Publications
Products (journal articles, reports, fact sheets) authored by current and past scientists are listed below. Please check the USGS Pubs Warehouse for other USGS publications.
Filter Total Items: 1854
The demise of an icehouse: Calibrating the end of the LPIA
Earth has experienced three complete icehouse-greenhouse turnovers in the Phanerozoic, with the Late Paleozoic Ice Age (LPIA) recognized as the last and most extreme icehouse. The nature, scale and dynamics of the LPIA are characterized by periods of intense glaciation, which are often interrupted by short-lived (1–2 Myrs) intervals associated with ice-free or distal from ice conditions...
Authors
Neil Patrick Griffis, Roland Mundil, Isabel Montañez, Pierre Dietrich, Daniel Le Heron, Roberto Iannuzzi, Bastien Linol, Thammy Mottin, John Richey, Christoph Kettler
Solution-collapse breccia pipe uranium deposits of the southern Colorado Plateau, northwestern Arizona, USA
Some of the highest-grade uranium deposits in the United States occur in breccia pipes that formed by solution and collapse of sedimentary strata, which occur in the southern portion of the Colorado Plateau in northwestern Arizona. The host breccia pipes are up to 1200 m in vertical extent, average about 90 m in diameter, and can cross-cut strata from their base in the Mississippian...
Authors
Bradley S. Van Gosen, Susan M. Hall, Craig A. Johnson, William Benzel
High-precision U-Pb data and reference age for Emerald Lake apatite
New isotope dilution thermal ionization mass spectrometry U-Pb data for Emerald Lake apatite demonstrate its potential as a reference material for geochronology. A three-dimensional 238U/206Pb-207Pb/206Pb-204Pb/206Pb isochron produces a 95.2 ± 1.1 Ma date with an initial Pb isotopic composition of 206Pb/204Pb = 18.85 ± 0.19 and 207Pb/204Pb = 15.68 ± 0.10 (n = 5, MSWD = 9.5). These data...
Authors
Francisco Apen, Sean Patrick Gaynor, Blair Schoene
Critical Minerals in Ores (CMiO) database
Critical minerals are commodities essential to modern industrial and strategic technologies and are highly vulnerable to supply chain disruption. The Critical Minerals Mapping Initiative (CMMI) is a collaboration among the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the Geological Survey of Canada, and Geoscience Australia that aims to deepen global understanding of where critical minerals are...
Authors
George N. D. Case, Garth E. Graham, Christopher J.M. Lawley, Evgeniy Bastrakov, David L. Huston, Albert H. Hofstra, Vladimir Lisitsin, Steph Hawkins, Bronwen Wang
Applying U-Th disequilbrium for dating siliceous sinters
Continental hydrothermal systems are critical avenues for the crustal transport of heat and mass captured for geothermal energy and mineral exploration. Thus, understanding their temporal evolution and longevity is important for resource characterization. Deposits of microlaminated siliceous sinter, common surface expressions of high temperature reservoirs (> 170 °C), have the potential...
Authors
Lauren Sankovitch, Carolina Munoz-Saez, Adam M. Hudson, Linda V. Godfrey, Jay Michael Thompson
Structural analysis of brittle-plastic shear zones in the Sangre de Cristo Range, southern Colorado USA: Superposition of Rio Grande rift extension on Laramide contraction
The Sangre de Cristo Range in southern Colorado exposes some of the deepest Cenozoic structural levels in the Rocky Mountain region, including mylonitic shear zones associated with both the Laramide orogeny and Rio Grande rift. We investigated the relation between Laramide contraction and Rio Grande rift extension with detailed geologic mapping, kinematic analysis, and geochronometry in...
Authors
Michael C. Sitar, John S. Singleton, Jeffrey M. Rahl, Jonathan Caine, Jacob King, Andrew Kylander-Clark, Paul O’Sullivan
Bayesian calibration of the 40K decay scheme with implications for 40K-based geochronology
The K/Ar and 40Ar/39Ar geochronometers are based on the naturally occurring radionuclide 40K. Their precision and accuracy are limited by uncertainties on the 40K decay constants and, in the case of the 40Ar/39Ar geochronometer, the isotopic composition of neutron fluence monitors. To address these limitations, we introduce a Bayesian calibration of the 40K decay scheme. We formulate...
Authors
Jack R. Carter, Caroline Hasler, Anthony Fuentes, Andrew Tholt, Leah E. Morgan, Paul R. Renne
Unlocking ecological insights from sub-seasonal visible-to-shortwave infrared imaging spectroscopy: The SHIFT campaign
We stand at the threshold of a transformative era in Earth observation, marked by space-borne visible-to-shortwave infrared (VSWIR) imaging spectrometers that promise consistent global observations of ecosystem function, phenology, and inter- and intra-annual change. However, the full value of repeat spectroscopy, the information embedded within different temporal scales, and the...
