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Publications

Publications from the staff of the Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center

Filter Total Items: 2350

High geologic slip rates since early Pleistocene Initiation of the San Jacinto and San Felipe fault zones in the San Andreas fault system: southern California, USA

The San Jacinto right-lateral strike-slip fault zone is crucial for understanding plate-boundary dynamics, regional slip partitioning, and seismic hazards within the San Andreas fault system of southern California, yet its age of initiation and long-term average slip rate are controversial. This synthesis of prior and new detailed studies in the western Salton Trough documents initiation of struct
Authors
Susanne U. Janecke, Rebecca J. Dorsey, David Forand, Alexander N. Steely, Stefan Kirby, Andrew Lutz, Bernard Housen, Benjamin Belgarde, Victoria E. Langenheim, Tammy M. Rittenour

Geochemical characteristics of Holocene laminated sapropel (unit II) and underlying lacustrine unit III in the Black Sea

eg 1 of the 1988 R/V Knorr expeditions to the Black Sea recovered 90 gravity and box cores. The longest recovery by gravity cores was about 3 meters, with an average of about 2.5 meters, recovering all of the Holocene and upper Pleistocene sections in the Black Sea. During the latest Pleistocene glaciation, sea level dropped below the 35-meters-deep Bosporus outlet sill of the Black Sea. Therefore
Authors
Walter E. Dean, Michael A. Arthur

Geophysical setting of the February 21, 2008 Mw 6 Wells earthquake, Nevada, and implications for earthquake hazards

We utilize gravity and magnetic methods to investigate the regional geophysical setting of the Wells earthquake. In particular, we delineate major crustal structures that may have played a role in the location of the earthquake and discuss the geometry of a nearby sedimentary basin that may have contributed to observed ground shaking. The February 21, 2008 Mw 6.0 Wells earthquake, centered about 1
Authors
David A. Ponce, Janet T. Watt, C. Bouligand

Carbon and nitrogen biogeochemistry of a Prairie Pothole Wetland, Stutsman County, North Dakota, USA

The concentration and form of dissolved organic C (DOC) and N species (NH4+ and NO3-) were investigated as part of a larger hydrogeochemical study of the Cottonwood Lake Study Area within the Prairie Potholes region. Groundwater, pore water and surface wetland water data were used to help characterize the relationships between surface and groundwater with respect to nutrient dynamics. Photosynthes
Authors
JoAnn M. Holloway, Martin B. Goldhaber, Christopher T. Mills

New technique for quantification of elemental hg in mine wastes and its implications for mercury evasion into the atmosphere

Mercury in the environment is of prime concern to both ecosystem and human health. Determination of the molecular-level speciation of Hg in soils and mine wastes is important for understanding its sequestration, mobility, and availability for methylation. Extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) spectroscopy carried out under ambient P-T conditions has been used in a number of past studies
Authors
A.D. Jew, C.S. Kim, James J. Rytuba, M.S. Gustin, Gordon E. Brown

Correlation between deep fluids, tremor and creep along the central San Andreas fault

The seismicity pattern along the San Andreas fault near Parkfield and Cholame, California, varies distinctly over a length of only fifty kilometres. Within the brittle crust, the presence of frictionally weak minerals, fault-weakening high fluid pressures and chemical weakening are considered possible causes of an anomalously weak fault northwest of Parkfield. Non-volcanic tremor from lower-crusta
Authors
M. Becken, O. Ritter, P. A. Bedrosian, U. Weckmann

Future directions in geobiology and low-temperature geochemistry

Humanity is confronted with an enormous challenge, as succinctly stated by the late Steven Schneider (2001; quoted by Jantzen 2004*): “Humans are forcing the Earth’s environmental systems to change at a rate that is more advanced than their knowledge of the consequences.” Geobiologists and low-temperature geochemists characterize material from the lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biospher
Authors
Katherine H. Freeman, M. B. Goldhaber

Low strength of deep San Andreas fault gouge from SAFOD core

The San Andreas fault accommodates 28–34 mm yr−1 of right lateral motion of the Pacific crustal plate northwestward past the North American plate. In California, the fault is composed of two distinct locked segments that have produced great earthquakes in historical times, separated by a 150-km-long creeping zone. The San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth (SAFOD) is a scientific borehole located
Authors
David A. Lockner, Carolyn A. Morrow, Diane E. Moore, Stephen H. Hickman

Helicopter magnetic and electromagnetic surveys at Mounts Adams, Baker and Rainier, Washington: implications for debris flow hazards and volcano hydrology

High‐resolution helicopter magnetic and electromagnetic (HEM) data flown over the rugged, ice‐covered Mt. Adams, Mt. Baker and Mt. Rainier volcanoes (Washington), reveal the distribution of alteration, water and ice thickness essential to evaluating volcanic landslide hazards. These data, combined with geological mapping and rock property measurements, indicate the presence of appreciable thicknes
Authors
Carol A. Finn, Maria Deszcz-Pan

Positive feedback and momentum growth during debris-flow entrainment of wet bed sediment

Debris flows typically occur when intense rainfall or snowmelt triggers landslides or extensive erosion on steep, debris-mantled slopes. The flows can then grow dramatically in size and speed as they entrain material from their beds and banks, but the mechanism of this growth is unclear. Indeed, momentum conservation implies that entrainment of static material should retard the motion of the flows
Authors
Richard M. Iverson, Mark E. Reid, Matthew Logan, Richard G. Lahusen, Jonathan W. Godt, Julia P. Griswold

Chromium(VI) generation in vadose zone soils and alluvial sediments of the southwestern Sacramento Valley, California: a potential source of geogenic Cr(VI) to groundwater

Concentrations of geogenic Cr(VI) in groundwater that exceed the World Health Organization’s maximum contaminant level for drinking water (50 μg L−1) occur in several locations globally. The major mechanism for mobilization of this Cr(VI) at these sites is the weathering of Cr(III) from ultramafic rocks and its subsequent oxidation on Mn oxides. This process may be occurring in the southern Sacram
Authors
Christopher T. Mills, Jean Morrison, Martin B. Goldhaber, Karl J. Ellefsen

Magmatic-vapor expansion and the formation of high-sulfidation gold deposits: Structural controls on hydrothermal alteration and ore mineralization

High-sulfidation copper–gold lode deposits such as Chinkuashih, Taiwan, Lepanto, Philippines, and Goldfield, Nevada, formed within 1500 m of the paleosurface in volcanic terranes. All underwent an early stage of extensive advanced argillic silica–alunite alteration followed by an abrupt change to spatially much more restricted stages of fracture-controlled sulfide–sulfosalt mineral assemblages and
Authors
Byron R. Berger, Richard W. Henley