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Europa’s ice tectonics: New insights from physical wax experiments with implications for subduction initiation and global resurfacing processes

Jupiter's Moon Europa has one of the youngest geological surfaces in our solar system with an age of 40–90 Ma, implying an intense history of resurfacing. The surface of Europa indeed shows abundant evidence of tectonic deformation related to extension, strike-slip, and shortening. However, observed features related to shortening are scarce compared with pervasive extensive extensional features su
Authors
Michael W Klasner, Juliane Gross, Sarah Tindall, Roy W. Schlishe, Christopher J. Potter

Federal lands greenhouse emissions and sequestration in the United States—Estimates for 2005–14

In January 2016, the Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior tasked the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) with producing a publicly available and annually updated database of estimated greenhouse gas emissions associated with the extraction and use (predominantly some form of combustion) of fossil fuels from Federal lands. In response, the USGS has produced estimates of the greenhouse gas emi

Authors
Matthew D. Merrill, Benjamin M. Sleeter, Philip A. Freeman, Jinxun Liu, Peter D. Warwick, Bradley C. Reed

Geology and assessment of undiscovered oil and gas resources of the Long Strait Basin Province, 2008

The Long Strait Basin is both a stand alone petroleum province and an assessment unit (AU) that lies offshore in the East Siberian Sea north of Chukotka and south of Wrangel Island. This basin is known only on the basis of gravity data and a single proprietary seismic line. In the absence of more specific data, its position and regional setting suggest that it may have petroleum geologic character
Authors
Kenneth Bird, David W. Houseknecht, Janet K. Pitman

Accuracy of methods for reporting inorganic element concentrations and radioactivity in oil and gas wastewaters from the Appalachian Basin, U.S. based on an inter-laboratory comparison.

Accurate and precise analyses of oil and gas (O&G) wastewaters and solids (e.g., sediments and sludge) are important for the regulatory monitoring of O&G development and tracing potential O&G contamination in the environment. In this study, 15 laboratories participated in an inter-laboratory comparison on the chemical characterization of three O&G wastewaters from the Appalachian Basin and four so
Authors
Travis L. Tasker, William D Burgos, Moses A Ajemigbitse, Nancy E. Lauer, Alen V Gusa, Maksat Kuatbek, Dustin May, Joshua D. Landis, Daniel S. Alessi, Amanda M Johnsen, James M Kaste, Kurt Headrick, Franziska DH Wilke, Mark McNeal, Mark A. Engle, Aaron M. Jubb, Radisav Vidic, Avner Vengosh, Nathaniel R. Warner

Reflectance increase from broad beam ion milling of coals and organic-rich shales due to increased surface flatness

Broad ion beam (BIB) milling is useful in organic petrology because it can yield flat sample surfaces and avert the ‘smearing’ of organic matter (OM) that results from traditional mechanical polishing. This potentially makes BIB especially useful in the study of nano-porosity, where even minor mechanical disruption of the sample surface distorts the sample characteristic of interest—the pore stru
Authors
Brett J. Valentine, Paul C. Hackley, Javin J. Hatcherian, Jing-Jiang Yu

Descriptive models for epithermal gold-silver deposits

Epithermal gold-silver deposits are vein, stockwork, disseminated, and replacement deposits that are mined primarily for their gold and silver contents; some deposits also contain substantial resources of lead, zinc, copper, and (or) mercury. These deposits form in the uppermost parts of the crust, at depths less than about 1,500 meters below the water table, and at temperatures below about 300 °C
Authors
David John, Peter G. Vikre, Edward A. du Bray, Richard J. Blakely, David L. Fey, Barnaby W. Rockwell, Jeffrey L. Mauk, Eric D. Anderson, Frederick Graybeal

Assessment of coalbed gas resources in the Kutei and Barito Basin Provinces, Indonesia, 2018

Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated undiscovered, technically recoverable mean resources of 10.7 trillion cubic feet of potential coalbed gas resources in the Kutei and Barito Basin Provinces of Indonesia.
Authors
Christopher J. Schenk, Tracey J. Mercier, Phuong A. Le, Marilyn E. Tennyson, Thomas M. Finn, Michael E. Brownfield, Kristen R. Marra, Stephanie B. Gaswirth, Heidi M. Leathers-Miller, Janet K. Pitman, Ronald M. Drake

Late Cretaceous-Cenozoic exhumation of the western Brooks Range, Alaska, revealed from apatite and zircon fission track data

We report data for 112 apatite and 31 zircon fission track (AFT and ZFT) outcrop sandstone samples along a transect that spans the western Brooks Range. Sampling targeted structures that modify the Middle Jurassic‐Early Cretaceous early Brookian orogen. The AFT samples record latest Cretaceous to Eocene in situ exhumational cooling and resolve two kinematic phases. The first phase was focused at 6
Authors
William H. Craddock, Thomas E. Moore, Paul O'Sullivan, Christopher J. Potter, David W. Houseknecht

Understanding the captivity effect on invertebrate communities transplanted into an experimental stream laboratory

Little is known about how design and testing methodologies affect the macroinvertebrate communities that are held captive in mesocosms. To address this knowledge gap, we conducted a 32‐d test to determine how seeded invertebrate communities changed once removed from the natural stream and introduced to the laboratory. We evaluated larvae survival and adult emergence in controls from 4 subsequent s
Authors
Travis S. Schmidt, Holly Rogers, Janet L. Miller, Christopher A. Mebane, Laurie S. Balistrieri

Geology and assessment of undiscovered oil and gas resources of the Northern West Siberian Mesozoic Composite Total Petroleum System of the West Siberian Basin Province, Russia, 2008

The West Siberian Basin Province is one of the largest sedimentary basins in the world, with an area of 2.6 million square kilometers, and the basin ranks first in the world with more than 400 billion barrels of oil-equivalent discovered petroleum. For the 2008 Circum-Arctic Resource Appraisal, the U.S. Geological Survey defined a Northern West Siberian Mesozoic Composite Total Petroleum System (T
Authors
Christopher J. Schenk

Methodology for correcting bottomhole temperatures acquired from wireline logging measurements in the onshore U.S. Gulf of Mexico Basin to characterize the thermal regime of total petroleum systems

Characterization of the subsurface thermal regime is critical for understanding many facets of the petroleum system, from thermal maturation of organic-rich source rocks to thermal preservation and non-degradation of hydrocarbon accumulations. On a broad scale, paleo-heatflow has been mapped for the North American continent (Blackwell and Richards, 2004) as well as the contiguous United States (Bl
Authors
Lauri A. Burke, Ofori N. Pearson, Scott A. Kinney, Janet K. Pitman

Statistical detection of flow regime changes in horizontal hydraulically fractured Bakken oil wells

The application of horizontal and hydraulically fractured wells for producing oil from low permeability formations has changed the face of the North American oil industry. One feature of the production profile of many such wells is a transition from transient linear oil flow to boundary-dominated flow. The identification of the time of this transition is important for the calibration of models tha
Authors
Emil D. Attanasi, T.C. Coburn, B. Ran-McDonald