Authors
K. Dana Chadwick, Frank W. Davis, Kimberley Miner, Ryan Pavlick, Mark S. Reynolds, Philip A. Townsend, Philip G. Brodrick, Christiana Ade, Jean Allen, Leander D.L. Anderegg, Yoseline Angel, Indra Boving, Kristin B. Byrd, Petya Campbell, Luke Carberry, Katherine Cavanaugh, Kyle C. Cavanaugh, Kelly Easterday, Regina Eckert, Michelle M. Gierach, Kaitlin Gold, Erin L. Hestir, Fred Huemmrich, Maggie Klope, Raymond F. Kokaly, Piper Lovegreen, Kelly Luis, Conor McMahon, Nicholas Nidzieko, Francisco Ochoa, Anna Ongjoco, Elsa Ordway, Madeleine Pascolini-Campbell, Natalie Queally, Dar A. Roberts, Clare Saiki, Fabian D Schneider, Alexey N. Shiklomanov, German Silva, Jordan Snyder, Michele Thornton, Anna T Trugman, Nidhi Vinod, Ting Zheng, Dulcinea M. Avouris, Brianna Baker, Latha Baskaran, Tom Bell, Megan Berg, Michael Bernas, Niklas Bohn, Renato Braghiere, Zach Breuer, Andrew J. Brooks, Nolan Burkard, Julia Burmistrova, Kerry-Anne Cawse-Nicholson, John Chapman, Johana Chazaro-Haraksin, Joel Cryer, K.C. Cushman, Kenneth Dahlin, Phuong Dao, Athena DiBartolo, Michael Eastwood, Clayton D. Elder, Angela Giordani, Kathleen Grant, Robert Green, Alexa Hanson, Brendan Heberlein, Mark Helmlinger, Simon J Hook, Daniel J. Jensen, Emma Johnson, Marie Johnson, Michael Kiper, Christopher Kibler, Jennifer Y. King, Kyle Kovach, Aaron Kreisberg, Daniel Lacey, Evan Lang, Christine M. Lee, Amanda M Lopez, Brittany Lopez Barreto, Andrew Maguire, Elliott Marsh, Charles E. Miller, Dieu My Nguyen, Cassandra Nickles, Jonathan Ocón, Elijah Papen, Maria Park, Benjamin Poulter, Ann M. Raiho, Porter Reim, Timothy J. Robinson, Fernando Romero Galvan, Ethan Shafron, Brenen R. Skalitzky, Sydney Stroschein, Nicole Chin Taylor, David M. Thompson, Kate Thompson, Cecily Tye, Joelie Van Beek, Cecilia Vanden Heuvel, Jonathan Vellanoweth, Evert Vermeer, Claire Villanueva-Weeks, Kristen Zumdahl, David S. Schimel
The abandoned mine inventory of the United States—A brief summary
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 required the Secretary of the Interior to establish a program to inventory abandoned hard-rock mines in the United States. The Department of the Interior’s Office of Environmental Policy and Compliance asked the U.S. Geological Survey’s Mineral Deposit Database project (USMIN) to use existing data sources to build an inventory of all...
Authors
Jeffrey L. Mauk, Nick Karl, Justin S. Pierson, Carma A. San Juan
The role of bedrock circulation depth and porosity in mountain streamflow response to prolonged drought
Quantitative understanding is lacking on how the depth of active groundwater circulation in bedrock affects mountain streamflow response to a multi‐year drought. We use an integrated hydrological model to explore the sensitivity of a variety of streamflow metrics to bedrock circulation depth and porosity under a plausible extreme drought scenario lasting up to 5 years. Endmember depth...
Authors
Rosemary W.H. Carroll, Andrew H. Manning, Kenneth H. Williams
Widespread occurrence of former anhydrite phenocrysts in Laramide-age magmas related to porphyry-skarn Cu mineralization at Santa Rita and Hanover-Fierro, New Mexico, USA
Reports of magmatic anhydrite are relatively rare, with only ~30 occurrences documented worldwide so far. However, magmatic anhydrite saturation is difficult to recognize because anhydrite decomposes rapidly in near-surface environments. In most cases, only anhydrite inclusions shielded within other phenocryst phases were able to survive. Alternatively, since anhydrite phenocrysts...
Authors
Andreas Audétat, Jia Chang, Sean Patrick Gaynor
Metal-rich lacustrine sediments from legacy mining perpetuate copper exposure to aquatic-riparian food webs
Historic copper mining left a legacy of metal-rich tailings resulting in ecological impacts along and within Torch Lake, an area of concern in the Keweenaw Peninsula, Michigan, USA. Given the toxicity of copper to invertebrates, this study assessed the influence of this legacy on present day nearshore aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. We measured the metal (Co, Cu, Ni, Zn, Cd) and...
Authors
Brittany G. Perrotta, Karen A. Kidd, Kate M. Campbell, Marie Noële Croteau, Tyler Kane, Amy M Marcarelli, R. Blaine McCleskey, Gordon Paterson, Craig A. Stricker, David C Walters