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Publications

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

Filter Total Items: 2354

The geochemical and textural transition between the Reef Package and its hanging wall, Stillwater Complex, Montana, USA

The highest grade Pd-Pt deposit on Earth, the J-M Reef, is hosted in coarse-grained to pegmatoidal cumulates called the Reef Package. Decades of mine development of the J-M Reef have revealed that a distinct discontinuity in rock fabric marks the top of the rock unit that hosts economic-grade sulfide mineralization. Mine geologists refer to this discontinuity as the hanging wall contact. This cont
Authors
M. Christopher Jenkins, James E. Mungall, Michael L. Zientek, Kevin Butak, Sam R. Corson, Paul Holick, Ryan McKinley, Heather A. Lowers

Evaluating the paleoenvironmental significance of sediment grain size in Bering Sea sediments during Marine Isotope Stage 11

Grain size is an important textural property of sediments and is widely used in paleoenvironmental studies as a means to infer changes in the sedimentary environment. However, grain size parameters are not always easy to interpret without a full understanding of the factors that influence grain size. Here, we measure grain size in sediment cores from the Bering slope and the Umnak Plateau, and rev
Authors
Natalie Thompson, Beth Elaine Caissie

A refined assessment of the paleoceanographic and tectonic influences on the deposition of the Monterey Formation in California

Application of updated diatom biochronology to the Monterey Formation and related biosiliceous rocks reveals the imprint of both global paleoclimatic/ paleoceanographic and regional tectonic events. A rise in global sea level combined with regional tectonic deepening associated with the development of the transform California margin resulted in the abrupt onset of deposition of fine-grained Monte
Authors
John A. Barron

The dynamic floor of Yellowstone Lake, Wyoming, USA: The last 14 k.y. of hydrothermal explosions, venting, doming, and faulting

Hydrothermal explosions are significant potential hazards in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA. The northern Yellowstone Lake area hosts the three largest hydrothermal explosion craters known on Earth empowered by the highest heat flow values in Yellowstone and active seismicity and deformation. Geological and geochemical studies of eighteen sublacustrine cores provide the first detailed syn
Authors
Lisa Ann Morgan Morzel, Wayne (Pat) Shanks, Kenneth L. Pierce, Nels Iverson, Christopher Schiller, Sabrina R. Brown, Petra Zahajska, Rosine Cartier, Ron Cash, James Best, Cathy Whitlock, Sherilyn Fritz, William Benzel, Heather A. Lowers, D. A. Lovalvo, J. M. Licciardi

Geologic map of the Stibnite mining area, Valley County, Idaho

The Stibnite mining area, as used herein, is bounded by the map extent that includes the Yellow Pine, West End, and Hangar Flats ore bodies. Other ore bodies are nearby, but the purpose of this map is to offer a detailed (1:8,000 scale) geologic map with new cross sections in the immediate area of Stibnite, Idaho. This geologic map is very similar to the Stibnite quadrangle map (Stewart and others
Authors
Niki E. Wintzer

Multi-stage soil-hydraulic recovery and limited ravel accumulations following the 2017 Nuns and Tubbs wildfires in Northern California

Wildfire can impact soil-hydraulic properties by reducing saturated hydraulic conductivity and sorptivity, making recently burned landscapes prone to debris flows and flash floods. The post-fire hazard window can range from years to decades. In Northern California, where wildfire frequency is steadily increasing, the impact and soil-hydraulic recovery from wildfires is unknown. Following the Octob
Authors
Jonathan P. Perkins, Carlos Diaz, Skye C. Corbett, Corina Cerovski-Darriau, Jonathan D. Stock, Jeffrey Paul Prancevic, Lisa Micheli, Jay Jasperse

U-Pb scheelite ages of tungsten and antimony mineralization in the Stibnite-Yellow Pine district, central Idaho

The Stibnite-Yellow Pine district contains the largest antimony resource in the United States, as well as significant gold, and is a historic producer of tungsten. Application of in situ laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) direct dating of scheelite from two Au-Sb-W ore deposits, Yellow Pine and Hangar Flats, yielded an older group of U-Pb ages in the range of 6
Authors
Niki E. Wintzer, Mark D. Schmitz, Virginia S. Gillerman, Jeffrey D. Vervoort

Late Cretaceous time-transgressive onset of Laramide arch exhumation and basin subsidence across northern Arizona−New Mexico, USA, and the role of a dehydrating Farallon flat slab

Spatiotemporal constraints for Late Cretaceous tectonism across the Colorado Plateau and southern Rocky Mountains (northern Arizona−New Mexico, USA) are interpreted in regards to Laramide orogenic mechanisms. Onset of Laramide arch development is estimated from cooling recorded in representative thermochronologic samples in a three-step process of initial forward models, secondary HeFTy inverse mo
Authors
Jacob Thacker, Karl Karlstrom, Shari Kelley, Ryan S. Crow, Jerry Kendall

Age of the late Holocene Bonneville landslide and submerged forest of the Columbia River Gorge, Oregon and Washington, USA, by radiocarbon dating

The late Holocene Bonneville landslide, a 15.5 km2 rockslide-debris avalanche, descended 1000 m from the north side of the Columbia River Gorge and dammed the Columbia River where it bisects the Cascade Range of Oregon and Washington, USA. The landslide, inundation, and overtopping created persistent geomorphic, ecologic, and cultural consequences to the river corridor, reported by Indigenous narr
Authors
Nathaniel D. Reynolds, Jim E. O'Connor, Patrick T. Pringle, Alex C. Bourdeau, Robert L. Schuster

Volcanoes of the Mojave: The 2022 Desert Symposium field trip road log

Basalt lava fields, some decorated with scoria ‘cinder’ cones, are scattered around the Mojave Desert. Most basalt fields are short-lived, but the Cima volcanic field is unique in having eruptions that span ~7.5 m.y., including the youngest eruption in the Mojave Desert at ~12 ka. Xenolith-bearing basalts that include both mantle and deep crustal rocks are known in several fields. All basalt fi
Authors
David C. Buesch, David M. Miller, Bruce Bridenbecker, Mark Sweeney

Hyperspectral Thermal Emission Spectrometer (HyTES) images of basaltic and sedimentary deposits in the southwest Cima volcanic field, California

The southwestern part of the Cima volcanic field in the Mojave National Monument, California, contains many of the youngest basaltic cinder cones and lava flows in the field (Wilshire and others, 2002). In 2014 the Hyperspectral Thermal Emission Spectrometer (HyTES) collected a swath of data across this area. This summary describes the HyTES instrument, data, and images, and compares two standar
Authors
David C. Buesch, Simon J Hook