Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

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

Sulfate and sulfide sulfur isotopes (δ34S and δ33S) measured by solution and laser ablation MC-ICP-MS: An enhanced approach using external correction

Isotope ratio measurements using a multi-collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (MC-ICP-MS) commonly use standard-sample bracketing with a single isotope standard for mass bias correction for elements with narrow-range isotope systems measured by MC-ICP-MS, e.g. Cu, Fe, Zn, and Hg. However, sulfur (S) isotopic composition (δ34S) in nature can range from at least − 40 to + 40‰, pote
Authors
Michael Pribil, William I. Ridley, Poul Emsbo

Plant phenolics and absorption features in vegetation reflectance spectra near 1.66 μm

Past laboratory and field studies have quantified phenolic substances in vegetative matter from reflectance measurements for understanding plant response to herbivores and insect predation. Past remote sensing studies on phenolics have evaluated crop quality and vegetation patterns caused by bedrock geology and associated variations in soil geochemistry. We examined spectra of pure phenolic compou
Authors
Raymond F. Kokaly, Andrew K Skidmore

Mid-Cretaceous oblique rifting of West Antarctica: Emplacement and rapid cooling of the Fosdick Mountains migmatite-cored gneiss dome

In Marie Byrd Land, West Antarctica, the Fosdick Mountains migmatite-cored gneiss dome was exhumed from mid- to lower middle crustal depths during the incipient stage of the West Antarctic Rift system in the mid-Cretaceous. Prior to and during exhumation, major crustal melting and deformation included transfer and emplacement of voluminous granitic material and numerous intrusions of mantle-derive
Authors
Rory McFadden, Christian Teyssier, Christine Siddoway, Michael A. Cosca, C. Mark Fanning

Geochemical and mineralogical characteristics of REE in granite-derived regolith: a model for the Southeast United States

Rare earth element (REE) ion-adsorption clay deposits are of global economic importance because they currently supply a significant portion of the world’s annual production of both light (LREE) and heavy REE (HREE). There is considerable ambiguity regarding the origin of this deposit type: The main criteria include the presence of large, generally granitic, igneous suites; long periods of intense
Authors
Nora K. Foley, Carleton R. Bern, Robert A. Ayuso, Bernard E. Hubbard, Anjana K. Shah

Sharpening the boundaries - 3D terracing applied to physical property inversions

Physical property inversions typically result in smooth property distributions, without the sharp boundaries expected of true geologic sources. Here we explore the use of 3D terracing as a way to force the inverted physical properties to have sharp boundaries. Terracing during inversion is preferable to post-inversion terracing because it results in a better fit to the observed data.
Authors
Jeffrey Phillips, Robert W. Simpson

The conjunction of factors that lead to formation of giant gold provinces and deposits in non-arc settings

It is quite evident that it is not anomalous metal transport, nor unique depositional conditions, nor any single factor at the deposit scale, that dictates whether a mineral deposit becomes a giant or not. A hierarchical approach thus is required to progressively examine controlling parameters at successively decreasing scales in the total mineral system to understand the location of giant gold de
Authors
David I. Groves, Richard J. Goldfarb, M. Santosh

U.S. Geological Survey Noble Gas Laboratory’s standard operating procedures for the measurement of dissolved gas in water samples

This report addresses the standard operating procedures used by the U.S. Geological Survey’s Noble Gas Laboratory in Denver, Colorado, U.S.A., for the measurement of dissolved gases (methane, nitrogen, oxygen, and carbon dioxide) and noble gas isotopes (helium-3, helium-4, neon-20, neon-21, neon-22, argon-36, argon-38, argon-40, kryton-84, krypton-86, xenon-103, and xenon-132) dissolved in water.
Authors
Andrew G. Hunt

Geochemical, modal, and geochronologic data for 1.4 Ga A-type granitoid intrusions of the conterminous United States

Introduction The purpose of this report is to present available geochemical, modal, and geochronologic data for approximately 1.4 billion year (Ga) A-type granitoid intrusions of the United States and to make those data available to ongoing petrogenetic investigations of these rocks. A-type granites, as originally defined by Loiselle and Wones (1979), are iron-enriched granitoids (synonymous with
Authors
Edward A. du Bray, Christopher S. Holm-Denoma, Carma A. San Juan, Karen Lund, Wayne R. Premo, Ed DeWitt

Results of mineral, chemical, and sulfate isotopic analyses of water, soil, rocks, and soil extracts from the Pariette Draw Watershed, Uinta Basin, Utah

In 2010, Utah Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) Division of Water Quality (UDWQ, 2010) determined that water quality in Pariette Draw was in violation of Federal and State water quality criteria for total dissolved solids (TDS), selenium (Se), and boron (B). The measure of total dissolved solids is the sum of all the major ion concentrations in solution and in this case, the dominant ions
Authors
Jean Morrison, Michele L. Tuttle, Juli W. Fahy

Mapping the 3-D extent of the Northern Lobe of the Bushveld layered mafic intrusion from geophysical data

Geophysical models image the 3D geometry of the mafic portion of the Bushveld Complex north of the Thabazimbi-Murchison Lineament (TML), critical for understanding the origin of the world's largest layered mafic intrusion and platinum group element deposits. The combination of the gravity and magnetic data with recent seismic, MT, borehole and rock property measurements powerfully constrains the m
Authors
Carol A. Finn, Paul A. Bedrosian, Janine Cole, Tshepo David Khoza, Susan J. Webb

Preliminary geophysical interpretations of regional subsurface geology near the Questa Mine Tailing Facility and Guadalupe Mountain, Taos County, New Mexico

This report presents geophysical interpretations of regional subsurface geology in the vicinity of the Tailing Facility of the Questa Mine near Guadalupe Mountain, Taos County, New Mexico, in cooperation with the New Mexico Environment Department. The interpretations were developed from aeromagnetic data, regional gravity data, data from four ground magnetic traverses, geologic mapping, a digital
Authors
V. J. S. Grauch, Benjamin J. Drenth, Ren A. Thompson, Paul W. Bauer

Metallogeny, exploitation and environmental impact of the Mt. Amiata mercury ore district (Southern Tuscany, Italy)

The Mt. Amiata mining district (Southern Tuscany, Italy) is a world class Hg district, with a cumulate production of more than 100,000 tonnes of Hg, mostly occurring between 1870 and 1980. The Hg mineralization at Mt. Amiata is younger than 0.3 Ma, and is directly related to shallow hydrothermal systems similar to present-day geothermal fields of the region. There is likely a continuum of Hg depos
Authors
V. Rimondi, L. Chiarantini, P. Lattanzi, M. Benvenuti, M. Beutel, A. Colica, P. Costagliola, F. Di Benedetto, G. Gabbani, John E. Gray, E. Pandeli, G. Pattelli, M. Paolieri, G. Ruggieri