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Publications

Products (journal articles, reports, fact sheets) authored by current and past scientists are listed below. Please check the USGS Pubs Warehouse for other USGS publications.

Filter Total Items: 1826

Classification of oil spill by thicknesses using multiple remote sensors

Satellite Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is an operational tool for monitoring and assessment of oil spills. Satellite SAR has primarily been used to detect the presence/absence of oil, yet its ability to discriminate oil emulsions within a detected oil slick has not been fully exploited. Additionally, one of the challenges in the past has been the ability to deliver strategic information derived
Authors
Oscar Garcia-Pineda, Gordon Staples, Cathleen E Jones, Chuanmin Hu, Benjamin Holt, Villy Kourafalou, George Graettinger, Lisa DiPinto, Ellen Ramirez, David Street, Jay Cho, Gregg A. Swayze, Shaojie Sun, Diana Garcia, Francisco Haces-Garcia

Variability in results from mineralogical and organic geochemical interlaboratory testing of U. S. Geological Survey shale reference materials

The expansion of unconventional petroleum resource exploration and production in the United States has led to an increase in source rock characterization efforts, particularly related to bulk organic and mineralogical properties. To support the analytical and research needs of industry and academia, as well as internal work, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has collected and prepared shale geoche
Authors
Justin E. Birdwell, Stephen A. Wilson

Detrital zircon geochronology along a structural transect across the Kahiltna assemblage in the western Alaska Range: Implications for emplacement of the Alexander-Wrangellia-Peninsular terrane against North America

The Kahiltna assemblage in the western Alaska Range consists of deformed Upper Jurassic and Cretaceous clastic strata that lie between the Alexander-Wrangellia-Peninsular (AWP) terrane to the south, and the Farewell and other peri-cratonic terranes to the north. Differences in detrital zircon populations and sandstone petrography allow geographic separation of the strata into two different success
Authors
Stephen E. Box, Susan M. Karl, James V. Jones, Dwight Bradley, Peter J. Haeussler, Paul B. O'Sullivan

Mountain-block recharge: A review of current understanding

Mountain-block recharge (MBR) is the subsurface inflow of groundwater to lowland aquifers from adjacent mountains. MBR can be a major component of recharge but remains difficult to characterize and quantify due to limited hydrogeologic, climatic, and other data in the mountain block and at the mountain front. The number of MBR-related studies has increased dramatically in the 15 years since the la
Authors
Katherine Markovich, Andrew H. Manning, Laura Condon, Jennifer McIntosh

Discrete Zr and REE mineralization of the Baerzhe rare-metal deposit, China

Although REE (lanthanides + Y) mineralization in alkaline silicate systems is commonly accompanied with Zr mineralization worldwide, our understanding of the relationship between Zr and REE mineralization is still incomplete (e.g. Škoda and Novák, 2007; Linnen et al., 2014; Petrella et al., 2014; Möller and Williams-Jones, 2016; Wu et al., 2018). The Baerzhe deposit in NE China is a source of Zr,
Authors
Kunfeng Qiu, Haocheng Yu, Mingqian Wu, Jianzhen Geng, Xiangkun Ge, Zongyang Gou, Ryan Taylor

Apatite trace element geochemistry and cathodoluminescent textures—Acomparison between regional magmatism and the Pea Ridge IOA-REE andBoss IOCG deposits, southeastern Missouri iron metallogenic province, USA

The southeast Missouri iron metallogenic province contains a remarkable wealth of historically important Fe, Cu, Au, and rare earth element (REE) deposits including the Pea Ridge iron oxide-apatite-rare earth element (IOA-REE) deposit and the Boss iron oxide-copper-gold (IOCG) deposit. These deposits are coeval with silicic and intermediate composition magmatism in the St. Francois Mountains terra
Authors
Celestine N. Mercer, Kathryn E. Watts, Juliane Gross

