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Publications

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

Filter Total Items: 2354

Audiomagnetotelluric Data and Two-Dimensional Models from Spring, Snake, and Three Lakes Valleys, Nevada

Audiomagnetotelluric (AMT) data along thirteen profiles in Spring, Snake, and Three Lakes Valleys, and the corresponding two-dimensional (2-D) inverse models, are presented. The AMT method is a valuable tool for estimating the electrical resistivity of the Earth over depth ranges of a few meters to roughly one kilometer. It is important for revealing subsurface structure and stratigraphy within th
Authors
Darcy McPhee, Bruce A. Chuchel, Louise Pellerin

Geophysical Data from Spring Valley to Delamar Valley, East-Central Nevada

Cenozoic basins in eastern Nevada and western Utah constitute major ground-water recharge areas in the eastern part of the Great Basin and these were investigated to characterize the geologic framework of the region. Prior to these investigations, regional gravity coverage was variable over the region, adequate in some areas and very sparse in others. Cooperative studies described herein have esta
Authors
Edward A. Mankinen, Carter W. Roberts, Edwin H. McKee, Bruce A. Chuchel, Robert L. Morin

Joint IODP-ICDP Workshop examines challenges of fault zone drilling

No abstract available.
Authors
H. Tobin, H. Ito, Stephen H. Hickman, Gaku Kimura

Assessment of Undiscovered Natural Gas Resources of the Sacramento Basin Province of California, 2006

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) recently completed a new assessment of undiscovered natural gas resources of the Sacramento Basin Province of California. Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the USGS mean estimates of undiscovered, technically recoverable resources are 534 billion cubic feet of natural gas and 323 thousand barrels of natural gas liquids in the Sacramento Basin Province.
Authors
Allegra Hosford Scheirer, Marilyn E. Tennyson, Leslie B. Magoon, Ronald R. Charpentier, Troy A. Cook, Timothy R. Klett, Richard M. Pollastro, Christopher J. Schenk

Principal Facts of Gravity data in the Northern Willamette Valley and Vicinity, Northwestern Oregon and Southwestern Washington

Gravity data were collected from 2004 through 2006 to assist in mapping subsurface geology in the northern Willamette Valley and vicinity, northwestern Oregon and southwestern Washington. Prior to this effort to improve the gravity data coverage in the study area, very little regional data were available. This report gives the principle facts for 2710 new gravity stations and 1446 preexisting grav
Authors
Robert L. Morin, Karen L. Wheeler, Darcy McPhee, Philip A. Dinterman, Janet T. Watt

Relatively simple through-going fault planes at large-earthquake depth may be concealed by the surface complexity of strike-slip faults

At the surface, strike-slip fault stepovers, including abrupt fault bends, are typically regions of complex, often disconnected faults. This complexity has traditionally led geologists studying the hazard of active faults to consider such stepovers as important fault segment boundaries, and to give lower weight to earthquake scenarios that involve rupture through the stepover zone. However, recent
Authors
Russell W. Graymer, Victoria Langenheim, Robert W. Simpson, Robert C. Jachens, David A. Ponce

Basin structure beneath the Santa Rosa Plain, Northern California: Implications for damage caused by the 1969 Santa Rosa and 1906 San Francisco earthquakes

Regional gravity data in the northern San Francisco Bay region reflect a complex basin configuration beneath the Santa Rosa plain that likely contributed to the significant damage to the city of Santa Rosa caused by the 1969 M 5.6, 5.7 Santa Rosa earthquakes and the 1906 M 7.9 San Francisco earthquake. Inversion of these data indicates that the Santa Rosa plain is underlain by two sedimentary basi
Authors
D.K. McPhee, V. E. Langenheim, S. Hartzell, R. J. McLaughlin, Brad T. Aagaard, R.C. Jachens, C. McCabe

Three-dimensional P wave velocity model for the San Francisco Bay region, California

[1] A new three-dimensional P wave velocity model for the greater San Francisco Bay region has been derived using the double-difference seismic tomography method, using data from about 5,500 chemical explosions or air gun blasts and approximately 6,000 earthquakes. The model region covers 140 km NE-SW by 240 km NW-SE, extending from 20 km south of Monterey to Santa Rosa and reaching from the Pacif
Authors
C.H. Thurber, T. M. Brocher, H. Zhang, V. E. Langenheim

Formation of tectonic peperites from alkaline magmas intruded into wet sediments in the Beiya area, western Yunnan, China

Tertiary (3.78 Ma to 3.65 Ma) biotite-K-feldspar porphyritic bodies intrude Tertiary, poorly consolidated lacustrine sedimentary rocks in the Beiya mineral district in southwestern China. The intrusives are characterized by a microcrystalline and vitreous-cryptocrystalline groundmass, by replacement of some tabular K-feldspar phenocrysts with microcrystalline chlorite and calcite, and by Fe-rich r
Authors
Xing-Wang Xu, Xin-Ping Cai, Jia-You Zhong, Bao-Chang Song, Stephen G. Peters

Environmental geochemistry at Red Mountain, an unmined volcanogenic massive sulphide deposit in the Bonnifield district, Alaska Range, east-central Alaska

The unmined, pyrite-rich Red Mountain (Dry Creek) deposit displays a remarkable environmental footprint of natural acid generation, high metal and exceedingly high rare earth element (REE) concentrations in surface waters. The volcanogenic massive sulphide deposit exhibits well-constrained examples of acid-generating, metal-leaching, metal-precipitation and self-mitigation (via co-precipitation, d
Authors
Robert G. Eppinger, Paul H. Briggs, Cynthia Dusel-Bacon, Stuart A. Giles, Larry P. Gough, Jane M. Hammarstrom, Bernard E. Hubbard

The USGS national geothermal resource assessment: An update

The U. S. Geological Survey (USGS) is working with the Department of Energy's (DOE) Geothermal Technologies Program and other geothermal organizations on a three-year effort to produce an updated assessment of available geothermal resources. The new assessment will introduce significant changes in the models for geothermal energy recovery factors, estimates of reservoir volumes, and limits to temp
Authors
C.F. Williams, M.J. Reed, S.P. Galanis, J. DeAngelo

Assessing the concentration, speciation, and toxicity of dissolved metals during mixing of acid-mine drainage and ambient river water downstream of the Elizabeth Copper Mine, Vermont, USA

The authors determine the composition of a river that is impacted by acid-mine drainage, evaluate dominant physical and geochemical processes controlling the composition, and assess dissolved metal speciation and toxicity using a combination of laboratory, field and modeling studies. Values of pH increase from 3.3 to 7.6 and the sum of dissolved base metal (Cd + Co + Cu + Ni + Pb + Zn) concentrati
Authors
Laurie S. Balistrieri, R.R. Seal, N.M. Piatak, B. Paul