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Publications

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

Filter Total Items: 2354

Crustal-scale recycling in caldera complexes and rift zones along the Yellowstone hotspot track: O and Hf isotopic evidence in diverse zircons from voluminous rhyolites of the Picabo volcanic field, Idaho

Rhyolites of the Picabo volcanic field (10.4–6.6 Ma) in eastern Idaho are preserved as thick ignimbrites and lavas along the margins of the Snake River Plain (SRP), and within a deep (>3 km) borehole near the central axis of the Yellowstone hotspot track. In this study we present new O and Hf isotope data and U–Pb geochronology for individual zircons, O isotope data for major phenocrysts (quartz,
Authors
Dana L. Drew, Ilya N. Bindeman, Kathryn E. Watts, Axel K. Schmitt, Bin Fu, Michael McCurry

A non-destructive method for dating human remains

The skeletal remains of several Native Americans were recovered in an eroded state from a creek bank in northeastern New Mexico. Subsequently stored in a nearby museum, the remains became lost for almost 36 years. In a recent effort to repatriate the remains, it was necessary to fit them into a cultural chronology in order to determine the appropriate tribe(s) for consultation pursuant to the Nati
Authors
Warren K. Lail, David Sammeth, Shannon Mahan, Jason Nevins

Tackling “boundary faults” across the Alaska-Yukon border: a report from the field

One day in late May, a team of geologists from two countries and four different organizations got together in a remote corner of the Yukon Territory to try to rectify a mapping discrepancy called a “boundary fault.”
Authors
Rick Saltus

Tectono-magmatic evolution and distribution of porphyry Cu systems in the Central Tethys Region of Turkey, the Caucasus, Iran, and southern Pakistan

Recent compilation of geodynamic, geochemical, geochronologic, and ore deposits data provided an opportunity to review the continental margin, intra-oceanic, and post-collisional tectonic settings in the Central Tethys Region. These settings formed during sequential rifting of microcontinents from the passive margin of Gondwana, their northward transport across the Neo-Tethys Ocean, and their coll
Authors
Lukas Zürcher, Arthur A. Bookstrom, Jane M. Hammarstrom, John C. Mars, Stephen Ludington, Michael L. Zientek, Pamela Dunlap, John C. Wallis

Previously unrecognized regional structure of the Coastal Belt of the Franciscan Complex, northern California, revealed by magnetic data

Magnetic anomalies provide surprising structural detail within the previously undivided Coastal Belt, the westernmost, youngest, and least-metamorphosed part of the Franciscan Complex of northern California. Although the Coastal Belt consists almost entirely of arkosic graywacke and shale of mainly Eocene age, new detailed aeromagnetic data show that it is pervasively marked by long, narrow, and r
Authors
Victoria E. Langenheim, Robert C. Jachens, Carl M. Wentworth, Robert J. McLaughlin

Analysis of Neogene deformation between Beaver, Utah and Barstow, California: Suggestions for altering the extensional paradigm

For more than two decades, the paradigm of large-magnitude (~250 km), northwest-directed (~N70°W) Neogene extensional lengthening between the Colorado Plateau and Sierra Nevada at the approximate latitude of Las Vegas has remained largely unchallenged, as has the notion that the strain integrates with coeval strains in adjacent regions and with plate-boundary strain. The paradigm depends on poorly
Authors
R. Ernest Anderson, Sue Beard, Edward A. Mankinen, John W. Hillhouse

Normalized rare earth elements in water, sediments, and wine: identifying sources and environmental redox conditions

The concentrations of the rare earth elements (REE) in surface waters and sediments, when normalized on an element-by-element basis to one of several rock standards and plotted versus atomic number, yield curves that reveal their partitioning between different sediment fractions and the sources of those fractions, for example, between terrestrial-derived lithogenous debris and seawater-derived bio
Authors
David Z. Piper, Michael Bau

Overview of the magnetic signatures of the Palaeoproterozoic Rustenburg Layered Suite, Bushveld Complex, South Africa

Aeromagnetic data clearly delineate the mafic rocks of the economically significant Bushveld Igneous Complex. This is mainly due to the abundance of magnetite in the Upper Zone of the Rustenburg Layered Suite of the Bushveld, but strongly remanently magnetised rocks in the Main Zone also contribute significantly in places. In addition to delineating the extent of the magnetic rocks in the complex,
Authors
Janine Cole, Carol A. Finn, Susan J. Webb

Nature's refineries — Metals and metalloids in arc volcanoes

Chemical data for fumaroles and for atmospheric gas and ash plumes from active arc volcanoes provide glimpses of the rates of release of metal and metalloids, such as Tl and Cd, from shallow and mid-crust magmas. Data from copper deposits formed in ancient volcanoes at depths of up to about 1500 m in the fractures below paleo-fumaroles, and at around 2000–4000 m in association with sub-volcanic in
Authors
R.W. Henley, Byron R. Berger

Nickel-cobalt laterites: a deposit model

Nickel-cobalt (Ni-Co) laterite deposits are supergene enrichments of Ni±Co that form from intense chemical and mechanical weathering of ultramafic parent rocks. These regolith deposits typically form within 26 degrees of the equator, although there are a few exceptions. They form in active continental margins and stable cratonic settings. It takes as little as one million years for a laterite prof
Authors
Erin E. Marsh, Eric D. Anderson, Floyd Gray

Mines, mountains and hot springs: IMWA 2013 post-conference tour to Silverton, CO, August 10-13, 2013

An itinerary, maps, and details about the IMWA 2013 post-conference tour from Golden, Colorado to Silverton, Colorado on August 10-13, 2013, are provided.
Authors
Raymond H. Johnson

IMWA 2013 mid-conference tour to Leadville, Colorado, August 7th, 2013

An itinerary, maps, and details about the IMWA 2013 mid-conference tour from Golden, Colorado to Leadville, Colorado on August 7, 2013, are provided.
Authors
Raymond H. Johnson