Publications
Publications from the staff of the Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center
Filter Total Items: 2350
The trajectory of soil development and its relationship to soil carbon dynamics
It has been postulated that the amount of soil organic carbon (SOC) associated with soil minerals exhibits a threshold relationship in response to effective soil moisture (estimated as precipitation less evapotranspiration). To better characterize the role of moisture in influencing mechanisms of SOC storage during pedogenesis, we compare soils from two different chronosequence sites: the Santa Cr
Authors
Corey Lawrence, Marjorie S. Schulz, Caroline Masiello, Oliver A. Chadwick, Jennifer W. Harden
Geomorphic history of Lake Manix, Mojave Desert, California: Evolution of a complex terminal lake basin
The US Environmental Protection Agency's short-term freshwater effluent test methods include a fish (Pimephales promelas), a cladoceran (Ceriodaphnia dubia), and a green alga (Raphidocelis subcapitata). There is a recognized need for additional taxa to accompany the three standard species for effluent testing. An appropriate additional taxon is unionid mussels because mussels are widely distribute
Authors
Marith C. Reheis, David M. Miller, James B. Paces, Charles G. Oviatt, Joanna R. Redwine, Darrell Kaufman, Jordon Bright, Elmira Wan
Lakes of the western United States: Novel tools and new views
No abstract available.
Authors
Scott W. Starratt, Michael R. Rosen
From saline to freshwater: The diversity of western lakes in space and time
Beginning with the nineteenth-century territorial surveys, the lakes and lacustrine deposits in what is now the western United States were recognized for their economic value to the expanding nation. In the latter half of the twentieth century, these systems have been acknowledged as outstanding examples of depositional systems serving as models for energy exploration and environmental analysis, m
Paleoclimate record for Lake Coyote, California, and the Last Glacial Maximum and deglacial paleohydrology (25 to 14 cal ka) of the Mojave River
Lake Coyote, California, which formed in one of five basins along the Mojave River, acted both as a part of the Lake Manix basin and, after the formation of Afton Canyon and draining of Lake Manix ca. 24.5 calibrated (cal) ka, a side basin that was filled episodically for the next 10,000 yr. As such, its record of lake level is an important counterpart to the record of the other terminal basin, La
Authors
David M. Miller, Stephanie L. Dudash, John P. McGeehin
Past abrupt changes, tipping points and cascading impacts in the Earth system
The geological record shows that abrupt changes in the Earth system can occur on timescales short enough to challenge the capacity of human societies to adapt to environmental pressures. In many cases, abrupt changes arise from slow changes in one component of the Earth system that eventually pass a critical threshold, or tipping point, after which impacts cascade through coupled climate–ecologica
Authors
V. Brovkin, Edward J. Brook, J. Williams, S. Bathiany, T. Lenton, M. Barton, R. DeConto, J. Donges, A. Ganopolski, J. McManus, Summer K. Praetorius, A. de Vernal, A. Abe-Ouchi, H. Cheng, M Claussen, M. Crucifix, Virginia Iglesias, Darrell S. Kaufman, T. Kleinen, Fabrice Lambert, Sander van der Leeuw, Hannah Liddy, Marie-France Loutre, David McGee, Kira Rehfeld, Rachael H. Rhodes, Alistair W.R. Seddon, Lilian Vanderveken, Zicheng Yu
Temporal and petrogenetic links between Mesoproterozoic alkaline and carbonatite magmas at Mountain Pass, California
Mountain Pass is the site of the most economically important rare earth element (REE) deposit in the United States. Mesoproterozoic alkaline intrusions are spatiotemporally associated with a composite carbonatite stock that hosts REE ore. Understanding the genesis of the alkaline and carbonatite magmas is an essential scientific goal for a society in which critical minerals are in high demand and
Authors
Kathryn E. Watts, Gordon B. Haxel, David M. Miller
The Miocene stratigraphy of the Laberinto area (Río Ica Valley) and its bearing on the geological history of the East Pisco Basin (south-central Peru)
Global sea-level changes and substantial vertical displacement along the Monte Grande Fault (MGF) in the lower Río Ica Valley of south-central Peru influenced the accumulation of bioclast-bearing and diatom-bearing Miocene siliciclastic sediments in an area of the East Pisco forearc basin (EPB) colloquially known as Laberinto. Two depositional hiatuses in the Laberinto area (∼17–14 Ma, ∼12.5–10 Ma
Authors
Thomas J. Devries, John A. Barron, Mario Urbina-Schmitt, Diana Ochoa, Raúl Esperante, Lawrence W Snee
Geologic and geophysical maps of the Newfoundland Mountains and part of the adjacent Wells 30' x 60' quadrangles, Box Elder County, Utah
The Newfoundland Mountains map area (Newfoundland Mountains and adjacent part of Wells 30' x 60' quadrangles) is located in Box Elder County, northwestern Utah. The map encompasses broad expanses of the Great Salt Lake Desert as well as several picturesque mountain ranges (figures 1, 2, and 3). The geology of the area was last mapped and summarized by Doelling (1980). Since that landmark study, mu
Authors
David M. Miller, Tracey J. Felger, Victoria E. Langenheim
Machine learning to identify geologic factors associated with production in geothermal fields: A case-study using 3D geologic data, Brady geothermal field, Nevada
In this paper, we present an analysis using unsupervised machine learning (ML) to identify the key geologic factors that contribute to the geothermal production in Brady geothermal field. Brady is a hydrothermal system in northwestern Nevada that supports both electricity production and direct use of hydrothermal fluids. Transmissive fluid-flow pathways are relatively rare in the subsurface, but a
Authors
Drew L. Siler, Jeff D. Pepin, Velimir V. Vesselinov, Maruti K. Mudunuru, Bulbul Ahmmed
Relative risk of groundwater-quality degradation near California (USA) oil fields estimated from 3H, 14C, and 4He
Relative risks of groundwater-quality degradation near selected California oil fields are estimated by examining spatial and temporal patterns in chemical and isotopic data in the context of groundwater-age categories defined by tritium and carbon-14. In the Coastal basins, western San Joaquin Valley (SJV), and eastern SJV; 82, 76, and 0% of samples are premodern (pre-1953 recharge), respectively;
Authors
Peter B. McMahon, Matthew K. Landon, Tracy Davis, Michael Wright, Celia Z. Rosecrans, Robert Anders, Michael Land, Justin T. Kulongoski, Andrew Hunt
Ten years of volcanic activity at Mt Etna: High-resolution mapping and accurate quantification of the morphological changes by Pleiades and Lidar data
The topography of Mt. Etna, Italy, is subjected to continuous modifications depending on intensity and magnitude of eruptions that frequently occur at the volcano summit and flanks. In order to make high-resolution maps of morphological changes and accurately calculate the overall volume of the erupted products (e.g., lava flows, tephra fall out, scoriae cones) in ten years, we have compared the a
Authors
Marina Bisson, Claudia Spinetti, Daniele Andronico, Monica Palaseanu-Lovejoy, Maria Fabrizia Buongiorno, Oleg Alexandrov, Thomas Cecere