground magnetic survey, indicates that rocks of the knoll probably extend northward in the subsurface. To explore this possibility, a 16-kilometer...
Isostatic gravity map of the Death Valley ground-water model area, Nevada and California
An isostatic gravity map of the Death Valley groundwater model area was prepared from over 40,0000 gravity stations as part of an interagency effort by the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Department of Energy to help characterize the geology and hydrology of southwest Nevada and parts of California.
Filter Total Items: 72
The enigmatic Rattlesnake Knoll, Spring Valley, east-central Nevada—A geophysical perspective
Rattlesnake Knoll is a small, 30-meter-high mound of igneous breccia in the center of Spring Valley, east-central Nevada. In the past, researchers have disagreed as to whether the unusual-looking outcrop is intrusive or volcanic. The breccia possesses a normal magnetic polarity, but this is not apparent in aeromagnetic survey data. These data instead show that the knoll lies within a...
Authors
Edward A. Mankinen, Peter D. Rowley, Edwin H. McKee
The Evergreen basin and the role of the Silver Creek fault in the San Andreas fault system, San Francisco Bay region, California
The Evergreen basin is a 40-km-long, 8-km-wide Cenozoic sedimentary basin that lies mostly concealed beneath the northeastern margin of the Santa Clara Valley near the south end of San Francisco Bay (California, USA). The basin is bounded on the northeast by the strike-slip Hayward fault and an approximately parallel subsurface fault that is structurally overlain by a set of west-verging...
Authors
Robert C. Jachens, Carl M. Wentworth, Russell W. Graymer, Robert Williams, David A. Ponce, Edward A. Mankinen, William J. Stephenson, Victoria E. Langenheim
Geology, selected geophysics, and hydrogeology of the White River and parts of the Great Salt Lake Desert regional groundwater flow systems, Utah and Nevada
The east-central Great Basin near the Utah-Nevada border contains two great groundwater flow systems. The first, the White River regional groundwater flow system, consists of a string of hydraulically connected hydrographic basins in Nevada spanning about 270 miles from north to south. The northernmost basin is Long Valley and the southernmost basin is the Black Mountain area, a valley...
Authors
Peter D. Rowley, Gary L. Dixon, James M. Watrus, Andrews G. Burns, Edward A. Mankinen, Edwin H. McKee, Keith T. Pari, E. Bartlett Ekren, William G. Patrick
Paleomagnetic record determined in cores from deep research wells in the Quaternary Santa Clara basin, California
Paleomagnetic study of cores from six deep wells provides an independent temporal framework for much of the alluvial stratigraphy of the Quaternary basin beneath the Santa Clara Valley. This stratigraphy consists of 8 upward-fining cycles in the upper 300 m of section and an underlying 150 m or more of largely fine-grained sediment. The eight cycles have been correlated with the marine...
Authors
Edward A. Mankinen, Carl M. Wentworth
Regional geophysics of western Utah and eastern Nevada, with emphasis on the Confusion Range
As part of a long term geologic and hydrologic study of several regional groundwater flow systems in western Utah and eastern Nevada, the U.S. Geological Survey was contracted by the Southern Nevada Water Authority to provide geophysical data. The primary object of these data was to enable construction of the geological framework of the flow systems. The main new geophysical data...
Authors
Edward A. Mankinen, Peter D. Rowley, Gary L. Dixon, Edwin H. McKee
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 Grommé, W. Porter Irwin
Analysis of Neogene deformation between Beaver, Utah and Barstow, California: Suggestions for altering the extensional paradigm
For more than two decades, the paradigm of large-magnitude (~250 km), northwest-directed (~N70°W) Neogene extensional lengthening between the Colorado Plateau and Sierra Nevada at the approximate latitude of Las Vegas has remained largely unchallenged, as has the notion that the strain integrates with coeval strains in adjacent regions and with plate-boundary strain. The paradigm depends...
Authors
R. Ernest Anderson, Sue Beard, Edward A. Mankinen, John W. Hillhouse
Principal facts for gravity stations collected in 2010 from White Pine and Lincoln Counties, east-central Nevada
Increasing demands on the Colorado River system within the arid Southwestern United States have focused attention on finding new, alternative sources of water. Particular attention is being paid to the eastern Great Basin, where important ground-water systems occur within a regionally extensive sequence of Paleozoic carbonate rocks and in the Cenozoic basin-fill deposits that occur...
Authors
Edward A. Mankinen, Edwin H. McKee
Time-averaged paleomagnetic field at the equator: Complete data and results from the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador
We present here the complete paleomagnetic laboratory results from a collection of approximately 1500 oriented cores from all 16 of the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador, collected by Allan Cox in 1964–1965 but nearly all previously unpublished. The islands are located in the eastern Pacific Ocean within 1.4° of latitude from the equator and range in age from historically erupted to 3 Ma...
Authors
Sherman Gromme, Edward A. Mankinen, Michel Prévot
Geophysical setting of western Utah and eastern Nevada between latitudes 37°45′ and 40°N
Gravity and aeromagnetic data refine the structural setting for the region of western Utah and eastern Nevada between Snake and Hamlin Valleys on the west and Tule Valley on the east. These data are used here as part of a regional analysis. An isostatic gravity map shows large areas underlain by gravity lows, the most prominent of which is a large semi-circular low associated with the...
Authors
Edward A. Mankinen, Edwin H. McKee
Gravity Data from Dry Lake and Delamar Valleys, east-central Nevada
Cenozoic basins in eastern Nevada and western Utah constitute major ground-water recharge areas in the eastern part of the Great Basin, and our continuing studies are intended to characterize the geologic framework of the region. Prior to these investigations, regional gravity coverage was variable over the region, adequate in some areas and very sparse in others. The current study in...
Authors
Edward A. Mankinen, Bruce A. Chuchel, Barry C. Moring
Paleomagnetic study of late Miocene through Pleistocene igneous rocks from the southwestern USA: Results from the historic collections of the U.S. Geological Survey Menlo Park laboratory
Seventy sites from the southwestern United States provide paleomagnetic results that meet certain minimum criteria and can be considered for the Time‐Averaged Field Initiative (TAFI). The virtual geomagnetic poles for these 70 units are circularly distributed, and their mean is nearly coincident with the rotational axis. When other published data for the southwestern United States are...
Authors
Edward A. Mankinen
*Disclaimer: Listing outside positions with professional scientific organizations on this Staff Profile are for informational purposes only and do not constitute an endorsement of those professional scientific organizations or their activities by the USGS, Department of the Interior, or U.S. Government