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Publications

Listed below are publication products directly associated with the Geology, Energy & Minerals Science Center:

Filter Total Items: 1166

Some aspects of resource uncertainty and their economic consequences in assessment of the 1002 Area of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

Exploration ventures in frontier areas have high risks. Before committing to them, firms prepare regional resource assessments to evaluate the potential payoffs. With no historical basis for directly estimating size distribution of undiscovered accumulations, reservoir attribute probability distributions can be assessed subjectively and used to project undiscovered accumulation sizes. Three questi
Authors
Emil D. Attanasi, John H. Schuenemeyer

Lithogeochemical character of near-surface bedrock in the New England coastal basins

This geographic information system (GIS) data layer shows the generalized lithologic and geochemical, termed lithogeochemical, character of near-surface bedrock in the New England Coastal Basin (NECB) study area of the U.S. Geological Survey's National Water Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program. The area encompasses 23,000 square miles in western and central Maine, eastern Massachusetts, most of Rh
Authors
Gilpin R. Robinson, Joseph D. Ayotte, Denise L. Montgomery, Leslie A. DeSimone

Environmentalism and natural aggregate mining

Sustaining a developed economy and expanding a developing one require the use of large volumes of natural aggregate. Almost all human activity (commercial, recreational, or leisure) is transacted in or on facilities constructed from natural aggregate. In our urban and suburban worlds, we are almost totally dependent on supplies of water collected behind dams and transported through aqueducts made
Authors
Lawrence J. Drew, William H. Langer, Janet Somerville Sachs

The December 1872 Washington state earthquake

The largest historical earthquake in eastern Washington occurred on 15 December 1872. We used Modified Mercalli intensity (MMI) assignments for 12 twentieth-century earthquakes to determine attenuation relations for different regions in the Pacific Northwest. MMI attenuation for propagation paths east and west of the Cascade Mountains differs significantly only for epicentral distances greater tha
Authors
W. H. Bakun, R. A. Haugerud, M. G. Hopper, R.S. Ludwin

Large-scale fractures related to inception of the Yellowstone hotspot

During middle Miocene time, western North America was subject to flood-basalt volcanism, dike-swarm injection, and broad-scale fracturing and folding of the crust. We propose a simple model to account for these events and for a regional pattern of geologic and geophysical features. Aeromagnetic maps reveal some of the most important elements of this pattern, which are several narrow, arcuate anoma
Authors
J.M.G. Glen, D. A. Ponce

Comparison of two probability distributions used to model sizes of undiscovered oil and gas accumulations: Does the tail wag the assessment?

Undiscovered oil and gas assessments are commonly reported as aggregate estimates of hydrocarbon volumes. Potential commercial value and discovery costs are, however, determined by accumulation size, so engineers, economists, decision makers, and sometimes policy analysts are most interested in projected discovery sizes. The lognormal and Pareto distributions have been used to model exploration ta
Authors
E.D. Attanasi, Ronald R. Charpentier

Chromium

No abstract available.
Authors
J.F. Papp, B. R. Lipin

Preliminary digital geologic map of the Appalachian Piedmont and Blue Ridge, South Carolina segment

A preliminary geology coverage of the Piedmont and Blue Ridge in South Carolina has been compiled at 1:5000,000 scale and digitized as part of a patchwork of coverages for the analysis of regional and national geochemical patterns that may have environmental and resource implications. It was produced from other compilations that incorporate more detailed geologic maps as well as additional sources
Authors
J. Wright Horton, Connie L. Dicken

Geochronology and geology of late Oligocene through Miocene volcanism and mineralization in the western San Juan Mountains, Colorado

This paper presents 25 new 40Ar/39Ar dates from the main calc-alkaline ash-flow sheets and related younger plutons of the western San Juan volcanic field, the ash-flow sheets of the Lake City caldera cycle, and veins and other altered rocks in the Lake City region. The goal of the study was to produce similar quality 40Ar/39Ar ages to those currently published for the eastern and central San Juan
Authors
Dana J. Bove, Ken Hon, Karin E. Budding, John F. Slack, Lawrence W. Snee, Ross A. Yeoman

Lithochronologic units and mineral deposits of the Appalachian Orogen from Maine to Alabama

No abstract available.
Authors
J. D. Peper, J. E. Gair, M. P. Foose, T. H. Kress, Connie Dicken

The Gibbs free energy of nukundamite (Cu3.38Fe0.62S4): A correction and implications for phase equilibria

The Gibbs free energy of formation of nukundamite (Cu3.38Fe0.62S4) was calculated from published experimental studies of the reaction 3.25 Cu3.38Fe0.62S4 + S2 = 11 CuS + 2 FeS2 in order to correct an erroneous expression in the published record. The correct expression describing the Gibbs free energy of formation (kJ·mol−1) of nukundamite relative to the elements and ideal S2 gas is ΔfG°nukundamit
Authors
Robert R. Seal, E. E. Inan, Bruce S. Hemingway