Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Publications

Here you will find publications, reports and articles produced by Energy and Mineral scientists. For a comprehensive listing of all USGS publications please click the button below.

Filter Total Items: 1168

High-resolution gravity and seismic-refraction surveys of the Smoke Tree Wash area, Joshua Tree National Park, California

We describe high-resolution gravity and seismic refraction surveys acquired to determine the thickness of valley-fill deposits and to delineate geologic structures that might influence groundwater flow beneath the Smoke Tree Wash area in Joshua Tree National Park. These surveys identified a sedimentary basin that is fault-controlled. A profile across the Smoke Tree Wash fault zone reveals low grav
Authors
Victoria E. Langenheim, Michael J. Rymer, Rufus D. Catchings, Mark R. Goldman, Janet Watt, Robert E. Powell, Jonathan C. Matti

Thorium as a nuclear fuel

No abstract available.
Authors
Bradley S. Van Gosen, Harikrishnan Tulsidas

Holocene climate variability and anthropogenic impacts from Lago Paixban, a perennial wetland in Peten, Guatemala

Analyses of an ~ 6 m sediment core from Lago Paixban in Peten, Guatemala, document the complex evolution of a perennial wetland over the last 10,300 years. The basal sediment is comprised of alluvial/colluvial fill deposited in the early Holocene. The absence of pollen and gastropods in the basal sediments suggests intermittently dry conditions until ~ 9000 cal yr. BP (henceforth BP) when the basi
Authors
David B. Wahl, Richard D. Hansen, Roger Byrne, Lysanna Anderson, T. Schreiner

Structure of the Hat Creek graben region: Implications for the structure of the Hat Creek graben and transfer of right-lateral shear from the Walker Lane north of Lassen Peak, northern California, from gravity and magnetic anomalies

Interpretation of magnetic and new gravity data provides constraints on the geometry of the Hat Creek Fault, the amount of right-lateral offset in the area between Mt. Shasta and Lassen Peak, and confirmation of the influence of pre-existing structure on Quaternary faulting. Neogene volcanic rocks coincide with short-wavelength magnetic anomalies of both normal and reversed polarity, whereas a mar
Authors
Victoria E. Langenheim, Robert C. Jachens, Michael A. Clynne, L. J. Patrick Muffler

Wetting and drying of soil in response to precipitation: Data analysis, modeling, and forecasting

This paper investigates methods to analyze and forecast soil moisture time series. We extend an existing Antecedent Water Index (AWI) model, which expresses soil moisture as a function of time and rainfall. Unfortunately, the existing AWI model does not forecast effectively for time periods beyond a few hours. To overcome this limitation, we develop a novel AWI-based model. Our model accumulates r
Authors
Aniruddha Basak, Chinmay Kulkarni, Kevin M. Schmidt, Ole Mengshoel

Book review: Mineral resource estimation

Mineral Resource Estimation is about estimating mineral resources at the scale of an ore deposit and is not to be mistaken with mineral resource assessment, which is undertaken at a significantly broader scale, even if similar data and geospatial/geostatistical methods are used. The book describes geological, statistical, and geostatistical tools and methodologies used in resource estimation and m
Authors
Mark J. Mihalasky

Apatite fission-track evidence for regional exhumation in the subtropical Eocene, block faulting, and localized fluid flow in east-central Alaska

The origin and antiquity of the subdued topography of the Yukon–Tanana Upland (YTU), the physiographic province between the Denali and Tintina faults, are unresolved questions in the geologic history of interior Alaska and adjacent Yukon. We present apatite fission-track (AFT) results for 33 samples from the 2300 km2 western Fortymile district in the YTU in Alaska and propose an exhumation model t
Authors
Cynthia Dusel-Bacon, Charles R. Bacon, Paul B. O'Sullivan, Warren C. Day

A salt diapir-related Mississippi Valley-type deposit: The Bou Jaber Pb-Zn-Ba-F deposit, Tunisia: Fluid inclusion and isotope study

The Bou Jaber Ba-F-Pb-Zn deposit is located at the edge of the Bou Jaber Triassic salt diapir in the Tunisia Salt Diapir Province. The ores are unconformity and fault-controlled and occur as subvertical column-shaped bodies developed in dissolution-collapse breccias and in cavities within the Late Aptian platform carbonate rocks, which are covered unconformably by impermeable shales and marls of t
Authors
Salah Bouhlel, David Leach, Craig A. Johnson, Erin E. Marsh, Sihem Salmi-Laouar, David A. Banks

Relations between rainfall–runoff-induced erosion and aeolian deposition at archaeological sites in a semi-arid dam-controlled river corridor

Process dynamics in fluvial-based dryland environments are highly complex with fluvial, aeolian, and alluvial processes all contributing to landscape change. When anthropogenic activities such as dam-building affect fluvial processes, the complexity in local response can be further increased by flood- and sediment-limiting flows. Understanding these complexities is key to predicting landscape beha
Authors
Brian D. Collins, David Bedford, Skye C. Corbett, Helen C. Fairley, Collin Cronkite-Ratcliff

Reconnaissance sediment budget for selected watersheds of West Maui, Hawai‘i

Episodic runoff brings suspended sediment to the nearshore waters of West Maui, Hawaiʻi. Even small rainfalls create visible plumes over a few hours. We used mapping, field experiments, and analysis of recent (July 19–20, 2014) and historic rainfall to estimate sources of land-based pollution for two watersheds in West Maui: Honolua, and Honokōwai. Former agricultural fields and some unimproved ro
Authors
Jonathan D. Stock, Kim A. Falinski, Tova Callender

Paleomagnetic record determined in cores from deep research wells in the Quaternary Santa Clara basin, California

Paleomagnetic study of cores from six deep wells provides an independent temporal framework for much of the alluvial stratigraphy of the Quaternary basin beneath the Santa Clara Valley. This stratigraphy consists of 8 upward-fining cycles in the upper 300 m of section and an underlying 150 m or more of largely fine-grained sediment. The eight cycles have been correlated with the marine oxygen isot
Authors
Edward A. Mankinen, Carl M. Wentworth

Copper speciation in variably toxic sediments at the Ely Copper Mine, Vermont, United States

At the Ely Copper Mine Superfund site, Cu concentrations exceed background values in both streamwater (160–1200 times) and sediments (15–79 times). Previously, these sediment samples were incubated with laboratory test organisms, and they exhibited variable toxicity for different stream sites. In this study we combined bulk- and microscale techniques to determine Cu speciation and distribution in
Authors
Bryn E. Kimball, Andrea L. Foster, Robert R. Seal, Nadine M. Piatak, Samuel M. Webb, Jane M. Hammarstrom