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Publications

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

Filter Total Items: 2354

Spatially explicit shallow landslide susceptibility mapping over large areas

Recent advances in downscaling climate model precipitation predictions now yield spatially explicit patterns of rainfall that could be used to estimate shallow landslide susceptibility over large areas. In California, the United States Geological Survey is exploring community emergency response to the possible effects of a very large simulated storm event and to do so it has generated downscaled p
Authors
Dino Bellugi, William E. Dietrich, Jonathan D. Stock, Jim McKean, Brian Kazian, Paul Hargrove

Geophysical, geochemical, and mineralogical data from the Pebble Cu-Au-Mo porphyry deposit area, southwest Alaska: Contributions to assessment techniques for concealed mineral resources

In 2007, the U.S. Geological Survey began a multidisciplinary study in southwest Alaska to investigate the setting and detectability of mineral deposits in concealed volcanic and glacial terranes. The study area hosts the world-class Pebble porphyry Cu-Au-Mo deposit, and through collaboration with the Pebble Limited Partnership, a range of geophysical and geochemical investigations was carried out
Authors
E. D. Anderson, S. M. Smith, S. A. Giles, Matthew Granitto, R. G. Eppinger, P. A. Bedrosian, A. K. Shah, K. D. Kelley, D. L. Fey, B. J. Minsley, P. J. Brown

Mine wastes and human health

Historical mining and mineral processing have been linked definitively to health problems resulting from occupational and environmental exposures to mine wastes. Modern mining and processing methods, when properly designed and implemented, prevent or greatly reduce potential environmental health impacts. However, particularly in developing countries, there are examples of health problems linked to
Authors
Geoffrey S. Plumlee, Suzette A. Morman

Observations of mass fractionation of noble gases in synthetic methane hydrate

As a consequence of contemporary or longer term (since 15 ka) climate warming, gas hydrates in some settings are presently dissociating and releasing methane and other gases to the oceanatmosphere system. A key challenge in assessing the susceptibility of gas hydrates to warming climate is the lack of a technique able to distinguish between methane recently released from gas hydrates and methane e
Authors
Andrew G. Hunt, John W. Pohlman, Laura A. Stern, Carolyn D. Ruppel, Richard J. Moscati, Gary P. Landis, John C. Pinkston

Principal facts for gravity stations collected in 2010 from White Pine and Lincoln Counties, east-central Nevada

Increasing demands on the Colorado River system within the arid Southwestern United States have focused attention on finding new, alternative sources of water. Particular attention is being paid to the eastern Great Basin, where important ground-water systems occur within a regionally extensive sequence of Paleozoic carbonate rocks and in the Cenozoic basin-fill deposits that occur throughout the
Authors
Edward A. Mankinen, Edwin H. McKee

Preliminary isostatic residual gravity anomaly map of Paso Robles 30 x 60 minute quadrangle, California

This isostatic residual gravity map is part of an effort to map the three-dimensional distribution of rocks in the central California Coast Ranges and will serve as a basis for modeling the shape of basins and for determining the location and geometry of faults within the Paso Robles quadrangle. Local spatial variations in the Earth\'s gravity field, after accounting for variations caused by eleva
Authors
D.K. McPhee, V. E. Langenheim, J. T. Watt

Using stable isotopes to understand hydrochemical processes in and around a Prairie Pothole wetland in the Northern Great Plains, USA

Millions of internally drained wetland systems in the Prairie Potholes region of the northern Great Plains (USA and Canada) provide indispensable habitat for waterfowl and a host of other ecosystem services. The hydrochemistry of these systems is complex and a crucial control on wetland function, flora and fauna. Wetland waters can have high concentrations of SO2-4 due to the oxidation of large am
Authors
Christopher T. Mills, Martin B. Goldhaber, Craig A. Stricker, JoAnn M. Holloway, Jean Morrison, Karl J. Ellefsen, Donald O. Rosenberry, Roland S. Thurston

Preliminary geologic map of the Bowen Mountain quadrangle, Grand and Jackson Counties, Colorado

The map shows the geology of an alpine region in the southern Never Summer Mountains, including parts of the Never Summer Wilderness Area, the Bowen Gulch Protection Area, and the Arapaho National Forest. The area includes Proterozoic crystalline rocks in fault contact with folded and overturned Paleozoic and Mesozoic sedimentary rocks and Upper Cretaceous(?) and Paleocene Middle Park Formation. T
Authors
J. C. Cole, William A. Braddock, Theodore R. Brandt

The role of critical zone processes in the evolution of the Prairie Pothole Region wetlands

The Prairie Pothole Region, which occupies 900,000 km2 of the north central USA and south central Canada, is one of the most important ecosystems in North America. It is characterized by millions of small wetlands whose chemistry is highly variable over short distances. The study involved the geochemistry of surface sediments, wetland water, and groundwater in the Cottonwood Lakes area of North Da
Authors
Martin B. Goldhaber, Christopher T. Mills, Craig A. Stricker, Jean Morrison

Computational considerations for collecting and using data in the equidistant cylindrical map projection and the bounds of sampling geographic data at progressively higher resolution

The Equidistant Cylindrical Map projection is popular with digital modelers and others for storing and processing worldwide data sets because of the simple association of latitude and longitude to cell values or pixels in the resulting grid. This projection does not accurately display area, and the diminished geographic area represented by cells at high latitudes is not often carefully considered.
Authors
Kevin M. Foley

Digital geologic map and Landsat image map of parts of Loralai, Sibi, Quetta, and Khuzar Divisions, Balochistan Province, west-central Pakistan

This generalized digital geologic map of west-central Pakistan is a product of the Balochistan Coal-Basin Synthesis Study, which was part of a cooperative program of the Geological Survey of Pakistan and the United States Geological Survey. The original nondigital map was published by Maldonado and others (1998). Funding was provided by the Government of Pakistan and the United States Agency for I
Authors
Florian Maldonado, Jan Mohammad Menga, Shabid Hasan Khan, Jean-Claude Thomas