Crustal magmatism and anisotropy beneath the Arabian Shield - A cautionary tale

Volcanism in Saudi Arabia includes a historic eruption close to the holy city of Al Madinah. As part of a volcanic hazard assessment of this area, magnetotelluric (MT) data were collected to investigate the structural setting, the distribution of melt within the crust, and the mantle source of volcanism. Interpretation of a new 3‐D resistivity model includes a shallow graben beneath thin lava fiel
Authors
Paul A. Bedrosian, Jared R. Peacock, Maher K. Al-Dhahry, Adel Shareef, D. W. Feucht, Hani M. Zahran

Comparison of methods for modeling fractional cover using simulated satellite hyperspectral imager spectra

Remotely sensed data can be used to model the fractional cover of green vegetation (GV), non-photosynthetic vegetation (NPV), and soil in natural and agricultural ecosystems. NPV and soil cover are difficult to estimate accurately since absorption by lignin, cellulose, and other organic molecules cannot be resolved by broadband multispectral data. A new generation of satellite hyperspectral imager
Authors
Philip E. Dennison, Yi Qi, Susan K. Meerdink, Raymond F. Kokaly, David R. Thompson, Craig S.T. Daughtry, Miguel Quemada, Dar A. Roberts, Paul Gader, Erin Wetherley, Izaya Numata, Keely L. Roth

Alaska Geochemical Database Version 3.0 (AGDB3)—Including “Best Value” Data Compilations for Rock, Sediment, Soil, Mineral, and Concentrate Sample Media

The Alaska Geochemical Database Version 3.0 (AGDB3) contains new geochemical data compilations in which each geologic material sample has one “best value” determination for each analyzed species, greatly improving speed and efficiency of use. Like the Alaska Geochemical Database Version 2.0 before it, the AGDB3 was created and designed to compile and integrate geochemical data from Alaska to facil
Authors
Matthew Granitto, Bronwen Wang, Nora B. Shew, Susan M. Karl, Keith A. Labay, Melanie B. Werdon, Susan S. Seitz, John E. Hoppe

Multiproxy Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary event stratigraphy: An Umbria-Marche basin-wide perspective

The complete and well-studied pelagic carbonate successions from the Umbria-Marche Basin (Italy) permit the study of the event-rich stratigraphical interval around the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary (e.g., Deccan volcanism, boundary impact, Paleocene recovery and climate). To test the robustness of various proxy records (bulk carbonate δ13C, δ18O, 87Sr/86Sr and Ca, Fe, Sr and Mn concentratio
Authors
Matthias Sinnesael, Alessandro Montanari, Fabrizio Frontalini, Rodolfo Coccioni, Jerome Gattacceca, Christophe Snoeck, Wencke Wegner, Christian Koeberl, Leah E. Morgan, Niels de Winter, Donald J. DePaolo, Philippe Claeys

Formation mechanisms of quartz veins in orogenic gold deposits: Insights from Grass Valley, California, USA

The orogenic gold veins of Grass Valley, California, USA, compose the historically richest lode gold district in the North American Cordillera. Petrographically, the veins exhibit a range of primary textural relationships allowing the reconstruction of the paragenetic sequence of mineral formation. Two generations of quartz are distinguished by optical cathodoluminescence microscopy and fluid incl
Authors
Ryan Taylor, Thomas Monecke, T. James Reynolds

Geochemistry of hematite veins in IOA-IOCG deposits of SE Missouri, USA: Relation to felsic magmatism and caldera lakes

The paragenesis, textures, and chemical compositions of secondary hematite in regional potassic altered rhyolites, four IOA deposits, the sedimentary iron deposit at Pilot Knob and the Boss IOCG deposit in SE Missouri were determined and compared to primary magnetite from the IOA and IOCG deposits. Magnetite is composed of elements characteristics of mafic to intermediate intrusions whereas hemati
Authors
Corey J. Meighan, Albert H. Hofstra, Erin E. Marsh, Heather A. Lowers, Alan Koenig