James Hein
Science and Products
Spotlight 6: Davidson seamount
Davidson Seamount is located about 80 km off the central California coast in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. It is one of the better-explored seamounts in the world, having been sampled and observed during 32 dives by the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Tiburon. These dives mapped the bottom substrate and biological communities,...
Clague, David A.; Lundsten, L.; Hein, James R.; Paduan, Jennifer B.; Davis, Alice Seamount characteristics and mine-site model applied to exploration- and mining-lease-block selection for cobalt-rich ferromanganese crusts
Regulations are being developed through the International Seabed Authority (ISBA) for the exploration and mining of cobalt-rich ferromanganese crusts. This paper lays out geologic and geomorphologic criteria that can be used to determine the size and number of exploration and mine-site blocks that will be the focus of much discussion within the...
Hein, James R.; Conrad, Tracey A.; Dunham, Rachel E. Barite-forming environments along a rifted continental margin, Southern California Borderland
The Southern California Continental Borderland (SCCB) is part of the broad San Andreas transform-fault plate boundary that consists of a series of fault-bounded, petroleum-generating basins. The SCCB has high heat flow and geothermal gradients produced by thinned continental crust and Neogene volcanism. Barite deposits in the SCCB occur along...
Hein, James R.; Zierenberg, Robert A.; Maynard, J. Barry; Hannington, Mark D.
Quantitative x-ray diffraction mineralogy of Los Angeles basin core samples
This report contains X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis of mineralogy for 81 sediment samples from cores taken from three drill holes in the Los Angeles Basin in 2000-2001. We analyzed 26 samples from Pier F core, 29 from Pier C core, and 26 from the Webster core. These three sites provide an offshore-onshore record across the Southern California...
Hein, James R.; McIntyre, Brandie R.; Edwards, Brian D.; Lakota, Orion I. Marine mineral resources of Pacific Islands - a review of the Exclusive Economic Zones of islands of U.S. affiliation, excluding the State of Hawaii
The United States Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) was established in 1983 and comprises all marine areas within 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers) of the nearest U.S. land. This vast area of 3.38 million square nautical miles (11.6 million square kilometers) is about 20 percent greater than the entire land area of the United States. The resource...
Hein, James R.; McIntyre, Brandie R.; Piper, David Z. A porous silica rock ("tripoli") in the footwall of the Jurassic Úrkút manganese deposit, Hungary: composition, and origin through carbonate dissolution
The mineralogical, chemical, and isotopic compositions were determined for a white tripoli from the footwall of the Jurassic Úrkút Mn-oxide ore deposit in the Bakony Mountains, Hungary. The tripoli consists of quartz and chalcedony, with SiO2 contents up to 100 wt.%; consequently, trace-element contents are very low. Oxygen...
Polgari, Marta; Szabo, Zoltan; Szabo-Drubina, Magda; Hein, James R.; Yeh, Hsueh-Wen Chapter H: Stratiform Barite Deposits in the Roberts Mountains Allochthon, Nevada: A Review of Potential Analogs in Modern Sea-Floor Environments
The United States is a net importer of barite, a critical mineral for the oil and gas industry; more than 80 percent of current domestic consumption of barite is imported from China. Nearly all of the domestic production of barite comes from stratiform deposits in Nevada. The 'modern analogs' approach adopted in this review can contribute to...
Koski, Randolph A.; Hein, James R. Selenium loading through the Blackfoot River watershed--linking sources to ecosystem
The upper Blackfoot River watershed in southeast Idaho receives drainage from 11 of 16 phosphate mines that have extracted ore from the Phosphoria Formation, three of which are presently active. Toxic effects from selenium (Se), including death of livestock and deformity in aquatic birds, were documented locally in areas where phosphatic shales...
Hein, James R.; Presser, Theresa S.; Hardy, Matthew; Huebner, Mark; Lamothe, Paul J. The phosphoria formation: A model for forecasting global selenium sources to the environment
Mining of the Permian Phosphoria Formation — a marine, oil-generating, phosphatic shale — provided the selenium (Se) source implicated in the recent deaths of livestock in southeast Idaho. Field studies and the geohydrologic balance of Se in southeast Idaho confirm risk to animals from exposure to Se through leaching of mined waste shale into...
Hein, James R.; Presser, Theresa S.; Piper, D.Z.; Bird, K.J.; Skorupa, J.P.; Hamilton, S.J.; Detwiler, S.J.; Huebner, Mark
Geochemistry of Permian rocks from the margins of the Phosphoria Basin
The Permian Phosphoria Formation and interbedded units of the Park City Formation and Shedhorn Sandstone in western Wyoming represent deposition along a carbonate ramp at the eastern margin of the Phosphoria Basin, with portions of the Phosphoria units reflecting periods of upwelling and widespread phosphogenesis. Thickness-weighted slab-samples...
Perkins, Robert B.; McIntyre, Brandie; Hein, James R.; Piper, David Z.
Western Phosphate Field, U.S.A.; science in support of land management
Hein, James R.
Composition of the Rex Chert and associated rocks of the Permian Phosphoria Formation: Soda Springs area, SE Idaho
This study, one in a series, reports bulk chemical and mineralogical compositions, as well as petrographic and outcrop descriptions of rocks collected from three measured outcrop sections of the Rex Chert member of the Phosphoria Formation in SE Idaho. The three measured sections were chosen from ten outcrops of Rex Chert that were described in...
Hein, James R.; McIntyre, Brandie; Perkins, Robert B.; Piper, David Z.; Evans, James