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Geologic controls on thermal maturity patterns in Pennsylvanian coal-bearing rocks in the Appalachian basin

Thermal maturation patterns of Pennsylvanian strata in the Appalachian basin were determined by compiling and contouring published and unpublished vitrinite reflectance (VR) measurements. VR isograd values range from 0.6% in eastern Ohio and eastern Kentucky (western side of the East Kentucky coal field) to greater than 5.5% in eastern Pennsylvania (Southern Anthracite field, Schuylkill County), c
Authors
Leslie F. Ruppert, James C. Hower, Robert T. Ryder, Jeffrey R. Levine, Michael H. Trippi, William C. Grady

CO2, CO, and Hg emissions from the Truman Shepherd and Ruth Mullins coal fires, eastern Kentucky, USA

Carbon dioxide (CO2), carbon monoxide (CO), and mercury (Hg) emissions were quantified for two eastern Kentucky coal-seam fires, the Truman Shepherd fire in Floyd County and the Ruth Mullins fire in Perry County. This study is one of the first to estimate gas emissions from coal fires using field measurements at gas vents. The Truman Shepherd fire emissions are nearly 1400 t CO2/yr and 16 kg Hg/yr
Authors
Jennifer M.K. O'Keefe, Kevin R. Henke, James C. Hower, Mark A. Engle, Glenn B. Stracher, J.D. Stucker, Jordan W. Drew, Wayne D. Staggs, Tiffany M. Murray, Maxwell L. Hammond, Kenneth D. Adkins, Bailey J. Mullins, Edward W. Lemley

Gas storage in the Upper Devonian-Lower Mississippian Woodford Shale, Arbuckle Mountains, Oklahoma: how much of a role do the cherts play?

How gas is stored in shale-gas systems is a critical element in characterizing these potentially prolific, low-porosity/permeability reservoirs. An integrated mineralogic, geochemical, and porosity/permeability study is of the Upper Devonian-Lower Mississippian Woodford Shale, Arbuckle Mountains, southern Oklahoma, at locations previously described through detailed stratigraphic and spectral gamma
Authors
Neil S. Fishman, Geoffrey S. Ellis, Stanley T. Paxton, Marvin M. Abbott, Adam Boehlke

Geometry and kinematics of the eastern Lake Mead fault system in the Virgin Mountains, Nevada and Arizona

The Lake Mead fault system is a northeast-striking, 130-km-long zone of left-slip in the southeast Great Basin, active from before 16 Ma to Quaternary time. The northeast end of the Lake Mead fault system in the Virgin Mountains of southeast Nevada and northwest Arizona forms a partitioned strain field comprising kinematically linked northeast-striking left-lateral faults, north-striking normal fa
Authors
Sue Beard, David J. Campagna, R. Ernest Anderson

Time-averaged paleomagnetic field at the equator: Complete data and results from the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador

We present here the complete paleomagnetic laboratory results from a collection of approximately 1500 oriented cores from all 16 of the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador, collected by Allan Cox in 1964–1965 but nearly all previously unpublished. The islands are located in the eastern Pacific Ocean within 1.4° of latitude from the equator and range in age from historically erupted to 3 Ma, mostly determin
Authors
Sherman Gromme, Edward A. Mankinen, Michel Prévot

Rapid middle Miocene extension and unroofing of the southern Ruby Mountains, Nevada

Paleozoic rocks in the northern Ruby Mountains were metamorphosed during Mesozoic crustal shortening and Cenozoic magmatism, but equivalent strata in the southern Ruby Mountains were never buried deeper than stratigraphic depths prior to exhumation in the footwall of a west dipping brittle normal fault. In the southern Ruby Mountains, Miocene sedimentary rocks in the hanging wall of this fault dat
Authors
Joseph Colgan, Keith A. Howard, Robert J. Fleck, Joseph L. Wooden

Deglaciation in the southeastern Laurentide Sector and the Hudson Valley – 15,000 Years of vegetational and climate history

In this field trip, we provide a review of the significant controversy concerning the timing of deglaciation in the Hudson and Wallkill Valleys. We outline the differences in methodology and chronology with a circular route throughout the Hudson and Wallkill valleys. We begin the trip at Lake Mohonk near New Paltz led by Kirsten Menking and Dorothy Peteet, then continue to the “black dirt” region
Authors
Dorothy M. Peteet, John Rayburn, Kirsten M. Menking, Guy Robinson, Byron D. Stone

Compositional variation in the chevkinite group: new data from igneous and metamorphic rocks

Electron microprobe analyses are presented of chevkinite-group minerals from Canada, USA, Guatemala, Norway, Scotland, Italy and India. The host rocks are metacarbonates, alkaline and subalkaline granitoids, quartz-bearing pegmatites, carbonatite and an inferred K-rich tuff. The analyses extend slightly the range of compositions in the chevkinite group, e.g. the most MgO-rich phases yet recorded,
Authors
Harvey E. Belkin, R. MacDonald, F. Wall, B. Baginski

First ever release of USGS offshore arctic resource assessment

No abstract available.
Authors
Donald L. Gautier, Kenneth J. Bird, Ronald Charpentier, Arthur Grantz, David W. Houseknecht, Timothy R. Klett, Thomas E. Moore, Janet K. Pitman, Christopher J. Schenk, John H. Schuenemeyer, Kai Sorensen, Marilyn E. Tennyson

Assessment of undiscovered oil and gas in the Arctic

Among the greatest uncertainties in future energy supply and a subject of considerable environmental concern is the amount of oil and gas yet to be found in the Arctic. By using a probabilistic geology-based methodology, the United States Geological Survey has assessed the area north of the Arctic Circle and concluded that about 30% of the world’s undiscovered gas and 13% of the world’s undiscover
Authors
Donald L. Gautier, Kenneth J. Bird, Ronald Charpentier, Arthur Grantz, David W. Houseknecht, Timothy R. Klett, Thomas E. Moore, Janet K. Pitman, Christopher J. Schenk, John H. Schuenemeyer, Kai Sorenson, Marilyn E. Tennyson, Zenon C. Valin, Craig J. Wandrey

Inference of distributional parameters from compositional samples containing nondetects

Low concentrations of elements in geochemical analyses have the peculiarity of being compositional data and, for a given level of significance, are likely to be beyond the capabilities of laboratories to distinguish between minute concentrations and complete absence, thus preventing laboratories from reporting extremely low concentrations of the analyte. Instead, what is reported is the detection
Authors
Ricardo A. Olea

Quantifying the undiscovered geothermal resources of the United States

In 2008, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) released summary results of an assessment of the electric power production potential from the moderate- and high-temperature geothermal resources of the United States (Williams et al., 2008a; USGS Fact Sheet 2008-3082; http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2008/3082). In the assessment, the estimated mean power production potential from undiscovered geothermal resource
Authors
Colin F. Williams, Marshall J. Reed, Jacob DeAngelo, S. Peter Galanis