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

Characterizing methane emission hotspots from thawing permafrost

Methane (CH4) emissions from climate-sensitive ecosystems within the northern permafrost region represent a potentially large but highly uncertain source, with current estimates spanning a factor of seven (11–75 Tg CH4 yr−1). Accelerating permafrost thaw threatens significant increases in pan-Arctic CH4 emissions, amplifying the permafrost carbon feedback. We used airborne imaging spectroscopy wit
Authors
Clayton D. Elder, David R. Thompson, Andrew K Thorpe, Hrishikesh Chandanpurkar, Philip J Hanke, Nicholas Hasson, Stephanie R. James, Burke J. Minsley, Neal J. Pastick, David Olefeldt, Katey M Walter Anthony, Charles E. Miller

Progress in protecting air travel from volcanic ash clouds

The Eyjafjallajökull eruption of 2010 demonstrated the far-reaching impact of ash clouds and the vulnerability of our jet-based society to them, prompting a review of procedures to detect, warn, and forecast ash cloud hazards to aviation. The years since 2010 have seen marked improvements in satellite technology, more accurate ash-dispersion models that integrate simulations with observations, and
Authors
Larry G. Mastin, Michael J. Pavolonis, Samantha Engwell, Rory Clarkson, Claire Witham, Greg Brock, Ian Lisk, Marianne C. Guffanti, Andrew C. Tupper, David J. Schneider, Frances Beckett, Thomas J. Casadevall, Graham Rennie

Data-driven prospectivity modelling of sediment-hosted Zn-Pb mineral systems and their critical raw materials

Demand for critical raw materials is expected to accelerate over the next few decades due to continued population growth and the shifting consumption patterns of the global economy. Sedimentary basins are important sources for critical raw materials and new discoveries of sediment–hosted Mississippi Valley–type (MVT) and/or clastic–dominated (CD) Zn–Pb deposits are likely required to mitigate futu
Authors
Christopher J. M. Lawley, Anne E. McCafferty, Garth E. Graham, David L. Huston, Karen D. Kelley, Karol Czarnota, Suzanne Paradis, Jan M. Peter, Nathan Hayward, Mike Barlow, Poul Emsbo, Joshua Aaron Coyan, Carma A. San Juan, Michael G. Gadd

Foreword to this special issue on climate change and the critical zone geophysics

Welcome to this special issue on the use of geophysics in climate change and critical zone (CZ) research.  The importance of these research areas cannot be overstated, and yet when we were selecting contributions for this special issue, we wrestled with the fundamental question: are climate change and the critical zone two separate research areas, or one?  In other words, would there be a clear di
Authors
Dan R. Glaser, Stephanie R. James

Permafrost characterization and feature identification using public domain airborne electromagnetic data, interior Alaska

The Alaska Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys (DGGS) airborne electromagnetic (AEM) data are an excellent resource for permafrost characterization. AEM data can be used for pingo identification, estimating permafrost thickness, estimating surface talik thickness, evaluating permafrost health (temperature), talik identification and more. Data examples are shown from discontinuous permafr
Authors
Abraham M. Emond, Ronald Daanen, Burke J. Minsley

Pb-Pb and U-Pb dating of cassiterite by in situ LA-ICPMS: Examples spanning ~1.85 Ga to ~100 Ma in Russia and implications for dating Proterozoic to Phanerozoic tin deposits.

This paper investigates applicability of cassiterite to dating ore deposits in a wide age range. We report in situ LA-ICPMS U-Pb and Pb-Pb dating results (n = 15) of cassiterite from six ore deposits in Russia ranging in age from ~1.85 Ga to 93 Ma. The two oldest deposits dated at ~1.83–1.86 Ga are rare metal Vishnyakovskoe located in the East Sayan pegmatite belt and tin deposits within the Tuyuk
Authors
Leonid A. Neymark, Anatoly M. Larin, Richard J. Moscati

Multiscale hyperspectral imaging of hydrothermal alteration in Yellowstone National Park, USA

Imaging spectroscopy (hyperspectral imaging) data have mainly been used to map surface materials covering relatively small areas from airborne sensors over the past 20+ years. As part of the U.S. Geological Survey Integrated hyperspectral, geophysical and geochemical studies of Yellowstone National Park hydrothermal systems project, we have collected multiscale imaging spectrometer data including
Authors
Todd M. Hoefen, Raymond F. Kokaly, Keith Eric Livo, John Michael Meyer, JoAnn Holloway

Pathology and mineralogy demonstrate respirable crystalline silica is a major cause of severe pneumoconiosis in US coal miners

Rationale: The reasons for resurgent coal workers’ pneumoconiosis and its most severe forms, rapidly progressive pneumoconiosis and progressive massive fibrosis (PMF), in the United States (US) are not yet fully understood. Objective: To compare the pathologic and mineralogic features of contemporary coal miners suffering severe pneumoconiosis to their historical counterparts. Methods: Lung pathol
Authors
R. A. Cohen, Cecil S. Rose, L. H. Go, Lauren M. Zell-Baran, K. S. Almberg, Emily A. Sarver, Heather A. Lowers, C. Iwaniuk, S. Clingerman, D. Richardson, J.L. Abraham, Carlyne D. Cool, A. Franko, A.F. Hubbs, J. D. Murray, M.S. Orandle, S. Sanyal, N.I. Vorajee, E.L. Petsonk, R. Zulfikar, F.H. Green

Geochemical and mineralogical properties of Boquillas Shale geochemical reference material ShBOQ-1

The ShBOQ-1 geochemical reference material is relevant to studies of the organic geochemistry and mineralogy of petroleum source rocks containing high concentrations of carbonate minerals and organic sulfur-rich, oil-prone marine organic matter. ShBOQ-1 is geochemically and mineralogically similar to the lower part of the Upper Cretaceous Eagle Ford Shale.
Authors
Justin E. Birdwell, Stephen A. Wilson

Mapping critical minerals from the sky

Critical mineral resources titanium, zirconium, and rare earth elements occur in placer deposits over vast parts of the U.S. Atlantic Coastal Plain. Key questions regarding provenance, pathways of minerals to deposit sites, and relations to geologic features remain unexplained. As part of a national effort to collect data over regions prospective for critical minerals, the first public high-resolu
Authors
Anjana K. Shah, Robert Morrow, Michael Pace, M.Scott Harris, William Doar III

Incorporating uncertainty into groundwater salinity mapping using AEM data

Airborne electromagnetic surveys provide spatially extensive resistivity information that can be useful for groundwater salinity mapping; however, the transformation from geophysical data to salinity interpretations carries uncertainty. We compare two quantitative approaches to salinity mapping recently applied to address water resource management objectives: the location of the depth to the fresh
Authors
Lyndsay B. Ball, Burke J. Minsley

Ten years on from the quake that shook the nation’s capital

No abstract available.
Authors
Thomas L. Pratt, Martin C. Chapman, Anjana K. Shah, J. Wright Horton,, Oliver S. Boyd