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
Lithostratigraphy and shear-wave velocity in the crystallized Topopah Spring Tuff, Yucca Mountain, Nevada
Evaluation of the potential future response to seismic events of the proposed spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, is in part based on the seismic properties of the host rock, the 12.8-million-year-old Topopah Spring Tuff. Because of the processes that formed the tuff, the densely welded and crystallized part has three lithophysal and three nonl
Authors
D.C. Buesch, K.H. Stokoe, K.C. Won, Y.J. Seong, J.L. Jung, M.D. Schuhen
Linking middle-school teachers to Earthscope
EarthScope is a multidisciplinary geophysical investigation of the structure and deformation of the North American continent. Components include a transportable array of digital seismometers (USArray) that will image the continental crust and underlying mantle, and Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers and strainmeters (Plate Boundary Observatory, PBO) that will measure tectonic and volcanic d
Authors
R. Butler, E. Bishop, C. Ault, B. Atwater, B. Magura, C. Hedeen, R. Blakely, Ray E. Wells, K. Shay, R. Wagner, T. Southworth-Neumeyer, D. Connor
Characterization of unsaturated zone hydrogeologic units using matrix properties and depositional history in a complex volcanic environment
Characterization of the physical and unsaturated hydrologic properties of subsurface materials is necessary to calculate flow and transport for land use practices and to evaluate subsurface processes such as perched water or lateral diversion of water, which are influenced by features such as faults, fractures, and abrupt changes in lithology. Input for numerical flow models typically includes par
Authors
Lorraine E. Flint, David C. Buesch, Alan L. Flint
New insights into Arctic paleogeography and tectonics from U-Pb detrital zircon geochronology
To test existing models for the formation of the Amerasian Basin, detrital zircon suites from 12 samples of Triassic sandstone from the circum-Arctic region were dated by laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The northern Verkhoyansk (NE Russia) has Permo-Carboniferous (265-320 Ma) and Cambro-Silurian (410-505 Ma) zircon populations derived via river systems from th
Authors
E. L. Miller, J. Toro, G. Gehrels, J.M. Amato, A. Prokopiev, M.I. Tuchkova, V.V. Akinin, T.A. Dumitru, Thomas E. Moore, M.P. Cecile
Reducing risk in exploration under cover
No abstract available.
Authors
Donald A. Singer, Ryoichi Kouda
Birth of the lower Colorado River–Stratigraphic and geomorphic evidence for its inception near the conjunction of Nevada, Arizona, and California
A detailed record of the late Cenozoic history of the lower Colorado River can be inferred from alluvial and (likely) lacustrine stratigraphy exposed in dissected alluvial basins below the mouth of the Grand Canyon. Numerous sites in Mohave, Cottonwood, and Detrital valleys contain stratigraphic records that directly bear on the mode, timing, and consequences of the river’s inception and integrati
Authors
Kyle House, Keith A. Howard, J. W. Bell, M. E. Perkins, J. E. Faulds, A. Brock
Net dextral slip, Neogene San Gregorio–Hosgri fault zone, coastal California: Geologic evidence and tectonic implications
Reinterpretation of onshore and offshore geologic mapping, examination of a key offshore well core, and revision of cross-fault ties indicate Neogene dextral strike slip of 156 ± 4 km along the San Gregorio–Hosgri fault zone, a major strand of the San Andreas transform system in coastal California. Delineating the full course of the fault, defining net slip across it, and showing its relationship
Authors
William R. Dickinson, Mihai N. Ducea, Lewis I. Rosenberg, H. Gary Greene, Stephan A. Graham, Joseph C. Clark, Gerald E. Weber, Steven Kidder, W. Gary Ernst, Earl E. Brabb
Assessment of drift stability with consideration of spatial variation of lithophysal cavities at Yucca Mountain
No abstract available.
Authors
M. Lin, Mark P. Board, D.C. Kicker, J. Leem, B. Damjanac, David C. Buesch
Statistical guides to estimating the number of undiscovered mineral deposits: an example with porphyry copper deposits
Estimating numbers of undiscovered mineral deposits is a fundamental part of assessing mineral resources. Some statistical tools can act as guides to low variance, unbiased estimates of the number of deposits. The primary guide is that the estimates must be consistent with the grade and tonnage models. Another statistical guide is the deposit density (i.e., the number of deposits per unit area of
Authors
Donald A. Singer, W. D. Menzie
Porphyry copper deposit density
Estimating numbers of undiscovered mineral deposits has been a source of unease among economic geologists yet is a fundamental task in considering future supplies of resources. Estimates can be based on frequencies of deposits per unit of permissive area in control areas around the world in the same way that grade and tonnage frequencies are models of sizes and qualities of undiscovered deposits.
Authors
Donald A. Singer, Vladimir Berger, W. David Menzie, Byron R. Berger
Origin of the Bering Sea salient
Our investigations in Alaska and Russia show that the curved orogen of the Bering Strait region is a composite feature that formed as a result of multiple superimposed events and cannot be related to latest Cretaceous–early Tertiary east-west shortening. Relations interpreted to record east-west shortening include the Chukchi syntaxis, deformation on Seward and Chukotka Peninsulas, the map pattern
Authors
J.M. Amato, J. Toro, Thomas E. Moore