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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

Effects of intrusions on grades and contents of gold and other metals in volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits

The reason some VMS deposits contain more gold or other metals than others might be due to the influence of intrusions. A new approach examining this possibility is based on examining the information about many VMS deposits to test statistically if those with associated intrusions have significantly different grades or amounts of metals. A set of 632 VMS deposits with reported grades, tonnages, an
Authors
Donald A. Singer, Vladimir Berger, Dan L. Mosier

High-resolution well-log derived dielectric properties of gas-hydrate-bearing sediments, Mount Elbert Gas Hydrate Stratigraphic Test Well, Alaska North Slope

A dielectric logging tool, electromagnetic propagation tool (EPT), was deployed in 2007 in the BPXA-DOE-USGS Mount Elbert Gas Hydrate Stratigraphic Test Well (Mount Elbert Well), North Slope, Alaska. The measured dielectric properties in the Mount Elbert well, combined with density log measurements, result in a vertical high-resolution (cm-scale) estimate of gas hydrate saturation. Two hydrate-bea
Authors
Y. Sun, D. Goldberg, Timothy S. Collett, R. Hunter

Sulfur geochemistry and microbial sulfate reduction during low-temperature alteration of uplifted lower oceanic crust: Insights from ODP Hole 735B

Sulfide petrography plus whole rock contents and isotope ratios of sulfur were measured in a 1.5 km section of oceanic gabbros in order to understand the geochemistry of sulfur cycling during low-temperature seawater alteration of the lower oceanic crust, and to test whether microbial effects may be present. Most samples have low SO4/ΣS values (≤ 0.15), have retained igneous globules of pyrrhotite
Authors
Susan E. Alford, Jeffrey C. Alt, Wayne C. Shanks

M3 spectral analysis of lunar swirls and the link between optical maturation and surface hydroxyl formation at magnetic anomalies

We examined the lunar swirls using data from the Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3). The improved spectral and spatial resolution of M3 over previous spectral imaging data facilitates distinction of subtle spectral differences, and provides new information about the nature of these enigmatic features. We characterized spectral features of the swirls, interswirl regions (dark lanes), and surrounding terra
Authors
G.Y. Kramer, S. Besse, D. Dhingra, J. Nettles, R. Klima, I. Garrick-Bethell, Roger N. Clark, J. -P. Combe, J. W. Head, L.A. Taylor, C.M. Pieters, J. Boardman, T. B. McCord

Mineralogic sources of metals in leachates from the weathering of sedex, massive sulfide, and vein deposit mining wastes

Weathered mine waste consists of oxidized primary minerals and chemically unstable secondary phases that can be sources of readily soluble metals and acid rock drainage. Elevated concentrations of metals such as Cd, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, and Zn are observed in deionized water-based leachate solutions derived from complex sedex and Cu-Pb-Zn mine wastes. Leachate (USGS FLT) from the Elizabeth mine, a
Authors
S. F. Diehl, P. L. Hageman, R.R. Seal, N.M. Piatak, H. Lowers

Shallow lithological structure across the Dead Sea Transform derived from geophysical experiments

In the framework of the DEad SEa Rift Transect (DESERT) project a 150 km magnetotelluric profile consisting of 154 sites was carried out across the Dead Sea Transform. The resistivity model presented shows conductive structures in the western section of the study area terminating abruptly at the Arava Fault. For a more detailed analysis we performed a joint interpretation of the resistivity model
Authors
J. Stankiewicz, G. Munoz, O. Ritter, Paul A. Bedrosian, T. Ryberg, U. Weckmann, M. Weber

A carbon isotopic and sedimentological record of the latest Devonian (Famennian) from the Western U.S. and Germany

New carbon isotopic data from upper Famennian deposits in the western United States reveal two previously unrecognized major positive isotopic excursions. The first is an abrupt ~ 3‰ positive excursion, herein referred to as ALFIE (A Late Famennian Isotopic Excursion), recorded in two sections of the Pinyon Peak Limestone of north-central Utah. Integration of detailed chemostratigraphic and biostr
Authors
P.M. Myrow, J.V. Strauss, J.R. Creveling, K.R. Sicard, R. Ripperdan, Charles Sandberg, S. Hartenfels

A first look at the petroleum geology of the Lomonosov Ridge microcontinent, Arctic Ocean

The Lomonosov microcontinent is an elongated continental fragment that transects the Arctic Ocean between North America and Siberia via the North Pole. Although it lies beneath polar pack ice, the geological framework of the microcontinent is inferred from sparse seismic reflection data, a few cores, potential field data and the geology of its conjugate margin in the Barents–Kara Shelf. Petroleum
Authors
Thomas E. Moore, Arthur Grantz, Janet K. Pitman, Philip J. Brown

Thermal structure and dynamics of Saturn's northern springtime disturbance

Saturn’s slow seasonal evolution was disrupted in 2010–2011 by the eruption of a bright storm in its northern spring hemisphere. Thermal infrared spectroscopy showed that within a month, the resulting planetary-scale disturbance had generated intense perturbations of atmospheric temperatures, winds, and composition between 20° and 50°N over an entire hemisphere (140,000 kilometers). The tropospher
Authors
L.N. Fletcher, B.E. Hesman, P.G.J. Irwin, K. H. Baines, T.W. Momary, A. Sanchez-Lavega, F.M. Flasar, P.L. Read, G.S. Orton, A. Simon-Miller, R. Hueso, G.L. Bjoraker, A. Mamoutkine, Rio-Gaztelurrutia Del, J.M. Gomez, B. Buratti, R. N. Clark, P. D. Nicholson, Christophe Sotin

Mapping the distribution of materials in hyperspectral data using the USGS Material Identification and Characterization Algorithm (MICA)

Identifying materials by measuring and analyzing their reflectance spectra has been an important method in analytical chemistry for decades. Airborne and space-based imaging spectrometers allow scientists to detect materials and map their distributions across the landscape. With new satellite-borne hyperspectral sensors planned for the future, for example, HYSPIRI (HYPerspectral InfraRed Imager),

Authors
Raymond F. Kokaly, T. V. V. King, Todd M. Hoefen

A 50-year record of NOx and SO2 sources in precipitation in the Northern Rocky Mountains, USA

Ice-core samples from Upper Fremont Glacier (UFG), Wyoming, were used as proxy records for the chemical composition of atmospheric deposition. Results of analysis of the ice-core samples for stable isotopes of nitrogen (δ15N, ) and sulfur (δ34S, ), as well as  and  deposition rates from the late-1940s thru the early-1990s, were used to enhance and extend existing National Atmospheric Deposition Pr
Authors
David L. Naftz, Paul F. Schuster, Craig A. Johnson