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Publications

Results from our Program’s research and minerals information activities are published in USGS publications series as well as in outside journals.  To follow Minerals Information Periodicals, subscribe to the Mineral Periodicals RSS feed.

Filter Total Items: 2294

Application of U-Th-Pb phosphate geochronology to young orogenic gold deposits: New age constraints on the formation of the Grass Valley gold district, Sierra Foothills province, California

The Grass Valley orogenic gold district in the Sierra Nevada foothills province, central California, the largest historic gold producer of the North American Cordillera, comprises both steeply dipping east-west (E-W) veins located along lithologic contacts in accreted ca. 300 and 200 Ma oceanic rocks and shallowly dipping north-south (N-S) veins hosted by the Grass Valley granodiorite; the latter
Authors
Ryan D. Taylor, Richard J. Goldfarb, Thomas Monecke, Ian R. Fletcher, Michael A. Cosca, Nigel M. Kelly

Pressure disequilibria induced by rapid valve closure in noble gas extraction lines

Pressure disequilibria during rapid valve closures can affect calculated molar quantities for a range of gas abundance measurements (e.g., K-Ar geochronology, (U-Th)/He geochronology, noble gas cosmogenic chronology). Modeling indicates this effect in a system with a 10 L reservoir reaches a bias of 1% before 1000 pipette aliquants have been removed from the system, and a bias of 10% before 10,000
Authors
Leah E. Morgan, Brett Davidheiser-Kroll

Storm-influenced deltaic deposits of the Middle Jurassic Gaikema Sandstone in a measured section on the northern Iniskin Peninsula, Cook Inlet basin, Alaska

Middle Jurassic strata of the Gaikema Sandstone were deposited about 170 million years ago on a delta that was located on the western shoreline of the Cook Inlet basin (Detterman and Hartsock, 1966; LePain and others, 2011, 2013). The delta was built by swift, sediment-laden rivers that flowed southeastward from a mountainous volcanic terrane west of the Bruin Bay fault (fig. 6-1). Upon reaching t
Authors
Richard G. Stanley, Kenneth P. Helmold, David L. LePain

Magmatism and Epithermal Gold-Silver Deposits of the Southern Ancestral Cascade Arc, Western Nevada and Eastern California

Many epithermal gold-silver deposits are temporally and spatially associated with late Oligocene to Pliocene magmatism of the southern ancestral Cascade arc in western Nevada and eastern California. These deposits, which include both quartz-adularia (low- and intermediate-sulfidation; Comstock Lode, Tonopah, Bodie) and quartz-alunite (high-sulfidation; Goldfield, Paradise Peak) types, were major p
Authors
David John, Edward A. du Bray, Christopher D. Henry, Peter G. Vikre

Depositional conditions for the Kuna Formation, Red Dog Zn-PB-Ag-Barite District, Alaska, inferred from isotopic and chemical proxies

Water column redox conditions, degree of restriction of the depositional basin, and other paleoenvironmental parameters have been determined for the Mississippian Kuna Formation of northwestern Alaska from stratigraphic profiles of Mo, Fe/Al, and S isotopes in pyrite, C isotopes in organic matter, and N isotopes in bulk rock. This unit is important because it hosts the Red Dog and Anarraaq Zn-Pb-A
Authors
Craig A. Johnson, Julie A. Dumoulin, Robert A. Burruss, John F. Slack

Geotechnical soil characterization of intact Quaternary deposits forming the March 22, 2014 SR-530 (Oso) landslide, Snohomish County, Washington

During the late morning of March 22, 2014, a devastating landslide occurred near the town of Oso, Washington. The landslide with an estimated volume of 10.9 million cubic yards (8.3 x 106 m3) of both intact glacially deposited and previously disturbed landslide sediments, reached speeds averaging 40 miles per hour (64 kilometers per hour) and crossed the entire 2/3-mile (~1100 m) width of the adja
Authors
Michael F. Riemer, Brian D. Collins, Thomas C. Badger, Csilla Toth, Yat Chun Yu

Identifying multiple timescale rainfall controls on Mojave Desert ecohydrology using an integrated data and modeling approach for Larrea tridentata

The perennial shrub Larrea tridentata is widely successful in North American warm deserts but is also susceptible to climatic perturbations. Understanding its response to rainfall variability requires consideration of multiple timescales. We examine intra-annual to multi-year relationships using model simulations of soil moisture and vegetation growth over 50 years in the Mojave National Preserve
Authors
Gene-Hua Crystal Ng, David R. Bedford, David M. Miller

1000 dams down and counting

Forty years ago, the demolition of large dams was mostly fiction, notably plotted in Edward Abbey's novel The Monkey Wrench Gang. Its 1975 publication roughly coincided with the end of large-dam construction in the United States. Since then, dams have been taken down in increasing numbers as they have filled with sediment, become unsafe or inefficient, or otherwise outlived their usefulness (1) (s
Authors
James E. O'Connor, Jeff J. Duda, Gordon E. Grant

Mesozoic magmatism and timing of epigenetic Pb-Zn-Ag mineralization in the western Fortymile mining district, east-central Alaska: Zircon U-Pb geochronology, whole-rock geochemistry, and Pb isotopes

The Mesozoic magmatic history of the North American margin records the evolution from a more segmented assemblage of parautochthonous and allochthonous terranes to the more cohesive northern Cordilleran orogenic belt. We characterize the setting of magmatism, tectonism, and epigenetic mineralization in the western Fortymile mining district, east-central Alaska, where parautochthonous and allochtho
Authors
Cynthia Dusel-Bacon, J.N. Aleinkoff, W. C. Day, J.K. Mortensen

Characteristics and environmental aspects of slag: a review

Slag is a waste product from the pyrometallurgical processing of various ores. Based on over 150 published studies, this paper provides an overview of mineralogical and geochemical characteristics of different types of slag and their environmental consequences, particularly from the release of potentially toxic elements to water. This chapter reviews the characteristics of both ferrous (steel and
Authors
Nadine M. Piatak, Michael B. Parsons, Robert R. Seal

Pre-eruptive conditions of the Hideaway Park topaz rhyolite: Insights into metal source and evolution of magma parental to the Henderson porphyry molybdenum deposit, Colorado

The Hideaway Park tuff is the only preserved extrusive volcanic unit related to the Red Mountain intrusive complex, which produced the world-class Henderson porphyry Mo deposit. Located within the Colorado Mineral Belt, USA, Henderson is the second largest Climax-type Mo deposit in the world, and is therefore an excellent location to investigate magmatic processes leading to Climax-type Mo mineral
Authors
Celestine N. Mercer, Albert H. Hofstra, Todor I. Todorov, Julie Roberge, Alain Burgisser, David T. Adams, Michael A. Cosca