Publications
Publications from the staff of the Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center
Filter Total Items: 2354
1000 dams down and counting
Forty years ago, the demolition of large dams was mostly fiction, notably plotted in Edward Abbey's novel The Monkey Wrench Gang. Its 1975 publication roughly coincided with the end of large-dam construction in the United States. Since then, dams have been taken down in increasing numbers as they have filled with sediment, become unsafe or inefficient, or otherwise outlived their usefulness (1) (s
Authors
James E. O'Connor, Jeff J. Duda, Gordon E. Grant
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Energy and Minerals Mission Area, Natural Hazards Mission Area, Energy Resources Program, Groundwater and Streamflow Information Program, Mineral Resources Program, National Laboratories Program, Science and Decisions Center, Volcano Hazards Program, Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center, John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis, Volcano Science Center, Western Fisheries Research Center
The fate of cyanide in leach wastes at gold mines: an environmental perspective
This paper reviews the basic chemistry of cyanide, methods by which cyanide can be analyzed, and aspects of cyanide behavior that are most relevant to environmental considerations at mineral processing operations associated with gold mines. The emphasis is on research results reported since 1999 and on data gathered for a series of U.S. Geological Survey studies that began in the late 1990s. Cyani
Authors
Craig A. Johnson
User guide for luminescence sampling in archaeological and geological contexts
Luminescence dating provides a direct age estimate of the time of last exposure of quartz or feldspar minerals to light or heat and has been successfully applied to deposits, rock surfaces, and fired materials in a number of archaeological and geological settings. Sampling strategies are diverse and can be customized depending on local circumstances, although all sediment samples need to include a
Authors
Michelle S. Nelson, Harrison J. Gray, Jack A. Johnson, Tammy M. Rittenour, James K. Feathers, Shannon Mahan
Mesozoic magmatism and timing of epigenetic Pb-Zn-Ag mineralization in the western Fortymile mining district, east-central Alaska: Zircon U-Pb geochronology, whole-rock geochemistry, and Pb isotopes
The Mesozoic magmatic history of the North American margin records the evolution from a more segmented assemblage of parautochthonous and allochthonous terranes to the more cohesive northern Cordilleran orogenic belt. We characterize the setting of magmatism, tectonism, and epigenetic mineralization in the western Fortymile mining district, east-central Alaska, where parautochthonous and allochtho
Authors
Cynthia Dusel-Bacon, J.N. Aleinkoff, W. C. Day, J.K. Mortensen
Seismotectonic significance of the 2008–2010 Walloon Brabant seismic swarm in the Brabant Massif, Belgium
Between 12 July 2008 and 18 January 2010 a seismic swarm occurred close to the town of Court-Saint-Etienne, 20 km SE of Brussels (Belgium). The Belgian network and a temporary seismic network covering the epicentral area established a seismic catalogue in which magnitude varies between ML -0.7 and ML 3.2. Based on waveform cross-correlation of co-located earthquakes, the spatial distribution of th
Authors
Koen Van Noten, Thomas Lecocq, Anjana K. Shah, Thierry Camelbeeck
Potential metal recovery from waste streams
‘Waste stream’ is a general term that describes the total flow of waste from homes, businesses, industrial facilities, and institutions that are recycled, burned or isolated from the environment in landfills or other types of storage, or dissipated into the environment. The recovery and reuse of chemical elements from waste streams have the potential to decrease U.S. reliance on primary resources
Authors
Kathleen S. Smith, Philip L. Hageman, Geoffrey S. Plumlee, James R. Budahn, Donald I. Bleiwas
Comparing activated alumina with indigenous laterite and bauxite as potential sorbents for removing fluoride from drinking water in Ghana
Fluoride is considered beneficial to teeth and bones when consumed in low concentrations, but at elevated concentrations it can cause dental and skeletal fluorosis. Most fluoride-related health problems occur in poor, rural communities of the developing world where groundwater fluoride concentrations are high and the primary sources of drinking water are from community hand-pump borehole drilled w
Authors
Laura Craig, Lisa L. Stillings, David L. Decker, James M. Thomas
What lies beneath: geophysical mapping of a concealed Precambrian intrusive complex along the Iowa–Minnesota border
Large-amplitude gravity and magnetic highs over northeast Iowa are interpreted to reflect a buried intrusive complex composed of mafic–ultramafic rocks, the northeast Iowa intrusive complex (NEIIC), intruding Yavapai province (1.8–1.72 Ga) rocks. The age of the complex is unproven, although it has been considered to be Keweenawan (∼1.1 Ga). Because only four boreholes reach the complex, which is c
Authors
Benjamin J. Drenth, Raymond R. Anderson, Klaus J. Schulz, Joshua M. Feinberg, Val W. Chandler, William F. Cannon
Antimony: a flame fighter
Antimony is a brittle, silvery-white semimetal that conducts heat poorly. The chemical compound antimony trioxide (Sb2O3) is widely used in plastics, rubbers, paints, and textiles, including industrial safety suits and some children’s clothing, to make them resistant to the spread of flames. Also, sodium antimonate (NaSbO3) is used during manufacturing of high-quality glass, which is found in cell
Authors
Niki E. Wintzer, David E. Guberman
Rhenium: a rare metal critical in modern transportation
Rhenium is a silvery-white, metallic element with an extremely high melting point (3,180 degrees Celsius) and a heat-stable crystalline structure, making it exceptionally resistant to heat and wear. Since the late 1980s, rhenium has been critical for superalloys used in turbine blades and in catalysts used to produce lead-free gasoline.
One of the rarest elements, rhenium has an average abundance
Authors
David John
11.12 – Tools and techniques: gravitational method
The gravitational method is used to investigate density variations within the subsurface at depths of several meters to tens of meters, as in depth-to-bedrock investigations, or at depths of several kilometers, as in sedimentary basin thickness investigations. This chapter covers fundamental relations, densities of Earth materials, instruments, field procedures, data reduction, filtering, forward
Authors
Jeffrey Phillips
Physical subdivision and description of the water-bearing sediments of the Santa Clara Valley, California
A thick Quaternary alluvial section fills a sedimentary basin beneath the Santa Clara Valley, California, located within the San Andreas Fault system at the south end of San Francisco Bay. This section consists of an upper sequence about 1,000 feet thick containing eight sedimentary cycles and a lower fine-grained unit as thick as several hundred feet. Together these constitute the Quaternary Sant
Authors
Carl M. Wentworth, Robert C. Jachens, Robert A. Williams, John C. Tinsley, Randall T. Hanson